Lecture to look at ancient painted ceramics

For prehistoric Southwest peoples, ceramic art was more than something to set on a shelf and admire. It was something to use for meals, for drinking, to carry water and store food, or to incorporate into a ceremony.

Barbara Moulard, a faculty associate in the Herberger Institute School of Art, will give a free lecture on the painted ceramic art of prehistoric Southwest peoples, titled “Re-Creating the Word: Painted Ceramics of the Prehistoric Southwest,” at 1 p.m., April 3 at Arizona State University’s Deer Valley Rock Art Center.

For more than 1,000 years, the Hohokam, Mogollon and Ancestral Pueblo "passed the word" from generation to generation in their ceramic art. Moulard will survey the painted ceramics of these major prehistoric cultures of the Southwest and explore how painted ceramics reflect a marriage between science, ideology and art, and how the ceramics expressed cultural belief systems and worldviews.

Moulard teaches courses on the indigenous arts of the Southwest United States, Mexico, Central America and South America. Her recent books include “Re-Creating the Word: Painted Ceramics of the Prehistoric Southwest” and “Ancient Origins: American Southwest Pottery A.D. 600-1600.”

The Deer Valley Rock Art Center, located at 3711 W. Deer Valley Road, Phoenix, has the largest concentration of Native American petroglyphs in the Valley.

Visitors hike a quarter-mile trail to view more than 1,500 petroglyphs made between 800 and 5,000 years ago. The museum aims to promote preservation, connection and respect for the site, and is a destination for families to learn about archaeology in their own backyard.

The center is managed by one of the top archaeology programs in the country at Arizona State University and is a Phoenix Point of Pride.

For more details, call (623) 582-8007 or visit dvrac.asu.edu.