Mimbres Pottery Images Digital Database with Search

The Mimbres Pottery Images Digital Database (MimPIDD) is a collection of over 10,000 images of Mimbres ceramic vessels, among the most spectacular and renowned prehistoric pottery in North America. The Mimbres archaeological culture, concentrated in southwest New Mexico, is particularly noted for its stunning black-on-white style bowls, which were often decorated with naturalistic designs (especially ca. A.D. 1000-1130). MimPIDD digital images illustrate the painted designs on each vessel, along with associated descriptive information about archaeological context, temporal style, and vessel form and size. Numerous collections of Mimbres pottery vessels exist, scattered across many countries and dozens of museum and private collections. The dispersed nature of these collections makes it difficult to undertake comprehensive studies of Mimbres ceramics. The MimPIDD image collection and database brings together visual and descriptive information from many of these collections, allowing easy access to a wealth of disparate data. Created by Harvard Peabody Museum Curator Steven LeBlanc and Arizona State University Professor Michelle Hegmon, MimPIDD contains images and data from more than 75 collections and more than 140 archaeological sites.

All users are welcome to access the Public version of MimPIDD, which contains images of and data on about 2000 vessels. For permission to access the full Research Database, please see the "Instructions for Accessing MimPIDD" link to the right.

The MimPIDD search function is now operational! Just go to the search box below to begin - make sure you are signed in to access the full database. It is quite self-explanatory, but a users' guide can be found here https://core.tdar.org/document/455490/mimpidd-users-guide, and additional refinements are on the way.

We'd like to hear from you: If you use this search and find it useful, or have suggestions for improvements, please let us know. If you present or publish material using MimPIDD, please share it with us.

PLEASE NOTE: You may not publish any images in MimPIDD without permission from the institution that owns the vessel. MimPIDD cannot grant permission to publish. You must contact the relevant institution to request permission, which may or may not be granted depending on the context of the vessel and that institution's policy. Images in private collections may not be published.

The creation of MimPIDD was made possible by generous support from the Turner Foundation; its continual refinement is supported by the Mimbres Foundation. The search function was made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Some widely available references on Mimbres archaeology and pottery include: Brody, J.J. (2002) Mimbres Painted Pottery (2nd edition) School of American Research Press, Santa Fe; Hegmon, Michelle (2002) Recent Issues in the Archaeology of the Mimbres Region of the North American Southwest. Journal of Archaeological Research, 10:307-357; and Nelson, Margaret and Michelle Hegmon, editors (2010) Mimbres: Lives and Landscapes. School of Advanced Research Press, Santa Fe.