Owens Valley Brown Ware

Owens Valley Brown Ware

Although the making of pottery by Great Basin hunters and gatherers has been recognized for over a century, it has not been generally considered an important attribute in either their cultural adaptations or characteristics. While the aboriginal people in the Great Basin are often used to demonstrate a hunting and gathering life-style, they are seldom used as an example of pottery making by nonagriculturalists.

The existence of pottery making among certain aboriginal hunting and gathering groups of the Great basin was known as early as the middle of the 19th century, but as Baldwin and Coale outlined, little attention was given to this crude pottery by these early explorers or the ethnographers who followed them. As, a result, we have only a vague notion of what this pottery was like, how it was made, and the role it played in aboriginal Great Basin cultures.

For over a thousand years the Paiute and Shoshone people have been making ceramic vessels for cooking and storage. Clay sources of varying quality can be readily found throughout the region. The process of making a pot was simple. The base was generally a thick disk upon which coils were laid and pinched together. The walls were thinned by hand rubbing and the exterior scraped smooth. Decoration, if present at all, would generally consist of a row af slanted or curved lines located on or just below the rim. These marks were either impressed by the marker’s thumbnail or incised with the end of a stick.

This particular display was very eye catching, yet unfinished and untagged. The display consisted of a Paiute dance outfit, several intricate head dresses, various sizes of basketry, a gorgeous rabbit blanket, and wonderful pottery donated by Donald M. Witt (an amateur archaeologist). The things I would improve in this display is the elevation of the pottery as well as a rotating platform for viewers to get a better and perhaps clearer view of the items. I would also change the positions of the pottery