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ARCHITECTURE IN ROCK ART: A PALEOLITHIC CAMPSITE DEPICTED ON STONE.

Engraving of a brush hut.

Marcos Garcia-Diez, and

Manuel Vaquero, 2015,

PLOS One.

There have been many attempts to define shapes and symbols found in paleolithic paintings or engravings on the walls of caves in Europe as habitation sites or structures. For the most part those have not been generally accepted by scholars.

Now we have the recent announcement and presentation of the discovery of "an engraved schist slab recently found in the Molí del Salt site (North-eastern Iberia) and dated at the end of the Upper Paleolithic, ca. 13,800 years ago. This slab displays seven semicircular motifs that may be interpreted as the representation of dome-shaped huts. The analysis of individual motifs and the composition, as well as the ethnographic and archeological contextualization, suggests that this engraving is a naturalistic depiction of a hunter-gatherer campsite. Campsites can be considered the first human landscape, the first area of land whose visible features were entirely constructed by humans. Given the social meaning of campsites in hunter-gatherer life-styles, this engraving may be considered one of the first representations of the domestic and social space of a human group." (Garcia-Diez and Vaquero 2015)

Drawing of the schist slab with

engravings. Marcos Garcia-Diez,

and Manuel Vaquero, 2015, PLOS One.

"The iconography of Paleolithic art is largely made up of figurative depictions of animals and, less commonly, human figures. There is also a wide repertoire of non-figurative signs. It is generally assumed that this imagery shows the importance of the animal world in the economic, social, and ideological systems of prehistoric hunter-gatherers. Moreover, these animal figures exhibit the capacity to represent reality in a naturalistic style. The signs are commonly interpreted as symbolic representations with a heavy ideological burden. However, other interpretations offer a vision of Paleolithic art as social images linked to the realm of the everyday world, challenging its association with a socially restricted religious sphere." (Garcia-Diez and Vaquero 2015)

I suspect that these interpretations of non-figurative, "abstract" images probably teach us more about the scholar making the interpretation then they do about Paleolithic art. "It seems that Paleolithic humans were less interested in representing features of the landscape. In particular, natural landscape features would be rarely represented and uncertain, let alone those forming part of the human landscape (huts and campsites). The few representations interpreted as huts are formally undefined and open to alternative interpretations." (Garcia-Diez and Vaquero 2015)

The schist slab with locations of the

engravings circled. Marcos Garcia-Diez,

and Manuel Vaquero, 2015, PLOS One.

The schist slab from the Molí del Salt bears seven domed or rounded, flat-bottomed shapes engraved into the surface that truly look like the portrayal of a village of huts made by a group of hunter-gatherers.

"There are seven graphic units in the upper surface, while only a small set of lines are recognized in the lower one. The graphic units correspond to seven semicircular motifs whose interior was filled by straight parallel lines. The geometric structures are constructed from two different contour lines–one straight and one curved–that define the convex character. The straight line defines the lower part of the motif, so all structures have the same disposition. The interconnection between the two structural lines is blurred, as neither contour line touches or exceeds the other (normally, the bottom line exceeds the ends of the curved line). The number of internal lines varies between 7 and 11, mostly covering the entire interior space. The internal lines, in general, do not reach the contour lines, and they show a horizontal (two cases) or oblique (five cases, three of which show a marked tendency to vertical) disposition. The size of the graphic units varies between 43 and 20 mm in width and between 22 and 14 mm in height. If we consider only the semicircular shape, without considering the appendices of the lower contour line, the dimensions range between 30 and 18 mm in width and 22 and 14 mm in height." (Garcia-Diez and Vaquero 2015)

"We hypothesize that the seven semicircular motifs in the MS engraving represent dwellings or huts. In addition, the close formal, metric, and technical linkages among these motifs, as well as their distribution in the graphic field, indicate their compositional association and their execution in a short time. To support the interpretation of the MS engraving as a campsite, we will focus on three aspects for which we have ethnographic information: the outline of the huts, their proportions, and the number of huts in a campsite. The use of ethnographic information in archeological interpretation has been common since the 1970s. This is based on the assumption that there are some analogies between present and past societies that produce similar archeological outcomes. Hunter-gatherer architecture is strongly conditioned by one of the characteristics associated to most hunter-gatherer societies: residential mobility. According to this assumption, mobile hunter-gatherers will show common traits in their architectural patterns, regardless their historical contexts." (Garcia-Diez and Vaquero 2015)

Added to this argument is the undeniable fact that the natural materials used for construction of such huts really only go together effectively in a limited number of ways, and the modern (and presumably paleolithic) brain is inherently in favor of efficiency  and effectiveness in preparing such structures. These huts should be expected to resemble the brush huts found in hunter-gatherer societies found in other times and places, and so they do.

