Preliminary report on a visit to the Navaho National Monument, ArizonaFewkes, Jesse Walter
History
Preliminary report on a visit to the Navaho National Monument, Arizona
Fewkes, Jesse Walter
Arizona -- Antiquities; Cliff-dwellings -- Arizona; Navajo National Monument (Ariz.)
The writer collected also several perforated clay disks which were
possibly used as spindle whorls, although they may have been gaming
implements. A similar disk made of mountain-sheep horn was found at
Kitsiel.
The largest and one of the finest vases (pl. 18, _a_) from the
neighborhood of Red Lake is also of black-and-white ware. The
decoration is external and consists of black figures covering the neck
and upper body. The base is rounded and the lip slightly flaring.
This vase may have been used for containing water or possibly as a
receptacle for prayer (corn) meal. The food bowls from Red Lake are
chiefly of black-and-white ware, the red and yellow varieties being
less numerous. A common feature in food bowls of this region is a
handle on one side, as shown in plate 15, _d_. Some of these vessels,
although of smooth ware, are without decoration on either the exterior
or the interior.
The shallow, slightly concave clay disk[46] shown in plate 15, _b_, is
characteristic in possessing a row of holes near the rim. This disk
seems to represent a common type, as several fragments with similar
holes were found on the surface of the ruins. The same or related forms
appear to have been common in ruins near the Hopi pueblos. These are
found in the collection of votive offerings now in the Peabody Museum
at Cambridge, from Jedito spring, near Awatobi, and the writer has
discovered specimens elsewhere in Hopi ruins, a brief mention of which
occurs in a report on the archeological results of his expedition to
Arizona in 1895.[47]
Several fragments of deep bowls, each having a handle (pl. 18, _b_) on
the surface, were obtained in the sands below cliff-house B; these are
commonly of red ware and have reddish-brown and black decorations. A
small dish of black-and-white ware (pl. 15, _a_) has the rim slightly
elevated and rounded on one side. The cups or mugs from this region
are shaped unlike those from the Mesa Verde. Mugs from the latter
region are cylindrical in form or the walls incline slightly inward
so that the diameter of the opening is somewhat less than that of the
base. The lip is thick and decorated. One of these cups, here figured,
has a constricted neck, and a slightly flaring rim which is thin and
undecorated. The decoration of another cup (pl. 15, _c_) suggests the
designs on several mugs from the Little Colorado ruins. So far as form
and decoration are concerned, this cup, or handled vase, might have
come from Homolobi, Chevlon, or Chaves pass.[48]
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 17
_a_ _b_ _c_
_a._ BOWLS BEARING RELIEF ORNAMENTS
(From left to right): Cat. Nos. 257783, 257784, 257782. Heights, 2½
inches, 2 inches, 2¾ inches.
_b._ HANDLES OF FOOD-BOWLS
Cat. No. 258326.
_c._ STONE IMPLEMENTS
(From left to right): Cat. Nos. 258334, 258335, 258336, 258337.
Dimensions, 6 x 4 x 1¾ inches; 5¼ x 3¾ x 2½ inches; 4½ x 3¾ x 2 inches;
4¾ x 2¾ x 2½ inches.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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