April 2008
Redware
San Juan Pueblo
The Artifact of the Month is a piece of redware pottery from the San Juan Pueblo in New Mexico. Pottery development in this region can be traced to the Hohokam and Mimbres people from AD 200 to 1400, who were originally influenced by Mexican sources. The pottery of the Anasazi became prevalent in the region around AD 900. Traditionally, pottery was used mainly for utilitarian purposes such as storage or serving of food and water. Pottery production had almost completely died out at San Juan until it was revived around 1930. San Juan pottery maintains a traditional look through plain pottery that has a slip applied from the bottom to upper 2/3rds of the body with only a band below the rim of bowls. Unlike other Pueblo pottery that depicts animal, plant or other motifs, San Juan Pueblo pottery tends to be more geometric in decoration.
Artifact of the Month information was obtained from an object research paper by Adrienne Foster Barkley, AD 448, Fall 1998
Accession Number: 69.20/36
C.H. Lange Collection