REFERENCE:

Garcia-Diez, Marcos and Manuel Vaquero,

2015    Looking at the Camp: Paleolithic Depiction of a Hunter-Gatherer Campsite, PLOS One, Published Dec. 2, 2015, DOI: 10.1371/Journal pone.0143002.

MERRY 

CHRISTMAS

2015

FROM RockArtBlog

Little Dominguez Canyon,

Mesa County, Colorado

HISTORIC INSCRIPTIONS - TOM HORN, 1894:

Tom Horn, 1894, inscription. South-central

Montana. Photograph by Timothy Urbaniak,

used by permission.

Periodically, I include historic inscriptions in RockArtBlog, not that they are art per se, but because they provide a direct link to the history of the Western US. This week I am illustrating the inscription pictured above, Tom Horn, 1894.

"Thomas "Tom" Horn, Jr. (November 21,1860 - November 20, 1903) was an American Old West scout, who carried out varied roles as hired gunman, Pinkerton range detective, cowboy, and soldier." (Wikipedia)

Tom Horn, photograph from internet.

"At Names Hill in western Wyoming, local ranchers continued to participate in the cultural tradition of inscribing at that site. During that time there (were) new threats coming to the cattle ranches across the Northern Plains in the form of rustlers. As part of an effort to control rustling, Wyoming ranchers from around Cheyenne hired Tom Horn as an enforcer. In 1894 he was brought in as a detective by the Swan Land & Cattle Company of Cheyenne. Reputed as a cold-blooded killer that liked to shoot from afar, the placement of an inscription reading "Tom Horn, 1894" (Figure 5.68) is placed high along sandstone rimrocks. An interesting note about the inscription site is that it is placed on a cliff at the top of a valley between Billings and Hardin, Montana, with an excellent vantage spot of the travel corridor, and a place in a break in the sandstone cliffs large enough to contain a horse and bedroll." (Urbaniak 2014:128)

"Believed to have committed 17 murders as a hured gunman in the West, in 1902 Horn was convicted of the murder of 14-year-old Willie Nickell near Iron Mountain, Wyoming. The boy was the son of sheep rancher Kels Nickell, who had been involved in a range feud with neighbor and cattle rancher Jim Miller. On the day before his 43rd birthday, Horn was executed by hanging in Cheyenne Wyoming.

While in jail he wrote his autobiography, Life of Tom Horn: Government Scout and Interpreter (1904), which was published posthumously. Numerous editions have been published of this book since the late 20th century, and debate continues as to whether he was guilty of Nickell's murder." (Wikipedia)

Tom Horn presents us with an interesting and controversial case because, as noted above, historians of he are still argue over his guilt or innocence in that particular murder. Horn had reportedly confessed to it while drunk but the circumstances throw enough doubt on the case to keep the question open. Not that Horn did not deserve hanging. His career of murder as a hired gun certainly qualified him for capital punishment. Reportedly, when asked if he had any last request before his 1903 hanging Horn asked to have a friend of his in another cell sing him the song "Life's Railway to Heaven" or "Life is Like a Mountain Railway." This is also one of my favorite hymns.

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 

NOTE: Presented through the generosity of Tim Urbaniak, who compiled this material for his 2014 PhD thesis, HISTORIC INSCRIPTIONS OF THE NORTHERN PLAINS IDENTITY AND INFLUENCE IN THE RESIDUAL COMMUNICATION RECORD at the University of Montana, in Missoula.

REFERENCES:

Urbianik, Timothy Rostov,

2014    HISTORIC INSCRIPTIONS OF THE NORTHERN PLAINS IDENTITY AND INFLUENCE IN THE RESIDUAL COMMUNICATION, Dissertation Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology The University of Montana Missoula, MT,  July 2014.

Wikipedia.

