Bowl, Figure and Fish Staff
Not on view
Mimbres pottery from southern New Mexico is one of the most well known ceramic traditions of the Southwest. Mimbres painters, wielding brushes made of yucca leaves, created both representational and geometric images on the slipped interior of nearly hemispheric bowls. These designs feature a great range of symbolic patterns as well as references to elaborate mythological narratives. Such bowls were ritually "killed" during funerary rituals when a central hole was punctured, rendering it non-functional in its journey to the afterlife.