Chapter II: Part 2

The picture from Oldtown ruin of the hunter who has laid aside the quiver, bow, and arrow, and is using a similar gnela,[32] corroborates this interpretation.

Not all crooked sticks used by the Hopi are prayer sticks, or weapons, for sometimes in Hopi ceremonials a number of small shells are tied to the extremity of a crooked stick forming a kind of rattle. In the Flute Ceremony a crooked stick is said to be used to draw down the clouds when the rain they contain is much desired.

Figure 16 is a representation of one of the crooks which was specially made for use in the Soyaluña at Walpi, in 1900. Similar crooks were set upright in a low mound of sand on the floors of all the kivas. Extending from the base of the crook to the ladder there was sprinkled a line of meal called the road (of blessings), over which was stretched a feathered string attached to the end of the crook. Midway in the length of the crook was attached a packet of prayer meal wrapped in cornhusk and a feather of the hawk, a bird dear to warriors, and other objects, which indicated a prayer offering. At the termination of ceremonies in which these crooks are made and blessed as prayer emblems by the Hopi they are deposited in shrines as recorded.

The crook (gnela) is used as a prayer emblem of warriors because it has the form of an ancient weapon, and while it assumes modifications in different Hopi ceremonies it apparently has one and the same intent, as in Soyaluña. This crook is sometimes interpreted as symbolically representing an old man with head bent over by age, but this interpretation is probably secondary to that suggested above, as so often happens in the interpretations given by primitive priests.

The true interpretation of the crooked prayer stick was pointed out by the author in his article on “Minor Hopi Festivals,”[33] as follows:

This crook is believed by the author to be a diminutive
representation of an implement akin to a throwing stick, the object
of which is to increase the velocity of a shaft thrown in the air.
Its prototype is repeatedly used in Hopi rites, and it occurs among
Hopi paraphernalia always apparently with the same or nearly the
same meaning.

In figure 17 is represented a person running with outstretched banded arms, holding in the left hand a bow, and in the other a straight stick. The head is circular with cross lines, a round, dotted eye, and two triangular ears. Another representation shows a human figure with a bow and arrow before the hands, accompanied by three animals, the middle one being a bird and the two lateral, quadrupeds.

By far the most unusual group of human forms consists of two figures, one male, the other female, depicted on another bowl. The action in which these two are engaged is evident. The female figure has dependent breasts and wears a girdle. One hand is raised and brought to the face and the other carries a triangular object. The female figure has three parallel marks on the cheek, like the Hopi war-god. Behind the woman are several curved lines depicting unidentified objects.

The figure shown on one bowl (fig. 18) has several marked features, but the author is unable to suggest any theory of identification. It seems to be a seated figure with a human head, arms, and legs, the toes and fingers being like hands and feet. The forearm is drawn on the shoulder in the same way as in the one of the hunters (fig. 13). The eye, nose, and mouth are also human, but the body is more like that of an animal. The appendages back of the head are similar to those interpreted as feathers on the heads of certain animal designs.

On the theory that this is a seated human figure it is interesting to speculate on the meaning of the curved object represented on the surface of the bowl, extending from one hand to the foot. This object has the general form of a rabbit stick or boomerang, still used by the Hopi in rabbit hunting.[34]

The well-drawn figure painted on a bowl (pl. 1, fig. 2) from Oldtown ruin represents a man with knees extended and arms raised as if dancing. This picture has characteristic markings on the face, but otherwise is not distinctive.

QUADRUPEDS

_Wolf._—Although there are not sufficiently characteristic features represented in the next figure (pl. 2, fig. 1)[35] to identify it satisfactorily, the form of the head, tail, mouth, and ears suggests a wolf.[36] The square design[37] covering one side of the body seems to the author not to belong to the animal itself, for an Indian who could represent an animal as faithfully as those here pictured would not place on it such markings unless for a purpose. It resembles the small blankets sometimes worn by pet dogs or horses among white people, which is a lame explanation, as dog and horse blankets were unknown among Indians. The only theory the author has formed regarding this geometrical figure is that it is a variant of the Sikyatki habit of accompanying a figure of an animal with a representation of his shrine. This bowl is of black and white ware and is eleven inches in diameter by five and one-half inches deep.

_Antelope._—There are two[38] figures of an animal with branching horns,[39] supposed to be an antelope, an animal formerly common in Mimbres Valley. In one of these (fig. 19) the head is held downward as if the animal were feeding; in the other (fig. 20) the neck is extended. A pair of markings on the neck are identical with those on pictures of the antelope still painted on modern pottery made by the Zuñi. A band, resembling a checkerboard, is drawn across the body of one; on the other are parallel lines.

Another figure referred to as an antelope appears to represent a young fawn, since, while it has all the characteristics of this animal, the horns are wanting. This specimen (fig. 21) was found at Oldtown. The rectangular shape so often given to the bodies of animals drawn on Mimbres pottery is well shown in this specimen.

_Mountain Sheep._—It is evident from the form of the unbranched horns, the slender legs, and the head, that either a mountain sheep or mountain goat was intended to be represented in plate 2, figure 2. The markings on the body are symbolic, suggesting lightning, and it may be added that the Hopi depict the lightning on the artificial horns mounted on caps and worn by them in presentations of dances in which they personate mountain sheep.

_Rabbit or Hare._—The pictured representation (fig. 31) of a quadruped whose hindlegs are larger than the forelegs and whose long backward extending ears are prominent features, probably represents a rabbit or a hare. The eyes recall figures of birds depicted on bowls from the Little Colorado ruins in Arizona, where eyes are depicted on one side of the head in violation of a law of perspective in which only one eye can appear on a lateral view. The figure appears to have a tuft of grass in the mouth. The geometric markings on the body are different from those of any known species of rabbit and belong to the category of symbolic designs.

