The Pottery of the Casas Grandes 

 District, Chihuahua 



By A. V. Kidder 



HE Casas Grandes district in northern Chihuahua was the 

 center of what seems to have been the southernmost of the 

 ancient Pueblo cultures. The writings of Bartlett, 1 Ban- 

 delier, 2 Lumholtz, 3 and Hewett 4 give us general descrip- 

 tions of the main Casas Grandes ruin and of numerous 

 mounds in the vicinity; in Lumholtz' book there is a series of fine 

 colored plates of the pottery. Little, however, has been done toward 

 a classification of the wares or an analysis of their elaborate decora- 

 tive system. 



The present paper, which is intended as a start in this direction, 

 consists of a study of the Phillips collection in the Peabody Museum 

 of American Archaeology and Ethnology at Cambridge. In it there 

 are one hundred and ninety pieces of pottery, excavated principally 

 at Janos, Ramos, and Corralitos, all of which are localities in the Casas 

 Grandes region. Other collections examined, though unfortunately 

 very hastily, were those in the Museum of the American Indian, 

 the American Museum of Natural History, and the Fred Harvey 

 Museum at Albuquerque, New Mexico. With the exception of the 

 American Museum collection, which was made by Lumholtz, all these 

 specimens were acquired by purchase in lots from local diggers and 

 are accompanied with few or no data. It appears, however, that most 

 of the vessels were mortuary offerings recovered from graves under the 

 floors of the ruined houses. 



The pieces fall into the following general classification: 

 i. Rough dark ware. 



2. Polished blackware. 



3. Redware. 



4. Painted ware. 



ROUGH DARK WARE 



This class is not represented in the Peabody Museum collection, 

 but among the Lumholtz specimens in the American Museum are 



1 Personal Narrative, vol. 11, chap. xxxv. 3 Unknown Mexico, vol. I. 



2 Final Report, chap. xiv. 4 Communautes Anciennes, chap. 8. 



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