Squash effigy bottle

Artist Unidentified artist (Mississippian (USA))

Dateca. 700-1300

MediumBlackware

Dimensions5 3/4 x 4 inches (14.6 x 10.2 cm)

CultureMississippian (USA)

ClassificationsCeramics

Credit LineTransfer from the Sociology - Anthropology Department. Spring 1956.

Terms

North and Central America
Ceramics
Blackware
Squashes
Gourds
Vegetables
Mississippian

Object number56.232

Label CopyOriginally purchased for the University Museum in 1882 from Ward’s Natural Science Establishment in Rochester, this bottle was collected during an earlier archeological expedition focused on the Mississippian culture (800– 1600). Located in what are now several Southeast and Midwest states, this society was one of the most complex and extensive Native American cultures in pre-Columbian North America, and continued long into the colonial period. The bottle’s transfer in 1956 to the art museum corresponds to changing aesthetics and concepts of collecting in post–World War II America.

("This is no Less Curious: Journeys through the Collection" cocurated by Sonja Gandert, Alexandra Palmer, and Alana Ryder and presented at the Johnson Museum January 24 - April 12, 2015)

Collections