GUEST 1: Well, these are pieces that have been in our family for about three generations.

It's pottery from the Mimbres culture near Deming, New Mexico.

We'd like to have you tell us about 'em.

APPRAISER: Well, uh, first of all, you're right about your, your identification on them.

They are from the Mimbres culture.

Uh, it's one of the prehistoric cultures of the southwestern United States.

Uh, the, the larger culture area is known as Mogollon.

Uh, these bowls are, uh, ceremonial in nature and were painted with zoomorphic designs.

You can see clearly that the small one has what would resemble, probably, a turkey.

This one has either a, maybe a water bug or possibly a tick, interestingly enough.

But, uh, these are, these are fairly, uh, standard examples of the painted ceremonial Mimbres pottery from around, uh, 900 to 1100 A.D.

These two pieces probably made in the 11th century, which would be 1000 to 1100 A.D.

Um, I would evaluate the small bowl, um, probably in the, I would say $3,000 to $5,000 range, uh, partly because of it's, it's intact, it's unbroken, which is unusual for these.

Uh, many of these were actually intentionally broken or ceremonially broken.

Uh, the value, therefore, isn't, isn't that much higher on intact examples, because it seems the norm seems to be for them to be broken and restored.

Uh, usually, all the pieces are when they're found, usually all pieces are found.

This one also is intact.

Probably, uh, may well have come from the same site, may have been found at the same time.

The fact that they are both intact would indicate that whoever, uh, interred these or buried these may well have been the same person because they didn't ceremonially break them.

This one being somewhat larger in size, uh, also with a zoomorphic element.

I would, uh, appraise this slightly higher.

I would think probably more in the $5,000 to $7,000 range on this one.

GUEST 2: Uh, about the location£ APPRAISER: Mmhm.

GUEST 2: £do you have different locations in mind that this Mimbres, uh, area?

APPRAISER: The, the area that, uh, these, these could come from would be anywhere from around uh, Silver City, which is in central New Mexico, all the way down to around the Deming, uh, Lordsburg area.

There have even been examples of these found in northern Mexico.

There have been examples of them found, uh, in uh western New Mexico, uh even farther north of that.

Um, in most cases, those are believed to have been traded in during prehistoric times.

But the areas of production for this type of pottery would be central to southern New Mexico, would be the core area.

GUEST 2: Uh-huh.

And where do you think this type of artwork originated from?

Aztec or uh...?

APPRAISER: That's a good question, and that's not one that's, uh, that's certainly up for, uh, debate.

Some of the bowls have images that remind, uh, anthropologists and Native Americans of Mayan iconography... GUEST 2: Of Mayan.

APPRAISER: ...which of course would be thousands of miles away.

And their particular style of pottery is unique to the Southwest.

Uh, there's nothing else quite like it in all of the Southwest and there's nothing like it in Mexico.

GUEST 2: Since.

APPRAISER: So they had their own very distinctive and unique cultural pottery tradition that it really, at this point, it's impossible to say exactly who these people were.