Native American, North America, Southwestern United States, Colorado or New Mexico, Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi), Mesa Verde type, ca. 1050 to 1200 CE. A fine and rare example of a pottery slipper-form vessel that is hand-built via the traditional coil-and-scrape technique. The vessel also resembles the form of a duck - of ovoid form with a round but stable base - with a pinched 'tail' behind a protruding pair of nubbin wings and a raised cylindrical neck sans head. Illustrated on the topside is a highly abstract figure bearing geometric and linear motifs across its body, perhaps a representation of a celestial deity or an abstract duck-man figure. Beneath a pair of X forms on the neck is a pair of abstract figures - one resembling a petite duck and the other an inverted human with a serrated body, perhaps deceased - and in between the 2 figures is a centipede-type figure with a large, discoid head. Size: 4.625" L x 2.8" W x 2.875" H (11.7 cm x 7.1 cm x 7.3 cm)
Pottery of this kind is some of the most important found in the ancient Southwest. The Chaco Project, the major excavations of Chaco Canyon (today a National Historical Park that is well worth a visit), recovered more of this pottery than any other style. Chaco was the center of the ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) culture, a vast city of monumental architecture, including massive stone Great Houses of multiple stories and kivas of all sizes. Roads from Chaco Canyon radiated to outlying settlements for hundreds of miles, and it seems to have been a religious, social, and trade hub for a vast region. Today many Native peoples in the Southwest connect their own histories to Chaco, seeing it as a stop along their sacred migrations.
Provenance: private Pennsylvania, USA collection, acquired before 2004
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#164453
Condition
Repair to small area on front of rim, with chips and light adhesive residue along break lines. Old loss to handle across top of body as shown. Minor abrasions and fading to pigment commensurate with age, and very light encrustations across some surfaces. Great preservation to black-painted decorations.