DFC-AAS: November 8– Patricia Gilman
PhD Patricia A. Gilman presents Mimbres Archaeology: Beautiful Pottery, Ordinary Architecture, and Scarlet Macaws. The Mimbres region of southwestern New Mexico is famous for its stunning black-on-white pottery with human and animal figures as well as fine-line geometric designs. The presence of scarlet macaws that probably originated in the tropical forests of Mexico, at least 750 miles to the south, and their depiction on the pottery suggest that something out-of-the ordinary may have been occurring, at least in terms of ritual and religion. In contrast, their pit structure and pueblo architecture is rather ordinary. Patricia Gilman discusses Mimbres archaeology through time, focusing on the possible relationship between some of the pottery designs and interaction with people on the east coast of Mesoamerica.
Professor Emerita Patricia A. Gilman earned a PhD at the University of Oklahoma in 1983 and later retired from the University of Oklahoma. Patricia Gilman has done archaeological field work and research in the Mimbres region of southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona for more than 40 years. More recently, Dr. Gilman and her colleagues investigated scarlet macaws from Mimbres sites and related new iconography indicating a radical religious transformation in the Mimbres region. She and other colleagues recently published an analysis of Mimbres chronometric dates, with an eye toward understanding major transitions like the first use of pottery, the earliest painted pottery, and the beginning and end of the Mimbres Classic period.
Reception and socialization at 7:00 pm, program begins approximately 7:30 pm.
