Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895: Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1895-1896, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1898, pages 519-744Fewkes, Jesse Walter
History
Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895: Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1895-1896, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1898, pages 519-744
Among the many large stones picked up on the mounds of Sikyatki there
was one the use of which has long puzzled me. This is a rough stone,
not worked save in an equatorial groove. The object is too heavy to
have been carried about, except with the utmost difficulty, and the
probability of the former existence of a handle is out of the
question. It has been suggested that this and similar but larger
grooved stones might have been used as tethers for some domesticated
animal, as the eagle or the turkey, which is about the only
explanation I can suggest. Both of these creatures, and (if we may
trust early accounts) a quadruped about the size of a dog, were
domesticated by the ancient Pueblo people, but I have found no
survival of tethering in use today. Eagles, however, are tied by the
legs and not confined in corrals as at Zuñi, while sheep are kept in
stone inclosures. It is probable that this latter custom came with the
introduction of sheep, and that these stones were weights to which the
Sikyatki people tied by the legs the eagles and turkeys, the feathers
of which play an important part in their sacred observances.
Certain small rectangular slabs of stone have been found, with a
groove extending across one surface diagonally from one angle to
another (plate CLXIX, _a_, _b_.) These are generally called arrowshaft
polishers, and were used to rub down the surface of arrowshafts or
prayer-sticks. Several of these polishers were taken from Sikyatki
graves, and one or two were of such regular form that considerable
care must have been used in their manufacture. A specimen from Awatobi
is decorated with a bow and an arrow scratched on one side, and one of
dark basaltic rock evidently came from a distance. A number of metates
and mullers were found in the graves at Sikyatki. One of the best of
the latter is shown in plate CLXX. These stones are of different
degrees of fineness, and vary from simple triangular slabs of fine
sandstone to very coarse lava. The specimen figured has depressions on
the sides to facilitate handling.[157]
Perhaps the most significant of all the worked stones found in the
Sikyatki cemeteries were the flat slabs the edges of which near the
surface of the soil marked the presence of the graves. These slabs may
be termed headstones, but they have a far different meaning from those
that bear the name of the deceased with which we are most familiar,
for when they have any marking on their faces, it is not a totem of
the dead, but a symbol of the rain-cloud, which is connected with
ancestor worship.
One of the best of these mortuary slabs has its edge cut in such a way
as to give it a terraced outline, and on one face a similar terrace is
drawn in black pigment. These figures are symbols of rain-clouds, and
the interpretation of the use of this design in graves is as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account