The author excavated at Oldtown a food bowl, the figure on which was undoubtedly intended for a rabbit (fig. 22). The head, ears, body, legs, and tail are well made, leaving no question of the intention of the artist; but if there were any doubt of the identification it is dispelled by the representation of the mouth, on which the sensitive hairs or bristles are represented.

_Mountain Lion._—One of the Oldtown bowls is decorated with a representation of the wild cat or mountain lion, and is a fair example of archaic design (fig. 23). The feature that distinguished this quadruped is the position of the tail which, like those of Pueblo pictures of mountain lions or cats, is bent forward over the back.

Both head and body are rectangular and the legs are short and stumpy with sharp curved claws. The ears, mouth, and teeth have characteristic features of carnivora and the tail is banded, especially near the end.

The geometric design on the side of the body consists of an angular, S-shaped design with two equal armed stars, the latter associated with the mountain lion in Pueblo symbolism. The single figure drawn on this bowl occupied the middle of the interior, but in the next bowl this figure is duplicated.

The two figures on another bowl also represent some cat, or mountain lion, but the geometric figure on its body differs so much from the first specimen that it may belong to a different genus. The geometrical designs occur on both the anterior and posterior extremities of the rectangular body and consist of triangular figures with parallel lines and terraces recalling rain-clouds. This bowl is owned by Mr. E. D. Osborn, and was found at Oldtown. The decorations on the two quadrants alternating with the animal figures are bands from which other markings radiate to the side of the bowl.

_Badger._—The quadruped drawn on the inside of a bowl found at Oldtown, and now owned by Mr. E. D. Osborn, has some resemblances to a badger, especially in the head, ears, teeth, and tail. The geometrical design on the body of this animal consists of an unequal sided rectangle enclosing four triangles with angles so approximated as to form an enclosed rectangle. The head has two bands extending longitudinally, apparently conventionalized markings characteristic of this animal, as they do not occur on deer, wildcats, or mountain sheep.

_Birds._—As has been pointed out in the author’s identifications[40] of designs on Sikyatki pottery, those representing birds are among the most abundant. The same holds also in the pottery from the Mimbres, where several figures identified as birds occur on food bowls. Two of these are duplicated on the same vessel, practically the same figure being repeated on opposite sides. In the latter case each member of the pair faces in an opposite direction or is represented as if moving with the middle of the bowl on the left.[41]

The various birds differ considerably in their forms, organs, attitudes, and appendages. Two of the pictures seem to represent the same bird, but the others belong to different genera. There are one or two figures in which feathers can be distinguished, but as a rule they are fewer in number and the feathers less conventionalized than in Sikyatki pottery.

Pending the difficulty in identifying the various designs representing birds, they are designated by letters A, B, C, D, etc.

_Bird A._—The figure shown in plate 3, figure 1, is represented by two designs, practically the same, repeated so far as appendages go, but quite different in the ornamentation of their bodies. One of these has the same geometrical figure on its body as on one of the quadruped pictures, the second has a different design. Both birds have wings outspread as if in flight, in which the feathers are well drawn in detail, especially the wing on the side turned toward the observer. That on the opposite side is simply uniformly black. The feathers of its companion on the other side of the bowl are indicated by parallel lines. The tail is long and forked at the extremity, suggesting a hawk, and is decorated for two-thirds of its length with cross-hatched and parallel lines. A triangular appendage arises from the under side of the tail at the point where the line decoration ends, forming an appendage which is likewise represented in the companion picture.

_Bird B._—Bird B (pl. 3, fig. 2) is painted on the interior of a food bowl of black and white ware, ten inches in diameter by five inches deep. Its body is oval, the head erect and undecorated, and the tail twisted from a horizontal into a vertical plane as is customary in representation of lateral views of birds from Pueblo ruins. The geometric figure on the body is unfortunately somewhat obscured by the plaster used in mending, but several parallel bars that may represent feathers of the wings show through it, and a number of other designs or parallel lines are apparent. An appendage of triangular form hangs from the lower margin of the body and indicates the position of one leg; the other leg is missing.

_Bird C._—Bird C, shown in plate 4, figure 1, occurs on a black and white bowl that measures ten inches in diameter, five and one-half inches in depth. The figure occupies the circular zone in the middle of the bowl and is enclosed by parallel lines which surround the bowl near the rim. The top of the head, which is globular, is white in color, the beak projecting and the eyes comparatively large. The body is likewise globular and is covered by a square geometrical design the details of which are considerably obscured by the hole in the middle of the jar. A number of parallel lines of unequal length, turned downward, hang from the rear of the body and form the tail. The long legs suggest a wading bird, and the widely extended claws point to the same identification.

_Bird D._—One of the most instructive figures of birds occurs on a bowl from Oldtown ruin. This bowl (fig. 24) is now owned by Mr. E. D. Osborn, by whom it was found. The bird depicted on it is seen from the back; its wings are drooping, and parallel lines indicate feathers. The legs, drawn backward, terminate in three toes, and the tail, slightly bent to one side, is composed of several feathers.

The head is globular with two eyes on the back and a short pointed beak. As in all other zoic figures the geometric figures on the back of the body are the most characteristic. The middle of the body is occupied by an oval design through which may be seen the perforation with which the bowl was killed. At one end there is a triangular design with cross lines which extend partly over the oval figure where, except at one point, they are obscure.

