ADDITIONAL DESIGNS ON PREHISTORIC 

 MIMBRES POTTERY 



By J. WALTER FEWKES 



CHIEF. BLRKAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



INTRODUCTION 



In former papers ' the author has tried to show, from archeological 

 studies, that the prehistoric aborigines of the IMimbres Valley, New 

 Mexico, developed a culture area differing from any other in the 

 Southwest. The characters which more than any other distinguish 

 this culture from others are the adornment of food bowls with 

 realistic, sometimes composite, figures of men and animals, and the 

 artistic character of the designs. Previously to the year 1914, few 

 prehistoric Mimbres picture bowls had been published, but since that 

 date, as shown in part by the literature,^ many of these have been 

 brought to light, and there are now several collections of size from 

 this valley, which have characteristic realistic figures. Of late years 

 there has been considerable activity in collecting prehistoric pottery 

 in this area, and in Alay and June, 1923, the author revisited the 

 Mimbres Valley to procure some of this new material for the U. S. 

 National Museum, and the following paper is mainly devoted to de- 

 scriptions of specimens purchased at that time from Mr. E. D. Osborn, 

 who first called his attention to the pottery of the Mimbres Valley. 



There are also considered in this article copies of photographs and 

 drawings of other designs and specimens which could not be pur- 

 chased for the U. S. National Museum. 



The collections of Mimbres pottery that have been examined in the 

 preparation of this article are: about 100 specimens from the Osborn 

 collection, which were purchased ; the collection owned by Mr. R. E. 

 Eisele, of Fort Bayard, New Mexico; the collection made by Mrs. 

 Watson, of Pinos Altos ; and that of Mrs. Hulbert of the same city. 

 Mr. and Mrs. Cosgrove allowed the author to inspect a fine collection 

 carefully made by them at Treasure Hill (Whisky Creek) near Silver 



^ Archaeology of the Lower Mimbres Valley, New jMexico, Smithsonian 

 Misc. Coll., Vol. 63, No. 10, 1914. Designs on Prehistoric Pottery from the 

 Mimbres Valley, New Mexico, ibid., Vol. 74, No. 6, 1923. Vide, idem. Vol. 65, 

 No. 6, 1915; also Amer. Anth. (N. S.), Vol. XVIII, pp. 535-545, 1915. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 76, No. 8 



