Fourteenth in a Series: The Bullwhackers

Reviving 2,000-Year-Old Pottery Techniques

gentle breeze sighs through the oaks and junipers of the rolling Canelo Hills in southeastern Arizona. As sunset adds its brief flame to the embers of the potters' fire, the man arranges broken pottery above the coals to secure the nest of new vessels the woman is readying for firing. Together, they pile up chunks of cottonwood, watching until it blazes. Then he turns to grinding iron ore for paint as she gathers crushed rock and volcanic ash to temper a new batch of clay. Within arm's reach, a mixture of Rocky Mountain bee plant and water is boiling to a gummy residue, later to be mixed as a binder with hematite. Using the 2,000-year-old potting methods of the Hohokam Indians, Laurel and Paul Thornburg produce faultless replicas of ancient pottery.

With the blessing of their patron and landlord, Rukin Jelks, they have built a pottery compound, using a ranch house with a hundred-year-old adobe core as a studio. Their living room is a gallery for replicas of Hohokam, Salado, and Mimbres pottery. The back yard accommodates the firing pit. Surrounding storage space holds the fruits of their continuing search for clay, minerals, and plants that will insure the authenticity of each vessel.

"It's like renewing the past," Laurel tells me. "We do as the ancients did. We buy nothing. We make our own tools and brushes, use a river cobble for polishing, gourd scrapers. And just our hands-not a wheel. Fortunately, we can use deadwood from nearby cottonwoods for fuel."

Husband Paul adds: "We also look at the past to learn and share. We do acid tests. High temperature tests. We may (LEFT) Materials used in painting Thornburg replicas. Mineral pigments color the stone palette in front. Red and yellow are iron oxides, white is tuff, black is manganese, gray is lead, and green is chrysocolla. A gourd rind and elements used in making brushes rest on the palette at left; ground azurite, bee plant paint, and mesquite bean syrup occupy other containers.

(BELOW, TOP TO BOTTOM) Using an ancient paddle and anvil technique, Laurel smooths coiled clay to shape a Hobokam-style jar. A test firing of Mimbres clay. With a fine yucca brush, Paul paints a Hohokam design.

(PRECEDING PANEL, PAGES 24 AND 25) A reproduction of a Salado culture Tonto polychrome jar, 10 by 14 inches. Petroglyph designs are often reminiscent of pottery motifs.

(LEFT) Shown with prehistoric shards are, clockwise from top left, replicas of a Hobokam Santa Cruz red-on-buff pot, 12½ by 17 inches (the pattern represents turtles); a Western Pueblo Four Mile polychrome bowl, 33% by 91½ inches; a Salado Gila polychrome jar, 414 by 418 inches; a Hohokam Sacaton red-on-buff platter, 13½ inches across; and a Salado Tonto polychrome jar, 3½ by 6½ inches. Diameters are measured at the widest span.

Continued from page 21 Continued from page 21 discover from pottery the answers to anthropological questions. What the old ones did is not lost. It's in the clay." "Patience is the potter's angel," says Laurel. "You can't be hasty. You can't fudge. You are at the mercy of the climate." The freshly built pots, gently preheated to ensure that their clay is completely dry, are placed in a prepared fire. As the flames are stoked, the amount of oxygen and other gases within the fire varies. "A lack of oxygen imbues the pots with wonderful gray or bluish 'fireclouds' permanent deposits of carbon (not soot) on the surface. These variations in color show the pot was done in a fire, not a kiln." For the Thornburgs, the actual firing has a spiritual element. "We feel a sense of respect and thankfulness to the ancients for giving us a way to build our lives around the past," says Laurel. Recognizing that corn was the mainstay of the ancient cultures, the Thornburgs make a symbolic offering of blue corn, carefully placed on or in a pot at the start of the firing process. By extraordinary chance, the temperature at which corn pops is above the point at which an imperfect pot will crack. Thus, by listening in the early stages, Laurel and Paul can tell whether the pot will survive the firing unfractured. A "pop" means two weeks' work is not wasted. A "dunk" sound signifies a crack.The first exposure of their work was at the Arizona State Museum in Tucson. The museum gift shop now carries their products. Later they re-created pottery for a full-scale diorama of a pit house for the Institute for American Research at Sun City Vistoso, a new community near Tucson. Bill Doelle, institute director, admires their dedication and initiative. "They made a dozen bowls for us to break in a controlled study," he says. "They must have gathered a ton of clay, hand-dug to use for particular Hohokam vessel stylesSacaton, Rincon, Santa Cruz. They're incredible."