Four quadrilateral designs are distributed at intervals around the oval figure. Each of these has sides of about equal length and a dot medially placed in a smaller figure contained in a larger.

_Bird E._—The bird shown in figure 25 (p. 35) from the Osborn ruin has a body form not unlike that of plate 4, figure 1, but the geometric design on the body, although rectangular, has incurved sides and is covered with cross lines suggesting a net. Its neck is girt by four rings, head small, without feathers, eye minute, bill comparatively long and pointed recalling that of a snipe which is also suggested by long legs and in a measure by the form of the tail.

This bird is undoubtedly aquatic, as indicated by the figure of a fish which it appears to be on the point of capturing or devouring.

_Bird F._—The bird shown in plate 4, figure 2, is different from any of the above and is distinguished readily by the four curved lines on the head suggesting the quail. The pointed tail is marked above and below with dentations, formed by a series of rectangular figures which diminish in size from body attachment to tip. The body itself is marked posteriorly with parallel lines, rectangular and curved figures suggesting wings.

The bowl (fig. 26) has three animals figured upon it forming a graceful combination. The most striking represents a long-billed bird with one wing notched on the inner margin. The tail of this bird is differently drawn from any of the other birds in the collection and has representations of six feathers. In front of this bird, with the point of the snout at the tip of the bill of the bird, is a lizard-shaped head covered with scales and two round eyes. The other remarkable figure also has extended forelegs, but the body is so broken that identification is quite impossible. Like the figure of the lizard, it also has a lozenge head and two eyes. The geometrical designs on the body are characteristic.

ANIMALS NOT IDENTIFIED

_Unidentified Animal._—It is difficult to tell exactly what animal was intended to be represented by that shown in plate 5, figure 2. Its head and mouth are not those of any of the horned animals already considered, although it has some anatomical features recalling a mountain sheep. The extension back of the body has a remote likeness to a fish, but may be a bird or simply a conventional design. The geometrical figure covering the side of the body bears some likeness to one depicted on a bird, as shown in plate 3, figure 1. The same geometrical figure sometimes also occurs separated from any animal form in Sikyatki pottery.[42]

The bowl is ten inches in diameter, five inches in depth, and the figures are painted red on a white ground.

_Unidentified Animal._—One of the most remarkable of many figures on bowls from Oldtown in the collection of Mr. E. D. Osborn is shown in figures 27, 29 (p. 38). Three colors enter into the decoration of this bowl, black, white, and brown, and there are two types of ornamentation, one zoic, the other geometric. The bowl itself was much broken when found, but not so mutilated as to hide the main designs.

The zoic figures represent animals with square bodies, four legs, ears, head, and tail like a young antelope. There is no design on the side of the body, but in its place four broad parallel bands extend from the belly across the bowl. Each group of parallel lines changes its direction, widening in their course or near the ends where they enlarge for the accompanying figure. The markings on the necks of these figures suggest those on fawns.

The elaborate geometric figure composed of a scroll and comma-like dot and eye is a highly conventionalized symbol, possibly of some animal, as a bird’s head, common on Casas Grandes pottery.

There is a bowl on exhibition in the Chamber of Commerce at Deming with a picture of a quadruped resembling a deer, but the base is so fractured in killing that it is difficult to determine the shape of the body or its decoration.

_Unidentified Animal._—One of the most instructive figures of the collection appears in duplicate on a large food bowl (pl. 5, fig. 1). This vessel is black and white in color and measures fifteen inches in diameter by six inches deep. The two designs occur on the two sides of the interior of the bowl, the middle of which is left without decoration.

The body of this creature is elongated and tapers backward, being continued into a tail like that of the lizard. The head is long and the snout pointed. Only two legs are represented, and these are situated far back on the body near the point of the origin of the tail from the body. A lozenge-shaped symbol forms the geometrical design on the side.

The presence of only two legs in this figure would seem to indicate that a bird was intended, but no bird has a tail like this figure; and the prehistoric potters of the Mimbres certainly knew how to draw a bird much better than this would imply. The exceptional features of this drawing, doubtless intentional, belong neither to flesh, fish, nor fowl, rendering its identification doubtful.

GRASSHOPPER[43]

A figure on a bowl here represented (pl. 6, fig. 1) is painted in “black or brown on a background of bluish wash over a yellow color.” This bowl is eleven inches in diameter, five inches in depth. The figure is a remarkable one, having features of several animals, but none of these are more pronounced than its insectiform characters, among which may be mentioned the antennæ, three legs on one side (evidently three pairs of legs, for that in the back is simply introduced in violation of perspective), and an extended segmented abdomen attached to the thorax and terminating in a recurved tip. The character of the appendages to the thorax, or the wings, leaves no doubt that a flying animal was intended, and the legs and head being like an orthopterous insect, it may be provisionally identified as a “grasshopper.”[44]

While the general form of head, thorax, and body appear from an inspection of the figure, it may be well to call attention to certain special features that illustrate primitive methods of drawing. The most striking of these is seen in the abnormal position of the leg which arises from the thorax on the back in the rear of the so-called wings. This abnormal position was introduced by the artist to show the existence and form of the legs on the right side; the appendage corresponds with one of the three on the left side, which have the proper position but are much smaller. A similar delineation of organs out of place not seen or turned away from the observer was common among the prehistoric artists of the Pueblo region and is paralleled by the representation of two eyes on one side of the head already mentioned. The two “wings,” each ending in white circles with dots or crosses, are supposed, on the theory that this is a grasshopper, to represent wing covers or elytra, which of course the prehistoric people of the Mimbres did not differentiate from folded wings. It is possible that wing cover and wing may be represented on one side and that corresponding organs on the right side of the body are omitted. The thorax is covered with regularly arranged rows of dots formed by parallel lines crossing at an angle, forming purely arbitrary decoration representing the geometric designs on the bodies of other animals.

