November, 2019

Related Cultures?

I’m getting emails from some who want to see more of our collection. I hope you don’t think I’m over doing it.

This beautiful 9” Sinagua lady is a pitcher. She was made of clay in north-central Arizona, and I excavated her on a friend’s ranch. She had 2 holes punched in her from a previous encounter. Can you tell where I gave her some necessary medicinal repairs?

Dal thinks she’s ugly but what does he know about little ‘ole pottery ladies? He probably thinks her nose is too high on her face, and it is by today’s standards. But in her day, 1,200 years ago, she was right in the middle of what was culturally vogue. Her profile makes me want to agree with dal just a little bit.

When my trowel found this woman, she was resting supine in the volcanic ash-like dirt. The 151disc beads in her necklace were made of shell, catlinite, travertine and argillite. They had become unstrung over time, but were still in place. I restrung them on cotton. Same for her turquoise earrings.

Meanwhile, and 4,000 miles to the south, the Chancay Indians of coastal Peru were making anthropomorphic figures like this 6” guy. His eyes of ostrich shell are inlaid in his wooden face. The other facial features are made of shell beads. Notice that his nose is up between his eyes.

Inlaid in the right side of his headpiece is a recycled spiny oyster pendant (the other side probably had one also). Both sides of his earrings are inlaid with small slabs of turquoise, which are difficult to see because they are held in place with some kind of dark mastic.

For several thousand years most all of the cultures up and down the Americas, constructed their art from identical raw materials. It nearly always included turquoise from what is now the United States. f