The comparatively large number of vases, food bowls, and other forms
of decorated smooth ware in collections from the Mimbres is largely
due to their use in mortuary customs, and the fact that almost without
exception they were found placed over the skulls of the dead. Although
the largest number of vessels are food bowls, there are also cups with
twisted handles (fig. 11), bowls (fig. 12), vases, dippers, and other
ceramic forms found in pueblo ruins.[26]
[Illustration: FIG. 11.—Braided handle. ½ nat. size.]
[Illustration: FIG. 12.—Small bowl. Diam. 3½″.]
Coarse, undecorated vessels showing coils, indentations, superficial
protuberances, and other rude decorations like those so well known in
Southwestern ruins, are well represented. Some of these were used as
cooking vessels, as shown by the soot still adhering to their outer
surface. While the majority of bowls were broken in fragments when
found, a few were simply pierced through the bottom; one or two were
unbroken or simply notched at the edge.
The colors of Mimbres ware are uniform and often striking. There are
good specimens of black and white ware; also red, black, and yellow
with brown decorations are numerous. Some of the best pieces are
colored a light orange. Many of the fragments are made of the finest
paste identical in color and finish with ware from Casas Grandes,
Chihuahua, which furnishes the best prehistoric pottery from the
Southwest. No effigy jar, or animal formed vase, however, exists in any
collections from the Mimbres examined by the author.
Ruins in the Lower Mimbres have thus far yielded a larger variety and
a finer type of pottery than ruins on the banks of the river among the
hills, which is in part due to the extent of excavations. The Oldtown
potters developed a kind of pottery with characteristic ornamentation
found both in ruins in the plain to the south and along the narrow
valley of the Mimbres to the north.
The Mimbres pottery, like all other ancient ware from the Southwest,
frequently shows evidences of having been mended. Holes were drilled
near the breaks and fibers formerly united the parts thus holding
the bowl together even though broken. As one goes south, following
the course of the river, the character of the pottery changes very
slightly, but if anything is a little better.
The food bowls generally have a rounded base, but one specimen is flat
on the bottom. The edges of the bowls from the ruin at Black Mountain
are curved outward, an exceptional feature in ancient Pueblo vessels
but common in modern forms.