Socorro black-on-white storage jar

ca. 1050–1100
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 746
The abstract pictorial painting on this water vessel was developed by ancestral Puebloan potters in the Southwest in the late first millennium. The bold color scheme consists of a black iron-rich slip made from diluted organic materials and minerals on white clay. The imagery likely references water’s circulation beneath the earth and its precipitation from the sky, reflecting the society’s primary concerns around water management and their observation of the seasons.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Socorro black-on-white storage jar
  • Date: ca. 1050–1100
  • Geography: Made in New Mexico, United States
  • Culture: Ancestral Pueblo, Native American
  • Medium: Clay and pigment
  • Dimensions: 15 × 17 in. (38.1 × 43.2 cm)
  • Credit Line: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection of Native American Art, Gift of Charles and Valerie Diker, 2019
  • Object Number: 2019.456.21
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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