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| 005 Zuni Pueblo, c. 1850 - 1900 |
 This fine jar from Zuni Pueblo shows several contradictory features that make the assignment of a date somewhat difficult. Here is how we look for clues by which to determine the date. At Acoma, the presence of a red underbody is of no dating significance, but at Zuni this feature often indicates manufacture prior to 1850, after which the underbody is almost invariably black. An even stronger indication of date is given by the treatment of the surface inside the neck; smooth and red before circa 1850, but black and rough like the more common underbody color thereafter. On this jar the neck interior is black and rough, but the underbody is red. How is this disparity to be interpreted? The designs are likewise a bit inscrutable, with crosshatchured elements like those of the 1870's but showing several innovative changes that suggest a later date. Each angular pinwheel in the middle-body design band is surrounded by four blunt dagger-like figures, which appear to have evolved as a modification of the longer Zuni neck-band daggers of the 1870's. Our net conclusion is that the jar must date from sometime in the last half of the 1800's, but further study will be required for greater precision. A wonderful embellishment of design is seen in the double band of wide black lines at the shoulder, with one spot in their circumference broken by a short gap, whose origin can be traced back to the fourteenth century, and whose meaning is clearly associated with mystical significance.
-- FRANCIS H. HARLOW, LOS ALAMOS |
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