| Ruins & Ancient Living! |
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BASKETRY
ARROWHEADS
When we were young, we ooh'd and ah'd over our fathers' collections. Obviously they were REAL MEN. We searched too, so we could have our own collection. Now, we're 'getting up there' and we have a bunch of miscellaneous arrowheads. From where, who remembers? And so, there's a message ... collecting was not such a great idea. A little sadness. Better to have left them where they laid? Introduction Baskets are one of the earliest southwestern archeological pieces, some tracable back to 7000 bce ('before' Bibical creation I guess). Most of the surviving examples are from caves, since in the open, they easily rot and crumble. Interestingly, they've found bundles of splints ready for the next new basket. Basket making was constant. Basics The earliest and simplest baskets use a basic cross-weave. 'Warps' (foundation layer, usually heavier) are crossed with 'wefts' (a lighter more bendable splint). (1) 'Plaited' essentially have a cross-weave where you can't tell the difference between warps and wefts (nor did the weaver). Usually these are for light-duty, or odd shapes for carrying (eg moving rocks/dirt). (2) 'Wicker' has mainly strong vertical warps (foundation) with lighter horizontal wefts inter-woven. (3) 'Coiled' are the strongest, and were the most popular. Here a series of splints are wrapped like a wire, and then coiled round and round forming the warps (foundation). Wefts tie the coils together, creating a strong basket. Most coils are counter-clockwise. (4) Waterproofing was achieved, using a pinon gum on the interior. If you walk around Sedona, the pinons drip the stuff! Extras Depending on the area, basket makers could choose their material for strength, flexibility, and color: reeds, yucca, beargrass, rushes and sedge. By looking closely, you can often surmise their local origen. Most were undecorated. The level of sophistication peaked during pre-pueblo times, only being matched more recently in the historic period. |
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SANDALS Introduction Maybe in the east, you can go barefoot. But in the hot desert, footwear was needed. In its simplest form, shoes were just basketry tied to your feet! Basics (1) The earliest woven footware was squared (essentially large rectangles with ties). Main benefit: easy to replace. (2) As sophistication increased, the northern anasazi tended toward a crescent shape, and a fancier weave. (3) Later in the southern area of the anasazi, a pointed type appeared. Extras Archeologists have found piles of shoes next to the doors of rooms, suggesting that the shoes were likely shared, and going barefoot inside might have been preferred. To accessorize your shoes, you might also include woven leggings to protect your ankles. |
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WEAVING Introduction You'd think cloth weaving is just a step away from basketry. But, you'll find this surprising. Southwestern cotton is actually tracable back before the time of the romans, and cordage from yucca and apocynum (indian hemp) before that. Basics (1) The earliest weaving used yucca/hemp, and was spun into a 2-ply cord. (2) Although cotton was early, frequent use began around 700ce, and was a quick growing variety. (3) It was most likely cleaned by first hand-picking, and then beating using arched sticks found by archeologists. (4) A variety of spindle sticks have been found for spinning the cotton. Most fascinating are the weights on the spinners. (5) If you've seen the navajo weaving frames, you can essentially just simplify the structure, in order to work backward in time (ending up with two parallel sticks as the earliest). Extras As you can imagine, a wide variety of items were woven ... bags, nets, belts, aprons, and kilts. Blankets as clothes were often connected rectangular shapes (some quite sophisticated, similar to our quilts). If you get the opportunity at a museum, examine the weave closely ... you'll be impressed. They were good. |
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DOMESTIC ITEMS Introduction If you imagine being stuck out in the desert, it's not too difficult to think up what you need to survive. And the anasazi were not slow. Here's a quick list from their tool kit. Basics (1) Plantings sticks, generally made from greasewood. Why planting sticks? They poked the corn seed deep into the earth for moisture, unlike today's methods. (2) Firemaking sticks are about a foot long and have a series of holes near the edge where another lighter piece of material was twirled to start a flame. (3) Ax handles were achived by wrapping a flexible stick around a sharpened stone and then tied. Simple, and easy to repair/tighten. (4) Bone tools mainly involved awls (most common) and scrapers for hides. They are fairly abundant in anasazi ruins but less frequent in the mogollon ruins. (5) Metates for grinding corn and other seeds are quite common, but not uniformly so. Morter/pestles were common in Vendana Cave but few were found in Pueblo Bonito. Metates also come in a series of shapes, depending on the rock-type and seed-type. Obviously, you haven't visited a metate store recently, right? (6) Jewelry drills are also fairly common. These are small spinning-sticks used to drill holes for creating strings of jewelry (see jewelry below). |
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JEWELRY Introduction As you tour the southwest, you'll likely visit at least ONE jewelry shop or roadside table. You might think the jewelry is a recent addition to native-american commerce. But, you'd be CONSIDERABLY wrong. Jewelry making/trading is neck and neck with basketry, as to which is earlier. So, as you browse, remember that the 'ancient ones' were out there browsing before you. You're late! Basics (1)The two most frequent materials were turquoise and shell. The anasazi also enjoyed argillite, a red stone. (2) The earliest anasazi beads were likely ephedra seeds and walnuts, complimented with small potshards. (3) Beads were drilled using jewelry drills (see above), first one side and then the opposite. Sometimes they would roll marked-off clay around grass stems, cook it, and then break off the pieces to string. (4) Less common but even more impressive was finely etched shell, likely earlier than Europian versions. Archeologists aren't sure of the method, but suggest it's from an acetic acid from sahuaro cactus. (5) Bracelets were most popular, followed by necklaces. The latter used yucca or cotton as the string. A typical necklace might be pieces of shell, highlighted with turquoise. Extras Burials provide a limited metric concerning ancient jewelry. In a northeast Arizona site, every skelaton had at least ONE necklace. At a burial in Pueblo Bonito, the person had the following quantity of turquoise beads: 2,297 over the legs (skirt/kilt?), 698 on the right ankle, 1,628 on the upper right arm, and 567 scattered around. Another had 1,980 around the neck, 2,642 at the waist with 168 pendants, 2,384 beads on the left arm with 194 pendants, 322 beads on the right ankle, and 432 on the left ankle. Those folks were wearing a jewelry store! |
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MUSIC Introduction Most people probably imagine ancient native-americans playing their drums, while dancing around a bright flame. But you'd be wrong ... archeologists in this area have found almost no early examples of drums! Surprised? But they did have drums. Hmmm. Basics (1) Flutes: You're probably familiar with 'kokopelli', whose images are common across the desert southwest. Flutes were mainly anasazi, made of wood and appear around 400ce in northeast Arizona / northwest New Mexico. A few mogollon reed flutes have been found but not many. There were two main anasazi types. One had a series of 3 holes at one end, and a single hole at the other. The other type had two groupings of 3 holes, pretty similar to today's native american flutes. Since several examples of the latter have been found with the same spacing, it's assumed the anasazi had a common musical scale, though they left no recordings (no 'digital rights' of course). The sound from these designs are very rich and deep. (2) Foot Drums: These were located below ground in the large kivas, and examples can be seen at Chaco and Mesa Verde. For a graphic example, also visit the reconstructed kiva at Aztec NM, (northwestern New Mexico). You pretty much have to use your musical imagination, but the echoing in the kiva must have been tremendous, hearable from above ground. (3) Others: Also found have been stone bells (mainly Rio Grande area), wood/bone rasps, rattles (gourds), bull-roarers likely on strings, and even trumpets and bird-whistles (both from conch-type shells). These sound like a whole symphony of music! Most odd (seems to us) are copper bells. You'd think these would be from the spanish, but they first appeared around 1,050ce and initially came from Mexico. Extras What was the likely sequence? Bone whistles, flutes and tinklers were earliest, around 400-600ce. Next were rattles and foot drums around 600-1000ce. Conch trumpets and conus tinklers showed up after 1,000ce. And lastly were the mexico-originated copper bells around 1,300ce. The latter is interesting, since it's about the time the anasazi began disappearing (probably like the culture-destroying electric guitars of today). |
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