The most problematical of all the life figures on the Mimbres pottery is shown in [plate 7, figure 2]. This figure occurs on a black and white food bowl, eleven inches in diameter, four and one-half inches in depth. In support of the theory that the two figures here depicted represent fishes, we have the pointed head without neck, the operculum as a white crescentic design, two fins (pectoral, ventral, and anal), the median (adipose?) dorsal fin unpaired, and a long tail bifurcated at the extremity. The resemblance of these figures to the undoubted fishes on bowls previously mentioned is conclusive evidence that they represent the same animal.
GEOMETRICAL FIGURES
The geometrical designs on Mimbres pottery are rectangular, curved, and spiral, the first form being the most common. These units are arranged in twos or fours, and although they consist often of zigzag or stepped figures, the triangle and rectangle predominate. The geometrical designs are rarely colored, but commonly filled in with hachures and parallel lines. There are seldom decorations on the outside of the Mimbres bowls, in which respect they differ from ancient Hopi (Sikyatki) vessels elsewhere figured.[53] Conversely, that part of the interior of the bowl which surrounds the central design, oftentimes elaborately ornamented in Mimbres pottery, is very simply decorated in Sikyatki pottery. Encircling lines on Mimbres pottery are continuous, whereas at Sikyatki they are broken at one or more points by intervals known as the "life gateways" or "lines of life."[54] The geometrical figures on the inside of every bowl sometimes surround a central region on which no figures of animals or human beings are drawn, but which is perforated.
The more strikingly characteristic forms of geometrical figures are shown in designs on [plate 8]. Certain of the geometrical figures drawn on the sides of animals as on the wolf ([pl. 2, fig. 1]), the antelope (figs. [19] and [20]), the mountain sheep ([pl. 2, fig. 2]), the unidentified animal and bird (figs. [18] and [25]), the reptile ([fig. 28]), also appear without the animals and probably have the same significance[55] in both instances.
Fig. 31.—Rabbit and geometrical designs.
No geometrical figures were identified as representing sun, moon, earth, or rain-clouds. A few crosses, circles, triangles, and irregular quadrilateral designs combined with zigzag stepped figures and interlocked spirals and highly interesting swastikas ([fig. 31]) form the majority of the designs.[56] Several geometric designs, as those on the bodies of figures [25] and [26], appear on Sikyatki pottery (see 17th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., plate 121); others resemble Pueblo symbols of wide distribution, but the majority are unique. The geometric designs on the bodies of life-figures vary with the animal depicted, but the same genus of animals does not always have the geometric figure, although almost identical designs occur on the bodies of different genera. It is recognized that a comparison of designs on Southwestern pottery shows a general uniformity in geometrical pattern which renders it very difficult to distinguish different local areas of development, and may be the result of more extensive interchange of ideas and a greater uniformity of cultural conditions. The pottery of the Mimbres shares with the rest of the Southwest several well-known geometrical designs which no doubt date back to an earlier epoch than the evolution of animal figures, but it also has several decorations of geometrical patterns ([fig. 32]) that are peculiar to it and which, taken with the characteristic zoic figures, serve to differentiate it from other local areas. Mimbres pottery as pointed out by others has a general likeness to that from Casas Grandes Valley in Chihuahua, a resemblance which no doubt increases as we follow the river to Lakes Palomas and Guzman.[57] The resemblance is not close enough to indicate identity, but we have enough material to support the belief that the archeological area in which it occurs is Mexican, unlike that of any other ceramic area in Arizona or New Mexico. Here a specialized symbolism has been developed which is different from that of the Rio Grande, or the Upper Gila-Salt area, and that characteristic of the great Lower Gila in which lie the compounds like Casa Grande. The Mimbres Valley archeologically is the northern extension of a culture area which reached its highest development on Casas Grandes River.
Fig. 32.—Geometrical figure. (Osborn collection.)