EXTINCT ANIMALS IN ROCK ART - MAMMOTHS:

On  November 6, 2011, I reviewed a paper by Ekkehart Malotki and Henry D. Wallace about the discovery of a possible petroglyph of a mammoth along the San Juan River, near Bluff, Utah. (Malotki and Wallace, 2011: 143)

In the article by Agenbroad and Wallace (2004) cited below the authors argue that the belief that Paleo-hunters did not live on the Colorado Plateau because the megafauna that they depended upon were absent is just a myth. They point to fossil remains located throughout the area in question, as well as rock art that they identify as the megafauna in question, as proof that both the animals and the hunters occupied the Colorado Plateau from 12,000 to 6,000 BP. (Agenbroad and Hesse 2004:189-195)

Fig. 16.7 - rock art showing

proposed mammoths, 

Agenbroad and Hesse, 2004.

If this is indeed the case, then the rock art that they show as evidence toward their claims must be illustrations of the extinct megafauna species (mammoth and bison) that existed during that period. The actual existence of rock art illustrating mammoths is somewhat problematical although opinion is not as closed against it as before.

The Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleoindian culture, named after distinct stone tools found at Clovis, New Mexico, in the 1920s and 1930s. The Clovis culture appeared around 13,200 - 12,900 years before present, at the end of the last glacial period. Clovis is characterized by the manufacture of Clovis points and distinctive bone and ivory tools. Clovis peoples are considered to be the ancestors of most of the indigenous cultures of the Americas. (Wikipedia)

Some instances of mammoth remains with evidence of intentional butchering have been recorded and Clovis artifacts are often found with mammoth remains in archaeological contexts pointing to the Clovis culture as mammoth hunters.

"The distribution of 35 Clovis localities, most of which are surface finds, closely resembles the reported mammoth distribution. In other words, mammoth hunters were where the mammoths were."  (Agenbroad and Hesse 2004:194)

"Only 14 of the 42 documented mammoth sites (33 percent) have been radiocarbon dated. These dates range from 30,800 to 10,350 B.P., with no major temporal absence. The weighted average of the four youngest radiocarbon dates for mammoths is 11,270 ±  65 B.P. , which approximates the time of mammoth extinction on the Colorado Plateau (Agenbroad and Mead 1989)." (Agenbroad and Hesse 2004:195)

Fig. 16.7 - rock art of mammoths

and bison,  Agenbroad and Hesse,

2004.

"Figure 16.6 shows the known rock-art localities that depict mammoth and bison on the Colorado Plateau. Some of the mammoth petroglyphs are in the same canyons that contain mammoth skeletal and fecal remains. Figure 16.7 provides examples of mammoth rock art on the Plateau." (Agenbroad and Hesse 2004:195)

The so-called Moab mastodon, 

photograph by Dell Crandall, 

2004.

Proposed San Juan river mammoth

and bison petroglyph.  Ekkehart Malotki

and Henry D. Wallace, 2011.

While I am certainly open to the possibility of some rock art in North America portraying mammoths, I am skeptical about many of the claimed examples. I have previously argued against the authenticity of the so-called "Moab mastodon", and I have guardedly accepted the identification of a petroglyph along the San Juan river near Bluff, Utah, as a Columbian mammoth by Malotki and Wallace (2011). In Agenbroad and Hesse's figure 16.7, however, I fear a number of the illustrated examples do not strike me as convincing.

Farrington Springs Colorado petroglyph,

discovered by Mike Maselli, 2002. - image

rotated 90 degrees clockwise. Photograph

Peter Faris, 2002.

Farrington Springs Colorado petroglyph,

discovered by Mike Maselli, 2002. - image

rotated 90 degrees clockwise and inked in

on the photo. Photograph Peter Faris, 2002.

One image that I personally do find very convincing was discovered in 2002 by Mike Maselli on an outlying boulder at the Farrington Springs site in southeastern Colorado. In this instance Larry Agenbroad disagreed, stating he did not believe that the image represented any type of pachyderm (personal communication). On the question of mammoths in rock art, I fear the votes are not yet in, and we will have to wait a while for further data before we can state conclusively yes or no.

REFERENCES:

Agenbroad, Larry D., and India S. Hesse,

2004    Megafauna, Paleoindians, Petroglyphs, and Pictographs of the Colorado Plateau, in The Settlement of the American Continent: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Human Biogeography, edited by C. Michael Barton, Geoffrey A. Clark, David R. Yesner, and Georges A. Pearson, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

Malotki, Ekkehart, and Henry D. Wallace

2011    Columbian Mammoth Petroglyphs From The San Juan River Near Bluff, Utah, United States, in Rock Art Research 2011, vol.28, number 2, pages 143-152, Australian Rock Art Research Association, Caulfield South, Victoria, Australia.

