Ceramic tripod bowl. Early Aztec Black-on-Orange Ware. AD 1150–1350. Culhuacan, Mexico. Latin American Archaeology, UMMA Expedition. UMMAA 30872.

This small pre-imperial Early Aztec period Black-on-Orange Ware bowl comes from the site of Culhuacan in the Valley of Mexico. By AD 1100, Culhuacan was the capital of an early Nahuatl city-state. It came under the control of the Aztec empire in AD 1428. By the late Aztec period, Black-on-Orange Ware was the dominant ceramic ware through the empire. This early tripod bowl form is in the Culhuacan style, characterized by a band of glyph-like symbols below the rim. It is part of the Museum’s collection of central Mexican artifacts made by James B. Griffin and Alfonso Caso in the late 1940s (see also Day 28 and Day 42).

Back to Day 58 or continue to Day 60.

In honor of the University of Michigan’s 2017 bicentennial, we are celebrating the remarkable archaeological and ethnographic collections and rich legacy of research and teaching at the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology by posting one entry a day for 200 days. The entries will highlight objects from the collections, museum personalities, and UMMAA expeditions. The Kelsey Museum of Archaeology is also posting each day for 200 days on Twitter and Facebook (follow along at #KMA200). After the last post, an exhibition on two centuries of archaeology at U-M opens at the Kelsey. Visit the exhibit—a joint project of the UMMAA and the Kelsey—from October 18, 2017 to May 27, 2018.