Description

Mogollon Tularosa filet rim bowl corrugated bowl

This bowl has a fine patterned corrugated exterior with a smudged and polished interior. There are fire clouds on the exterior of the bowl.

Corrugated and painted-corrugated pottery in a variety of styles flourished in the Mogollon highlands of east-central Arizona and west-central New Mexico during the late prehistoric period. Mogollon pottery tends to be constructed of iron-rich volcanic clays, which almost invariably fired to a dark brown. Vessels were constructed using the coil-and-scrape technique. These were at first unpainted and decorated only with tooled corrugations on the exteriors of vessels with the interiors being smooth.  (Filets are narrow bands, so filets and corrugation are one and the same when talking about pottery.)  Filets in some Mogollon pottery descriptions describe narrow bands of fine corrugation such as Tularosa Filet Rim, which will have a few to several “filets” of fine indentions made with the end of the finger, fingernail or a tool of some type.

Condition: Although this bowl has been glued back together at some point in time, all four of the pieces form a complete vessel. This piece of pre-historic pottery is in remarkable condition for its age.
Provenance: Purchased by my mother from the Museum of Science and History of Fort Worth in the 1960s and maintained in the family gallery; authenticated by Walter Knox of Scottsdale Auctions and Appraisals.