Pueblo Bonito, Part I: Master Bead-Makers of Prehistoric New Mexico

                  

                                                Beads and frog fetish found at Pueblo Bonito

“Turquoise beads and pendants are the diamonds, the radium, the manna from heaven for the Southwestern Indian.  I cannot think of anything that is as precious to the white man as good, sky-blue turquoise is to an Indian.  And the stones from ancient ruins exceed in beauty and quality any of those in circulation today…Bonito abounded in turquoise.  In this respect it is the richest Southwestern site ever excavated.”*

            Situated in the northwestern corner of New Mexico, Pueblo Bonito is an excellent example of the heights achieved in art and architecture during the Pueblo III period.  Beneath its foundations rest the ruins of Pueblo I and II cultures.  Basket Maker III ruins are also found in the immediate vicinity.

            The construction of Pueblo Bonito began in the ninth or early part of the tenth century on the original site of a Pueblo I pit village.  In the beginning it was merely a cluster of primitively built masonry houses.  As the population increased, the buildings expanded crescentically to the right and left.  Probably in the second quarter of the eleventh century, a new group of wandering clans arrived at Bonito.  Their original migration patterns, though unproved as yet, seemed to come from the north.

            The new people were more sophisticated than the original Bonitans and probably came in greater numbers.  Almost immediately their cultural ethic began to dominate.  They built dwellings around the core of the old village.  Later, they made changes, even to the point of razing their own houses to clear the way for architecturally advanced homes.  They twice enlarged the pueblo and greatly increased its internal and external security against marauding bands of nomadic Indians.  These newcomers (referred to by archeologists as ‘Late Bonitans’) are considered to be dynamic and progressive, while ‘Old Bonitans’ are remembered as unyielding and old-fashioned.  It was the Late Bonitans who took the pueblo to its pinnacle of material culture, making it a legend in its own time as far south as the beaches of Southern California and in the steamy jungles of Vera Cruz.

            Neil Judd, the principal excavator of Pueblo Bonito theorizes that the Old Bonitans continued in residence longer than the Late Bonitans because all of the cultural materials recovered came from Old Bonitan rooms.  Some were clearly used for living while others were obviously storerooms.  Finally, eight of them, dwellings and storerooms, were appropriated for burials by the last to inhabit this pueblo.  Both religious and secular objects stored at the time were abandoned when the first interior burials occurred.  In its heyday Bonito could have housed at least 1500 people, and undoubtedly buried its dead with a bounty of beads, pottery and baskets in a cemetery outside the village proper.  But successive generations of accumulation, blowing sand, and flooding of the dangerous Chaco arroyo that leaves tons of silt on the floor of the canyon, have combined to protect the burial treasures of these ancient ones.

Late Bonitan houses seem to have been cleared of their contents by the dwellers themselves and suggest an unhurried departure from the pueblo.  None of their rooms were used for burials, but a number came to be used as dumps for household sweepings and refuse.  These dumps, both at Bonito and elsewhere in pueblo country, have provided archeologists with a wealth of information about daily life. 

They yield up pot shards, beads, and utensils that help define the culture.  The trash heaps at Bonito tell a story of families moving around the pueblo and a gradual drifting away of much of the population.  It seems that the departure of the Late Bonitans was voluntary, as opposed to flight under enemy attack.  A population evacuated under forced circumstances leaves much of their material culture behind. Late Bonitan rooms were emptied of all their contents suggesting a leisurely departure.

The most plausible theory of this migration is a great reduction in the amount of fertile land.  Hunger spurs discontent and has continually influenced the migrations of clans in the southwest.  Several factors seem to come into play here:

1.      Late Bonitan homes stripped of all furnishings.

2.      Old Bonitans crowded into a small corner of their original village.

3.      Old Bonitan rooms transformed into tombs for one hundred dead that could not be buried outside the walled pueblo.

4.      Old Bonitan abandonment at a later date of utensils, blankets, pottery and ceremonial equipment suggests a population decimated by famine and migration, then enemy attack.

                                                Ariel view of the remains of Pueblo Bonito
                                        

*Ann Axtell Morris: Digging In The Southwest

Coming Next Week: The Beads of  Pueblo Bonito

Anasazi Ghosts and Esoteric Burials

                                        

            There is a moral dilemma inherent in the act of exhuming historic burials, whether you are an archeologist or a grave robber.  Does anyone have the right to disturb the sleep of the ancient ones?  So much went wrong for people associated with the excavation of King Tut’s tomb that it's plausible to consider you might be enraging spirits that linger near hallowed ground.

