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Pottery by American Indian Women - History

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There is evidence of early human settlement on this continent dating from at least 25,000 B.C., long before recorded history began. Most scholars believe that Indians entered the continental United States from Asia, traveling... See more » There is evidence of early human settlement on this continent dating from at least 25,000 B.C., long before recorded history began. Most scholars believe that Indians entered the continental United States from Asia, traveling across the Bering Strait and through Canada, between 25,000 to 8,000 B.C., when the land bridge existed. Others believe that Indians may have come north from Central or South America. (Or did they spring from the earth, as their own legends have it?) Surely there was movement back and forth between North and South America. Dr. Carl Dentzel, the late director of the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, told me that he had carbon-dated Indian pots from 30,000 B.C. in North America. Most of our knowledge of the first American Indians is based on their claywork alone; fired clay is the only material on earth that does not change with time. North America provided a wide range of territory for these early people, from Arctic to subtropical climes. What is now the continental United States can be divided into five physiographic areas: the Great Plains of the Midwest and the Mississippi River lands, the arid Southwest, the West Coast seaside, the colder Northeast, and the warmer Southeast. Indians eventually grouped roughly into these regions - and from the very beginning, they made pots. About two thousand years ago, the beginning of agriculture in North America caused the previously nomadic Indian peoples to settle down. Soon, pottery shapes developed according to various customs and techniques of gathering water, storing grains and liquids, and preserving seeds for the next planting. The craft culminated in the development of cooking pots that were made to sit on rocks in open fires, water jars with indented bases so they could sit comfortably on the heads of water gatherers, and large storage vessels for grains and water. Indian villages all over the United States became known for their different pot shapes and decorative styles. Sometime during the early period of formalized agricultural practice, storage vessels for seeds and grains were needed. Hierarchies developed for the size, shape, and decoration of the pots for storing the best seeds, for different varieties of seeds, and so forth. Other hierarchical shapes developed historically for other practical reasons. Women were probably the gatherers (as men were the hunters), and women became the chief pottery makers. Initially, handbuilt vessels were made solely for utilitarian purposes, with little consideration for artistry. Most very early containers were unadorned, except for the texture of the coils and pinches, or indented textures from pointed sticks. Not much attention was paid to symmetry. See less »

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Pottery by American Indian Women - History

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