FROGS AND BIRDS

One of the few bowls obtained on which animals of two species were depicted on the same vessel was excavated by the author at Oldtown. This remarkably fine specimen (pl. 7, fig. 1) has figures of two birds and two frogs[45] drawn in opposite quadrants, being unique in this particular. The two birds and frogs are not very unlike those already described but have certain characteristic features, especially in the geometric designs on their bodies.

The bowl is warped into an irregular shape and made of thin ware, probably distorted in firing. It was found under the floor of one of the central rooms in the Oldtown ruin, almost completely covering the skeleton of a baby.

On another bowl (pl. 6, fig. 2) there is depicted a frog very like that last mentioned. The frog being an amphibian was undoubtedly greatly reverenced by the ancient people of the Mimbres Valley.

HORNED SNAKE

The serpent with a horn on the head is pretty generally regarded as a supernatural being, and its pictures and effigies occur on modern Hopi, Zuñi, and other Pueblo paraphernalia. It is an ancient conception, for it is figured on prehistoric pottery from all parts of the Pueblo area, having been found as far south as Casas Grandes in Chihuahua. It is to be expected that a people like the ancient Mimbreños who adorned their pottery with so many well drawn zoic figures would have included the horned serpent, provided this reptile was a member of their pantheon. The nearest approach to a figure of such a monster is found on a large pottery fragment found by Mr. Osborn twelve miles south of Deming. This fragment covered the cranium of a skeleton and was perforated or “killed” like a whole bowl.

A very large number of pictures of the horned snake from localities all over the Southwest might be mentioned, but a few examples are adequate to show how widespread the conception was in ancient times. They occur among the Tewa, Keres, Zuñi, Hopi and other Pueblos and vary greatly in details, but in all instances preserve the essential symbolic feature—a horn on the head and a serpentine body.

The horned serpent is known to the Hopi as the plumed serpent, and when represented by them has a bundle of hawk feathers as well as a horn attached to the head. Effigies of this being, also with horn and feathers, are used in several ceremonies, as the Winter Solstice,[46] and a dramatic festival[47] which occurs yearly in March. Wooden representations of the same horned snake are carried as insignia by a warrior society called the Kwakwantu,[48] in the New Fire Ceremony. The priests of the Tewan pueblo, Hano, among the Hopi also have effigies of the horned snake, the worship of which their ancestors brought to Arizona from New Mexico. These effigies are yearly made of clay and form conspicuous objects on the December altars of that pueblo.

The head shown in figure 28 has a horn curving forward almost identical with that on the head of a horned serpent on a bowl from Casas Grandes in the Heye collection. Its gracefully sinuous body is decorated with alternating geometric figures, curves and straight lines.[49] Accompanying the figure of a serpent is a well-drawn picture of a turtle which is decorated on the carapace with a rectangular area on which is painted a geometric figure recalling that on bodies of birds and some other animals.

FISHES

One of the bowls (fig. 30) from the Oldtown ruin has two fishes depicted on opposite sides of the inner surface. These fishes resemble trout and are of different colors, black and reddish brown figures painted on a white ground. They are represented as hanging from two parallel lines surrounding the rim of the bowl. These fishes are so well drawn that there is no doubt what animal was intended to be here represented. On the interior of another bowl excavated by the author at Oldtown there is a picture of a fish which recalls the two just mentioned.[50] It may be mentioned that fishes are not represented in the beautiful specimens of pottery from Sikyatki,[51] possibly for the simple reason that there are no streams containing fish in the neighborhood of Hopi ruins. In the Mimbres, however, fish are still found and were no doubt formerly abundant and well known to the prehistoric inhabitants,[52] being looked upon by them as water symbols in much the same way as the frog is at present regarded by Zuñi and Hopi.

Another fish figured on a bowl from Oldtown, is unfortunately broken near the tail. The accompanying decoration has apparently another figure behind this fish, but its complete form is obscured by the perforation made in killing the vessel.

The most problematical of all the life figures on the Mimbres pottery is shown in plate 7, figure 2. This figure occurs on a black and white food bowl, eleven inches in diameter, four and one-half inches in depth. In support of the theory that the two figures here depicted represent fishes, we have the pointed head without neck, the operculum as a white crescentic design, two fins (pectoral, ventral, and anal), the median (adipose?) dorsal fin unpaired, and a long tail bifurcated at the extremity. The resemblance of these figures to the undoubted fishes on bowls previously mentioned is conclusive evidence that they represent the same animal.

GEOMETRICAL FIGURES

The geometrical designs on Mimbres pottery are rectangular, curved, and spiral, the first form being the most common. These units are arranged in twos or fours, and although they consist often of zigzag or stepped figures, the triangle and rectangle predominate. The geometrical designs are rarely colored, but commonly filled in with hachures and parallel lines. There are seldom decorations on the outside of the Mimbres bowls, in which respect they differ from ancient Hopi (Sikyatki) vessels elsewhere figured.[53] Conversely, that part of the interior of the bowl which surrounds the central design, oftentimes elaborately ornamented in Mimbres pottery, is very simply decorated in Sikyatki pottery. Encircling lines on Mimbres pottery are continuous, whereas at Sikyatki they are broken at one or more points by intervals known as the “life gateways” or “lines of life.”[54] The geometrical figures on the inside of every bowl sometimes surround a central region on which no figures of animals or human beings are drawn, but which is perforated.

