Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895 Part 16

DECORATED POTTERY FROM SIKYATKI]

Small and large ladles, with long handles, occurred in large numbers in Sikyatki graves, but there was little variation among them except in the forms of their handles. Many of these utensils were much worn by use, especially on the rim opposite the attachment of the handle, and in some specimens the handle itself had evidently been broken and the end rounded off by rubbing long before it was placed in the grave.

From the comparatively solid character of the bowls of these dippers they were rarely fractured, and were commonly found to contain smaller mortuary objects, such as paint, arrowheads, or polishing stones.

The ladles, unlike most of the cups, are generally decorated on the interior as well as on the exterior. Their handles vary in size and shape, are usually hollow, and sometimes are perforated at the end. In certain specimens the extremity is prolonged into a pointed, recurved tip, and sometimes is coiled in a spiral. A groove in the upper surface of one example is an unusual variation, and a right-angle bend of the tip is a unique feature of another specimen. The Sikyatki potters, like their modern descendants,[113] sometimes ornamented the tip of a single handle with the head of an animal and painted the upper surface of the shaft with alternate parallel bars, zigzags, terraces, and frets.

Several spoons or scoops of earthenware, which evidently had been used in much the same way as similar objects in the modern pueblos, were found. Some of these have the shape of a half gourd--a natural object which no doubt furnished the pattern. These spoons, as a rule, were not decorated, but on a single specimen bars and parallel lines may be detected. In the innovations of modern times pewter spoons serve the same purpose, and their form is sometimes imitated in earthenware.

More often, in modern and probably also in ancient usage, a roll of paper-bread or _piki_ served the same purpose, being dipped into the stew and then eaten with the fingers. Possibly the Sikyatkian drank from the hollow handle of a gourd ladle, as is frequently done in Walpi today, but he generally slaked his thirst by means of a clay subst.i.tute.[114]

Several box-like articles of pottery of both cream and red ware were found in the Sikyatki graves, some of them having handles, others being without them (plate CXXV). They are ornamented on the exterior and on the rim, and the handle, when not lacking, is attached to the longer side of the rectangular vessel. Not a single bowl was found with a terraced rim, a feature so common in the medicine bowls of Tusayan at the present time.[115]

In addition to the various forms of pottery which have been mentioned, there are also pieces made in the form of birds, one of the most typical of which is figured in plate CXII, _c_. In these objects the wings are represented by elevations in the form of ridges on the sides, and the tail and head by prolongations, which unfortunately were broken off.

Toys or miniature reproductions of all the above-mentioned ceramic specimens occurred in several graves. These are often very roughly made, and in some cases contained pigments of different colors. The finding of a few fragments of clay in the form of animal heads, and one or two rude images of quadrupeds, would seem to indicate that sometimes such objects were likewise deposited with the dead. A clay object resembling the flaring end of a flageolet and ornamented with a zigzag decoration is unique in the collections from Sikyatki, although in the western cemetery there was found a fragment of an earthenware tube, possibly a part of a flute.

In order to show more clearly the a.s.sociation of mortuary objects in single graves a few examples of the grouping of these deposits will be given.

In a grave in the western cemetery the following specimens were found: 1, ladle; 2, paint grinder; 3, paint slab; 4, arrowpoints; 5, fragments of a marine sh.e.l.l (_Pectunculus_); 6, pipe, with fragments of a second pipe, and 7, red paint (sesquioxide of iron).

In the grave which contained the square medicine bowl shown in plate CXXVIII, _a_, a ladle containing food was also unearthed.

The bowl decorated with a picture of a girl's head was a.s.sociated with fragments of another bowl and four ladles.

Another single grave contained four large and small cooking pots and a broken metate.

In a grave 8 feet below the surface in the western cemetery we found: 1, decorated food vessel; 2, black shoe-shape cooking pot resting in a food bowl and containing a small rude ladle; 3, coa.r.s.e undecorated basin.

A typical a.s.semblage of mortuary objects comprised: 1, small decorated bowl containing polishing stones; 2, miniature cooking pot blackened by soot; 3, two small food bowls.

In modern Hopi burials the food bowls with the food for the dead are not buried with the deceased, but are placed on the mound of soil and stones which covers the remains. From the position of the mortuary pottery as regards the skeletons in the Sikyatki interments, it is probable that this custom is of modern origin. Whether in former times food bowls were placed on the burial mounds as well as in the grave I am not able to say. The number of food bowls in ancient graves exceeds those placed on modern burials.

