This type of Ancestral Hopi Yellow-ware is called Sikyatki style, named for the ancestral village where the pottery was first noted by archaeologists. It is distinguished for the elaborate abstracted designs painted in polychrome and the low, wide form of seed jars like this one. Many of these abstract designs feature references to life forms: humans, animals, clouds, and feathers. The stories told through these images are layered and can be difficult to understand at first glance. They are usually associated with prayers for rain for the growth of corn and other crops. Corn is sacred to the Hopi way of life; many Hopi ceremonial cycles revolve around corn and cannot take place without it. Feathers and birds, like those seen here, carry messages to the sky and ask the clouds for gentle rains to come nurture the land and all living beings. Potters paint these images on their vessels as a form of permanent prayer, sending their hopes for rain and prosperity out to the heavens.