Lino Black-on-Gray Pottery

Lino Black-on-Gray600 - 825 A.D.Ancestral Puebloan Pottery

Key facts

Age: 600 - 825 A.D.
Cultural period: Ancestral Puebloan Pottery
Material: Coiled vessels fired in a reducing atmosphere, producing dark gray cores. Abundant medium-fine to coarse quartz sand temper is visible on the surface; designs applied in carbon paint.

Description

Early painted ware with a dark gray to nearly black core and gray surface, decorated with simple carbon-paint designs. Motifs typically include narrow lines, ticking, fringed edges, small dots, and simple bands—styles that echo basketry patterns.

Size

Small to medium bowls 12–24 cm in diameter; jars generally 18–30 cm tall. Walls are relatively thick compared to later Pueblo wares, reflecting early experimentation with painted pottery.

Distribution

Centered in the Kayenta heartland and Flagstaff region of northern Arizona, with distribution across much of the Western Ancestral Puebloan area.

Also found, less often, in

Additional information

Lino Black-on-Gray is one of the earliest widespread painted wares in the Western Ancestral Puebloan area and dominates Basketmaker III assemblages in much of the Kayenta/Tusayan region. It is foundational for later Tusayan and Kayenta white ware developments.

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