The Sikyatki dead were apparently wrapped in coa.r.s.e fabrics, possibly matting.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXXIII

DECORATED POTTERY FROM SIKYATKI]

PALEOGRAPHY OF THE POTTERY

GENERAL FEATURES

The pottery from Sikyatki is especially rich in picture writing, and imperfect as these designs are as a means of transmitting a knowledge of manners, customs, and religious conceptions, they can be interpreted with good results.

One of the most important lessons drawn from the pottery is to be had from a study of the symbols used in its decoration, as indicative of current beliefs and practices when it was made. The ancient inhabitants of Sikyatki have left no written records, for, unlike the more cultured people of Central America, they had no codices; but they have left on their old mortuary pottery a large body of picture writings or paleography which reveals many instructive phases of their former culture. The decipherment of these symbols is in part made possible by the aid of a knowledge of modern survivals, and when interpreted rightly they open a view of ancient Tusayan myths, and in some cases of prehistoric practices.[116]

Students of Pueblo mythology and ritual are acc.u.mulating a considerable body of literature bearing on modern beliefs and practices. This is believed to be the right method of determining their aboriginal status, and is therefore necessary as a basis of our knowledge of their customs and beliefs. It is reasonable to suppose that what is now practiced in Pueblo ritual contains more or less of what has survived from prehistoric times, but from Taos to Tusayan there is no pueblo which does not show modifications in mythology and ritual due to European contact. Modern Pueblo life resembles the ancient, but is not a facsimile of it, and until we have rightly measured the effects of incorporated elements, we are more or less inexact in our estimation of the character of prehistoric culture. The vein of similarity in the old and the new can be used in an interpretation of ancient paleography, but we overstep natural limitations if by so doing we ascribe to prehistoric culture every concept which we find current among the modern survivors. To show how much the paleography of Tusayan has changed since Sikyatki was destroyed, I need only say that most of the characteristic figures of deities which are used today in the decoration of pottery are not found on the Sikyatki ware. Perhaps the most common figures on modern food bowls is the head of a mythologic being, the Corn-maid, _Calako-mana_, but this picture, or any which resembles it, is not found on the bowls from Sikyatki. A knowledge of the cult of the Corn-maid possibly came into Tusayan, through foreign influences, after the fall of Sikyatki, and there is no doubt that the picture decoration of modern Tusayan pottery, made within a league of Sikyatki, is so different from the ancient that it indicates a modification of the culture of the Hopi in historic times, and implies how deceptive it may be to present modern beliefs and practices as facsimiles of ancient culture.

The main subjects chosen by the native women for the decoration of their pottery are symbolic, and the most abundant objects which bear these decorations are food bowls and water vases. Many mythic concepts are depicted, among which may be mentioned the Plumed Snake, various birds, reptiles, frogs, tadpoles, and insects. Plants or leaves are seldom employed as decorative motives, but the flower is sometimes used. The feather was perhaps the most common object utilized, and it may likewise be said the most highly conventionalized.

An examination of the decorations of modern food basins used in the villages of East Mesa shows that the mythologic personages most commonly chosen for the ornamentation of their interiors are the Corn or Germ G.o.ddesses.[117] These a.s.sume a number of forms, yet all are reducible to one type, although known by very different names, as Hewuqti, "Old Woman," Kokle, and the like.

Figures of reptiles, birds, the antelope, and like animals do not occur on any of the food bowls from the large collection of modern Tusayan pottery which I have studied, and as these figures are well represented in the decorations on Sikyatki food bowls, we may suppose their use has been abandoned or replaced by figures of the Corn-maids.[118] This fact, like so many others drawn from a study of the Tusayan ritual, indicates that the cult of the Corn-maids is more vigorous today than it was when Sikyatki was in its prime.

Many pictures of masks on modern Tusayan bowls are identified as _Tacab_ or Navaho _katcinas_.[119] Their symbolism is well characterized by chevrons on the cheeks or curved markings for eyes.

