Explore the types of pottery in the slideshow below. What can the shape and certain features tell us about how they were used or why they were created? 

It is likely that bowls in prehistoric times were used as they are today: larger bowl are useful for mixing and preparing batches of food, and smaller bowls are convenient for individual servings. However, it is possible that multiple family members all served themselves out of a shared bowl. 

Mesa Verde black on white bowl.  Band design parallel to rim, wide framing line at top and bottom, repetitive design between framing lines, rim ticks

Bowl, Ancestral Puebloan

History Colorado

This mug was used for drinking and matches a typical design for mugs. McElmo Black on White

Mug, Ancestral Puebloan

Some pots were used for cooking. Cooking in pottery vessels that were placed directly in a fire or on support stones within a hearth was more efficient than the previous method of cooking, which involved dropping hot stones into liquid within baskets lined with waterproof pitch.

This cooking jar would have been placed over or in a fire to heat up contents.  The jar has burn marks on the outside from flames and many repairs, meaning it was used often.

Cooking Jar, Mesa Verde

Potters also fashioned dippers, probably to perform tasks such as dipping water from shallow pools into water jars, dipping stew or maize gruel from a cooking jar into a serving bowl, or transferring ingredients from storage vessels to a mixing bowl. 

Ladle handle with diamond cross hatchures. Ladle bowl with rim ticks, pendant dots, and hatchures.

Ladle, Mesa Verde Black on White

Other pots, called ollas, were used to transport and store water from a nearby water source, possibly a spring. Among Pueblo peoples in historic times, older girls or young women carried water from the water source to the pueblo

This is a large storage jar with concave base. Red band above exterior base and at rim into interior neck. Exterior design is red and black over white sllip. Double framing lines at neck, above shoulder, and above base band. Two bands of design. Upper band has triangle and leaf pendent to framing line with with bird's eye and feathers above shoulder. Lower band has scallops pendent to shoulder line and feather and leaf design above bottom framing line.

Olla, Red and Black on White

Seed jars were probably used to store dry foods of various types, possibly wild seeds, berries, acorns, maize kernels, squash seeds, or medicinal herbs. 

Seed jar used for storing seeds and other foodstuffs.  The jar has a spruce tree design and may have come from Spruce Tree House in Mesa Verde.

Seed Jar, Ancestral Puebloan

The uses of unusual and special forms are unknown, but might have been associated with rituals or ceremonies.

Jar shaped like an animal.  Fawn shaped jar lying nose to tail. Jar is small mouthed with handle to tail. Jar mouth has 3 broad lines. Handle has back to back double saw teeth with a negative circle containing interlocking hooks. Fawn - 3 lines of dots top of head to nose tip. Raised ears, incised mouth and nostrils. Black from outside ear to mouth line. 4 broad line rectangular scrolls cover body.  Late Mancos-Early McElmo style

Standards for Ancestral Puebloan Pottery

College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework