Chapter VII: Part 7

I employed Indian workmen at the ruin, and found them, as a rule, efficient helpers. The zeal which they manifested at the beginning of the work did not flag, but it must be confessed that toward the close of the excavations it became necessary to incite their enthusiasm by prizes, and, to them, extraordinary offers of overalls and calico. They at first objected to working in the cemeteries, regarding it as a desecration of the dead, but several of their number overcame their scruples, even handling skulls and other parts of skeletons. The Snake chief, Kopeli, however, never worked with the others, desiring not to dig in the graves. Respecting his feelings, I allotted him the special task of excavating the rooms of the acropolis, which he performed with much care, showing great interest in the results. At the close of our daily work prayer-offerings were placed in the trenches by the Indian workmen, as conciliatory sacrifices to Masauwûh, the dread God of Death, to offset any malign influence which might result from our desecration of his domain. A superstitious feeling that this god was not congenial to the work which was going on, seemed always to haunt the minds of the laborers, and once or twice I was admonished by old men, visitors from Walpi, not to persist in my excavations. The excavators, at times, paused in their work and called my attention to strange voices echoing from the cliffs, which they ascribed, half in earnest, to Masauwûh.

The Indians faithfully delivered to me all objects which they found in their digging, with the exception of turquoises, many of which, I have good reason to suspect, they concealed while our backs were turned and, in a few instances, even before our eyes.

The accompanying plan of Sikyatki (plate CXVI) shows that it was a rectangular ruin with an inclosed plaza. It is evident that the ancient pueblo was built on a number of low hills and that the eastern portion was the highest. In this respect it resembled Awatobi, but apparently differed from the latter pueblo in having the inclosed plaza. In the same way it was unlike Walpi or the ancient and modern pueblos of Middle Mesa and Oraibi. In fact, there is no Tusayan ruin which resembles it in ground plan, except Payüpki, a Tanoan town of much later construction. The typical Tusayan form of architecture is the pyramidal, especially in the most ancient pueblos. The ground plan of Sikyatki is of a type more common in the eastern pueblo region and in those towns of Tusayan which were built by emigrants from the Rio Grande region. Sikyatki and some of the villages overlooking Antelope valley are of this type.

In studying the ground plans of the three modern villages on East Mesa, the fact is noted that both Sichomovi and Hano differ architecturally from Walpi. The forms of the former smaller pueblos are primarily rectangular with an inclosed plaza in which is situated the kiva; Walpi, on the other hand, although furnished with a small plaza at the western end, has kivas located peripherally rather than in an open space between the highest house clusters. Sichomovi is considered by the Hopi as like Zuñi, and is sometimes called by the Hano people, Sionimone, "Zuñi court," because to the Tewan mind it resembles Zuñi; but the term is never applied to Walpi.[107] The distinction thus recognized is, I believe, architecturally valid. The inclosed court or plaza in Tusayan is an intrusion from the east, and as eastern colonists built both Hano and Sichomovi, they preserved the form to which they were accustomed. The Sikyatki builders drew their architectural inspiration likewise from the east, hence the inclosed court in the ruins of that village.

The two most considerable house clusters of Sikyatki are at each end of a longer axis, connected by a narrow row of houses on the other sides. The western rows of houses face the plain, and were of one story, with a gateway at one point. The opposite row was more elevated, no doubt overlooking cultivated fields beyond the confines of the ruin. No kivas were discovered, but if such exist they ought to be found in the mass of houses at the southern end. I thought we had found circular rooms in that region, but cursory excavations did not demonstrate their existence. As there is no reason to suspect the existence of circular kivas in ancient Tusayan, it would be difficult to decide whether or not any one of the large rectangular rooms was used for ceremonial purposes, for it is an interesting fact that some of the oldest secret rites in the Hopi villages occur, not in kivas, but in ordinary dwelling rooms in the village. It has yet to be shown that there were special kivas in prehistoric Tusayan.

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXVII

EXCAVATED ROOMS ON THE ACROPOLIS OF SIKYATKI]

The longer axis of the ruin is about north and south; the greatest elevation is approximately 50 feet. Rocks outcrop only at one place, the remainder of the ruin being covered with rubble, sand, stones, and fragments of pottery. The mounds are not devoid of vegetation, for sagebrush, cacti, and other desert genera grow quite profusely over their surface; but they are wholly barren of trees or large bushes, and except in the plaza the ruin area is uncultivated. As previously stated, Sikyatki is situated about 250 or 300 feet above the plain, and when approached from Keam's canyon appears to be about halfway up the mesa height. On several adjacent elevations evidences of former fires, or places where pottery was burned, were found, and one has not to go far to discover narrow seams of an impure lignite. Here and there are considerable deposits of selenite, which, as pointed out by Sitgreaves in his report on the exploration of the Little Colorado, looks like frost exuding from the ground in early spring.