Wikipedia

EXTINCT ANIMALS IN ROCK ART - BISON ANTIQUUS:

Bison in South Park, Colorado.

Photograph Peter Faris, 1990.

In the paper cited below the authors (Agenbroad and Hesse 2004) argue that the belief that Paleo-hunters did not live on the Colorado Plateau because the megafauna that they depended upon were absent is just a myth. They point to fossil remains located throughout the area in question, as well as rock art that they identify as representations of the megafauna in question, as proof that both the animals and the hunters occupied the Colorado Plateau from 12,000 to 6,000 BP. (Agenbroad and Hesse 2004:189-195)

Fig. 16.8 - Bison illustrations from

the Colorado Plateau. Agenbroad

and Hesse, 2004, p. 194.

If this is indeed the case, then the rock art that they show as evidence toward their claims must be illustrations of the extinct megafauna species (mammoth and bison) that existed during that period. We thus have numerous examples of rock art portraying the extinct species Bison antiquus. The actual existence of rock art illustrating mammoths is somewhat more problematical although opinions in the field are not as closed against it as before.

"Twenty-seven radiocarbon dates are available for bison localities. These dates range from more than 40,000 to 355 B.P. (the former date is the approximate upper limit of radiocarbon technology). Six dates are from the protohistoric period, three are from the Archaic period, and 18 are from the late Pleistocene. This information suggests that bison were more abundant on the Colorado Plateau during the late Pleistocene than during most of the Holocene." (Agenbroad and Hesse 2004:195)

"Maps of paleontological locales and artifacts show that megafauna and Paleoindians were present on the Colorado Plateau. When combined with rock art and a radiocarbon chronology, they provide convincing evidence to dispel the myth that human hunters and their major prey species did not live on the plateau from 13,000 to 6,000 B.P. Because of the dearth of preceramic studies in this region, at least 9,000 years of plateau prehistory is not being adequately researched." (Agenbroad and Hesse 2004:195)

Fig. 16.6 - Map of locations of bison

and mammoth rock art on the

Colorado Plateau. Agenbroad

and Hesse, 2004, p. 192.

"Bison remains, Folsom and Plano artifacts, and bison rock art are also found on the plateau, and some areas contain all of these. Although some Folsom and Plano artifacts are found in areas of the plateau with no recorded paleontological Pleistocene than in the Holocene. The number of bison remains from Folsom and Plano (Paleoindian) sites nearly equals the number from late Archaic and protohistoric sites.

Prehistoric rock art, especially petroglyphs, also lends credence to the presence of Paleoindian hunters on the plateau from 12,000 to 6,000 B.P. These people were the "Pleistocene pioneers." It is unfortunate that their presence has been denied, overlooked, and unresearched for so long."  (Agenbroad and Hesse 2004:195)

Large bison petroglyph overlapping

a mammoth petroglyph,  San Juan

river, near Bluff, Utah. Malotki

and Wallace, 2011, p.147

Drawing of the large bison petroglyph

overlapping the mammoth petroglyph, 

San Juan river, near Bluff, Utah.

Malotki and Wallace, 2011, p.147.

The illustration (Fig. 16.8) as well as the map of locations of bison and mammoth rock art (Fig. 16.6) both include an example from the San Juan river near Bluff, Utah. Malotki and Wallace have identified this as the figure of a Columbian mammoth with the overlapping image of a large bison.(Malotki and Wallace 2011:147)  This would pretty much have to represent Bison antiquus, or one of his cousins. 

The Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleoindian culture, named after distinct stone tools found at Clovis, New Mexico, in the 1920s and 1930s. The Clovis culture appeared around 13,200 - 12,900 years before present, at the end of the last glacial period. Clovis is characterized by the manufacture of Clovis points and distinctive bone and ivory tools. Clovis peoples are considered to be the ancestors of most of the indigenous cultures of the Americas. (Wikipedia)

In the Great Plains of the United States the following peoples ranging from 10,000 to 7,000 B.P. are designated as Plano, distinguished by long, lanceolate, projectile points; Agate Basin complex, named for the Agate Basin site; Cody Complex, named for the Horner site near Cody, Wyoming, and including the Olsen-Chubbuck Bison Kill site and the Jurgens site; Hell Gap complex named for the Hell Gap, Wyoming site and the Jones-Miller Bison Kill site; and the Foothills/Mountain complex. (Wikipedia)

The Folsom Complex dates to between 9000 B.C., and 8000 B.C., and is thought to have derived from the earlier Clovis culture. (Wikipedia)

Fremont (ca. AD 100 to 1300)

bison from 9-Mile Canyon,

Utah. Photograph by P. Heiple.

Until we can adequately date the bison images in question we will not be 100% certain, but logic suggests that some of the images portrayed do, in fact, represent the extinct species Bison antiquus, and, assuming that Agenbroad and Hesse are correct in their claims, then we also have examples of rock art from the Clovis, Plano, and Folsom peoples. The only real problem would seemingly be to discriminate it from the later examples.

REFERENCES:

Agenbroad, Larry D., and India S. Hesse,

2004    Megafauna, Paleoindians, Petroglyphs, and Pictographs of the Colorado Plateau, pages 189-195, in The Settlement of the American Continent: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Human Biogeography, edited by C. Michael Barton, Geoffrey A. Clark, David R. Yesner, and Georges A. Pearson, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

Malotki, Ekkehart, and Henry D. Wallace

2011    Columbian Mammoth Petroglyphs From The San Juan River Near Bluff, Utah, United States, pp. 143-152, in Rock Art Research 2011 - Volume 28, Number 2. 

Wikipedia

A PAINTED DINOSAUR TRACK IN UTAH:

Pictograph showing painted dinosaur

footprint at Flag Point east of Kanab, Utah. Photograph By John Foster and Alden

Hamblin, Survey Notes, January, 2001,

Utah Geological Survey.

A pictograph (painted rather than pecked) on a rock art panel at the Flag Point track site near Kanab, Utah, appears to represent a tridactyl dinosaur footprint (Eubrontes); these are the most obvious prints at the site, though there are also Grallator tracks. The footprints are in the Kayenta Formation of the Lower Jurassic in the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument. The pictograph dates to the Formation Period of the Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) culture, between AD 1000 and 1200 (Mayor and Serjeant. 2001:151).

Dinosaur track at Flag Point, East of Kanab

Utah. Photograph By John Foster and

Alden Hamblin, Survey Notes, January,

2001, Utah Geological Survey.

These pictographs are found at a location known as Flag Point in the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. There are a number of dinosaur footprints in the rock there and nearby in a rock shelter is a red-painted pictograph panel. It clearly includes a tridactyl form that very closely imitates one of the dinosaur footprints found nearby. A number of other images in the pictograph panel represent bird-man figures with outspread arms. Most viewers assume that the bird-man figures were suggested by the presumed resemblance of a dinosaur footprint to the footprint of a very large bird. This may in fact be the case but it must be remembered that there are also fundamental differences between the track of a bird’s foot and that of a theropod dinosaur other than size.

Most tracks left by a bird’s foot, whether new or fossilized, show the fourth or posterior toe that the bird uses to grasp with extending backwards from the foot. The tridactyl track of a theropod dinosaur does not show that fourth toe extending backwards. The painting of the large track at Flag Point in Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument lacks that projecting fourth toe of a bird’s footprint which suggests that it does in fact represent the nearby dinosaur footprints instead of a bird track. Also, the angle of spread on the toes is quite different for bird and dinosaur tracks. The angle of spread between the outer toes of a bird is about ninety degrees, and the same angle on a therapod dinosaur's track will be nearer forty-five degrees. Although the Flag Point pictograph does not exhibit the fourth toe on the back like many bird tracks, the angle of spread between the outer toes definitely indicates that it is a bird track. But perhaps we are over-thinking this.

A bird track above, a theropod

dinosaur track below.

Having drawn that distinction, I then have to ask myself if the Native Americans who painted the Flag Point panel knew of the difference between bird and dinosaur tracks. Since I am assuming that they had no knowledge of dinosaurs as our modern science has revealed them, the question must be rephrased to "did they know the difference between bird tracks and the tracks of something else?" These people certainly knew their tracks so they would have recognized them as such, but tracks of what? These large tracks in solid stone would undoubtedly have been attributed to mythological monsters, indeed these tracks may well have prompted the origins of such beliefs.

