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Home/Canyon Column/2005 Archives/Ancient Pot Presents Itself

Ancient Pot Presents Itself

Pottery find | Photo by Mike Buchheit
Pottery find | Photo by Mike Buchheit

Last week, while scrambling on a steep slope below the South Rim, I stumbled upon an amazing find. There in the dirt lie five hand-sized pieces of a broken ancient Anasazi pot. I was frozen in my tracks and the centuries melted away while I tried to determine how this lovely artifact reached this spot, and to grasp the significance of me chancing upon it.

I returned day’s later with park service archaeologist Ian Hough. Ian determined quickly that this rare find was indeed an Anasazi ceramic, molded and fired roughly nine hundred years earlier, and carried to this spot from Tsegi Canyon (modern day Navajo National Monument eighty miles to the east).

Upon closer inspection of the site, Ian found a carved bone pendant that likely hung from a prehistoric necklace. For documentation purposes he reassembled the pot and had me hold it aloft for his camera. Standing there for my closeup, hands mildly trembling, reverently displaying the intricately painted ware, was one of the most powerful moments I’ve spent in the Canyon.

We left the pot on the precarious ledge where I found it (or it found me), choosing not to interrupt its slow march down the Canyon walls and a merging with the dust of its maker.

Published on: November 15, 2005

Categories: 2005 Archives, Canyon ColumnTags: Anasazi pottery, Ancestral Puebloan, Grand Canyon ceramics, Tsegi Canyon

About Mike Buchheit

Mike Buchheit was the director of the Grand Canyon Conservancy Field Institute for over 25 years, a professional landscape photographer and instructor, a freelance travel writer, and a popular lecturer on a wide variety of Grand Canyon-related topics. As a long-time resident, 3,000-mile hiker, and frequent river runner, the Iowa native has gained an intimate knowledge of the park that he called home.

As a long-time resident, 3,000-mile hiker, and frequent river runner, the Iowa native has gained an intimate knowledge of the park that he calls home. You can see some of his beautiful work on his Grand Canyon Prints website.

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