THE ACROPOLIS

During the limited time devoted to the excavation of Sikyatki it was impossible, in a ruin so large, to remove the soil covering any considerable number of rooms. The excavations at different points over such a considerable area as that covered by the mounds would have been more or less desultory and unsatisfactory, but a limited section carefully opened would be much more instructive and typical. While, therefore, the majority of the Indian workmen were kept employed at the cemeteries, Kopeli, the Snake chief, a man in whom I have great confidence, was assigned to the excavation of a series of rooms at the highest point of the ruin, previously referred to as the acropolis (figure 262). Although his work in these chambers did not yield such rich results as the others, so far as the number of objects was concerned, he succeeded in uncovering a number of rooms to their floors, and unearthed many interesting objects of clay and stone. A brief description of these excavations will show the nature of the work at that point.

The acropolis, or highest point of Sikyatki, is a prominent rocky elevation at the western angle, and overlooks the entire ruin. On the side toward the western cemetery it rises quite abruptly, but the ascent is more gradual from the other sides. The surface of this elevation, on which the houses stood, is of rock, and originally was as destitute of soil as the plaza of Walpi. This surface supported a double series of rooms, and the highest point is a bare, rocky projection.

From the rooms of the acropolis there was a series of chambers, probably terraced, sloping to the modern gardens now occupying the old plaza, and the broken walls of these rooms still protrude from the surface in many places (plate CXVIII). When the excavations on the acropolis were begun, no traces of the biserial rows of rooms were detected, although the remains of the walls were traceable. The surface was strewn with fragments of pottery and other evidences of former occupancy.

On leveling the ground and throwing off the surface stones, it was found that the narrow ridge which formed the top of the acropolis was occupied by a double line of well-built chambers which show every evidence of having been living rooms. The walls were constructed of squared stones set in adobe, with the inner surface neatly plastered. Many of the rooms communicated by means of passageways with adjacent chambers, some of them being provided with niches and shelves. The average height of the standing walls revealed by excavation, as indicated by the distance of the floor below the surface of the soil, was about 5 feet.

The accompanying illustration (plate CXVIII) shows a ground plan of nine of these rooms, which, for purposes of reference, are lettered _a_ to _l_. A description of each, it is hoped, will give an idea of a typical room of Sikyatki. Room _a_ is rectangular in shape, 5 feet 3 inches by 6 feet 8 inches, and is 5 feet 8 inches deep. It has two depressions in the floor at the southeastern corner, and there is a small niche in the side wall above them. Some good specimens of mural plastering, much blackened by soot, are found on the eastern wall. Room _a_ has no passageway into room _b_, but it opens into the adjoining room _c_ by an opening in the wall 3 feet 4 inches wide, with a threshold 9 inches high.

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXVIII

PLAN OF EXCAVATED ROOMS ON THE ACROPOLIS OF SIKYATKI

(Dimensions in feet and inches)]

The shape of room _b_ is more irregular. It is 8 feet 1 inch long by 4 feet 5 inches wide, and the floor is 5 feet 2 inches below the surface. In one corner there is a raised triangular platform 2 feet 7 inches above the floor. A large cooking pot, blackened with soot, was found in one corner of this room, and near it was a circular depression in the floor 17 inches in diameter, evidently a fireplace.

Room _c_ is smaller than either of the preceding, and is the only one with two passageways into adjoining chambers. Remains of wooden beams in a fair state of preservation were found on the floors of rooms _c_ and _b_, but they were not charred, as is so often the case, nor were there any ashes except in the supposed fireplace.

Room _d_ is larger than those already mentioned, being 7 feet 8 inches by 5 feet, and connects with room _c_ by means of a passageway. Rooms _e_ and _f_ communicate with each other by an opening 16 inches wide. We found the floors of these rooms 4 feet below the surface. The length of room _e_ is 8 feet.

Room _f_ is 6 feet 8 inches long and of the same width as _e_. The three chambers _g_, _h_, and _i_ are each 6 feet 9 inches wide, but of varying width. Room _g_ is 5 feet 2 inches, _h_ is 8 feet 6 inches, and _i_, the smallest of all, only a foot wide. These three rooms have no intercommunication.

The evidence of former fires in some of these rooms, afforded by soot on the walls and ashes in the depressions identified as old fireplaces, is most important. In one or two places I broke off a fragment of the plastering and found it to be composed of many strata of alternating black and adobe color, indicating successive plasterings of the room. Apparently when the surface wall became blackened by smoke it was renewed by a fresh layer or wash of adobe in the manner followed in renovating the kiva walls today.[108]

An examination of the dimensions of the rooms of the acropolis will show that, while small, they are about the average size of the chambers in most other southwestern ruins. They are, however, much smaller than the rooms of the modern pueblo of Walpi or those of the cliff ruins in the Red-rock region, elsewhere described. Evidently the roof was 2 or 3 feet higher than the top of the present walls, and the absence of external passageways would seem to indicate that entrance was through the roof. The narrow chamber, _i_, is no smaller than some of those which were excavated at Awatobi, but unless it was a storage bin or dark closet for ceremonial paraphernalia its function is not known to me. The mural plastering was especially well done in rooms _g_ and _h_, a section thereof showing many successive thin strata of soot and clay, implying long occupancy. No chimneys were found, the smoke, as is the case with that from kiva fires today, doubtless finding an exit through the hatchway in the roof.

