ANIMALS IN ROCK ART - DOGS IN THE SOUTHWEST:

Black and white dogs, Fremont culture, Brown's Park, CO, Photo Peter Faris, 1987.

Many domesticated animals have variegated colors and patterns not displayed by their original wild ancestors. This is thought to have originally arisen accidentally while traits like tameness were being sought, but once patterns occurred they also became desired traits. My interest in how dogs are portrayed in rock art was sparked back in the 1980s by a Fremont pictograph in Brown’s Park, northwest Colorado, which shows two canines with black and white patterning, in other words their coats indicated domesticated dogs, not coyote or wolf.

“Dog remains in early Southwestern sites suggest that dogs played many roles in both life and death. Dogs - either whole or in part - were buried, occasionally with humans. This treatment may mean they were pets; hunting companions, or ritual offerings. Isolated bones, discarded in trash areas, some burned or with cutmarks, suggested that some dogs were eaten by prehistoric peoples. Dog bones were sometimes made into awls and other tools, and perforated dog teeth were used as pendants.” (Taylor, et al. 2008:3)

“The list of functions that dogs served in Pueblo villages presents an interesting dichotomy. They tended to be viewed simultaneously as superior animals and inferior humans. Dogs acted as guardians, hunting companions, bed warmers, field protectors, and probably, on occasion, ritual guardians for shamans. They also ate leftover food in cooking areas and cleaned up the latrines. Clearly dogs played an important role in controlling disease.” (Taylor, et al. 2008:4)

Mummified small black and white dog, White Dog Cave, Arizona, Archaeology, Vol. 63, No.  5, Sept.-Oct. 2010.

The importance of dogs to some ancient peoples of the American Southwest is illustrated by the cases of dogs found buried with people as offerings or to accompany them to the afterlife. “Some of the best examples of associated dog burials from the Southwest were discovered at White Dog Cave by Guernsey and Kidder (1921) in a Basketmaker II period cave near Kayenta, Arizona. Cist 23 contained a woman wrapped in furs inside two joined woven bags buried with a high number of exceptional grave goods including baskets, grass and squash seeds, digging sticks, pinon nuts, an atlatl, and a  chipped piece of quartzite. When the baskets covering the body were removed, it was revealed that a small, black and white terrier-sized dog was interred by her left side. Within the same feature was an adult male buried in a similar manner with a larger white and tan, long-haired dog approximately the size of a collie (Guernsey and Kiddr 1921). The remains had been naturally mummified due to the sandy burial location in a high and windy cave, causing desiccation but protecting them from the typical environmental forces that decay soft tissues. Later radiographic analysis by Fugate (2010:93-4) showed the larger dog was male - and approximately 1.5 years old. The smaller dog was female and estimated to be eight months old (Fugate 2010).” (Semanko 2020:24) I am particularly interested in the black and white dog because of examples found in rock art.

Barrier Canyon Archaic culture. Temple Mountain Wash, Emory County, UT. Photo Peter Faris, October 2002.

Barrier Canyon Archaic culture. Horseshoe Canyon, Canyonlands, Wayne County, UT, Photo Don I. Campbell, 16 May 1984.

Barrier Canyon Archaic culture.  Photo James Doss.

The Archaic people of Utah and northwestern Colorado who we know as Barrier Canyon, dating from between as early as possibly 7,000 BCE to the early centuries AD, frequently include dogs in their rock art. While we cannot be sure that some are not coyotes or wolves, one example from Temple Mountain Wash in Emory County, Utah, shows a black and white dog accompanying a group of people.

Another pictograph, this one from Brown’s Park, in northwestern Colorado, shows two black and white dogs (top of page). This panel is attributed to the Fremont culture by association with typical Fremont rock art all around it. In that area the Fremont culture is usually dated from A.D. 200 to about A.D. 1300. Remember that varicolored coat patterns are usually assumed to also indicate a domesticated animal. I like to think that at this place and time a Fremont artist placed a record of his favorite dogs.

Rock Art in a caveate, Mortendad canyon, NM, Photo Peter Faris, 2003.

An interesting pair of quadrupeds that possess the characteristics of dog images are found inscribed through the smoke-blackened wall of a caveate in Mortandad Canyon, Santa Fe County, New Mexico. These are of Pueblo III provenance (1150 to 1360 CE) or possibly early Pueblo IV (1350 - 1600 CE). They are shown as having spotted coats, but their relatively short tails, lack of claws, and lack of triangular ears suggest dog, not spotted feline. 

Petroglyph Park, Albuquerque, Bernal County, New Mexico. Photo Peter Faris, September 1988.

This petroglyph is found in Petroglyph National Monument, Albuquerque, New Mexico. The images here were created predominately by Pueblo III (1150 to 1360 CE) or possibly early Pueblo IV (1350 - 1600 CE) peoples.Dogs had a major role in mythology. Polly Schaafsma’s description of this particular dog petroglyph ties it to its spiritual role. “As previously noted, in Mesoamerica the inherent morning star/evening star duality of Venus is also expressed via Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli and Zolotl, respectively. Xolotl, a denizen of the underworld whose name translates as “twin,” god of double things, is the god of the ball game and has the form of a dog, lightning, and celestial fire. This dog-headed aspect of Quetzalcoatl sacrificed the gods themselves to nourish the newly created fifth sun, an act related to the creation of the present world. In other versions, Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl replaces Zolotl as executioner. In Pueblo rock art canines pictured with paired stars or with star-faced serpents may be Southwestern statements of the canine aspect of this symbolic complex. The dog with a lightning tail beside a star-faced snake in a petroglyph near Albuquerque, New Mexico, is particularly suggestive. The role of Zolotl, the lightning dog, in the emergence has been compared with that of the Zuni War Twins, who in certain emergence accounts bring humankind out of the underworld by penetrating the earth with lightning arrows..” (Schaafsma 2001:147) 

In some cultures the dog is a trickster, in others a protector, but universally the contributions of the dog to humans was known and respected. As a friend, protector, helpmate and resource to the First Nations people, these dogs earned their place in the rock art record, and we are the richer for it.

NOTE: For further information on this subject refer to the References listed below. Some photographs in this paper were found on the internet in searches for public domain material. If they are not intended to be public domain I apologize and will be happy to provide citation information if it is provided.

REFERENCE:

Schaafsma, Polly

2001 Quetzalcoatl and the Horned and Feathered Serpent of the Southwest, pages 138 – 149, in The Road To Aztlan: Art From A Mythic Homeland, edited by Fields, Virginia M., and Victor Zamudio-Taylor, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles.

Semanko, Amanda Leigh, B.S.

2020 Prehistoric Southwest Dogs: A Case Study From Kipp Ruin, May 2020, M.S. thesis, Anthropology Department, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Taylor, Tobi, Alan Ferg, and Dody Fugate,

2008 Dogs in the Southwest, Archaeology Southwest, Vol. 22 No. 3, Center for Desert Archaeology, Tucson.

SECONDARY REFERENCE:

Fugate, Dody

2010 Pueblo Dogs: The Oldest Companions, in Threads, Tints, and Edification: Papers in Honor of Glenna Dean, edited by Emily J. Brown, Karen Armstrong, David M. Brugge, and Carol J. Condie, pp. 91-100, Archaeological Society of New Mexico, Albuquerque.