These pots tended to have rounded bottoms so that they could be set into the fire or on soft ground. Later, black and white slip was used to create designs of geometric shapes and animal figures, varying somewhat among the groups. One Mogollon or Hohokam subculture identified as the Mimbres created what is now considered some of the most beautiful early Native American pottery. Mainly bowls survive from this culture, because they were ritually buried with the dead. Their decorated pots made circa A.D. 1000-1150 were black and white with geometric designs and highly abstract bird and animal designs.
Realism is so rare that the style that developed there is truly unique.
The Mimbres traditionally broke holes in the bottom of a pot before they buried it with the dead, perhaps to allow the spirit of the pot to escape or maybe to discourage grave robbers from removing objects from the grave. Archaeologists can only guess at the reasons. The arrival and spread of the Spanish culture in Central and South America and Mexico strongly influenced the pottery styles of what is now the southwestern United States. A major pottery tradition arose among the ancestors of the Pueblo Indians. The Mimbre o aesthetic system may not have been formally stated, but its constancy suggests that the makers and users of the art understood a shared set of rules, and, indeed, that art criticism may well have been consciously practiced.