MODERN GARDENS

The whole surface of the ancient plaza of Sikyatki is occupied by rectangular gardens outlined by rows of stones. These are of modern construction and are cultivated by an enterprising Hopi who, as previously mentioned, has erected a habitable dwelling on one of the western mounds from the stones of the old ruin. These gardens are planted yearly with melons and squashes, and stones forming the outlines serve as wind-breaks to protect the growing plants from drifting sand. The plotting of the plan of these gardens was made in 1891, when a somewhat larger part of the plaza was under cultivation than in 1895.[109]

There is a grove of dwarf peach trees in the sands between the northern side of the ruin and the mesa along the run through which sometimes trickles a little stream from the spring. These trees belong to an inhabitant of Sichomovi named Tcino, who, it is claimed, is a descendant of the ancient Sikyatkians. The trees were of course planted there since the fall of the village, on land claimed by the Kokop phratry by virtue of their descent from the same phratral organization of the ancient pueblo.[110] The spring shows no evidence of having been walled up, but apparently has been filled in by drifting sand since the time that it formed the sole water supply of the neighboring pueblo. It still preserves the yellow color mentioned in traditions of the place.

THE CEMETERIES

By far the largest number of objects found at Sikyatki were gathered from the cemeteries outside the ruin, and were therefore mortuary in character. It would seem that the people buried their dead a short distance beyond the walls, at the three cardinal points. The first of these cemeteries was found in the dune between the ruin and the peach trees below the spring, and from its relative position from the pueblo has been designated the northern cemetery. The cemetery proper lies on the edge of the sandy tract, and was first detected by the finding of the long-bones of a human skeleton projecting from the soil. The position of individual graves was indicated usually by small, oblong piles of stones; but, as this was not an invariable sign, it was deemed advisable to extend long trenches across the lower part of the dune. As a rule, the deeper the excavations the more numerous and elaborate were the objects revealed. Most of the skeletons were in a poor state of preservation, but several could have been saved had we the proper means at our disposal to care for them.

No evidence of cremation of the dead was found, either at Awatobi or Sikyatki, nor have I yet detected any reference to this custom among the modern Hopi Indians. They have, however, a strange concept of the purification of the breath-body, or shade of the dead, by fire, which, although I have always regarded it as due to the teaching of Christian missionaries, may be aboriginal in character. This account of the judgment of the dead is as follows:

There are two roads from the grave to the Below. One of these is a straight way connected with the path of the sun into the Underworld. There is a branch trail which divides from this straight way, passing from fires to a lake or ocean (_patübha_). At the fork of the road sits Tokonaka, and when the breath-body comes to this place this chief looks it over and, if satisfied, he says "_Üm-pac lo-la-mai, ta ai_," "You are very good; go on." Then the breath-body passes along the straight way to the far west, to the early _Sipapû_, the Underworld from which it came, the home of Müiyinwû. Another breath-body comes to the fork in the road, and the chief says, "You are bad," and he conducts it along the crooked path to the place of the first fire pit, where sits a second chief, Tokonaka, who throws the bad breath-body into the fire, and after a time it emerges purified, for it was not wholly bad. The chief says, "You are good now," and carries it back to the first chief, who accepts the breath-body and sends it along the straight road to the west.

If, on emerging from the first fire, the soul is still unpurified, or not sufficiently so to be accepted, it is taken to the second fire pit and cast into it. If it emerges from this thoroughly purified, in the opinion of the judge, it is immediately transformed into a _ho-ho-ya-üh_, or prayer-beetle. All the beetles we now see in the valleys or among the mesas were once evil Hopi. If, on coming out of the second fire pit, the breath-body is still considered bad by the chief, he takes it to the third fire, and, if there be no evil in it when it emerges from this pit, it is metamorphosed into an ant, but if unpurified by these three fires--that is, if the chief still finds evil left in the breath-body--he takes it to a fourth fire and again casts it into the flames, where it is utterly consumed, the only residue being soot on the side of the pit.

I have not recorded this as a universal or an aboriginal belief among the Hopi, but rather to show certain current ideas which may have been brought to Tusayan by missionaries or others. The details of the purification of the evil soul are characteristic.

The western cemetery of Sikyatki is situated among the hillocks covered with surface rubble below a house occupied in summer by a Hopi and his family. From the nature of the soil the excavation of this cemetery was very difficult, although the mortuary objects were more numerous. Repeated attempts to make the Indians work in a systematic manner failed, partly on account of the hard soil and partly from other reasons. Although the lower we went the more numerous and beautiful were the objects exhumed, the Indians soon tired of deep digging, preferring to confine their work to within two or three feet of the surface. At many places we found graves under and between the huge bowlders, which are numerous in this cemetery.

