This is an intricately designed new water jar by Jennifer Tafoya.    She is known for her clay vessels and also her amazing animal figures and for this show, they are animals from the “Ice Age”!  This piece is fully polished and fully designed.  It has a high shoulder and a short neck.  The jar has three different Synthetoceras around the top of the shoulder.  They are surrounded by plants and flowers.  In the background is a series of stylized mountains.  Note that they are incised with small circles, which is very time-consuming.  Around the shoulder are additional small mountain designs.  All the various colors are derived from natural clay slips.  The piece is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Jennifer Tafoya”.

“Synthetoceras was endemic to North America from the Miocene epoch, existing for approximately 8.27 million years.  Synthetoceras was the largest member of its family. It was also the last, and had what is considered to be the protoceratids’ strangest set of horns. The two horns above its eyes looked fairly normal and similar to those of many modern horned mammals, but on its snout it had a bizarre, long horn with a forked tip that gave it a Y shape. Only males had this strange horn, and they probably used it in territorial fights.