Morphological Attributes

Bowls, jars, pitchers

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Technological Attributes

White sherd

Decorated pottery in later Pueblo III assemblages appears to be dominated by forms that are indistinguishable from pottery produced in the Mesa Verde region and is commonly assigned to Mesa Verde Black-on-white and seem to indicate a replacement of Cibola types by Northern San Juan types. Chaco McElmo Black-on-white shares characteristics noted in the latest mineral painted Chaco types including white pastes, sherd temper, thin hard walls, and a similar streaky white paste over well- polished surface (Windes 1985; Windes and McKenna 1989). Thin application of these slips on the lower areas of bowls and jars and its absence in lower portions of painted surface is also a characteristic of other late mineral painted white wares from the Chaco Canyon area. Often a narrow slip is applied just under the rim on exteriors of bowls and interiors of jars. In some cases the bowl exterior is so highly polished it is difficult to distinguish slip from the paste (Windes 1985). Designs are often executed in a faded purplish organic paint. Designs are quite distinct, and hatched elements common in earlier types, are rare. Designs are quite varied displaying the wide range of motifs occurring of early Pueblo III forms. These include barbed lines, checkered squares and dots, isolated dots, parallel lines and banded line. Decorations are almost always organized in a single painted band design. Elements making up these designs are fairly broad and simple. A common style consists of a series of broad lines either in bands parallel to the rim or in rectilinear panels. Framing lines may be present, but they are usually single and may either be isolated or intersect other design elements. Rims are flat to round and may exhibit ticking in the form of simple dots or lines (Wilson, Southwest Ceramic Typology Project, 2014).

In an oxidizing atmosphere