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Normal0oNotOptimizeForBrowser/>Greetings Archeology Buffs:Many years ago, as my wife and I were driving south from
Albuquerque, I pulled off the road near the ancient Pueblo village of Las
Humanas, part of the original Gran Quivira National Monument of New Mexico.After a few moments of inspection outside of
the tourist zone, which I visited later, I discovered fragments of pottery
(potsherds) in the ruined outline of a pueblo.(I wish your forum would have let me post them.) At the time, I knew what I had found, but I had not identified the
pottery type and this perimeter site.This
area is now the Salinas Pueblo Missions National, which includes the Gran
Quivira, Quarai, and Abo pueblo ruins that existed as Pueblo communities
between A.D. 1000 and 1670 until roving bands of Apache caused the abandonment
of both the Pueblo villages and Mission San Isidro (built in 1629). The collection below represents Tiwa-speaking
Indian pottery design, dating from A.D. 1000 to 1300.Later Las Humanas pottery designs of the seventeenth century
reflect Spanish influence.
Inspired by
my discovery, my wife and I visited the San Ildefonso Pueblo near Albuquerque
and later visited the ruins near the 17th century
San José de los Jemez Mission Church in Jemez Springs, the Pueblo Bonito
ruins in Chaco Canyon, and, after visiting the kivas in Aztec, NM, explored the
cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde.On the
way home, we also visited the Pueblo ruins in Wupatki and Walnut Canyon
National Monuments, but the most magnificent example of Pueblo ingenuity we’ve
explored so far was Canyon de Chelly in northeastern Arizona.From this point in time, I began my
life-long interest in Southwestern Native pottery, basketry, weaving, and
Kachinas.I have, as a result of my
inquisitiveness, developed a great respect for the culural heritage of Native
American peoples, ultimately devoting my anthropological thesis to this group
(the Economic Basis of Indian Migration and Adjustment to the City).I’ve also collected Naval instruments and
other collectibles from Morocco and Mexico, as well as a large sampling of
fossils throughout the United States and Morocco, but my Southwestern Native
arts, crafts, and artifacts are the most important groups in my collections,
the centerpiece being a sand painting by Navajo artist James C. Box (“Whirling
Log, The Yei-Bi-Chai Hunt”).
---- Wordsmith
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