LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Casas: Casas Grandes
built 606 days ago
Paquimé, Casas Grandes, which reached its apogee in the 14th and 15th centuries, played a key role in trade and cultural contacts between the Pueblo culture of the south-western United States and northern Mexico and the more advanced civilizations of Mesoamerica. The extensive remains, only part of which have been excavated, are clear evidence of the vitality of a culture which was perfectly adapted to its physical and economic environment, but which suddenly vanished at the time of the Spanish Conquest.
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Ruins similar to those of Casas Grandes exist near the Gila, the Salinas, and the Colorado and it is probable that they all represent one cultural group related to the Mogollon culture to the north. Early ethnologist Hubert Howe Bancroft, in The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, was disposed to relate them to the modern day Hopi, sometimes known as Moqui during his period.
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Following the collapse of Casas Grandes culture, other groups arose in the region, as shown in a second map. These were the cultures encountered by the Spanish as they penetrated the region.
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For the first time on a comprehensive scale, expert art historians and an artist-teacher discuss the complex imagery of approximately ninety Casas Grandes vessels with fifty pieces representing other major styles of the Greater Southwest. Superb examples show polychromatic designs of real and mythological animals, together with abstract human figures and remarkably varied geometries, demonstrating the imaginative complexity and exceptional achievement of the Casas Grandes potters. Certain motifs reflect affinities with distant Mesoamerica, yet the authors show that these forms were absorbed into a visual vocabulary that reflected the unique artistic and cosmological outlook of Casas Grandes, within the native Southwestern cultural tradition.
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These internationally famous pots from the central region of Chihuahua are individually handmade by descendants of the original Casas Grandes potters from 700 to 1000 years ago. In this same region, many old pots were dug up with these same designs. The pots are build, painted and fired in the old way, and are featured by many museums and galleries as some of the finest pottery made today.
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Casas Grandes