None of these figures, however, have yet been found on ancient Tusayan ceramics. Taken in connection with facts adduced by Hodge indicative of a recent advent of this vigorous Athapascan tribe into Tusayan, it would seem that the use of the _Tacab katcina_ pictures was of recent date, and is therefore not to be expected on the prehistoric pottery of the age of that found in Sikyatki.

In the decoration of ancient pottery I find no trace of figures of the clown-priests, or _tcukuwympkiya_, who are so prominent in modern Tusayan _katcina_ celebrations. These personages, especially the Tatcukti, often called by a corruption of the Zuni name Koyimse (Koyomashi), are very common on modern bowls, especially at the extremities of ladles or smaller objects of pottery.

Many handles of ladles made at Hano in late times are modeled in the form of the Paiakyamu,[120] a glutton priesthood peculiar to that Tanoan pueblo. From the data at hand we may legitimately conclude that the conception of the clown-priest is modern in Tusayan, so far as the ornamentation of pottery is concerned.

The large collections of so-called modern Hopi pottery in our museums is modified Tanoan ware, made in Tusayan. Most of the component specimens were made by Hano potters, who painted upon them figures of _katcinas_, a cult which they and their kindred introduced.

Several of the food bowls had evidently cracked during their firing or while in use, and had been mended before they were buried in the graves. This repairing was accomplished either by filling the crack with gum or by boring a hole on each side of the fracture for tying.

In one specimen of black-and-white ware a perfectly round hole was made in the bottom, as if purposely to destroy the usefulness of the bowl before burial. This hole had been covered inside with a rounded disk of old pottery, neatly ground on the edge. It was not observed that any considerable number of mortuary pottery objects were "killed"

before burial, although a large number were chipped on the edges. It is a great wonder that any of these fragile objects were found entire, the stones and soil covering the corpse evidently having been thrown into the grave without regard to care.

The majority of the ancient symbols are incomprehensible to the present Hopi priests whom I have been able to consult, although they are ready to suggest many interpretations, sometimes widely divergent.

The only reasonable method that can be pursued in determining the meaning of the conventional signs with which the modern Tusayan Indians are unfamiliar seems, therefore, to be a comparative one. This method I have attempted to follow so far as possible.

There is a closer similarity between the symbolism of the Sikyatki pottery and that of the Awatobi ware than there is between the ceramics of either of these two pueblos and that of Walpi, and the same likewise may be said of the other Tusayan ruins so far as known.

It is desirable, however, that excavations be made at the site of Old Walpi in order to determine, if possible, how widely different the ceramics of that village are from the towns whose ruins were studied in 1895. There are certain practical difficulties in regard to work at Old Walpi, one of the greatest of which is its proximity to modern burial places and shrines still used. Moreover, it is probable--indeed, quite certain--that most of the portable objects were carried from the abandoned pueblo to the present village when the latter was founded; but the old cemeteries of Walpi contain many ancient mortuary bowls which, when exhumed, will doubtless contribute a most interesting chapter to the history of modern Tusayan decorative art.

One of the largest, and, so far as form goes, one of the most unique vessels, is shown in plate CXXVI, _b_. This was not exhumed from Sikyatki, but was said to have been found in the vicinity of that ruin. While the ware is very old, I do not believe it is ancient, and it is introduced in order to show how cleverly ancient patterns maybe simulated by more modern potters. The sole way in which modern imitations of ancient vessels may be distinguished is by the peculiar crackled or crazed surface which the former always has. This is due, I believe, to the method of firing and the unequal contraction or expansion of the slip employed. All modern imitations are covered with a white slip which, after firing, becomes crackled, a characteristic unknown to ancient ware. The most expert modern potter at East Mesa is Nampeo, a Tanoan woman who is a thorough artist in her line of work.

Finding a better market for ancient than for modern ware, she cleverly copies old decorations, and imitates the Sikyatki ware almost perfectly. She knows where the Sikyatki potters obtained their clay, and uses it in her work. Almost any Hopi who has a bowl to sell will say that it is ancient, and care must always be exercised in accepting such claims.

An examination of the ornamentation of the jar above referred to shows a series of birds drawn in the fashion common to early pottery decoration. This has led me to place this large vessel among the old ware, although the character of the pottery is different from that of the best examples found at Sikyatki. I believe this vessel was exhumed from a ruin of more modern date than Sikyatki. The woman who sold it to me has farming interests near Awatobi, which leads me to conjecture that she or possibly one of her ancestors found it at or near that ruin. She admitted that it had been in the possession of her family for some time, but that the story she had heard concerning it attributed its origin to Sikyatki.

