Anasazi

The Ancestral Puebloans, flourishing roughly between 100 CE and 1600 CE in the Four Corners region of the United States, are the cultural forebears of today’s modern Pueblo tribes (including Acoma, Hopi, Zuni, and the Rio Grande Pueblos). While early archaeologists popularized the term “Anasazi” (a Navajo word loosely translating to “ancient ones” or “ancient enemies”), modern scholars and Indigenous descendants generally prefer the more accurate and respectful term “Ancestral Puebloans.”

Their earliest ceramic vessels, dating back over 1,500 years to the Basketmaker III era, were strictly utilitarian graywares used for cooking and storage. Over the centuries, these primitive beginnings evolved into the highly complex, decorated white and black wares found at monumental sites like Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde. Unadorned, primitive pieces from this deep antiquity are incredibly rare to find intact and are highly prized by collectors and historians for their direct, tactile link to the ancient past.