Jar with Four Faces mid-13th-mid-15th century Casas Grandes Between the mid-thirteenth and mid-fifteenth centuries, the arid region that stretches from northern Mexico to the southwestern United States was dominated by the powerful city of Casas Grandes. Located in what is now the Mexican state of Chihuahua, Casas Grandes was a well planned urban center made wealthy by trade in precious commodities such as shell, copper, turquoise, and tropical bird feathers. The city's craftsmen, skilled in the working of such materials, increased its wealth by making finished products for export. Among those finished products were ceramic vessels with bright polychrome surfaces. The vessels, principally globular jars, were much esteemed and widely traded. In their manufacture, certain more-or-less standardized systems of shape and decoration were followed that included restrained color schemeschiefly blue/blacks and brown/redsgeometric patterns, and a particularized use of human and animal imagery.