Cleveland Museum of Art

Jar

Date

1400–1600

Medium

Ceramic, slip

Culture

Native North America, Southwest, Ancestral Pueblo, Sikyatki style

Department

Art of the Americas

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Ancient Sikyatki ceramics are noted for their large, distinctive shapes, meticulously stone-polished surfaces, thin walls that “ring” when tapped, and wide variety of reds and oranges, a contrast to earlier preferences for black and white. These artistically and technically inventive vessels are ancestral to modern Hopi ceramics, having developed in the area where Hopi communities live today. The Hopi regard a mottled orange color as a sign that the pot emerged from firing with life and spirit; the vessel’s “voice” is a bell-like tone that tapping produces. Such concepts likely have roots in the ancient past.

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