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| 003 Acoma Pueblo, c. 1900 |
 The depiction of parrots on Acoma pottery vessels pays tribute to the enormous sacred significance of birds in Pueblo Indian mythology and religion. The use of three colors – dark red, light red, and orange – demonstrates awesome skill in the handling of these difficult earth colors. The parrots alternate in color around the jar but maintain all the crucial elements of traditional Acoma stylization, including the breast diamond, the crest over the head, the open semicircle, and the triad of tail feathers. The continuous rainbow around the pot is a feature that has evolved from the “path line," whose origin is clouded in the mysterious symbology of ancestral pottery dating back to the fourteenth century. The oblique split rectangles around the bottom of the design also hark back to an ancient origin; to modern eyes they suggest a long line of circus elephants, each with its feet on the next one's rump. In typical fashion for this vessel's date of origin (circa 1900), there are sprigs of foliage with berries, which each bird reaches forward to grasp. Dark red clay slip has been used to produce the warm earth color of the base and the interior of the neck. This large and fine jar was intended and used for the storage of dried vegetables, fruit, or grain.
--Francis H. Harlow, Los Alamos |
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