Cedar Mesa Pot Shards-Edge of the Cedars Museum

Hikers in the Cedar Mesa area will often come across pottery shards near the many ruins sites. The Edge of the Cedars State Park museum in Blanding, Utah has a large collection of pottery with interpretive information explaining what is known about the manufacture and styles of pottery pieces that have been found. The presentation here emphasizes the basic colors of gray, white and red.

Grayware pottery gets its color from being fired in a low oxygen atmosphere. The most common were jars, with bowls and effigies being rare. The first Grayware, made from 500-700 AD, were made by building up coils and scraping the surface smooth. Many pieces resembled the dried gourds that were used as containers previously.
Later Grayware showed more indented corrugated patterns with the rims of pots became more flaring. Whiteware started about the same time as Grayware. These vessels were painted with a thin white clay wash called a slip, and then painted with black or left white. The early works were deep bowls with a design toward the bottom of the bowl.

Southeast Utah was a center for the production of San Juan Redware from 725 to 1050 AD. After 1050 the center for Redware shifted toward the Kayenta area and the newer styles were imported into southeast Utah. The Redwares were made from similar clays as the Whitewares, with the red color forming as the material was fired in a more oxidizing atmosphere. Abajo Red on Orange was the earliest of the San Juan Redwares.

Bluff Red on Orange was first discovered near the town of Bluff and was widely traded through the Four Corners area. The Deadman’s Black on Red added a polished dark red coating and was also widely traded. There is a good display of representative styles from around the Four Corners. The Chaco, Mesa Verde, and Kayenta styles are shown along with explanations of the differences. Along the trails we only see fragments but with this introduction we can at least make some guesses.

There is a large enclosed display of dozens of pots with a computer display in front. The computer allows the visitor to select a specific pot from the collection and view the details of that pot, such as style and date and in some cases where it was found. Near the main entrance of the museum is a display of discovery stories. Occasionally, a hiker will find a large intact artifact and these stories are told next to the object itself.