The more strikingly characteristic forms of geometrical figures are shown in designs on plate 8. Certain of the geometrical figures drawn on the sides of animals as on the wolf (pl. 2, fig. 1), the antelope (figs. 19 and 20), the mountain sheep (pl. 2, fig. 2), the unidentified animal and bird (figs. 18 and 25), the reptile (fig. 28), also appear without the animals and probably have the same significance[55] in both instances.

No geometrical figures were identified as representing sun, moon, earth, or rain-clouds. A few crosses, circles, triangles, and irregular quadrilateral designs combined with zigzag stepped figures and interlocked spirals and highly interesting swastikas (fig. 31) form the majority of the designs.[56] Several geometric designs, as those on the bodies of figures 25 and 26, appear on Sikyatki pottery (see 17th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., plate 121); others resemble Pueblo symbols of wide distribution, but the majority are unique. The geometric designs on the bodies of life-figures vary with the animal depicted, but the same genus of animals does not always have the geometric figure, although almost identical designs occur on the bodies of different genera. It is recognized that a comparison of designs on Southwestern pottery shows a general uniformity in geometrical pattern which renders it very difficult to distinguish different local areas of development, and may be the result of more extensive interchange of ideas and a greater uniformity of cultural conditions. The pottery of the Mimbres shares with the rest of the Southwest several well-known geometrical designs which no doubt date back to an earlier epoch than the evolution of animal figures, but it also has several decorations of geometrical patterns (fig. 32) that are peculiar to it and which, taken with the characteristic zoic figures, serve to differentiate it from other local areas. Mimbres pottery as pointed out by others has a general likeness to that from Casas Grandes Valley in Chihuahua, a resemblance which no doubt increases as we follow the river to Lakes Palomas and Guzman.[57] The resemblance is not close enough to indicate identity, but we have enough material to support the belief that the archeological area in which it occurs is Mexican, unlike that of any other ceramic area in Arizona or New Mexico. Here a specialized symbolism has been developed which is different from that of the Rio Grande, or the Upper Gila-Salt area, and that characteristic of the great Lower Gila in which lie the compounds like Casa Grande. The Mimbres Valley archeologically is the northern extension of a culture area which reached its highest development on Casas Grandes River.

CONCLUSIONS

Geographically the Mimbres Valley is the northern extension of the drainage area of the large interior plateau, the lowest level of which is occupied by Palomas, Guzman, and other so-called lakes. The Casas Grandes, Mimbres, and other rivers contribute their scanty waters to these lakes, which have no outlets into the sea. As a rule the thirsty sands along the course of the river drink up the surplus waters of the Mimbres or cause them to sink beneath the surface, to reappear when the configuration of lower clay or rock formations forces them from subterranean courses. Considering the similarity in climatic and geographical conditions in the northern and southern ends of this plateau, we would expect to find cultural likenesses in the prehistoric inhabitants of the Mimbres and Casas Grandes valleys, but such is not the case. The absence of relief decoration combined with painting, so common in the pottery from the Casas Grandes region, separates the Mimbres ware from that found far to the south.[58]

There are evidences that the course of the Mimbres River through Antelope Plain has from time to time changed considerably, and although a section of its bed now lies east of the Florida Mountains, the river probably formerly made its way to the west of the same in its course to Mexico. Modifications or changes in the bed of this river have had in the past much to do with the shifting of population and obliteration of prehistoric sites, either by washing them away entirely or burying them out of sight or deeply below the surface. This concealment of evidences of prehistoric occupancy has also been aided by frequent sandstorms, when considerable quantities of soil have been transported from place to place and deposited on walls or covered implements lying on the surface of the ground. It is also possible that there has been a slow change of climate, causing a desiccation which may have been so widespread that the inhabitants of the plain were driven up river into the hills where water was more abundant, but it is well to remember that abandoned settlements or ruins exist on the banks of the Mimbres where there is still abundant water, as well as in the plain which is dry.

The depth of the present water level, as shown by drilling for wells, varies in different places in the valley, but in the neighborhood of the hills there are many springs. The configuration of the surface of the hard clay strata lying beneath the soil here and there often forces the water to rise to the surface, and ruins occur at points where at present there are no signs of surface water, although at the time they were inhabited there may have been more water.[59] Whether or not this water was brought to certain ruins by a system of artificial irrigation, the canals of which have been obliterated, we cannot say, but there is only scanty evidence that the climate here, as elsewhere, has radically changed since man occupied the valley.[60]

Although there is a remote likeness between the terraced house or pueblo community of northern New Mexico[61] and the prehistoric houses of the Lower Mimbres, its closest resemblance is to an antecedent type, for it is possible that the terraced pueblo culture in the Rio Grande Valley was preceded by another. This earlier type of habitation of the Mimbres Valley was like the fragile-walled house of the natives inhabiting a large part of Arizona and New Mexico before the Puebloan, and we have evidence that this older style of building was scattered over the present Pueblo area. There is no evidence of a terraced dwelling or pueblo more than one story high in the Mimbres or the inland basin in which it lies. In other words the ruins of the Mimbres may be regarded as older than true pueblo ruins, resembling an earlier type of dwelling that antedated, in the Rio Grande Valley, the terraced houses.

