Diné (Navajo) Traditional Ceremonial Basket [SOLD]

The Diné are Athabaskan-speaking peoples who arrived from the north sometime around 1200AD or perhaps a little later.  They are settled now on Government Reservations located mostly in Arizona.  Prior to the twentieth century, they made several kinds of baskets, but since that time, they have mostly settled into making only those known as wedding or ceremonial baskets.  Since the early twentieth century, many of those are made for the Navajo by the Southern Ute.

Baskets used in ceremonial occasions are used to hold sacred cornmeal and have a cloth plug in the bottom to prevent cornmeal from spilling out through the small hole.  This basket appears to have been used in this manner.  Once a ceremony is over, the ceremonial function of the basket is also over, meaning that it is no longer ceremonial until used again for such purpose. 

Condition: This basket is in very good condition.

Provenance: estate of former Albuquerque collector