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Water Jar or Olla

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 Ceramic, pigment
DATES late 19th century
DIMENSIONS 19 3/4 × 15 × 15 in. (50.2 × 38.1 × 38.1 cm) diameter at opening: 8 7/8 in. (22.5 cm)  (show scale)
INSCRIPTIONS Catalogue number written in ink in middle of body surface. Small gummed label (20) is inside.
COLLECTIONS Arts of the Americas
ACCESSION NUMBER 02.257.2471
CREDIT LINE Riggs Pueblo Pottery Fund
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Jar with a grey body with the upper 3/4 covered with a brownish-white slip. The bottom has a red slip. A black design covers 3/4 of the body, seperated from the bottom by two black lines. The design is four human figures, two with bows and arrows, two with headdresses, and a row of four smaller deer along the top. Two black lines are at rim. Four chips in rim, one large chip leading to a crack halfway down one side. One large black spot from firing, one brown discoloration near bottom.
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Ko-Tyit (Cochiti Pueblo). Water Jar or Olla, late 19th century. Ceramic, pigment, 19 3/4 × 15 × 15 in. (50.2 × 38.1 × 38.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Riggs Pueblo Pottery Fund, 02.257.2471. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 02.257.2471_bw_SL5.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 02.257.2471_bw_SL5.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
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Ko-Tyit (Cochiti Pueblo). <em>Water Jar or Olla</em>, late 19th century. Ceramic, pigment, 19 3/4 × 15 × 15 in. (50.2 × 38.1 × 38.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Riggs Pueblo Pottery Fund, 02.257.2471. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 02.257.2471_bw_SL5.jpg)