The author does not find any architectural features in the remains of the prehistoric habitations of the Mimbres Valley suggesting Casa Grande compounds, or those massive buildings with encircling walls which are characteristic of the plains of the Gila. Although the walls of the Casas Grandes, in Chihuahua, are constructed in the same way and out of material like those of Casa Grande on the Gila, the architectural feature, an encircling wall of the latter, has not yet been recognized on the Sierra Madre plateau.[62] Objects found in the Gila ruins are somewhat different in form from those of Chihuahua, while pottery from the Gila Valley ruins and that from the inland plateau in northern Chihuahua is markedly different, with very divergent symbolism. Not only do forms of stone implements of a shape unknown in southern Arizona occur in southern New Mexico, but also the methods of disposal of the dead differed among the two people. The latter practised inhumation only, the other both cremation and inhumation. The aborigines of the Mimbres Valley placed a bowl over the head or face of the dead, a practice which, so far as known, does not appear to have been so commonly in vogue in inhumation of the prehistoric people of the Lower Gila plains.

The conventional geometric symbols on prehistoric Mimbres pottery are readily distinguished from those on ware from Tulerosa, a tributary of the San Francisco. The most significant feature of the Mimbres pottery is that fifty per cent of the figures on it represent men or animals, while out of a hundred bowls from the Gila not more than two or three are ornamented with zoic designs. As we know comparatively nothing of the pottery of the sources of the Upper Gila and that part of its course which lies between the Tulerosa and the Mimbres, we can at present venture very little information on ceramic relations, but similarities or mixtures would naturally be expected, due to contact or overlapping, the type of the one valley overlaying that of the other or mingling with it.

The sources of the Upper Salt, the largest tributary of the Gila, lie far from the Mimbres, and close relationship in the pottery of the ancient people inhabiting its banks is not found or expected. It is not known whether the pottery from the Upper Salt and that from the Upper Gila is similar, for our museums have no extensive collections from the latter region from which to make comparisons and draw conclusions. We know practically nothing of the prehistoric culture of the Upper Gila.

The aborigines of the Mimbres, like those of some of the former dwellers in Pajarito Park in New Mexico, practised a modified form of urn burial, but the latter rarely decorated their pottery with figures of animals. As compared with known Pueblo ceramics, the Mimbres pottery appears to be more closely allied to ancient Keresan than to old Tewan. Judging from what remains, the houses architecturally had little in common with true pueblos.[63] There are no evidences of circular subterranean kivas with pilasters, ventilators, deflectors, and niches, as in northern New Mexico, although there is a fairly large proportion of subterranean rooms or pit dwellings which may have been their prototypes. Architecturally the prehistoric habitations of the Mimbres Valley represent an old house form widely distributed in the Pueblo region or that antedating the pueblo or terraced-house type before the kiva had developed.

There are not sufficient data at hand to determine satisfactorily the kinship of the prehistoric inhabitants of Mimbres Valley, but as far as may be judged by pottery symbols it may be supposed that their culture resembled that of other sedentary people of New Mexico and Arizona in early times, as well as that of peoples of Chihuahua. It appears to the author that there are so many cultural similarities among the sedentary people which inhabited the Sierra Madre plateau, of which the Antelope Plain of Mimbres Valley is only a northern extension, that we may regard their culture as closely related. A specialized high development of this inland culture took place along the Casas Grandes River, culminating in Chihuahua. The Mimbres Valley was inhabited by people somewhat less developed in culture.

Although the ancients of the Mimbres were related on the one side to the Pueblos of New Mexico and on the other to more southern people, that relationship existed between the ancestors of the same rather than with modern Pueblos, and reached back to a time before the terraced communal house type originated. This type of house arose in northern New Mexico and spreading from this center extended down the San Juan as far as the Hopi, while modifications are also found in certain ruins on the Gila and Little Colorado, which, like Zuñi, it profoundly influenced, but its influence never reached as far as the Lower Mimbres.

A comparison of the limited archeological material from the Mimbres with that from other localities in the Southwest suggests a provisional hypothesis that the prehistoric culture of this valley was not modified by terraced architecture nor greatly affected by that of the Lower Gila type, both of which evolved independently and locally, but belonged to an older type with which it had much in common.

FIG. 1.—WOMAN DANCER. BLACK AND WHITE WARE. 12 BY 6 INCHES. OSBORN
RUIN.

FIG. 2.—DANCING FIGURE. RED DECORATION. DIAMETER 5 INCHES. OSBORN
RUIN.]

FIG. 1. TWO WOLVES. BLACK AND WHITE WARE. 11 BY 5½ INCHES. OSBORN
RUIN.

FIG. 2. MOUNTAIN SHEEP. BLACK AND WHITE WARE. 11 BY 5½ INCHES.
OSBORN RUIN.]

FIG. 1.—BIRD A. RED AND WHITE WARE. 9 BY 4 INCHES. OSBORN RUIN.

FIG. 2.—BIRD B. BLACK AND WHITE WARE. 10 BY 5 INCHES. OSBORN RUIN.]

FIG. 1. BIRD C. BLACK AND WHITE WARE. 10 BY 5½ INCHES. OSBORN RUIN.

FIG. 2. BIRD F. RED AND WHITE WARE. DIAMETER 8 INCHES. OSBORN
RUIN.]

FIG. 1.—PROBLEMATICAL ANIMAL. BLACK AND WHITE WARE. 15 BY 6 INCHES.
OSBORN RUIN.

FIG. 2—PROBLEMATICAL ANIMAL. RED DECORATION. OSBORN RUIN.]

FIG. 1.—GRASSHOPPER. RED FIGURE. DIAMETER 5 INCHES. OSBORN RUIN.

FIG. 2.—FROG. DIAMETER 10 INCHES. OSBORN RUIN.]

