Shallow Red Bowl

Part of the David Dye Pottery Photos exhibit.

Description

A shallow, red bowl with white interlocking volutes deriving from a central swirl. Two additional swirls are located at the “top” and “bottom” of the bowl in the photograph. When discovered, the bowl held the articulated skeleton of a raccoon. Supernatural raccoons were revered by Mississippians as transcending the various cosmic realms. Raccoons are anamous animals, being associated with the watery realm and trees, which are seen as an axis mundi. The potter who crafted this bowl lived at Chucalissa during the sixteenth century.