NOTE: This is really only the beginning. We have yet to look at the question of lizard tracks.

REFERENCE:

Mayor, Adrienne and William A. S. Serjeant

2001    The Folklore of Footprints in Stone: From Classical Antiquity to the Present, Ichnos, Vol. 8, No. 2, 143-163.

LA 12609 - A PAINTED CAVATE KIVA, MORTANDAD RUIN, LOS ALAMOS COUNTY, NM:

Cavates at the Mortandad ruin, Los Alamos,

NM. Photograph Peter Faris, Aug. 30, 2003.

In 2003 we visited the Mortandad Ruin with our friends Bill and Jeanne Gibson. This is on the Pajarito Plateau at Los Alamos, New Mexico, and features rock art as well as cavates and other features. One of the most exciting features there is a painted cavate kiva, in pristine condition and virtually as good as new.

Mortandad ruin, cavates and viga holes

in the cliff. Johnson and Hoagland,

2010, Fig. 3, p. 3.

"The Pajarito Plateau was formed by a series of large volcanic ash flows erupting from the Jemez Mountains about one million years ago. The ash consolidated into a soft rock resulting into what is referred to as Bandelier tuff, which through erosion, gradually dissected into the thirteen canyons upon which LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory) and the Los Alamos townsite reside. The south-facing sides of the canyons frequently erode and fracture into vertical cliff faces. Between the twelfth through sixteenth centuries, people living on the Pajarito Plateau carved chambers into the tuff face, these referred to by archaeologists as cavates. By definition, a cavate or rock cut feature exhibits evidence of human modification (Figure 3). This evidence includes excavation marks, a shaped or modified entryway, floor or wall plaster, internal features including grooves, niches, sooting, or external features (e.g.,viga holes, hand/footholds, or staircases). Cavates, rock cut features, and other associated architectural features are carved into the soft tuff and are subject to degradation, resulting primarily from erosion. The Mortandad cavates, compared with others on the Pajarito Plateau, are relatively stable, as the tuff in this area is less friable than other tuff outcrops. Although the floors, walls, and roofs remain relatively stable, some of the Mortandad Canyon cavates are eroded and plaster and sooting that may have been present is now gone. The existing cavate deterioration indicates that the outer layer of tuff can crumble and/or spall off when touched or walked on." (Johnson and Hoagland 2010:2-3)

                                                     

Cave kiva at the Mortandad ruin,

Los Alamos, NM. Photograph

Peter Faris, Aug. 30, 2003.

                                                                

 Of particular interest at Mortandad, is a decorated cave kiva. It is extremely well preserved and the walls inside are covered with images.

"The interior of the cave is elaborately decorated with a series of bold, well-executed petroglyphs carved into the soot-blackened ceiling and walls. A dado of tan plaster extends from the floor to a height of approximately 30 in. above the floor. Figures represented by the petroglyphs include the hunchbacked flute player, the plumed serpent, masked dancing figures, birds and other animals. Apparently either there were few fires in the kiva after the figures were carved, or they were periodically cleaned, as the incised areas have little or no soot remaining in them." (Steen 1977:62)

"Arrow swallower" and club swinger at the

Mortandad ruin, Los Alamos, NM.

Photograph Peter Faris, Aug. 30, 2003.

"Mortandad Style. The almost perfectly preserved room at LA 12609 is the type site for the Mortandad Style of kiva art. To create figures in this style, the artist first blackened the cave with a dense, black coat of sooty smoke (see Fig. 18). Then, with a hard point of some sort, quite possibly a sharpened stick, he cut through the soot to the light gray tuff beneath. The resultant figures are large, rather stiff and roughly done. The Kokopellis and the club swinger - are the only figures in which any action is portrayed. This style was found from Ancho canyon to Pueblo Canyon." (Steen 1977:22)

"In an unusual, perhaps unique, representation of magic, Kokopelli is shown swallowing and arrow. It is not known whether the club swinger is aiming at the hunchback, but these are rare portrayals of action. "'Sword" swallowing is a practice of a curing society at Zuni (Stevenson 1904).'" (Steen 1977, Fig. 19, p. 25)