            The Navajos will tell you that the Anasazi do not like their graves robbed.  No Navajo or Zuni workman will dig at a prehistoric site unless they have a personal charm or medicine beads that can protect them from the wrath of ghosts.  Many will flatly refuse to dig up the graves of their ancestors.

            Ann Axtell Morris, one of the first archeologists to excavate and write about the prehistoric civilizations of the southwest tells an interesting story about a supernatural occurrence that serves as warning to all who disrupt the burials of Native Americans:

Archeologist Ted Kidder and a friend were having lunch in a remote cave at Mesa Verde.  A cool spring and sheltering shade in one of the Cliff Dweller rooms made it ideal for a picnic on a sweltering day.  Out of the blue an irate voice began to harangue them from close at hand.  Yet they were alone and had scaled a treacherous narrow path to reach this remote place.  The voice kept up for almost a minute in some unknown language.  When they searched for the source, they found none. 

            “He seemed very angry about something, and carried such an air of righteous indignation that my first instinct was to apologize for whatever it was that was displeasing him,” Kidder said.*

            They ran to the entrance of the cave but the sheer slope was bare and far beneath the canyon was vacant.  No people were visible on the rim above or across the ravine.  They called loudly to no avail.  Then they searched ever nook and cranny of the cave but there was nothing, only an eerie emptiness and the echo of the wind.  Reluctantly, for rational men of science, they were forced to conclude that they had been visited by an Anasazi ghost and heard the extinct Anasazi language.

            One of the strangest burials to exhibit the esoteric use of beads was unearthed at a prehistoric cave dwelling in New Mexico called ‘Tseahatso’ from the Navajo word for ‘great cave.’  This spot may have been occupied for thousands of years by the Basket Maker cultures which pre-date the legendary Cliff Dweller cities such as Mesa Verde, Aztec or Bonito.  Tseahatso is a cave twelve hundred feet long.  Its floor, from thirty to seventy feet wide, is so deeply entrenched in trash that archeologist still have not reached bedrock, except for a few shallow spots. 

            There, buried almost to the level of bedrock in an area free from any molestation or grave robbing, on a nest of carefully selected grass lay the hands and forearms of an adult, still held together by the dried ligaments.  The rest of the area excavated never yielded any other part of the skeleton and the placement of the hands in bedrock established that the burial was complete as found.  The hands were accompanied by all the traditional burial furnishings, including two pairs of exceptionally well-made red and black woven sandals.  On top of the sandals were three necklaces.  Two of them had abalone pendants.  The third was a unique southwestern creation designed of about eighteen white shell rings, each about three inches in diameter and attached to the neck cord in a way that they overlapped each other.  There was also a basket filled with long crescent-shaped beads and covered with another basket on which was laid a huge stone pipe.  This burial has never been successfully interrupted, but a puzzled archeologist quips, “Shoes without feet, necklaces without a neck, and a pipe without a mouth—truly metaphysical triumphs over physical negation.”**

*Digging In the Southwest by Ann Axtell Morris

** Ibid   

  

Turquoise in the Southwest

                                       Navajo matriarch wearing her heirloom turquoise jewelry
                                                 

                                                  

            The use of turquoise among the natives of America was originally limited to the area bordered by the Isthmus of Panama on one side and by a line drawn eastwardly from the Pacific Coast through southern Nevada and Colorado, then south across Texas to the Gulf of Mexico.  In prehistoric cultures of the Americas we find no important turquoise deposits outside of these boundaries.  The abundance of turquoise beads in early sites in the Southwest, as opposed to their absence in other parts of North America, indicates that the original pueblo dwellers did not travel east to trade and had little communication with Indians in the northern, southern, or eastern United States.  They tended to trade via routes to South America or California where specimens of New Mexican turquoise have been unearthed.

            Turquoise was extensively used by aboriginal peoples for several reasons:

1. Turquoise occurred close to the surface so deposits were readily located by the first people.
2. The mineral is relatively soft and easily worked by primitive methods.
3. The colors of turquoise range from the blues of sky and water to the greens of plant and tree.  That held a mystical appeal for Native Americans.

