A COMET PETROGLYPH AT LOS ALAMOS:

I have written before on the subject of comets pictured in rock art here on RockArtBlog. I find the concept of an astrophysical manifestation like a comet being recorded in this way to be eminently reasonable, something as amazing as a close approach of a comet might well spark the desire to make a record.

Los Alamos petroglyph panel. Photograph by Bruce Maase, 2013.

One apparently memorable comet appearance was in 1264 AD. This one was supposedly seen pretty much worldwide, and mentioned in records. According to Herman E. Bender “Unambiguous images of comets in North American rock art are rare. What is or may well be even more rare to non-existent was/is the ability to date the images. This potentially changed with discovery in or about 2013 of a comet pictograph near Los Alamos, New Mexico. The comet in the pictograph was identified by a scientific team as the Great Comet of 1264 AD. Backing up the claim, European and Asian medieval comet records firmly indicated the comet had entered eastern Orion in mid-August and had five tails. Because three stars in a row, i.e. Orion’s ‘belt stars’, were indicated on the rock art panel along with the comet and its five tails, the comet in the pictograph was dated to mid to late August, 1264 AD.” (Bender 2023:21)

Los Alamos petroglyph panel. Photograph by Bruce Maase, 2013.

Here Bender is correlating the vertical row of three dots below the supposed image of the comet to the belt of the constellation Orion. 

One interesting identifying feature of the comet portrayal is that it is shown with five lines of dots that are taken as its tails. “Five tails was a salient feature of the Great Comet of 1264 AD. The Korean records stated that, ‘On a chia-hsi~ day in the seventh month of the fifth year of WSnjong [26th July] a comet was observed at the NE. Its tail, which measured 7 to 8 ft, gradually divided itself into five branches pointing towards the NW.’ Further corroborating the five tails time-line for August 17 (1264 AD), the Korean record went on to state that, ‘On a jen-yin day in the eighth month [23rd August] the [five] branches reunited and the tail increased in length.’ The European records leave no doubt that the comet sported five separate tails, but also echo Asian records of where the comet was seen with its five tails on the early morning of August 17, 1264 AD, i.e. ‘between the Dog [Sirius and Canis Major] and Orion’.” (Bender 2023:21-22) I have so far been the actual dating method used to reach this conclusion, however, Bruce Masse (2013) implies that it was estimated based on the position of the comet to a supposed indication of the constellation Orion on the panel. This position was also found in the Korean record.

Woodblock print depicting the great comet of 1264, dated 15th century. Internet image, public domain.

The remarkable appearance of this comet would have been memorable indeed. Donald K. Yeomans (2007) reported that “on July 26, Chinese observers reported the tail spanning 100 degrees.” This is obviously an extremely impressive manifestation with it spanning 100 degrees across the arc of the sky. This appearance was well recorded with J. R. Hind citing over three dozen contemporary sources in his 1884 book On the expected return of the great comet of 1264 and 1556.

Adoration of the Magi, Giotto di Bondoni, 1301. From Karam, 2017, p. 72.

As I had stated above, I find the concept of an astrophysical manifestation like a comet being recorded in this way to be eminently reasonable, something as amazing as a close approach of a comet might well spark the desire to make a record. A more famous example of such a record is the fresco painting Adoration of the Magi by Giotto di Bondoni in 1301 in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy. In this, Bondoni shows the magi before the Holy Family in the manger with the Star of Bethlehem shown in the form of a comet.

Having been lucky enough to have seen a few comets in my life I can well understand the urge to leave a record of such a wondrous occasion. While I have not always totally agreed with Bender’s analyses in other things I can find no reason to disagree with this one. Congratulations to all involved in winkling out the facts to this fascinating story.

NOTE 1: If you wish to refer to P. Andrew Karam’s (2017) book on comets be sure to check pages 66 and 67 where he has included my photograph and field sketch of the great comet from the famous panel in Chaco Canyon.

NOTE 2: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Bender, Herman E., 2023, The Great Comet of 1264 AC in Rock Art – Two Views from North America, Hanwakan Center for Prehistoric Astronomy, Cosmology and Cultural Landscape Studies, Inc., Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, USA. Accessed online 14 September 2024.

Hind, J. R., 1848, On the expected return of the great comet of 1264 and 1556, Published by G. Hoby, 123 Mount Street, Berkeley Square, London. Accessed online 6 August 2025.

Karam, P. Andrew, 2017, Comets, Reaktion Books, London.

Masse, W. Bruce et al., 2013, A Probable Ancestral Pueblo Comet Petroglyph at Los Alamos National Laboratory, PowerPoint presentation at IFRAO 2013 conference, American Rock Art Research Association, Glendale, Arizona. Accessed online 7 August 2025/

Yeomans, Donald K., 2007, Great Comets in History, from Solar System Dynamics, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. Accessed online 6 August 2025.

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.

A DEER TRAP IN NORTHERN NEW MEXICO:

Caption:  "Fig. 23. LA 12612. The deer

trap at the rim of the mesa. Note the

easy access to the pit from Mortandad

Canyon at the right." (Steen 1977:29)

The subject of this posting is not technically rock art, but it is a piece of stone work, impressive in its own way. This hole, carved into the bedrock, is believed to have been used as a pitfall trap for deer. In his 1977 report on " Pajarito Plateau Archaeological Survey and Excavations", Charlie Steen described it as follows:

Deer trap on trail to Mortandad ruin,

Los Alamos County, NM. Photograph

Aug. 2003, Peter Faris.