I am uncomfortable with the identification of this particular figure as a "Sword-swallower" or arrow-swallower. If that is actually the case, the arrow is being inserted into the throat nock end first. This means that the fletching of the arrow is going against the grain. It may be, in fact, that this was a real practice observed by Stevenson (1904) and my problem with the concept is only personal squeamishness, but I would like to know that a thorough search of Ancestral Pueblo references and pueblo mythology has been conducted to eliminate a concept such as a mythological  hero coughing up a sacred arrow. Another possibility is that the fletching of the arrow is purposely being inserted in the throat to induce vomiting. In the American southwest certain cleansing ceremonies included drinking a tea or infusion of certain herbs to induce vomiting that cleaned out the interior. Ethnographic mention of this sometimes also include the detail of using a chicken feather to tickle the throat if the onset of the purging was too slow. This might, in fact, be a portrayal of such a ceremony.

"Fig. 21. Masked figures and, at

the right, two quadrupeds kissing.

Kissing quadrupeds and birds

occur frequently in this style of kiva

art. (Meter stick shown.)"

(Steen 1977:27)

"Few geometric figures were seen in any of the kivas; the style seems to run almost exclusively to life forms. Anthropomorphic figures, either masked men or gods, are common (see de Peso's letter below), but Kokopellis are seldom seen. The most common single figure is probably the Awanyu. Birds and quadrupeds are the other figures carved on the walls, and frequently they are shown in pairs in kissing position (Figs. 20 and 21)." (Steen 1977: 22-3)

"Some of the figures seem to have a Mexican accent, so a set of photographs (Figs. 19-22) of the art work at the kiva at LA 12609 was sent to Charles di Peso of the Amerind Foundation, Dragoon, Arizona. His reply was:

"Fig. 22. On the left is a possible

representation of a Mesoamerican

Sun god and, on the right a

Kokopelli." (Steen 1977:28)

"What a lot of wonderful decoration - exciting as hell and twice as much fun! Starting at the 'sunburst' kid, who occupies the area between the two entries - isn't he something! His sun body with the center cross is an iconographic form used by the Mesoamericans to represent Tonatiuh (Beyer 1965, pp. 147 and 169). In his left hand is a perfectly good 'horned serpent' and in his right, a T-shaped club. By the 14th century, when the kiva was in use, it is believed that Tonatiuh was submerged by the Huitzilopochtli complex (Nicholson in Wauchope's Handbook of Middle American Indians, 10, pp. 424-426) in Mexico. If so, the Anasazi snake-in-hand portrait would resemble that of Huitzilopochtli, as depicted in the Codex Borbonicus 34 (Fig. 39).

Horned serpents and spotted animals

at the Mortandad ruin, Los Alamos, NM.

Photograph Peter Faris, Aug. 30, 2003.

The Kokopellis - hunched, ithyphallic flute player, and sundry sword swallowers, etc. - the 'rainbow' Plumed Serpent, which was laid out as a design over the wall niche, suggests some affinity with Quetzalcoatl. Below it are the two long-tailed, spotted, kissing characters. They are a far cry from 'tigers', but they are spotted and have long tails. Whether or not the one with the ears or 'horns' is a male and the other a female is open to one's imagination. Further, there is a relationship between this pair and the Plumed Serpent with the bifurcated tail - it remains and interesting supposition. - - Not much I can say about the kissing animals noted over the last niche and over the first niche where the horned helmet stands." (Steen 1977:23-4)

Elsewhere I have speculated that the two spotted quadrupeds may be canines, given the straight tails, lack of claws, and also the lack of feline pointed ears. Canines or jaguars ("tigers"), I really do not know.

One must not get the impression that ll the cave kivas from Ancho to Pueblo Canyon werre decorated in this manner. From more than half the hundreds of cavate ceremonial rooms, the inner surface has exfoliated so that all trace of any former designs has disappeared. At other sites, the rooms were blackened but not decorated. Where the Mortandad style figures were cut into the walls, normally only one or two figures were made. We are fortunate that the best preserved kiva also contains the most figures." (Steen 1977:24)

All in all, this is a fascinating site with an amazing array of extremely well preserved art, including a number of unique themes and images. 

REFERENCES:

Johnson, Alexander F. and Stephen R. Hoagland

2010    Mortandad Cavate Complex Baseline Study, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM.

Steen, Charlie R.

1977    Pajarito Plateau Archaeological Survey and Excavations, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory of the University of California, Los Alamos.