Museum Exhibit: The Secrets of Casas Grandes

Beginning November 5, 2006 and running through October 7, 2007, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, New Mexico will host an exhibit on archaeological collections from the site of Casas Grandes, also called Paquimé. Casas Grandes was a large, influential capital city of the Casas Grandes polity in the state of Chihuahua, northern Mexico, considered the third great regional state of the American southwest (the others are Aztec and Toltec), from about AD 1150-1450.

These two very nice images of pots from the exhibit were taken by Blair Clark and are copyrighted by the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Laboratory of Anthropology. The top left pot is a Casas Grandes plain ware effigy with closed eyes, Casas Grandes, AD 1200-1450; the lower right pot is a Villa Ahumada Polychrome owl effigy jar, Casas Grandes, AD 1200-1450. Looks like it's going to be a great time to get to Santa Fe this winter.

• Museum of Indian Arts and Culture
• Casas Grandes: Between Aztec and Toltec
• The Casas Grandes World, a fairly recent book on Casas Grandes by Curtis F. Schaafsma and Carroll L. Riley
• Archaeology of Central America
• Ceramics in Archaeology