Scene in 2 acts: Night hunting in a circular area with a halo of a rising sun and the shadows in a cave with three bears. And a daytime hunt that ends with a quiet return from the hunt.
If you saw my last table on the lives of Mimbres : Five lives of Mimbres Mogollon ... (reference P174 ) and read comments about him, you know more or less the ancient Indian civilization who practiced this singular funerary art and disappeared definitively there about 1000 years. Their region is crossed by a river called by the Spanish meanwhile Mimbres because willows that grew on its banks, it was an oasis in the dry southwest where rain clouds from west to east across the crest of the black Mountain before pouring their rain. Thanks to the study of sediments and growth rings of trees, we know that around the year 1000 held a series of harsh droughts interspersed with huge floods that lasted almost a decade. My text does he add anything to what you drive, already know? I have not written some repetitions on the contrary, but rather to provide a consistent reading this new and exclusive vertical narration about Native American hunting.
Still trying to learn a little more? Now you know that it was not until 1914 , with the anthropologist and archaeologist Jesse Walter Fewkes that this civilization was discovered in a region which is nestled in the southwest corner of New Mexico, spilling onto the border of Arizona and immersed in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Archaeologists believe the Mimbres as a subset of the Mogollon culture. The art of the Mimbres proved through their own pottery "classic Black on White ". The term Black on White is misleading because the temperatures varied cooking produce colors ranging from bright orange to tan to red and black. While their external unprinted appear commonplace in the art and form, their interiors are painted magic, namely a haunting canvas representations of animals and sometimes humans with complex geometric designs. Triangles and circles are the most commonly used forms. Variants include diamonds, crosses and spirals. These, combined with fine lines and surprisingly coherent form complex arrangements, but balanced. These structural units tend to be oriented towards the center of the container outwards or guidance to reach the bottom of the bowl. The filler usually borders the edge of the bowl. The overall vision of the drawing is a glance without having to rotate the bowl before his eyes. Non-figurative designs are generally divided into four or more sections from the center of the bowl. Divisions may be bands and also common global models. Radiating sections are subdivided and filled with an infinite number of triangular formations. Although the original meanings have been lost in the mists of time, the voltage of dark and light patterns suggests an energetic struggle of opposing forces. Jagged triangular motifs recall lightning. Curvilinear and spirals can refer to water. This interpretation of a pictographic writing is plausible given the importance of water for survival Mimbres and the presence of religious imagery to rain on other Mimbres pots. The black paint on a white background with beige and red shades creates a striking contrast. They are curiously holes at their center by what might be called a «breathing hole "?
Internal and refined decoration of the pottery indicates that these people have benefited from a rich ceremonial life. The deceased was buried with bowl placed upside down on his head and kneeling in a large jar that was buried under the house survivors. It appears that these large jars have been previously used as reservoirs to spirits made from corn? These are symbols of worship like no other that continue to intrigue us today. Note that the intended meaning or real these interior paintings on pottery remains a mystery, as it is difficult to interpret these images. Perhaps this is to reflect symbolically the deceased: a vision of the living world? However it is clear that the paintings were made at least to commemorate the real or imaginary existence of a being or sometimes something else of an event that took place in the life of the deceased. In other words, whether or not the models simulate reality or fantasy, the fact remains that in terms of iconography, these images have the potential to enlighten us on this ancient and mysterious culture.
The picture that concerns us today is the collection of 28 different potteries in a setting full of game hunter and a free interpretation, orchestrated by your artist. Although a great multitude of people, animals and even insects have been found hidden or tattooed with a mask on the original paintings, I systematized this function on all living and dead beings present on this canvas, with a few exceptions that you may be easy to interpret? It is the same for some characters who had no cane or clan tattoos. I implemented some vernacular geometric figures many bowls that had this feature so singular and original Mimbreños! We have long known that their neighbors, to mention only the Pueblo Kachina wore elaborate masks to practice sacred dances to implore the gods of rain and Prosperity: Mimbreños certainly practiced an early form of this religion? In Mimbres, no season or fishing, you have to eat every day! Most of them were hunting waterfowl but also turkeys, rabbits, deer, antelope, bison and occasionally a bear or mountain lion. They used traps, nets, puzzles, clubs, knives and projectiles like spears, throwing sticks, bows and arrows, but also the fire to surround the game. Weapons presented are mainly bows and arrows are never in action but representation, except for the hunter in the lower left corner, intentionally changed by your artist ... In this table. The concentration of elements in the presence tells us about the behavior ten characters, eight men and a pregnant woman carrying her child who seems to expect its release? Be an anthropomorphic half deer, half man completes this scene of hunters. Composition of the game : we count 37 different animals, including 28 integers: 1 squirrel, 1 bat ( often represented in the iconography of Mimbres ), 2 called American antelope, 3 rabbits * (which still represent 26% of all figurative images of Mimbres among non -human mammals), 1 deer, 1 coati which is a cousin of the raccoon , one unidentified feline , 1 dog, 1 armadillo, 1 donkey , 1 other unidentified animal , one scorpion, 4 insects, 4 grizzly bears including 3 in a cave, 1 wounded or dead deer (above the basket worn by women) and 1 fish. We have 8 partial animals: 4 deer heads, 1 head mammal with big ears, one rabbit head, 1 bird’s head with its long neck worn as a crest by the large central one hunter and an incomplete animal with missing front trunk and front legs cut (its tail ends in bird feathers, because we also found quite often in mammals and fish Mimbreños).
We will discover in the next table theme for fishing, the specifics of anthropomorphic and mythical bestiary of this curious civilization bestiary which still represents 10% of the living and non- human figures on a representation of 733 figures. The Monogram Philhelm the runner - hunter door at arm is there to remind us that we are finally in a fiction?
* The rabbits were common symbols of the moon throughout the southwest and Central America , Rabbits have also been a great source of food for the Mimbres during the classical period , as the populations of large herds of game were been gradually depleted certainly due to climate change !
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE AMERINDIAN BODILY ADORNMENTS: These people could be distinguished from each other by their body clothing, not to mention their nakedness. Any intervention on the body resembled a code, a sign with an expression of humanity. Each company develops its own nakedness obeying rituals, rules, staged, codifications. It is a language that shows the identity of a person in his clan but also of its neighborhood. Clothes, body marks, jewelry, ornaments plants showed an expression and communication of his own world with neighbors. So everyone can immediately recognize the identity of others and especially its place in the group. Marking and tattooed is governed by specific codes it would be difficult to break. Throughout its existence, the individual was of his body painted motifs, varying according to its status, age, sex or the events of his life. Body marking depending on the circumstances, can be just as much a sign of war, beauty, protection, religious rituals but also magic, in that he became the visible symbol of an "organization of appearances." The most used colors were black, white, but mostly red. Red referred to any symbolism that evokes both seductions, protection, anger, prestige, passion. It was linked to blood and life; she protected and honored him who invited him! Red was provided by cochineal that lived on cactus. The paint protects the heat and perspiration, but also insects due to odorous substances they emanated. It should be noted that the paintings Mimbres pottery included a lot of different insects including mosquito’s particularly spicy variety! The Mimbres also painted many animals and anthropomorphic with representative of their perceptions that can be likened to a real writing geometric signs! To finish the tattoos are flourishing in our contemporary world called "civilized», remember that the ancient Greeks did tattooed only their slaves! Other times other manners!

