Posted 5 years ago
Thedachshund
(2 items)
El Prado, NM found on my lot, 6 mi from Taos Pueblo. Doesn't look like Taos pottery so probably a trade piece. Which pueblo & how old?
Taos Pueblo or trade pottery shard | ||
| Native American Antiques364 of 1959 |  |  |
It's very problematic to attempt an identification, or date, (especially from a photo) of a shard once it's removed from its original site.
It appears to be Ancient Puebloan (formerly called Anasazi), which could date from roughly 700-1250 A.D., but it could just as well be a broken piece of Acoma pottery from the 20th century. It could have been from a traded pot, or could be a shard picked up by a tourist, and then lost or discarded. There just is no way to tell from a photo.
It probably wasn't made at any current pueblo, however. And likely didn't originally come from the Taos area. (Taos is located on the very eastern edge of the region where this type of pottery was made.) If it's Ancestral Puebloan, it may be Tusayan (from the Grand Canyon region) or possibly Mancos Black on White (from Mesa Verde area), based on the design pattern (which, again, shows only a very small area of the original pot.)
It is a very specialized area of study, and would require a scientific material analysis of the clay itself, in order to positively identify the origin.