The southern cemetery lies between the outer edge of the ruin on that side and the decline to the plain, a few hundred feet from the southern row of houses. Two conspicuous bowlders mark the site of most of the excavations in that direction. The mortuary objects from this cemetery are not inferior in character or number to those from the other burial places. All attempts to discover a cemetery on the eastern side of the pueblo failed, although a single food basin was brought to the camp by an Indian who claimed he had dug it out of the deep sand on the eastern side of the ruins. Another bowl was found in the sand drift near the trail over the mesa to Kanelba, but careful investigation failed to reveal any systematic deposit of mortuary vessels east of the ruin.[111]

The method of excavation pursued in the cemeteries was not so scientific as I had wished, but it was the only practicable one to be followed with native workmen. Having found the location of the graves by means of small prospecting holes sunk at random, the workmen were aligned and directed to excavate a single long, deep trench, removing all the earth as they advanced. It was with great difficulty that the Indians were taught the importance of excavating to a sufficient depth, and even to the end of the work they refused to be taught not to burrow. In their enthusiasm to get the buried treasures they worked very well so long as objects were found, but became at once discouraged when relics were not so readily forthcoming and went off prospecting in other places when our backs were turned. A shout that anyone had discovered a new grave in the trench was a signal for the others to stop work, gather around the place, light cigarettes, and watch me or my collaborators dig out the specimens with knives. This we always insisted on doing, for the reason that in their haste the Indians at first often broke fragile pottery after they had discovered it, and in spite of all precautions several fine jars and bowls were thus badly damaged by them. It is therefore not too much to say that most of the vessels which are now entire were dug out of the impacted sand by Mr Hodge or myself.

No rule could be formulated in regard to the place where the pottery would occur, and often the first indication of its presence was the stroke of a shovel on the fragile edge of a vase or bowl. Having once found a skeleton, or discolored sand which indicated the former presence of human remains, the probability that burial objects were near by was almost a certainty, although in several instances even these signs failed.

A considerable number of the pottery objects had been broken when the soil and stones were thrown on the corpse at interment. So many were entire, however, that I do not believe any considerable number were purposely broken at that time, and none were found with holes made in them to "kill" or otherwise destroy their utility.

No evidences of cremation--no charred bones of man or animal in or near the mortuary vessels--were found. From the character of the objects obtained from neighboring graves, rich and poor were apparently buried side by side in the same soil. Absolutely no evidence of Spanish influence was encountered in all the excavations at Sikyatki--no trace of metal, glass, or other object of Caucasian manufacture such as I have mentioned as having been taken from the ruins of Awatobi--thus confirming the native tradition that the catastrophe of Sikyatki antedated the middle of the sixteenth century, when the first Spaniards entered the country.

It is remarkable that in Sikyatki we found no fragments of basketry or cloth, the fame of which among the Pueblo Indians was known to Coronado before he left Mexico. That the people of Sikyatki wore cotton kilts no one can doubt, but these fabrics, if they were buried with the dead, had long since decayed. Specimens of strings and ropes of yucca, which were comparatively abundant at Awatobi, were not found at Sikyatki; yet their absence by no means proves that they were not used, for the marks of the strings used to bind feathers to the mortuary pahos, on the green paint with which the wood was covered, may still be readily seen.

The insight into ancient beliefs and practices afforded by the numerous objects found at Sikyatki is very instructive, and while it shows the antiquity of some of the modern symbols, it betrays a still more important group of conventionalized figures, the meaning of which may always remain in doubt. This is particularly true of the decoration on many specimens of the large collection of highly ornamented pottery found in the Sikyatki cemeteries.

If we consider the typical designs on modern Hopi pottery and compare them with the ancient, as illustrated by the collections from Awatobi and Sikyatki, it is noted, in the first place, how different they are, and secondly, how much better executed the ancient objects are than the modern. Nor is it always clear how the modern symbols are derived from the ancient, so widely do they depart from them in all their essential characters.

POTTERY

CHARACTERISTICS--MORTUARY POTTERY

The pottery exhumed from the burial places of Sikyatki falls in the divisions known as--

I--Coiled and indented ware.
II--Smooth undecorated ware.
III--Polished decorated ware.
_a_. Yellow.
_b_. Red.
_c_. Black-and-white.

By far the largest number of ancient pottery objects from this locality belong to the yellow-ware group in the above classification. This is the characteristic pottery of Tusayan, although coiled and indented ware is well represented in the collection. The few pieces of red ware are different from that found in the ruins of the Little Colorado, while the black-and-white pottery closely resembles the archaic ware of northern cliff houses. Although the Sikyatki pottery bears resemblance to that of Awatobi, it can be distinguished from it without difficulty. The paste of both is of the finest character and was most carefully prepared. Some of the ancient specimens are much superior to those at present made, and are acknowledged by the finest potters of East Mesa to be beyond their power of ceramic production. The coloration is generally in red, brown, yellow, and black. Decorative treatment by spattering is common in the food basins, and this was no doubt performed, Chinese fashion, by means of the mouth. The same method is still employed by the Hopi priests in painting their masks.

The Sikyatki collection of pottery shows little or no duplication in decorative design, and every ornamented food basin bears practically different symbols. The decoration of the food basins is mainly on the interior, but there is almost invariably a geometrical design of some kind on the outside, near the rim. The ladles, likewise, are ornamented on their interior, and their handles also are generally decorated. When the specimens were removed from the graves their colors, as a rule, were apparently as well preserved as at the time of their burial; nor, indeed, do they appear to have faded since their deposit in the National Museum.

