NO. IO ARCHEOLOGY OF MIMBRES VALLEY FEWKES 23 



used as cooking vessels, as shown by the soot still adhering to their 

 outer surface. While the majority of bowls were broken in frag- 

 ments when found, a few were simply pierced through the bottom ; 

 one or two were unbroken or simply notched at the edge. 



The colors of Mimbres ware are uniform and often striking: 

 There are good specimens of black and white ware ; also red, black, 

 and yellow with brown decorations are numerous. Some of the best 

 pieces are colored a light orange. Many of the fragments are made 

 of the finest paste identical in color and finish with ware from Casas 

 Grandes, Chihuahua, which furnishes the best prehistoric pottery 

 from the Southwest. No effigy jar, or animal formed vase, however, 

 exists in any collections from the Mimbres examined by the author. 



Ruins in the Lower Mimbres have thus far yielded a larger variety 

 and a finer type of pottery than ruins on the banks of the river among 

 the hills, which is in part due to the extent of excavations. The Old- 

 town potters developed a kind of pottery with characteristic orna- 

 mentation found both in ruins in the plain to the south and along the 

 narrow valley of the Mimbres to the north. 



The Mimbres pottery, like all other ancient ware from the South- 

 west, frequently shows evidences of having been mended. Holes 

 were drilled near the breaks and fibers formerly united the parts thus 

 holding the bowl together even though broken. As one goes south, 

 following the course of the river, the character of the pottery 

 changes very slightly, but if anything is a little better. 



The food bowls generally have a rounded base, but one specimen^ 

 is flat on the bottom. The edges of the bowls from the ruin at 

 Black Mountain are curved outward, an exceptional feature in 

 ancient Pueblo vessels but common in modern forms. 



PICTURES ON MIMBRES POTTERY 



The great value of the ceramic collection obtained from the 

 Mimbres is the large number of figures representing men, animals, 

 and characteristic geometrical designs, often highly conventional- 

 ized, depicted on their interiors. These figures sometimes cover a ^ 

 greater part of the inner surface, are often duplicated, and are com- 

 monly surrounded by geometrical designs or simple lines parallel 

 with the outer rim of the vessel. It is important to notice the graceful 

 way in which geometrical figures with which the ancient potters 

 decorated their bowls are made to grade into the bodies of animals, 

 as when animal figures become highly conventionalized into geomet- 

 rical designs. Although these decorations are, as a rule, inferior to 



