History Colorado

Field Museum

Learn about how scientists ask questions to examine artifacts to learn more about the past.   

Ask an Artifact	

Overview

Basketry formed an essential element of ancestral Pueblo culture in southwestern Colorado. Baskets continued to be used for a wide variety of purposes even after the introduction of pottery into the area. Baskets weigh much less and thus easier to transport than pottery vessels, and, unlike pottery, they didn’t break when dropped.  Watch these videos to learn about how Pueblo people today still make things from yucca using both traditional and modern methods.

Ways of Knowing From Ancestors, Yucca Example

Pueblo people have been making pottery in the Southwest United States for hundreds of years. We can learn a lot from the traditions and knowledge that has been passed down from generation to generation. Explore how similar forms, from different times and cultures, can function in the same way. Watch these video clips of potter Dolly Naranjo Neikrug to learn how natural materials are used for making pottery over time.

Ways of Knowing From Ancestors, Pottery Example  

Evidence in the Unwritten 	

In this activity, learn about five disciplinary lenses and how they can be applied to explore the question of how form relates to function in the objects you observe throughout this kit. 

Click on the Object Information and use the links below in Additional Resources research and find answers to these disciplinary questions! 

Applying Disciplinary Lenses to Objects 

People from all over the world study the Mesa Verde in the South West region because these archaeological sites hold rich data. The arid climate, large number of sites, and well-preserved wood in those sites have made it possible to develop a more complete chronology of this region than anywhere else in the world.  Trees produce growth rings of different sizes every year that reveal changes in precipitation.  Scientists use tree rings to pinpoint construction dates of buildings.

Tree Rings Can Tell Time

To understand what life was like in the past, we must look at various sources of information to discover clues and think critically about what they can tell us. To understand our oldest stories, such as ancient cultures, we rely on the incomplete records we find through archaeology to learn about populations of the past. 

Practice and compare the many lenses we can use to learn about the past while exploring the form, function, continuity and change of objects from across history.


Lesson Plan: The Dirt on Ancestral Puebloan Plaster and Paint

Lesson Plan: Pottery of the Ancestral Pueblo

Video:Rocky Mountain PBS Colorado Experience: Living West, Water

Colorado Encyclopedia Article on Mesa Verde National Park Colorado 

Encyclopedia Article Ancestral Puebloans of the Four Corners Region

Understanding the Past

This video clip features Dolly Naranjo from the Santa Clara Pueblo. She describes how to prepare and make clay the way her ancestors did.

“When I look at a piece of pottery, I am amazed that it comes from nothing more than earth, ash, rock. It has nothing in it but the things you find around you.”—Dolly Naranjo Neikrug


This video clip features Dolly Naranjo from the Santa Clara Pueblo.  She describes how to prepare and make clay the way her ancestors did.

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Making Pottery Video

This video clip features Dolly Naranjo from the Santa Clara Pueblo. She describes how to start a pot the way her ancestors did.

Use an Art History Lens: How does its design fit into its function? 

This video clip features Dolly Naranjo from the Santa Clara Pueblo.  She describes how to start a pot the way her ancestors did.

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Starting a pot video

Potters usually collect clays from sources their families or pueblos have long used. They add temper—often rock, crushed pottery, or sand—to the clay so their vessels don’t collapse or crack when they’re dried or fired. Dolly uses volcanic ash as a temper. Dolly starts a vessel by making a base. Then she rolls, coils, and builds the vessel up until it’s the desired size and shape. She often uses a puki, a base to support the vessel while she works.

This is the pigment used to decorate pottery. Water or other liquid is added to create a paint/glaze. This pigment is black, manganite. 

This video clip features Dolly Naranjo from the Santa Clara Pueblo. She describes how to finish and design a pot the way her ancestors did.

This video clip features Dolly Naranjo from the Santa Clara Pueblo.  She describes how to finish and design a pot the way her ancestors did.

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Finishing a pot video

After the vessel dries, she sands it and coats it with a thin layer of clay and water to create a smooth surface. This slip makes the vessel red.  Before the slip dries, Dolly smoothes the surface with polishing stones—treasured tools often passed down from mother to child over generations.  Potters fire their vessels outdoors using wood or manure. The way they’re fired determines whether vessels end up black or red. Firing makes them permanent and brings them to life. 

Use an Anthropologist lens:  What human concern does this object answer? What cultureal value does this object have? 

Resource Kits

Object Library

Museums

Understanding the Past

Ways of Knowing From Ancestors, Pottery Example

Preparing Clay