The best examples of ceramic art from the graves of Sikyatki, in texture, finish, and decoration, are, in my judgment, superior to any pottery made by ancient or modern Indians north of Mexico. Indeed, in these respects the old Tusayan pottery will bear favorable comparison even with Central American ware. It is far superior to the rude pottery of the eastern pueblos, and is also considerably better than that of the great villages of the Gila and Salado. Among the Hopi themselves the ceramic art has degenerated, as the few remaining potters confess. These objects can hardly be looked upon as products of a savage people destitute of artistic feeling, but of a race which has developed in this line of work, through the plane of savagery, to a high stage of barbarism. While, as a whole, we can hardly regard the modern Hopi as a degenerate people with a more cultured ancestry, certainly the entire Pueblo culture in the Southwest, judged by the character of their pottery manufacture, has greatly deteriorated since the middle of the sixteenth century.

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXIX

COILED AND INDENTED POTTERY FROM SIKYATKI]

COILED AND INDENTED WARE

The rudest type of pottery from Sikyatki has been classed as coiled and indented ware. It is coarse in texture, not polished, and usually not decorated. Although the outer surface of the pottery of this class is rough, the general form of the ware is not less symmetrical than that of the finer vessels. The objects belonging to this group are mostly jars and moccasin-shape vessels, there being no bowls of this type. As a rule, the vessels are blackened with soot, although some of the specimens are light-brown in color. The former variety were undoubtedly once used in cooking; the latter apparently for containing water or food. In the accompanying illustration (plate CXIX, _a_) is shown one of the best specimens of indented ware, the pits forming an equatorial zone about the vessel. All traces of the coil of clay with which the jar was built up have been obliterated save on the bottom. The vessel is symmetrical and the indentations regular, as if made with a pointed stone, bone, or stick.

In another form of coarse pottery (plate CXIX, _b_) the rim merges into two ears or rudimentary handles on opposite sides. Traces of the original coiling are readily observable on the sides of this vessel.

Another illustration (plate CXIX, _c_) shows an amphora or jar with diametrically opposite handles extending from the rim to the side of the bowl. The surface of this rude jar is rough and without decoration, but the form is regular and symmetrical. In another amphora (plate CXIX, _d_) the opposite handles appear below the neck of the vessel; they are broader and apparently more serviceable.

The jar shown in plate CXIX, _e_, has two ear-like extensions or projections from the neck of the jar, which are perforated for suspension. This vessel is decorated with an incised zigzag line, which surrounds it just above its equator. This is a fair example of ornamented rough ware.

Several of the vessels made of coarse clay mixed with sand, the grains of which make the surface very rough, are of slipper or moccasin shape. These are covered with soot or blackened by fire, indicating their former use as cooking pots. By adopting this form the ancients were practically enabled to use the principle of the dutch-oven, the coals being piled about the vessels containing the food to be cooked much more advantageously than in the vase-like forms.

The variations in slipper-shape cooking pots are few and simple. The blind end is sometimes of globular form, as in the example illustrated in plate CXX, _a_, and sometimes pointed as in figures _b_ and _c_ of the same plate. One of the specimens of this type has a handle on the rim and another has a flaring lip. Slipper-form vessels are always of coarse ware for the obvious reason that, being somewhat more porous, they are more readily heated than polished utensils. They are not decorated for equally obvious reasons.

SMOOTH UNDECORATED WARE

There are many specimens of undecorated ware of all shapes and sizes, a type of which is shown in plate CXX, _d_. These include food bowls, saucers, ladles, and jars, and were taken from many graves. These utensils differ from the coarse-ware vessels not only in the character of the clay from which they are made, but also in their superficial polish, which, in some instances, is as fine as that of vessels with painted designs. Several very good spoons of half-gourd shape were found, and there are many undecorated food bowls and vases. The first attempts at ornamentation appear to have been a simple spattering of the surface with liquid pigment or a drawing of simple encircling bands. In one instance (plate CXX, _d_) a blackening of the surface by exposure to smoke was detected, but no superficial gloss, as in the Santa Clara ware, was noted.

POLISHED DECORATED WARE

By far the greater number of specimens of mortuary pottery from Sikyatki are highly polished and decorated with more or less complicated designs. Of these there are at least three different groups, based on the color of the ware. Most of the vessels are light yellow or of cream color; the next group in point of color is the red ware, the few remaining specimens being white with black decorations in geometric patterns. These types naturally fall into divisions consisting of vases, jars, bowls, square boxes, cups, ladles, and spoons.

In the group called vases (plates CXXI, CXXII) many varieties are found; some of these are double, with an equatorial constriction; others are rounded below, flat above, with an elevated neck and a recurved lip. It is noteworthy that these jars or vases are destitute of handles, and that their decoration is always confined to the equatorial and upper sections about the opening. In the specimens of this group which were found at Sikyatki there is no basal rim and no depression on the pole opposite the opening. No decoration is found on the interior of the vases, although in several instances the inside of the lip bears lines or markings of various kinds. The opening is always circular, sometimes small, often large; the neck of a vessel is occasionally missing, although the specimens bear evidence of use after having been thus broken. In one or two instances the equatorial constriction is so deep that the jar is practically double; in other cases the constriction is so shallow that it is hardly perceptible (plate CXXVI, _a, b_). The size varies from a simple globular vessel not larger than a walnut to a jar of considerable size. Many show marks of previous use; others are as fresh as if made but yesterday.

