Socorro black-on-white storage jar

Unknown

ca. 1050–1100 · Clay and pigment · The American Wing

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.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1050–1100

Medium

Clay and pigment

Culture

Ancestral Pueblo, Native American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection of Native American Art, Gift of Charles and Valerie Diker, 2019