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Jar Drum (Tai-pai-han)

Arts of the Americas

NATIVE AMERICAN PUEBLO POTTERY
Pottery making was practiced in the southwestern United States for at least two thousand years. Zuni and Cochiti potters created the three vessels here: two water jars and one drum jar, which would have had a hide stretched over the top for beating with drumsticks. Historically, women were the potters, collecting their own clays, coiling and finishing each pot by hand, and firing the pieces in open fires.

Pots were often traded and exchanged between pueblos, so that new ideas were constantly being generated. During the 1880s the advent of the railroad brought an influx of trading posts and tourists into the Southwest and entrepreneurial potters began selling to the non-Native market. Today, both male and female potters continue to form traditional works as well as generate exciting new forms of Pueblo pottery.
MEDIUM Pottery, slip
DATES late 18th–early 19th century
DIMENSIONS approx.: 16 1/2 x 21 in. (41.9 x 53.3 cm)
COLLECTIONS Arts of the Americas
ACCESSION NUMBER 03.325.3255
CREDIT LINE Museum Expedition 1903, Museum Collection Fund
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
RECORD COMPLETENESS
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