Native American pottery

Prior to the coming of Europeans, the peoples of both the North and South American continents had a wide variety of pottery traditions. However, there is no evidence that a Native American potter ever invented the potter's wheel. Because of this, all known Pre-Columbian American pottery was made entirely by hand, using a number of traditional techniques. These include sculptural modeling, press molding, coiling, and paddling. Functional pottery objects were produced by many cultures, as were figurines, masks, and ritual items.

Pottery techniques

The procedure for creating coil pottery favored in the Eastern United States was more focused on preparing clay than in the West. The women would spend hours on end mixing the clay they had gathered with crushed seashells, sand, plant materials and other temper until they had precisely the right consistency; then wedging it to remove the air pockets and humidity that could easily make it blow up during firing. They would then pound out a flat circle of clay to serve as a base. While the potter was building the coils up, she was also deliberate to take the time to blend them together. Once they were blended nicely, there was no trace of the ropes of clay so carefully entwined to form the pot, no deviation in the thickness of the walls, and therefore no weaknesses. As a finishing touch, the pot was struck with a cord-wrapped stick to compact it and give it its final shape. American Indians have never used enclosed kilns, so the pot was put in a shallow pit dug into the earth along with other unfired pottery, covered with wood and brush, and lit on fire where it would harden and heat to temperatures of 1400 degrees or more. For a finishing touch, the surface of the pot would be rubbed vigorously with special stones, leaving the surface smooth and polished.

Pottery traditions

Many Pre-Columbian pottery traditions are well known to the general public and significant pieces are found in collections in most major museums. Among the best-known are pots found in the Anasazi ruins of the Southwest United States, pottery produced by a number of Pueblo peoples, also in the Southwest United States, and Maya ceramics found in southern Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. Less well known pottery traditions include the Casas Grandes region of Northern Mexico and the prehistoric potters of the Gran Cocle' Culture Area, Coclé Province, Panama. Pre-Columbian pottery artifacts are often found in tombs and ruins during modern archaeological excavations. However, during the early years of exploration on both continents, pots were removed without any records on origin and associated artifacts. This has resulted in many striking pottery items, some in prestigious museums, being held without documentation. The practice of "pot hunting" continues to be a problem for governments and academic researchers, as a black market for prehistoric pottery and artifacts flourishes in many areas of the world.

North American pottery

North and Northeastern cultures

Each of these main groups contained many tribes, each of which had adapted to their environments which were all slightly different. The four main groups were subdivided by the following geographic areas:

* The Pacific coast and mountains. Yukon.
* The Plains. Cree/Manitoba. Sioux.
* The St. Lawrence valley. Great Lakes. Iroquois. Maritime Provinces/St. Lawrence.
* The North-East Woodlands (broad region, encompassing the woods near the Atlantic/maritimes to the tree-line in the Arctic).Inuit.

Southeastern/Central cultures

* Sapelo Island, Georgia first NA pottery 4000 BP- Before Present
* Poverty Point, Louisiana beginning circa 3750 BP
* Adena culture, central United States around Illinois to Ohio, 3000 BP to 2100 BP
* Hopewell culture central United States throughout Ohio and Illinois circa 2200 BP - 1600 BP
* Mississippian cultures Refers to a variety of Native American cultures of the Eastern United States from around 800 CE to the historic era
* Cahokia, Illinois A Mississippian chiefdom in western Illinois, near St. Louis, Missouri.
* Natchez people A historic tribe known to also be a culturally Mississippian chiefdom in southwestern Mississippi.

Southwestern cultures

* Ancestral Pueblo Cultures: including Anasazi, Mimbres Valley, Jornada Mogollon, Hohokam, Casas Grandes, Fremont.
*Historic Pueblo cultures: including Santa Clara Pueblo, Taos Pueblo, Hopi, San Ildefonso Pueblo, Acoma Pueblo and the Zuni. Noted individuals involved in Pueblo pottery include Nampeyo of the Hopi, and Maria and Julian Martinez of San Ildefonso Pueblo. In the early 1900s Maria Martinez and her husband Julian rediscovered how to make the traditional Black-on Black pottery for which San Ildefonso Pueblo would soon become famous.
* Other historic cultures including the Apache and the Navajo (who refer to themselves as the Diné).

Dating Southwestern pottery

From "Southwestern Pottery; Anasazi to Zuni", Allan Hayes & John Blom, Northland Publishing, 1996; (ISBN 0-87358-656-5).

Central American pottery

* Tlatilco (circa 1500 BC)
* Olmec (circa 800-400 BC)
* Teotihuacan (circa 300 BC - AD 600)
* Zapotec (circa AD 200 - AD 800)
* Mixtec(circa AD 900)
* Tarascan (circa AD 800 - AD 1300)
* Maya ceramics (circa AD 317 - AD 1200)
* Remojadas (circa AD 750)
* Toltec / Mayan (circa AD 1200 - AD 1500)
* Aztec (circa AD 1168 - AD 1519)
* Coclé, Panama with the following periods: La Mula (circa 150 BC - AD 300), Tonosi (circa AD 300 - AD 550), Cubita (circa AD 550 - AD 700), and Gran Cocle'(circa AD 1200 - AD 1500).

South American pottery

* Earliest pottery (dated circa 2500 BC)
* Chavin Period (1200-300 BC)
* Paracas culture (600-100 BC)
* "Experimental" Period (circa 400 BC - AD 1)
* Master Craftsman Period (circa AD 1 - AD 900) broken into Mochica also known as the Moche culture, Early Chimu, Pre-Chimu, Proto-Chimu, etc. (AD 200 to AD 700 - Northern Highlands)and the Nazca culture (300 BC and AD 800) ref. Cahuachi, Southern Highlands.
* Expansionist Period (circa AD 900 - AD 1200) including Tiwanaku.
* City Builder Period (circa AD 1200-1450)
* Incan Period (circa AD 1450 - AD 1532)

Modern Native American pottery

Several current Native American cultures continue their original pottery traditions, still producing ware for practical use and for sale to collectors. One of the most common kinds of pots made by native peoples of North and Central America is the "olla". The unglazed pot is characterized by a spherical body and wide mouth. Ollas were made over a thousand years ago and almost all the tribes in the Southwest United States and Mexico still make them today.

Modern Native American artists working in clay include: Joseph Lonewolf, Nampeyo, Maria and Julian Martinez, Sara Fina Tafoya, Juan Quezada, Marvin Blackmore, and Al Quoyawayma. See List of Native American artists.

External links

* [http://www.holmes.anthropology.museum/southwestpottery/index.html "Through the Eyes of the Pot", a virtual exhibit of Pueblo pottery]
* [http://www.amerind.org The Amerind Foundation] ,an anthropological and archaeological museum and research center dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of Native American cultures and their histories. The Foundation's museum has an extensive collection of North, Central and South American pottery.