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXX

SAUCERS AND SLIPPER BOWLS FROM SIKYATKI]

One of the most fragile of all the globular vessels is a specimen of very thin black-and-white ware, perforated near the rim for suspension (plate CXXXII). This form, although rare at Sikyatki, is represented by several specimens, and in mode of decoration is very similar to the cliff-house pottery. From its scarcity in Tusayan I am inclined to believe that this and related specimens were not made of clay found in the immediate vicinity of Sikyatki, but that the vessels were brought to the ancient pueblo from distant places. As at least some of the cliff houses were doubtless inhabited contemporaneously with and long after the destruction of Sikyatki, I do not hesitate to say that the potters of that pueblo were familiar with the cliff-dweller type of pottery and acquainted with the technic which gave the black-and-white ware its distinctive colors.

By far the largest number of specimens of smooth decorated pottery from Sikyatki graves are food bowls or basins, evidently the dishes in which food was placed on the floor before the members of a family at their meals. As the mortuary offerings were intended as food for the deceased it is quite natural that this form of pottery should far outnumber any and all the others. In no instance do the food bowls exhibit marks of smoke blackening, an indication that they had not been used in the cooking of food, but merely as receptacles of the same.

The beautiful decoration of these vessels speaks highly for the artistic taste of the Sikyatki women, and a feast in which they were used must have been a delight to the native eye so far as dishes were concerned. When filled with food, however, much of the decoration of the bowls must have been concealed, a condition avoided in the mode of ornamentation adopted by modern Tusayan potters; but there is no doubt that when not in use the decoration of the vessels was effectually exhibited in their arrangement on the floor or convenient shelves.

The forms of these food bowls are hemispherical, gracefully rounded below, and always without an attached ring of clay on which to stand to prevent rocking. Their rims are seldom flaring, but sometimes have a slight constriction, and while the rims of the majority are perfectly circular, oblong variations are not wanting. Many of the bowls are of saucer shape, with almost vertical sides and flat bases; several are double, with rounded or flat base.

The surface, inside and out, is polished to a fine gloss, and when exteriorly decorated, the design is generally limited to one side just below the rim, which is often ornamented with double or triple parallel lines, drawn in equidistant, quaternary, and other forms. Most of the bowls show signs of former use, either wear on the inner surface or on the base where they rested on the floor in former feasts.

These mortuary vessels were discovered generally at one side of the chest or neck of the person whose remains they were intended to accompany, and a single specimen was found inverted over the head of the deceased. The number of vessels in each grave was not constant, and as many as ten were found with one skeleton, while in other graves only one or two were found. In one instance a nest of six of these basins, one inside another, was exhumed. While many of these mortuary offerings were broken and others chipped, there were still a large number as perfect as when made. Some of the bowls had been mended before burial, as holes drilled on each side of a crack clearly indicate. Fragments of various vessels, which evidently had been broken before they were thrown into the graves, were common.

There is a general similarity in the artistic decoration of bowls found in the same grave, as if they were made by the same potter; and persons of distinction, as shown by other mortuary objects, were, as a rule, more honored than some of their kindred in the character and number of pottery objects deposited with their remains. There were also a number of skeletons without ceramic offerings of any kind.

In one or two interments two or more small jars were found placed inside of a food bowl, and in many instances votive offerings, like turquois, beads, stones, and arrowpoints, had been deposited with the dead. The bowls likewise contained, in some instances, prayer-sticks and other objects, which will later be described.

One of the most interesting modifications in the form of the rim of one of these food bowls is shown in plate CXX, _e_, which illustrates a variation from the circular shape, forming a kind of handle or support for the thumb in lifting the vessel. The utility of this projection in handling a bowl of hot food is apparent. This form of vessel is very rare, it being the only one of its kind in the collection.

A considerable number of cups were found at Sikyatki; these vary in size and shape from a flat-bottom saucer like specimen to a mug-shape variety, always with a single handle (plate CXXV). Many of these resemble small bowls with rounded sides, but there are others in which the sides are vertical, and still others the sides of which incline at an angle to the flattened base.

The handles of these cups are generally smooth, and in one instance adorned with a figure in relief. The rims of these dippers are never flaring, either inward or outward. As a rule they are decorated on the exterior; indeed there is only one instance of interior decoration. The handles of the dippers are generally attached at both ends, but sometimes the handle is free at the end near the body of the utensil and attached at the tip. These handles are usually flat, but sometimes they are round, and often are decorated. Traces of imitations of the braiding of two coils of clay are seen in a single specimen.[112]

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXXI

DECORATED POTTERY FROM SIKYATKI]

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXXII

DECORATED POTTERY FROM SIKYATKI]

Small and large ladles, with long handles, occurred in large numbers in Sikyatki graves, but there was little variation among them except in the forms of their handles. Many of these utensils were much worn by use, especially on the rim opposite the attachment of the handle, and in some specimens the handle itself had evidently been broken and the end rounded off by rubbing long before it was placed in the grave. From the comparatively solid character of the bowls of these dippers they were rarely fractured, and were commonly found to contain smaller mortuary objects, such as paint, arrowheads, or polishing stones.

The ladles, unlike most of the cups, are generally decorated on the interior as well as on the exterior. Their handles vary in size and shape, are usually hollow, and sometimes are perforated at the end. In certain specimens the extremity is prolonged into a pointed, recurved tip, and sometimes is coiled in a spiral. A groove in the upper surface of one example is an unusual variation, and a right-angle bend of the tip is a unique feature of another specimen. The Sikyatki potters, like their modern descendants,[113] sometimes ornamented the tip of a single handle with the head of an animal and painted the upper surface of the shaft with alternate parallel bars, zigzags, terraces, and frets.

