Cortez B/W (AD 900-1000)

The following are some representative examples of Cortez B/W sherds:

       

       

      

(Click on image to enlarge.)
Type Ceramics Provenience Info

Type sites:

 Mesa Verde N. P.: Site 16, Site 1425, Badger House (Breternitz et al:34).

Dating:

 Pueblo I. Late AD 800s through 900s.
     AD 900-1000. Probably 50-75 yrs more (Abel 1955, in Hayes and Lancaster:127).
      Early P II – the major pottery (Hayes and Lancaster:118).
      Early P II – AD 900-1000 (Lucius and Breternitz:21; Breternitz et al:34).
      P I, late 800s in conjunction with Piedra (Wilson and Blinman:49).
      Dominant early 900s—late 1000s, replacement by Mancos by 1050 (Wilson and Blinman:49-50).
      AD 880-1050 (Varien:Appendix A(1)).

Texture:

 Medium (Breternitz et al:33).

Temper:

 Crushed igneous, 85%. Some rock and sand or rock and sherd (Hayes and Lancaster:118).
Crushed igneous in half of sample; crushed rock and sherd in one-third of sample; the rest
     mainly sherd, some rock (Cattenach:209).
Crushed sherd or crushed igneous rock (Varien:Appendix A(1)).

Slip:

 Well slipped (Varien:Appendix A(1)). 
89% of jars, 94% of bowls. Even application, medium thickness, fine crackling 
     (Hayes and Lancaster:118). 
¾ of bowl and jar interiors; ¼ of bowl exteriors; crackled slip on ¼ (Cattenach:210).
At Puzzle House: often bright-white, well-shined slip, but without crackling. A few, distinctly 
     Cortez in design and shape, lack white slip and have a gray surface. 
     

Paint:

 Mineral (Varien:Appendix A(1)).
Almost entirely mineral; 0.3% organic (Hayes and Lancaster:120).
Mineral on all (73) sherds in sample (Cattenach:209).
Mineral in organic medium; rarely organic alone (Breternitz et al:33).
Paint on bowl and ladle interiors, handles, upper exteriors of jars, pitchers, ollas (Breternitz et al:33).

Polish:

 Generally well polished (Breternitz et al:33; Varien:Appendix A(1)).
At Badger House, of 100 sherds, all had some; 88% both inside and out (Hayes and Lancaster:118). 
At Long House, all of 73-sherd sample had low luster polish (Cattenach:118).

Rims:

 Painted solid. Tapered, rounded (Breternitz et al:33).
Rims: Solid. Under 1% have perpendicular ticks continuing onto inside (Hayes and Lancaster:122).

Shape:

 Corrugated bowl exteriors in ~ 2.5% (Breternitz et al:34).
Half-gourd dipper – 57% (Hayes and Lancaster:118).
Pitchers: Distinguishable shoulder.  Shorter, straight neck.
Handles: Flat handle increases with time; solid round handle persists (Hayes and Lancaster:118).
Seed jars common but flattened (spherical earlier) (Hayes and Lancaster:118).
Unique bowl shape: wide ‘step’ or flare around upper 1/3 (Morris term: double-flare) 
     (Hayes and Lancaster:119).

Design:

 Cortez decoration: "the division, subdivision, and resubdivision of the surface. . .[with] numerous 
     repeated individual elements of design" (Hayes and Lancaster:121-122).
Characteristic layout: "repetition of several unrelated design elements in almost every conceivable
     combination" (Hayes and Lancaster:114).
Single, dropped framing line in about 1/3 of the bowls; (occurs, but much less common in Mancos)
     (Hayes and Lancaster:122).
In Badger House examples: Bands or units of thin parallel lines constitute a design motif, or a division   
     between other motifs. Line and filler segments often run diagonal to the rim. Bowl designs are very 
     space-filling. Solid triangles are common; often one side is ticked, scalloped, or stepped. 
     Distinctive designs include solid-triangle starbursts; concentric, thin, banding of diamond medallion. 
‘Kiatuthlana’ decoration: Bands of fine parallel lines turn in nested right angles as they encircle the 
     vessel. In Mancos pottery, similar bands do not turn as a unit; they end at another band or design
     (Hayes and Lancaster:123). 
Scrolls: Interlock and often emerge from the tips of ticked triangles (distinctive of PII), or appear in a
     broad band below the rim. Later Mesa Verde scrolls, even when interlocking, tend to be angular. 
     Mancos scrolls are themselves boldly flagged (Hayes and Lancaster: 124, 126).
Hachure: Between parallel lines is much less common in Cortez (6%) than Mancos (51%). 
     At Badger House, Cortez hachure is more widely-spaced than Mancos, squiggled rather than 
     straight (85%), usually has guidelines, has zig-zags rather than curves, is at right angles to framing 
     lines (Hayes and Lancaster: 124). The squiggled line was almost absent in Mancos pottery 
     (Hayes and Lancaster:122), although this may be a function of the type definitions used.
Line embellishment: Cross-ticking with neat, evenly- and closely-spaced short lines.  Or oblique, 
     feather-style ticking. A line embellished with dots along one side is more typical of Mancos 
     (Hayes and Lancaster:124), although it is seen on a Cortez vessel from Big Juniper house 
     (Swannack 1969:74, 76). 
Straight lines: Often edged with solid-triangle flagging or oblique ticking. 
Linear patterns: Differ from Piedra in having narrow lines, wider spacing (Varien:Appendix A(1).
At Puzzle House: line-work is clean but not always ultra-fine; sometimes broad-brush.

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