NO. 8 DESIGNS ON MIMBRES POTTERY FEWKES 2J 



and unique. The interlocked terraced figures and spirals it shares 

 with the pueblo may be a survival of a pueblo relationship and may 

 be an evidence of a remote kinship, but in the Mimbres environment 

 the designs have become wholly unlike the northern relatives. 



RELATIVE AGE OF MIMBRES POTTERY 



The age of the IMimbres Pottery is unknown save that it antedates 

 the historical epoch. The method of determining its age by the stratifi- 

 cation of shards in refuse heaps has not been found feasible in this 

 region, mainly because deep refuse heaps have not yet been dis- 

 covered. The small size of those that are known indicates a rather 

 short occupation and although a few different kinds of pottery occur 

 they have not yet been arranged in an evolutionary series. It is doubt- 

 ful whether or not all types were synchronous with the picture bowls. 

 Probably when the valley was first peopled the colonists came from 

 areas beyond the mountains and the production of realistic figures 

 developed after they had inhabited the Mimbres \'alley for some 

 time.^ 



The fact that these designs are highly realistic or specialized does 

 not, in the author's judgment, mean that the culture which they 

 express was necessarily late in development. What few facts we 

 have point to limited residence in an isolated valley. 



The potters who painted the designs on IMimbres ware were con- 

 temporary with those who decorated the beautiful pottery of northern 

 Chihuahua and that of the Gila compounds as indicated by the pres- 

 ence of shards or even complete specimens from these regions. The 

 transfer was either by traders or possibly by clans or colonists seeking 

 new homes, which appears to account for the alien ware at Black 

 Mountain ruin. 



While the penetration of the Casas Grandes type of j)ottery into 

 the Mimbres Valley, either through trade or otherwise, is indicated 

 by this ceramic distribution, we have no evidence of a counter migra- 

 tion or that Mimbres types or styles of design migrated south across 

 the Mexican border. We have large collections of Casas Grandes 

 ware but in none of them are true iMimbres picture bowls. 



The great abundance of designs and the absence of conventionalism 

 is interpreted to mean that pottery making in the .Mimbres was not 



* Unfortunately the individual ruins from which most of the specimens here 

 considered have been taken are not definitely known. There is, however, no 

 evidence that there is any great difference in age between the various ruins 

 along the Mimbres. 



