PLANTS IN ROCK ART - SPROUTING SEEDS?

 

 

 

Sprouting bean petroglyph? Petroglyph Park,

Albuquerque, Bernal County, New Mexico.

Photograph Peter Faris, Sept. 1988.

 

There are petroglyphs on the West Mesa at Albuquerque, that some people identify as arrow fletching, but others tend to see sprouting seeds, particularly beans, in their shapes. The agricultural Ancestral Puebloan peoples relied to a great extent on the three important crops; maize, beans, and squash. We do know that maize or corn is portrayed in rock art, and squash blossoms are an occasional subject in southwestern U.S. rock art. As one of these three staples of their diet, it makes a certain amount of sense that beans would also be included in the catalog of subject matter in rock art of the Puebloan peoples.

 

Sprouting bean petroglyph? Petroglyph Park,

Albuquerque, Bernal County, New Mexico.

Photograph Peter Faris, Sept. 1988.

 

Not only were beans an important food source, they had a role in the ceremonial life of the Puebloan peoples of the American southwest. Sprouted beans play a role in the important ceremony of Powamu in February during which the kachina reappear to the villages. "This ceremony is referred to as the Powamu, or the Bean Dance. The significance of this ceremony is the hope for a successful germination of the crops to be planted later in the spring. During this ceremony dancers distribute bean sprouts that have been grown in heated kivas prior to the ceremony." (www.meta-religion.com)

The Powamu ceremony is opened by the Hopi kachina Ahola, one of the chief kachinas for First and Second Mesas, by rituals inside a kiva before going with the Powamu chief to take prayer feathers to Kachina Spring at the dawn. Afterwards, they visit all of the kivas giving sprouted bean and corn plants. (Wikipedia)

 

 

Sprouting bean seed. inhabit.com.

When a bean seed germinates and sprouts the two halves of the seed split apart and the sprout emerges from between them. This is a fairly good description of the petroglyphs on the West Mesa at Albuquerque, New Mexico, leading to the possibility that they were intended to represent the bean sprouts so vital to this important yearly ceremonial occasion, as well as an important food source to the people who created this rock art.

REFERENCES:

http://www.meta-religion.com/World_Religions/Ancient_religions/North_america/hopi_religion.htm

inhabit.com

Wikipedia

BIRDS IN ROCK ART - PARROTS:

Parrot and mask, West Mesa, Albuquerque,

NM, Photo: Peter Faris, 1988. 

On December 15, 2010, I posted a column about petroglyphs of macaws at Hovenweep National Monument. In it I discussed them as indications of long distance trade networks between the cultures of the American Southwest and Meso-America in ancient times. I also discussed the value of their brightly colored feathers to the ancient inhabitants of the southwest. Although most of the recorded data concerning the presence of these birds comes from Mimbres and Hohokam sites, pictures of these birds in other locations (like Hovenweep) testify to their equal importance in the Ancestral Puebloan peoples of the Four-Corners area.

Parrots, star, and eagle tail headdress. Petroglyph Nat.

Mon., Albuquerque, NM. Photo: Peter Faris, 1988.

Another area with parrots or macaws pictured as petroglyphs on the rocks comes from the Petroglyph National Monument on West Mesa at Albuquerque, New Mexico. The photographs of parrot petroglyphs accompanying this posting were taken there in 1988.

Close-up of parrots, and eagle tail headdress. Petroglyph

Nat. Mon., Albuquerque, NM. Photo: Peter Faris, 1988.

Both photos include a 6” scale to give an indication of the size of the images. The first picture shows a single parrot in side view along with what I believe is intended to represent a mask. The second picture is of a pair of parrots pictured belly to belly facing each other. This second portrayal is on a boulder with other sky themes including a four-pointed star and another mask surmounted by an eagle tail fan. As can be seen the facial area of the mask is below the surface of the ground and there may be more unseen rock art down there as well.