Native American, North America, Southwestern United States, Colorado or New Mexico, Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi), Mesa Verde type, ca. 1050 to 1200 CE. A delightful pottery vessel exhibiting the form of a bird or slipper, all formed via the traditional coil-and-scrape technique and adorned with black-on-white decoration of the Mesa Verde type. Perhaps intended as a duck, the seated avian presents a puffed chest, tucked wings, and a pinched tail, while its tubular neck opens to an annular rim forming the spout of the vessel. A ribbon-form handle connects the rim to the back of the bird, painted with a zigzag pattern. Bands of checkered motif embellish the animal's body and neck, adding diversity to the otherwise smooth white surface. A fabulous example of zoomorphic utilitarian pottery from the ancient Anasazi people! Size: 5" L x 4" W x 4.75" H (12.7 cm x 10.2 cm x 12.1 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 New Jersey, USA collection; ex-Santa Fe Art Auctions, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, American Indian Auction, Session 2, August 13, 2022

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