The demand for their pottery rose rapidly. “Each piece we produce is a replica of an existing vessel,” explains their sales brochure, “and is accompanied by time period and origin documentation. As a safeguard against misrepresentation, each pot is stamped with our symbol.” The Thornburgs call their products Ancient Life Pottery. With replicas executed so faithfully, what's to prevent dealers or collectors from reselling them as originals? Knowing it would take more than their symbol on the wares, they consulted with their rancher landlord. Jelks, a mineralogist, suggested they embed the mineral scheelite in each pot as a tracer. Passed under ultraviolet “black light,” it would glow, he declared, giving them a sample. Theyground it up and into the clay it went. In their pursuit of authenticity, the Thornburgs befriended a number of museum professionals concerned about the accelerated unearthing of the past and resulting pot piracy. Dr. Raymond H. Thompson, director of the Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona, feels their work is important for several reasons. “We are disturbed by what is happening in the marketplace. We believe the Thornburgs' work serves to reduce the looting.

“They also perform a useful service as skilled artists who do research in clay. They develop a body of background knowledge invaluable to scientists. “And, last, we have the pots. One of a kind. Unique originals may be lent to us, but must be given back. Here is a way to acquire reproductions for further study. The originals could be photographed, but there are aesthetic and, obviously, threedimensional qualities to Thornburg reproductions that photos do not have.

“The same thing goes in reverse. Instead of shipping our unique pieces to other museums, we could put curators in touch with the Thornburgs, who could duplicate a particular artifact. That museum could then keep it permanently. Replicas are not anathema to museums. Most sell reproductions. Without reproductions, would the world know the Mona Lisa, for instance?

“Moreover, museums feel there will be a long-term gain when Indians observe how we preserve their past. All tribes are fearful that their heritage will be lost.” Equally enthusiastic is Arizona State Museum's curator of collections, Mike Jacobs. “I have always felt one way of cutting down the traffic in looting would be to have a fine line of reproductions. The Thornburgs are remarkable. They duplicated for us two highly unusual pieces slated for reburial. One was a very large plate with a coiled snake and 15 birds; the other, a small cauldron painted with symbols from Hohokam mythology. The Thornburgs do not want to invent pots-they want to make replicas of collection-quality pieces. They are very sensitive.” (The issue of reburial, Jacobs explains, revolves around claims of some Native American groups to objects they consider part of their cultural heritage. In certain cases, prehistoric artifacts are ceremonially re-interred.) Mark Bahti, veteran Indian arts dealer in Tucson, admires the Thornburgs' work. “I handle it because currently no Indian potter reproduces prehistoric ware; because I am very much against commercial trade in the genuine article; and because the Thornburg pottery is beautiful-same clay, same techniques, completely faithful to tradition.” Dr. Andrew Gulliford is director of the Western New Mexico University Museum, which has the largest permanent public display of Mimbres pottery in the country. “I could never in good conscience put an antiquity in my office,” he says. “The Thornburgs presented me with the perfect alternative. Their Mimbres reproductions give the sense of the past without the risk of destroying something irreplaceable. I wish the Thornburgs would become so successful that everyone would know their work and be ashamed to acquire prehistoric pots in any other way.” Dr. Emil W. Haury, Arizona's premier archeologist, told the Thornburgs: “What you are doing is very important. Even in collections, pieces are now defoliating [the surfaces are peeling]. Salts in the soil leached and weakened many. It is mainly Hohokam that are flaking apart. Designs will be lost. I can see a need for what you do, and if [general] reburial comes, I see a greater need.” After re-creating more than 500 artifacts, Laurel and Paul Thornburg share a special relationship with the ancients. “We plan for our pottery to last as long as that of the Hohokam and Mimbres,” Paul says. “It's our career. It's all we do.”