FIG. 1. FROGS AND BIRDS. BLACK AND WHITE WARE. DIAMETER ABOUT 12
INCHES. OLDTOWN RUIN.

FIG. 2. FISHES. BLACK AND WHITE WARE. 11 BY 4½ INCHES.]

GEOMETRICAL DESIGNS. DIAMETER ⅐ NATURAL SIZE]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] In a letter to Professor W. H. Holmes, published in his paper, “Flint Implements and Fossil Remains from a Sulphur Spring at Afton, Indian Territory,” Mr. A. R. Graham gives an instructive account of cleaning out the Faywood Hot Springs where he found the following relics: (1) parts of skulls and bones of several human beings; (2) over fifty spearheads and arrowheads of every shape and style of workmanship, the spearheads being valuable for their size and symmetry; (3) nine large warclubs made of stone; (4) a large variety of teeth of animals as well as large bones of extinct animals; (5) the most interesting relics are ten stone pipes from four to seven inches in length; (6) flint hatchet and a stone hammer, together with stones worn flat from use; beads made of vegetable seed and bird bones; part of two Indian bows with which was found a quiver in which was quite a bunch of long, coarse black hair that was soon lost after being dried.—Amer. Anthrop., n. s., vol. 4, pp. 126, 127.

[2] The Santa Rita mines early attracted the conquistadors looking for gold, and were worked in ancient times by the Spaniards, the ores obtained finding an outlet along a road down the valley to the city of Chihuahua. The prehistoric people also mined native Mimbres copper, and probably obtained from these mines and from those in Cook’s Range, the native copper from which were made the hawk-bells sometimes found in Arizona and New Mexico. From these localities also were derived fragments of float copper often found in Southwestern ruins and commonly ascribed to localities in Mexico. From here came also a form of primitive stone mauls used in early days of the working of the mines.

[3] The National Museum had nothing from the Lower Mimbres before this addition, although it has a few specimens, without zoic designs, from Fort Bayard, in the Upper Mimbres. The latter are figured by Dr. Hough, Bull. 87, U. S. National Museum.

[4] Archæological Institute of America, American Series, vol. 4, Final Report, Part 2, pp. 356, 357.

[5] American Antiquarian, vol. 24, p. 397, 1902.

[6] Bandelier (_op. cit._, p. 357) speaks of sixty ruins in a small section thirty miles along the river.

[7] Bull. 35, Bur. Amer. Ethn., p. 83. See also an article subsequently published on the Culture of the Ancient Pueblos of the Upper Gila River Region, Bull. 87, 1913, U. S. National Museum, in which several bowls with geometrical designs from Fort Bayard are figured.

[8] Bandelier found that Mimbres pottery resembles that of several regions, including Casas Grandes.

[9] The Archæological Bulletin, vol. 3, No. 3, p. 70.

[10] During the author’s stay in Deming he was much indebted to Dr. S. D. Swope for many kindnesses, among which was an opportunity to study his valuable collection, now in the high school of that city. He was also greatly aided by Mr. E. D. Osborn and several other citizens, and takes this opportunity to thank all who rendered assistance in his studies. The photographs reproduced in the present paper were made by Mr. Osborn.

[11] Specimens were also found by Mr. Osborn at the Byron Ranch ruin, at the Black Mountain site, and elsewhere.

[12] This is the ruin called Osborn ruin in subsequent descriptions.

[13] On some of the skulls excavated at Sikyatki, Arizona, in 1895, the author found concave disks of kaolin perforated in the center. One of these disks is represented in Fig. 356, p. 729, 17th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. In an article on “Urn Burial in the United States” (Amer. Anthrop., vol. 6, No. 5), Mr. Clarence B. Moore, quoting his own observations and those of many others, records burials in which an inverted mortar, bowl, basket, or other object was placed over the skull of the dead, and shows the wide distribution of the custom.

[14] A beautiful view of the valley can be obtained from the top of Black Mountain, above the small ruin at its base, that will be mentioned presently.

[15] The drawings of pottery designs in this article were made by Mrs. M. W. Gill; the stone and other objects were drawn by Mr. R. Weber.

[16] A significant feature in the Mimbres form of “urn burial” is the invariable puncturing of the bowl inverted over the head. The ancient Peruvians in some instances appear to have “killed” their mortuary bowls, and life figures depicted on Peruvian pottery are sometimes arranged in pairs as in the Mimbres.

[17] Although not placed in the proper locality on his map, this ruin seems to be one of the “pueblos” (Nos. 162–164) mentioned by Dr. Hough.

[18] Archæological and Ethnological Researches in Southwestern New Mexico, Part 2, Ruin, Ancient Work Shop, Rock Mounds, etc., at Swarts’ Ranch. (The Archæological Bulletin, vol. 4, No. 1, p. 14, 1913.)

[19] For a description of ruins at Swarts’ and Brockman’s Mills see C. L. Webster, Archæological and Ethnological Researches in Southwestern New Mexico. (The Archæological Bulletin, vol. 3, No. 4.)

[20] It is said that a Spanish bell in the Chamber of Commerce at Deming, was dug up on this ranch near the ruin. This bell might indicate an old mission at this place.

[21] The author visited these rocks in company with Dr. Swope, who has known of them for many years.

[22] Archæological and Ethnological Researches in Southwestern New Mexico, Part 4. (The Archæological Bulletin, vol. 5, No. 2, p. 21.)

[23] Mr. Webster describes “ancient pueblos” on the western side of this group of mountains as well as on the eastern slope of Cook’s Range. Certain cave lodges, or walled caves, in a wild canyon on the east side of Cook’s Peak are supposed by him to be the recent work of Apaches.