Bibliographies: ◘ Beautify the body - Amerindian body adornments by Jerome Thomas – 2011 - CNRS Editions - ◘ 1491 - New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus – 2005 - Charles C.Mann. - ◘ Mimbres Painted Pottery - J.J.Brody -2004 - School of American Research Press. - ◘ On the Trail of the Mimbres -By Jude Isabella , a freelance science journalist based in Victoria , British Columbia - A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America - April 2013.

Jean-Paul Gavard-Perret, French art critic, kindly comment on this picture:

Le chasseur troue l’éternité. Il montre à l’assassin le chemin, laisse monter la voix de l’animal, tisse son absence. Elle laisse au sol une trace. Chaleur accablante selon les experts. Mais erreur de pronostic quant à sa nature. Un ogre brouille les cartes.
La montagne étreint les flammes tandis que le chasseur déduit son présent du passé. Une théorie germe. De retour de sa quête un parlement de pucelles célèbre ses charmes.
Plus tard des mots habilleront son cadavre. Sa fougue animera les esprits : cela donnera un air de fête. Mais une pluie rare écartera le feu. Restera l’étrangeté qui sépare le monde des morts et celui des vivants.
Le même paysage n’y a pas les mêmes couleurs. On tente bien de donner des explications, de déplier des raisons. Toutefois elles s’emboîtent loin des êtres sans qu’ils en saisissent le fonctionnement sinon en une image tournante comme tourne le moulin.
C’est pourquoi des dieux on redoute le tonnerre. Il ne faut pas l’éveiller. Pour cela le chasseur a toujours marché en silence.
Il y avait dans ce silence une soumission de femme, de putain dont on mutile l’urne qu’on croît en flamme.
Quelqu’un le contraignait à son insu.
Quand l’ogre croisa son chemin il l’emmena dans la plaine, lui fit boire une potion. De celle qui réveille les morts, donne courage, dégrafe les corps.
L’ogre perdit un bras au cours d’un combat. Le chasseur du trancher ce qui restait pendu sous le dédale croissant de lune Son visage resta muet et impassible. Mille vibrations de douleur lui permirent de comprendre le sens de la chasse et de l’animal. Il a vécut sa présence en jumeau de la nuit.