HUMAN FIGURES

Very few figures of men or women are found on the pottery, and these are confined to the interior of food basins (plate CXXIX).[121] They are ordinarily very roughly drawn, apparently with less care and with much less detail than are the figures of animals. From their character I am led to the belief that the drawing of human figures on pottery was a late development in Tusayan art, and postdates the use of animal figures on their earthenware. There are, however, a few decorations in which human figures appear, and these afford an interesting although meager contribution to our knowledge of ancient Tusayan art and custom.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXXIV

DECORATED POTTERY FROM SIKYATKI]

As is well known, the Hopi maidens wear their hair in two whorls, one over each ear, and that on their marriage it is tied in two coils falling on the breast. The whorl is arranged on a U-shape stick called a _gnela_; it is commonly done up by a sister, the mother, or some friend of the maiden, and is stiffened with an oil pressed from squash seeds. The curved stick is then withdrawn and the two puffs held in place by a string tightly wound between them and the head. The habit of dressing the hair in whorls is adopted after certain p.u.b.erty ceremonials, which have elsewhere been described. When on betrothal a Hopi maid takes her gifts of finely ground cornmeal to the house of her future mother-in-law, her hair is dressed in this fashion for the last time, because on her return she is attacked by the women of the pueblo, drawn hither and thither, her hair torn down, and her body smeared with dirt. If her gifts are accepted she immediately becomes the wife of her lover, and her hair is thenceforth dressed in the fashion common to matrons.

The symbolic meaning of the whorls of hair worn by the maidens is said to be the squash-flower, or, perhaps more accurately speaking, the potential power of fructification. There is legendary and other evidence that this custom is very ancient among the Tusayan Indians, and the data obtainable from their ritual point the same way. In the personification of ancestral "breath-bodies," or spirits by men, called _katcinas_, the female performers are termed _katcina-manas_ (katcina-virgins), and it is their custom to wear the hair in the characteristic coiffure of maidens. In the personification of the Corn-maid by symbolic figures, such as graven images,[122] pictures, and the like, in secret rites, the style of coiffure worn by the maidens is common, as I have elsewhere shown in the descriptions of the ceremonials known as the Flute, _Lalakonti_, _Mamzrauti_, _Palulukonti_, and others. The same symbol is found in images used as dolls of Calako-mana, the equivalent, as the others, of the same Corn-maid. From the nature of these images there can hardly be a doubt of the great antiquity of this practice, and that it has been brought down, through their ritual, to the present day. This style of hair dressing was mentioned by the early Spanish explorers, and is represented in pictographs of ancient date; but if all these evidences of its antiquity are insufficient the testimony afforded by the pictures on certain food-basins from Sikyatki leaves no doubt on this point.[123]

Plate CXXIX, _b_, represents a food-basin, on the inside of which is drawn, in brown, the head and shoulders of a woman. On either side the hair is done up in coils which bear some likeness to the whorls worn by the present Hopi maidens. It must be borne in mind, however, that similar coils are sometimes made after ceremonial head-washing, and certain other rites, when the hair is tied with corn husks. The face is painted reddish, and the ears have square pendants similar to the turquois mosaics worn by Hopi women at the present day. Although there is other evidence than this of the use of square ear-pendants, set with mosaic, among the ancient people--and traditions point the same way--this figure of the head of a woman from Sikyatki leaves no doubt of the existence of this form of ornament in that ancient pueblo.

However indecisive the last-mentioned picture may be in regard to the coiffure of the ancient Sikyatki women, plate CXXIX, _a_, affords still more conclusive evidence. This picture represents a woman of remarkable form which, from likenesses to figures at present made in sand on an altar in the _Lalakonti_ ceremony,[124] I have no hesitation in ascribing to the Corn-maid. The head has the two whorls of hair very similar to those made in that rite on the picture of the G.o.ddess of Germs, and the square body is likewise paralleled in the same figure. The peculiar form is employed to represent the outstretched blanket, a style of art which is common in Mayan codices.[125] On each lower corner representations of feathered strings, called in the modern ritual _nakwakwoci_,[126] are appended.