Jar (Olla), Geometric Designs
Not on view
Ancestral Puebloan potters hand-built this large jar, or olla, to store liquid or grain, using a coiling technique. The remarkably thin walls demonstrate the skill of the potter to create such a vessel out of aged kaolinite-based clay without a wheel. When the vessel was leather-hard, it was burnished with a smooth river stone or piece of agate. Then, artists slipped the interior and exterior surfaces with a white iron-rich clay using a rag, then created the contrasting surface pattern with mineral or organic paint (sometimes a combination). The surface decoration includes columns of zig-zagging checkerboard designs framing fields of meandering diagonal line patterns, and reflects the artistic precision necessary to adapt two dimensional forms to a three dimensional object. Once dried, the vessel was fired in an open kiln in a reducing environment where the pigment turned black.
The ruins of pueblos and cliff dwellings of the Prehistoric Southwest bear impressive testimony to the cultural and artistic achievements of the ancestors of the Native American people who today inhabit the "Four Corners" region (Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico). The Ancestral Puebloan peoples were farmers with engineering skills that enabled them to construct multi-storied masonry dwellings, ceremonial structures, and irrigation works.