"Deer pits were dug on low saddles between canyons. They were probably hidden with a covering of light brush and given wing walls of juniper and pińon branches, so that a deer could be driven from a canyon up a slope to the saddle and forced to the pit where, hopefully, it would step on the cover, fall through, and break a leg or its neck.

Sometime during the late 1940s, I visited the game pit near Navawi ruin, and at that time there were vestiges of heavy brush wing walls on either side of the pit.

The only game pit in the survey area which can safely be called a deer trap is that at LA 12612. It is located on a low saddle between two mesas, at the head of a rather gently slope out of Mortandad Canyon. It could easily have made the apex of two brush wing walls and have been used to trap game driven from the canyon." (Steen 1977: 29-30)

Cavates,  Mortendad ruin, Los

Alamos County, NM. Photograph

Aug. 2003, Peter Faris.

This feature is relatively near the large prehistoric pueblo in Mortandad Canyon at Los Alamos, New Mexico. Judging from what remains at the Mortandad ruins is was a fairly large pueblo built against the cliff face. As at Long House in Bandeliere, cavate rooms were then excavated into the soft volcanic tuff to add additional space behind the constructed rooms. About all that remains to be seen now is a number of cavates illustrating various degrees of erosion. A few seem to be complete, while many provide evidence of how far the cliff face has eroded in intervening centuries. We were led to this site in 2003 by our friends Bill and Jeanne Gibson from nearby Los Alamos.

Deer trap on trail to Mortandad ruin,

Los Alamos County, NM. Photograph

Aug. 2003, Peter Faris.

Although the excavation of the hole would have been fairly easy for these Ancestral Pueblo people, it is after all not as large as the cavate rooms they excavated into the canyon walls, it is still an impressive feature. What I find interesting is that the easiest access, and the assumed drive lines, come out of Mortandad Canyon which was, as mentioned above, well occupied by people. How many wild deer would have felt comfortable enough around that many people to be in place to be driven. Perhaps the situation then was the same as the situation in many suburbs today, where suburban deer have gotten comfortable enough around people to be seen virtually daily. But then, would not the easy hunting have led to a heavy predation on the deer by hunters eliminating any of the animals that were not fully wild? I will have to leave this question to those who know deer behavior better than I do.

REFERENCE:

Steen, Charlie R.

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

AN OPTICAL ILLUSION? - IN ROCK ART:

Double Kokopelli, from Dorothy Hoard, 1995,

Sentinels on Stone, the Petroglyphs of Los Alamos,

Los Alamos Historical Society, Los Alamos, p. 11,

   photograph by Betty Lilienthal.

Double Kokopelli reversed, from Dorothy Hoard, 1995,

Sentinels on Stone, the Petroglyphs of Los Alamos,

Los Alamos Historical Society, Los Alamos, p. 11,

photograph by Betty Lilienthal.

This photograph is found in the book Sentinels on Stone by Dorothy Hoard (1995:11), with photographs by Betty Lilienthal. It shows a remarkable image of a kokopelli or flute player with some extra features. The remarkable thing about this flute player is that he works both ways, right side up and upside down. He is a twinned figure containing two images in one. This is, perhaps, analogous to the optical illustion of a rabbit's head that can also be a duck's head, and the drawing of the face of an old woman that can also be seen as a 3/4 rear view of a young woman. It also seems to be related to the phenomenon of the “ambigram”, a word written in such a font that it reads the same either side up. As the flute player image is the product of a pre-literate culture the term “ambigram” does not fit well, but in order to preserve the concept perhaps we can use the variation ambiglyph to describe this petroglyph. In any cased it is a remarkable example, purposely created to work as an image of kokopelli, the flute player, that can be recognized either way up.

Reference: 

Dorothy Hoard,

1995    Sentinels on Stone, the Petroglyphs of Los Alamos, Los Alamos Historical Society, Los Alamos,   photography by Betty Lilienthal, p.11.

E=MC² - A MODERN INSCRIPTION:

E=MC² inscription, near Los Alamos, NM. Photo. Betty Lilienthal.

At one point early in the formal study of rock art, it was assumed that much of the art addressed the question of success in the hunt and game animal fertility. This was about the same period when any artifact that an archaeologist found but could not identify specifically was listed as “ceremonial object”. Now, as I have written elsewhere, the favorite catch-phrase for rock art imagery not specifically otherwise identified is that it is “shamanic”. I doubt that this is much truer today than it was during the preceding periods of dubious assumptions in labeling rock art.

This modern inscription is illustrated in Dorothy Hoard’s book Los Alamos Outdoors (1993:75). It is assumed to have been produced by an Anglo scientist from the Los Alamos atomic project. Dorothy cites Betty Lilienthal with photo credits for that volume.

Researchers have always assumed that much of rock art consisted of inscriptions of a spiritual nature. That has apparently not changed much in our modern era. After all, what could go more deeply and directly to questions of an ethical nature, a spiritual sense, or of man’s relationship to the divine, than Einstein’s equation E=MC^2. It directly addresses a view of creation and it opened up research into nuclear energy that led to the atomic bomb and much of modern science. As such, it seems to fit perfectly into the tradition of rock art as a spiritual expression. It may even be the modern version of Shamanic.

Reference:
Hoard, Dorothy
1993 Los Alamos Outdoors, Los Alamos Historical Society, Los Alamos, NM. – illustration on page 75.