Asian grocery mystery

Hi readers. Thanks for coming by for a read.  A few days ago Jeanne decided to give me a shot of rare pleasure.  She took me to my favorite place in the Kansas City area:  A giant Asian grocery store.

As we entered the large vestibule at the entrance I noticed large ceramic pots for sale and the one below caught my eye.

I walked over for a closer look and called to Jeanne.  “Look at this!”  Pointing with my cane, “These are petroglyphs from the US!”

Meanwhile an Oriental man noticed me from inside and rushed out.  “One hunnerd dollars!  One hunnerd dollars!”  I dragged my attention away from the pot and stared at him.  He pointed to another pot.  “Fifty dollars!  Fifty dollars!”

Then he pointed inside the pot and shouted, “Look!”

So the burning question is, are Asian petroglyphs so similar to Native American petroglyphs as to be indistinguishable from them?  These pots seem to be decorated with some symbols definitely not Native American, mixed promiscuously with reproductions of petroglyphs I’ve seen countless times in New Mexico and Arizona, Colorado and Utah.

It’s clear no matter what the answer might be that Asians have gotten the jump, however, on the ceramic petroglyph trade.

If I had someplace to put one of those pots and something I wanted to put in it and $100 lying around with nothing to do I think I’d just buy one of those pots.  And maybe haul it over to Zuni or Acoma to give them a looksee.  The tribes have been losing business to Asians copying their fetishes, their kachinas, their other crafts for a longish while.  Maybe a bit of reversed engineering of petroglyph covered pots  would provide a shot in the arm for them.

Aside from the fact nobody’s likely to buy some damned pot covered with petroglyphs.

Old Jules