Several spoons or scoops of earthenware, which evidently had been used in much the same way as similar objects in the modern pueblos, were found. Some of these have the shape of a half gourd--a natural object which no doubt furnished the pattern. These spoons, as a rule, were not decorated, but on a single specimen bars and parallel lines may be detected. In the innovations of modern times pewter spoons serve the same purpose, and their form is sometimes imitated in earthenware. More often, in modern and probably also in ancient usage, a roll of paper-bread or _piki_ served the same purpose, being dipped into the stew and then eaten with the fingers. Possibly the Sikyatkian drank from the hollow handle of a gourd ladle, as is frequently done in Walpi today, but he generally slaked his thirst by means of a clay substitute.[114]

Several box-like articles of pottery of both cream and red ware were found in the Sikyatki graves, some of them having handles, others being without them (plate CXXV). They are ornamented on the exterior and on the rim, and the handle, when not lacking, is attached to the longer side of the rectangular vessel. Not a single bowl was found with a terraced rim, a feature so common in the medicine bowls of Tusayan at the present time.[115]

In addition to the various forms of pottery which have been mentioned, there are also pieces made in the form of birds, one of the most typical of which is figured in plate CXII, _c_. In these objects the wings are represented by elevations in the form of ridges on the sides, and the tail and head by prolongations, which unfortunately were broken off.

Toys or miniature reproductions of all the above-mentioned ceramic specimens occurred in several graves. These are often very roughly made, and in some cases contained pigments of different colors. The finding of a few fragments of clay in the form of animal heads, and one or two rude images of quadrupeds, would seem to indicate that sometimes such objects were likewise deposited with the dead. A clay object resembling the flaring end of a flageolet and ornamented with a zigzag decoration is unique in the collections from Sikyatki, although in the western cemetery there was found a fragment of an earthenware tube, possibly a part of a flute.

In order to show more clearly the association of mortuary objects in single graves a few examples of the grouping of these deposits will be given.

In a grave in the western cemetery the following specimens were found: 1, ladle; 2, paint grinder; 3, paint slab; 4, arrowpoints; 5, fragments of a marine shell (_Pectunculus_); 6, pipe, with fragments of a second pipe, and 7, red paint (sesquioxide of iron).

In the grave which contained the square medicine bowl shown in plate CXXVIII, _a_, a ladle containing food was also unearthed.

The bowl decorated with a picture of a girl's head was associated with fragments of another bowl and four ladles.

Another single grave contained four large and small cooking pots and a broken metate.

In a grave 8 feet below the surface in the western cemetery we found: 1, decorated food vessel; 2, black shoe-shape cooking pot resting in a food bowl and containing a small rude ladle; 3, coarse undecorated basin.

A typical assemblage of mortuary objects comprised: 1, small decorated bowl containing polishing stones; 2, miniature cooking pot blackened by soot; 3, two small food bowls.

In modern Hopi burials the food bowls with the food for the dead are not buried with the deceased, but are placed on the mound of soil and stones which covers the remains. From the position of the mortuary pottery as regards the skeletons in the Sikyatki interments, it is probable that this custom is of modern origin. Whether in former times food bowls were placed on the burial mounds as well as in the grave I am not able to say. The number of food bowls in ancient graves exceeds those placed on modern burials.

The Sikyatki dead were apparently wrapped in coarse fabrics, possibly matting.

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXXIII

DECORATED POTTERY FROM SIKYATKI]

PALEOGRAPHY OF THE POTTERY

GENERAL FEATURES

The pottery from Sikyatki is especially rich in picture writing, and imperfect as these designs are as a means of transmitting a knowledge of manners, customs, and religious conceptions, they can be interpreted with good results.

One of the most important lessons drawn from the pottery is to be had from a study of the symbols used in its decoration, as indicative of current beliefs and practices when it was made. The ancient inhabitants of Sikyatki have left no written records, for, unlike the more cultured people of Central America, they had no codices; but they have left on their old mortuary pottery a large body of picture writings or paleography which reveals many instructive phases of their former culture. The decipherment of these symbols is in part made possible by the aid of a knowledge of modern survivals, and when interpreted rightly they open a view of ancient Tusayan myths, and in some cases of prehistoric practices.[116]

