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Glossary--Definition links to words used on this site

Anasazi Heritage Center -- Is a Bureau of Land Management museum and curation facility located just outside Dolores, Colorado. It is a bit out of the way but well worth the trip. Their address is: 27501 Highway 184, Dolores, Colorado 81323.

Chappell Collection -- The lifelong ceramics collection of Clifford C. and Ruth E. Chappell which was endowed to the Anasazi Historical Society and is presently curated at the Anasazi Heritage Center. The collection contains more than 875 whole vessels plus partial vessels and sherds which represent all the Anasazi pottery styles of the Northern San Juan (Mesa Verde) region.

Kiva -- The subterranean room, usually round, associated with Anasazi cultures as well as modern Pueblos.

Kill Hole -- A term used to describe the hole found in the bottom of most Mimbres bowls which were interred with the dead and placed over or near the skull. Probably representing some sort of a passageway used in the afterlife, we will never really know what these enigmatic holes represent. In some circles, it is now known as the breath hole.

Kokopelli -- The name describing the ubiquitous flute player of the Southwest. Often depicted with an erect phallus, his true meaning is little more than conjecture.

Mimbres -- A branch of the prehistoric Mogollon civilization occupying much of the Mogollon Rim of Southeastern Arizona and Southwestern New Mexico. They flourished from about AD 800 to 1200 and created exquisite pottery.

Mug House potters -- Mug House is a very large cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. Mug House was part of the Wetherill Mesa Excavations, 1959-63, and produced 439 whole and restorable vessels many of which are illustrated in Mug House (see library reading list).