What's a Bowl for?
- Fourmile Polychrome Ware bowl with ancient repairs
- Earthenware with mineral pigments
- Ancestral Puebloan, CE 1325-1400
- Manufactured: east-central Arizona
- Collected: Homolov'i I, northern Arizona
- Corbusier Collection, UMMAA 25503
When this imported bowl cracked, its owners in the fourteenth century CE pueblo settlement of Homol'ovi I (Arizona) chose to repair rather than discard it. Using a stone drill, they bored holes on each side of the crack and used leather or twine to tie the sides together. The mended vessel no longer held liquids but could still have stored dry materials. Its non-local origins likely increased the bowl's value to its owners, making them willing to undertake the labor-intensive repair.