[24] Elaborate metal objects of early historical times have been found at various places in the Mimbres. The best of these is a fragment of an elaborately decorated stirrup, now owned by Mr. Pryor of the Nan Ranch. A copper church bell was found near his house, and other metal objects belonging to the historic epoch are reported from various ruins in the valley.

[25] Similar stone idols from the San Pedro Valley and other localities, in Arizona and New Mexico, have mortar-like depressions on their backs.

[26] One of the exceptional forms of pottery has a flat rectangular base, the four sides being formed by bending up segments of a circular disk (fig. 18).

[27] Called also a “wedding blanket” since it is presented to a girl on marriage by her husband’s family.

[28] 17th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., pl. 129, fig. _a_.

[29] The hand of the hunter pictured on a bowl already described (fig. 13), also carried a curved stick.

[30] Bull. 87, U. S. National Museum.

[31] The Winter Solstice Ceremony at Walpi. Amer. Anthrop., 1st ser., vol. 11, Nos. 3, 4, pp. 65–87, 101–115.

[32] An ancient crook found in a cave near Silver City is figured by Dr. Hough. Bull. 87, U. S. National Museum.

[33] Amer. Anthrop., n. s., vol. 4, p. 502.

[34] Rabbits are abundant in the Mimbres Valley and several well-drawn pictures of this animal are found on the pottery.

[35] This picture resembles that of a wolf depicted on the east wall of the warrior chamber at Walpi. See Amer. Anthrop., n. s., vol. 4, pl. 22.

[36] Pictures of the mountain lion by Pueblo artists, at least among the Hopi, have the tail turned over the back. The animal on the Mimbres bowl having no horns is not a horned deer or antelope.

[37] The decoration of the bodies of animals with rectangular figures is a common feature in Mimbres pottery, as will be seen in pictures of birds soon to be considered.

[38] In addition to the figure with the hunters which is probably a deer, as it has not the antelope marks on the neck.

[39] These horns are represented on a plane at right angles to that in which they naturally lie.

[40] 17th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., p. 682.

[41] This is known as the sinistral circuit and is regarded as beneficial in Hopi ceremonials.

[42] 17th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., pls. 121_a_, 138_c_. There are one or two examples of Sikyatki pottery where a geometrical design is attached to an animal figure which leads to the belief that possibly the figure attached to the rear of the above may not represent a part of another animal but rather a geometrical design of unknown significance, in this particular recalling old time Hopi ware.

[43] This figure may also be identified as a locust.

[44] Possibly depicted on a food bowl because grasshoppers were eaten by the prehistoric people of the Mimbres.

[45] A picture of a horned toad on a food bowl was recorded from Cook’s Peak by Professor Webster, and there is a picture of what appears to be the same reptile in Mr. Osborn’s collection. It is of course sometimes difficult to positively distinguish representations of frogs, toads, lizards, and Gila monsters, but the anatomical features are often well indicated.

[46] The Winter Solstice Ceremony. Amer. Anthrop., 1st ser., vol. II, Nos. 3, 4, pp. 65–87, 101–115.

[47] A Theatrical Performance at Walpi. Proc. Washington Acad. Sci., vol. 2, pp. 605–629. Native pictures of the Hopi horned snake may be found, pl. 26, 21st Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol.

[48] The horned serpent cult at Walpi is said to have been introduced from the south.

[49] Of all the designs representing the horned snake known to the author this picture from the Mimbres resembles most closely the pictures of this being on pottery from Casas Grandes. It has, however, the single horn found on the clay image in the Hano altar of the Winter Solstice Ceremony, although quite unlike figures on pottery from the Pajarito region. The bodily decorations in the Mimbres bowl are unlike those of the Hopi horned snake.

[50] The Mimbres formerly had many more fishes than at present, and Bartlett records that his men often brought in fine trout for his camp. These, with turkeys, quail, deer and antelopes, led him to say that his “fare might be called sumptuous in some respects” (_op. cit._, p. 236).

[51] Fishes are sometimes represented on Keresan pottery.

[52] As elsewhere mentioned in this paper, one of the bird figures (fig. 25) has a fish in its mouth.

[53] 17th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., Part 2, figs. 277–355.

[54] Ceremonially, every piece of pottery is supposed by the Hopi to be a living being, and when placed in the grave of the owner, it was broken or killed to let the spirit escape to join the spirit of the dead in its future home. There is no evidence that the Sikyatki mortuary pottery was purposely broken when deposited in the grave, and probably no need of perforating it to allow free exit of the spirit, for the broken encircling line, “life gateway,” absent in Mimbres pottery, but almost universally present in ancient Hopi pottery, answered the same purpose, in their conception.

[55] Following Hopi analogies, where these geometrical figures frequently occur with animals they may have the same symbolic meaning as when alone, and represent shrines or prayer-offering houses.

[56] Unfortunately there are few decorated vases represented in the collection, but exploration in the field may later bring many of these to light.

[57] The author brought to Washington fragments of a food bowl from the ruin near Byron Ranch, identical with Casas Grandes ware.

[58] We must look to renewed explorations to shed light on this and many other questions which the paucity of material is yet insufficient to answer.

[59] In dry seasons the river flows under the superficial soil at a varying depth, but in floods it follows the surface bed.

[60] As the author has pointed out in several articles, the abandonment of Southwestern ruins is due to a variety of causes, chief of which are changes of climate. It is often due to other more local causes, as attacks by hostiles, salinity of soil, poor site for defence, presence of wizards, contagious diseases, etc.