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Bowl with a Pair of Avian-Fish Composite Creatures

Bowl with a Pair of Avian-Fish Composite Creatures

1000–1130

Mimbres (Style III) Mimbres Valley, New Mexico, United States

New Mexico

Many Mimbres hemispherical bowls feature bilateral compositions with a diversity of animal, human, and composite figures. In this design, a bird and a fish are combined in a single symbolic form, perhaps corresponding to a poetic figure of speech or metaphor alluding to the forces of water and wind in the Mimbres worldview.

Earthenware with slip and paint

Arts of the Americas