The Cliff Ruins of Canyon de Chelly, Arizona: Sixteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1894-95, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1897, pages 73-198Mindeleff, Cosmos
History
The Cliff Ruins of Canyon de Chelly, Arizona: Sixteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1894-95, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1897, pages 73-198
Mindeleff, Cosmos
Arizona -- Antiquities; Chelly, Canyon de (Ariz.); Cliff-dwellings -- Arizona; Pueblo Indians -- Antiquities
In ruin No. 4 there is a similar series of bars, but in this instance
they occur on the cliff wall back of the rooms. They are shown in figure
73. There are four bars or upright bands, done in white paint, and
surmounted by four round dots or spots. To the left of the four bars,
level with their tops, there is a small triangle, also in white. The
bars are 30 inches long and 4 inches wide. The upper dots are nearly
2 feet above, the tops of the bars. It is evident that this figure was
designed to be seen from a distance. Figure 74 shows some markings on
the cliff wall back of ruin No. 37.
[Illustration: Fig. 76--Design employed in decorative band.]
Examples almost identical with those shown here are abundant in the
Mancos ruins. It was probable they are of ceremonial rather than of
decorative origin, and in this connection it may be stated that Mr Frank
H. Cushing has observed in Zuni the ceremony of marking the sides of a
kiva hatchway with white bars closely resembling those shown in figure
73. This ceremony occurs once in four years, and the purpose of the
marks is said to be to indicate the cardinal directions. In the
ceremonials of the Pueblo Indians it is necessary to know where the
cardinal points are; a prayer, for instance, is often addressed to the
north, west, south, and east, and when such ceremonials were performed
in a circular chamber some means by which the direction could be
determined was essential.
[Illustration: Fig. 77--Pictographs in Canyon de Chelly.]
In the principal kiva in Mummy Cave ruin, however, there is a painted
band on the front of the bench which appears to be really an attempt at
decoration. Over the white there is a band 4 or 5 inches wide,
consisting of a meander done in red. This is shown in figure 75, and in
detail in figure 76. The design is similar to that used today. Its
importance arises not so much from this as from the fact that it is
difficult to regard this as other than ornamentation, and the Pueblo
architect had not yet reached the stage of ornamented construction. The
ruins in the Mancos canyon and the Mesa Verde country obviously
represent a later stage in development than those in De Chelly, yet
nowhere in that region do we find the counterpart of the decoration in
Mummy Cave kiva. Bands with points occur, sometimes on walls of
rectangular rooms. One such is illustrated by Chapin,[21] who also shows
a variety of the meander, treated, however, as a pictograph and without
reference to its decorative value. Similar bands are shown also by
Nordenskioeld,[22] but always with three points, instead of four, which
were done in red. Figure 77 shows some pictographs somewhat resembling
the Mancos examples. These occur at the point marked 1 on the map, in
connection with a small storage cist already described.
[Footnote 21: Land of the Cliff Dwellers, illustration, pp. 143,
152.]
[Footnote 22: Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde, figs. 6, 7, 76,
77, and 78.]
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