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
The evidences all point to a belief, however, that they were both
permanent dwelling places and not temporary resorts at certain seasons
of the year.
The pictographs on the face of the cliff above Honanki are for the
greater part due to the former Apache occupants of the rooms, and are
situated high above the tops of the walls of the ruin. They are, as a
rule, drawn with white chalk, which shows very clearly on the red
rock, and are particularly numerous above room _g_. The figure of a
circle, with lines crossing one another diametrically and continued as
rays beyond the periphery, possibly represent the sun. Many spiral
figures, almost constant pictographs in cliff ruins, are found in
several places. Another strange design, resembling some kind of
insect, is very conspicuous.
A circle painted green and inclosed in a border of yellow is
undoubtedly of Apache origin. There is at one point a row of small
pits, arranged in line, suggesting a score or enumeration of some
kind, and a series of short parallel lines of similar import was found
not far away. This latter method of recording accounts is commonly
used at the present time in Tusayan, both in houses and on cliffs; and
one of the best of these, said to enumerate the number of Apache
killed by the Hopi in a raid many years ago, may be seen above the
trail by which the visitor enters the pueblo of Hano on the East Mesa.
The names of several persons scratched on the face of the cliff
indicate that Americans had visited Honanki before me.
The majority of the paleoglyphs at both Palatki and Honanki are of
Apache origin, and are of comparatively modern date, as would
naturally be expected. In some instances their colors are as fresh as
if made a few years ago, and there is no doubt that they were drawn
after the building was deserted by its original occupants. The
positions of the pictographs on the cliffs imply that they were drawn
before the roofs and flooring had been destroyed, thus showing how
lately the ruin preserved its ancient form. In their sheltered
position there seems to be no reason why the ancient pictographs
should not have been preserved, and the fact that so few of the
figures pecked in the cliff now remain is therefore instructive.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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