Ancestral Pueblo: Southern Colorado Plateau (Anasazi)Central AnasaziSouthern CibolaWhite Mountain Red WareShowlow Polychrome

Type Name: Showlow Polychrome

Period: 1325 A.D. - 1400 A.D.
Culture: Ancestral Pueblo: Southern Colorado Plateau (Anasazi)
Branch: Central Anasazi
Tradition: Southern Cibola
Ware: White Mountain Red Ware


First posted by C. Dean Wilson 2014

Showlow Polychrome was defined by Haury (1931). This type is distinguished from Fourmile Polychrome and other White Mountain Red Ware types by the presence of white slip used as a background on the interior of bowls and exterior of jars (Carlson 1970; Triadan 1997). The distribution of this type is fairly localized given the short period of its production from about A.D. 1325 to 1400.

Paste is light colored with sherd temper. Bowls display red slipped exteriors and interiors are either all white or part with a red slip. The exteriors of Showlow Polychrome bowls exhibit Fourmile style banded designs. Decorations are in a red-brown, brown, or black glaze pigment and white clay paint. Decorations on bowl interiors either focus on the center or go to the rim. Motifs on bowl interiors often consist of large central figures and include medium with linear units with triangular serrated ends, and are either massed or relatively open. Motifs on bowl exteriors consist of either fine white lines or black and white motifs between two wide white bordered black framing lines. Jars are decorated in banded patterns.

References:
Carlson, Roy L.
1970 White Mountain Redware Pottery Tradition of East-Central New Mexico. Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona, No. 19. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

Haury, Emil W.
Showlow and Pinedale Ruins. In Recently Dated Pueblo Ruins in Arizona, by E. W. Haury and L. L. Hargrave, pp. 479. Smithsonian Miscellaneus Collections 82(11). Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.

Triadan, Daniela
1997 Ceramic Commodities and Common Containers; Production and Distribution of White Mountain Red Ware in the Grasshopper Region, Arizona. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson.




Related Photos

Showlow Polychrome jar

Showlow Polychrome bowl

Showlow Polychrome bowl