Pueblo Pottery Tradition

Timeline

1. c. 500–900Chaco cultural area · New MexicoThe Ancestral Puebloans developed hand coiling forming techniques and open-air oxidizing-flame firing, producing gray ware and early painted vessels whose forms and designs reflect the daily and ritual needs of settled agricultural society.
2. c. 1180–1290Mesa Verde · ColoradoFine black-and-white geometric painted pottery appeared in the Mesa Verde phase, characterized by carbon-black painting and reducing-flame firing, becoming an important archaeological marker for identifying late Ancestral Puebloan settlements.
3. c. 1291–1300Mesa Verde cliff dwelling region · ColoradoBy the late 13th century, the Mesa Verde region was still producing traditional wares such as Black-on-White pottery, but with the abandonment of cliff dwellings and southward population migration, local Ancestral Puebloan ceramic centers were interrupted, while the craft evolved and continued in the migrating communities.