Students of Pueblo mythology and ritual are accumulating a considerable body of literature bearing on modern beliefs and practices. This is believed to be the right method of determining their aboriginal status, and is therefore necessary as a basis of our knowledge of their customs and beliefs. It is reasonable to suppose that what is now practiced in Pueblo ritual contains more or less of what has survived from prehistoric times, but from Taos to Tusayan there is no pueblo which does not show modifications in mythology and ritual due to European contact. Modern Pueblo life resembles the ancient, but is not a facsimile of it, and until we have rightly measured the effects of incorporated elements, we are more or less inexact in our estimation of the character of prehistoric culture. The vein of similarity in the old and the new can be used in an interpretation of ancient paleography, but we overstep natural limitations if by so doing we ascribe to prehistoric culture every concept which we find current among the modern survivors. To show how much the paleography of Tusayan has changed since Sikyatki was destroyed, I need only say that most of the characteristic figures of deities which are used today in the decoration of pottery are not found on the Sikyatki ware. Perhaps the most common figures on modern food bowls is the head of a mythologic being, the Corn-maid, _Calako-mana_, but this picture, or any which resembles it, is not found on the bowls from Sikyatki. A knowledge of the cult of the Corn-maid possibly came into Tusayan, through foreign influences, after the fall of Sikyatki, and there is no doubt that the picture decoration of modern Tusayan pottery, made within a league of Sikyatki, is so different from the ancient that it indicates a modification of the culture of the Hopi in historic times, and implies how deceptive it may be to present modern beliefs and practices as facsimiles of ancient culture.

The main subjects chosen by the native women for the decoration of their pottery are symbolic, and the most abundant objects which bear these decorations are food bowls and water vases. Many mythic concepts are depicted, among which may be mentioned the Plumed Snake, various birds, reptiles, frogs, tadpoles, and insects. Plants or leaves are seldom employed as decorative motives, but the flower is sometimes used. The feather was perhaps the most common object utilized, and it may likewise be said the most highly conventionalized.

An examination of the decorations of modern food basins used in the villages of East Mesa shows that the mythologic personages most commonly chosen for the ornamentation of their interiors are the Corn or Germ goddesses.[117] These assume a number of forms, yet all are reducible to one type, although known by very different names, as Hewüqti, "Old Woman," Kokle, and the like.

Figures of reptiles, birds, the antelope, and like animals do not occur on any of the food bowls from the large collection of modern Tusayan pottery which I have studied, and as these figures are well represented in the decorations on Sikyatki food bowls, we may suppose their use has been abandoned or replaced by figures of the Corn-maids.[118] This fact, like so many others drawn from a study of the Tusayan ritual, indicates that the cult of the Corn-maids is more vigorous today than it was when Sikyatki was in its prime.

Many pictures of masks on modern Tusayan bowls are identified as _Tacab_ or Navaho _katcinas_.[119] Their symbolism is well characterized by chevrons on the cheeks or curved markings for eyes. None of these figures, however, have yet been found on ancient Tusayan ceramics. Taken in connection with facts adduced by Hodge indicative of a recent advent of this vigorous Athapascan tribe into Tusayan, it would seem that the use of the _Tacab katcina_ pictures was of recent date, and is therefore not to be expected on the prehistoric pottery of the age of that found in Sikyatki.

In the decoration of ancient pottery I find no trace of figures of the clown-priests, or _tcukuwympkiya_, who are so prominent in modern Tusayan _katcina_ celebrations. These personages, especially the Tatcukti, often called by a corruption of the Zuñi name Kóyimse (Kóyomäshi), are very common on modern bowls, especially at the extremities of ladles or smaller objects of pottery.

Many handles of ladles made at Hano in late times are modeled in the form of the Paiakyamu,[120] a glutton priesthood peculiar to that Tanoan pueblo. From the data at hand we may legitimately conclude that the conception of the clown-priest is modern in Tusayan, so far as the ornamentation of pottery is concerned.

The large collections of so-called modern Hopi pottery in our museums is modified Tanoan ware, made in Tusayan. Most of the component specimens were made by Hano potters, who painted upon them figures of _katcinas_, a cult which they and their kindred introduced.

Several of the food bowls had evidently cracked during their firing or while in use, and had been mended before they were buried in the graves. This repairing was accomplished either by filling the crack with gum or by boring a hole on each side of the fracture for tying. In one specimen of black-and-white ware a perfectly round hole was made in the bottom, as if purposely to destroy the usefulness of the bowl before burial. This hole had been covered inside with a rounded disk of old pottery, neatly ground on the edge. It was not observed that any considerable number of mortuary pottery objects were "killed" before burial, although a large number were chipped on the edges. It is a great wonder that any of these fragile objects were found entire, the stones and soil covering the corpse evidently having been thrown into the grave without regard to care.

The majority of the ancient symbols are incomprehensible to the present Hopi priests whom I have been able to consult, although they are ready to suggest many interpretations, sometimes widely divergent. The only reasonable method that can be pursued in determining the meaning of the conventional signs with which the modern Tusayan Indians are unfamiliar seems, therefore, to be a comparative one. This method I have attempted to follow so far as possible.

There is a closer similarity between the symbolism of the Sikyatki pottery and that of the Awatobi ware than there is between the ceramics of either of these two pueblos and that of Walpi, and the same likewise may be said of the other Tusayan ruins so far as known. It is desirable, however, that excavations be made at the site of Old Walpi in order to determine, if possible, how widely different the ceramics of that village are from the towns whose ruins were studied in 1895. There are certain practical difficulties in regard to work at Old Walpi, one of the greatest of which is its proximity to modern burial places and shrines still used. Moreover, it is probable--indeed, quite certain--that most of the portable objects were carried from the abandoned pueblo to the present village when the latter was founded; but the old cemeteries of Walpi contain many ancient mortuary bowls which, when exhumed, will doubtless contribute a most interesting chapter to the history of modern Tusayan decorative art.