Beautiful Mimbres Pottery Art

In Deming New Mexico is a wonderful museum that houses a large collection of Mimbres Pottery. The Luna Mimbres Museum, as all museums that I have visited, house the local flavor and history of the area. This museum has hundreds of example of absolutely beautiful Mimbres Pottery.
The Mimbres Indians are thought to have lived about 1,000 years ago in what is now the southwestern part of New Mexico. A large part of what has been discovered archaeological wise is the pottery which is fascinating. Images of life, insects, birds, reptiles, humans, life from every species is represented on the mostly black and white or brown and white bowl shaped pottery. A large and maybe equal part of the collection are also simple as well as complex geometric patterns which are very often found to have a symmetrical pattern.
The image below shows another common them of a circular image traveling the circumference of the bowl.

I found that the life that is portrayed on the pottery to be most interesting. The Mimbres buried their dead in a sitting upright position with a bowl on top of their head. The bowl was made to have a hole in the top so that a swallow would be able to capture the dead ones' spirit, fly away and carry that spirit into heaven. This is the reason given that most bowls have a hole in the center.

In an image that appears to be a quail. Most likely what is now called a Gambel's Quail (Callipepla gambelii). Callipepla meaning beautiful robe or beautifully adorned, and Gambel's for William Gambel, an early southwestern explorer and birdwatcher for whom the bird is named. Again note the hole in the middle of the image.

This final image at first glance appears to show a human and a kangaroo. A kangaroo or a kangaroo-like creature in the American Southwest? It does seem most curious.
Note the absence of a center hole and the somewhat rarity of an intact piece of Mimbres Pottery.






An excellent reference book with many illustrations/photos of Mimbres Pottery:
The Mimbres, Art and Archaeology - J.Walter Fewkes
ISBN 0-936755-10-5