Letter B

is for Basketry.
Before the introduction of pottery, the people who lived in the Southwest used a variety of techniques to craft fine baskets in different shapes and sizes for their daily needs - storing grain, seeds and other items, carrying water and even cooking. They waterproofed baskets by lining them with pine pitch, and cooked in them by dropping heated stones into the food.

Producing a finely woven basket is a time-consuming process, and like all things made of plant fibers, baskets deteriorate over time. When people began to depend more and more on agriculture as a primary food source, their lifestyle became more sedentary and ceramics became more practical. Clay pots are heavy and breakable, but they are durable and can be placed directly on a cooking fire. By around 500 CE, pottery was in common use in Chaco Canyon and the San Juan Basin, and the use of basketry declined.

Have you ever woven a basket or made a clay pot? What did you use it for?

  • Source: www.facebook.com/AztecRuinsNM
    • Basketry
    Yucca Plaited Ring Basket


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