In 1919, C. Burton and Hattie S. Cosgrove bought land in Grant Country, New Mexico, and began excavating ruins containing Classic Mimbres (ca. A.D. 1000-1150) ceramics. The self-trained archaeologists took great care in uncovering and recording their findings. They so impressed A.V. Kidder of the Peabody Museum when he visited the site he invited them to manage a museum expedition to the Swarts Ruin.

Long out of print, this classic volume is the Cosgrove's report of their Mimbres Valley Expedition seasons of 1924 to 1927. The excavation recorded nearly 10,000 artifacts, including an extraordinary assemblage of Mimbres ceramics. Hattie Cosgrove's meticulous line drawings of over 700 individual Swarts Ruin pots have long been an invaluable design catalog for contemporary Native American artists and serve as a rich resource for designers seeking Southwest inspiration in their work.

This clothbound facsimile edition of the original 1932 publication will be an essential to the libraries of all scholars, artists, and admirers of Native American art and archaeology.

This classic volume on the evocative and enigmatic pottery of the Mimbres people has become an irreplaceable design catalogue for contemporary Native American artists. Burt and Harriet (Hattie) Cosgrove were self-trained archaeologists who began excavating Mimbres materials in 1919. When their meticulous research came to the attention of Alfred V. Kidder of the Peabody Museum, he invited them to direct the Mimbres Valley Expedition at the Swarts Ranch in southern New Mexico on behalf of the Peabody.

Working in the summers of 1924 to 1927, the Cosgroves recovered nearly 10,000 artifacts at the Swarts site, including an extraordinary assemblage of Mimbres ceramics. Like their original 1932 report, this paperbound facsimile edition includes over 700 of Hattie Cosgrove’s beautiful line drawings of individual Mimbres pots. It also presents a new introduction by archaeologist Steven A. LeBlanc, who reviews the eighty years of research on the Mimbres that have followed the Cosgroves’ groundbreaking study. The Peabody’s reissue of The Swarts Ruin once again makes available a rich resource for scholars, artists, and admirers of Native American art, and it places in historical context the Cosgroves’ many contributions to North American archaeology.