There are numerous turquoise sources, both ancient and modern.  While most of them are now mined by outside operations, it is believed that certain tribes have secret localities known only to themselves where turquoise is still found and used for esoteric purposes. Contemporary Indians, however, do not engage in any systemic mining for turquoise and usually acquire it from itinerant traders, trading posts on the reservation or lapidary supply stores in the bordering towns. 

Within the pueblos and among the Dine people (Navajo), turquoise beads and fetishes have been cherished as part of the family’s wealth and history.  Turquoise deposits of any significance show signs of early exploitation.  The best example is Los Cerillos in New Mexico where excavations date back to pre-Spanish times. The sources of turquoise in the Southwest are easy to document, but difficult to trace down the old trade routes to Mexico and Central America.  In ancient times, there was no meaningful supply south of the Mexican border.  It is surmised that the Aztecs traded with pueblos to acquire turquoise that came from the Cerillos hills and other deposits in the Southwest.  Today this has changed and miners are finding excellent turquoise deposits such as Campo Frio and Nacozari in Mexico.  

                                            Pueblo Indian cutting and polishing rough turquoise

Cabeza deVaca was the first European to record the use of turquoise among the pueblos of Arizona and New Mexico.  In 1535, with three friends, he made the journey from Texas to Sonora on the Pacific Coast that ultimately led to the discovery of New Mexico by the Spanish.  Traveling near the Pacific Coast he was presented with turquoise beads by the natives.  Among the Sierra Madre Indians, about ninety miles east of the Yaqui River in Sonora, deVaca found Indians in possession of turquoise fetishes and beads.  These Indians explained that it was acquired to the north in exchange for parrot feathers and shells.

In 1539, Fray Marcos de Niza in company with Estevan the Black traveled northward as far as present day New Mexico searching for the legendary ‘Seven Cities of Gold,’ also called ‘Seven Cities of Cibola.’  At Rio San Pedro in southern Arizona, the last region of village Indians before the Pueblo of Zuni, he discovered that the Sobaipuris Indians wore great quantities of turquoise beads.  As he neared Cibola (Zuni) he came upon a village at the edge of the desert where the people wore turquoise beads and pendants called ‘cacona’ suspended from their ears and nostrils.  The wearing of these ornaments was called ‘casconados.’  He was told that these beads abounded in Cibola as well as at Marata (the ruined pueblo also called ‘Makyata’ near Zuni), at Acus (the present Pueblo of Acoma), and at Tontonteac (the Tusayan or Hopi lands to the northwest of Zuni).

 The so called ‘Seven Cities of Gold’ were actually a group of adobe pueblos, now in ruins, centered about the present Pueblo of Zuni.  Fray Marcos and Estevan arrived at sunset and the setting sun shining on the adobe created the illusion of gold, so feverishly sought by the early explorers.  They ran crazed into the pueblo, screaming about gold  but there was none.  Instead of gold they were disillusioned to discover the natives valued turquoise above all else and used it as a medium of exchange.  The Indians thought they were crazy.

Coming soon: Coronado in  the Southwest, Pueblo Bonito, Prototype of the Ancient Bead-makers, Plains Indian Medicine Bundles.

                     Inlaid turquoise earrings by Angie Reano Owen of Santo Domingo Pueblo

Part II: Prehistoric Offerings of Turquoise

                           Turquoise pendant inlaid on shell by Angie Reano Owen

In the construction of ancient Hopi homes, a ceremonial opening was left on the outer surface of the front wall, just to the left of the entrance.  It stands approximately five feet from the ground.  On the day of dedication for the house, a feast was prepared.  But before anyone could sample the delicacies, a small helping had to be placed in the opening, along with shell and turquoise beads.  This insured a peaceful and happy life in the new house.  Then the opening was plastered over to match the rest of the existing wall. 

This tradition of sacrificial deposits in the masonry has existed since time immemorial in the Southwest.  On the upper surface of the roof supports at Pueblo Bonito in New Mexico (circa 1200 A.D.), archeologists discovered a thin layer of adobe that had cracked in places revealing a log embedded in the wall.  It served as a plug to cover ritual deposits of turquoise and shell beads, bits of crude shell and turquoise matrix.  Deposits of this sort were found at critical points in the structure of rooms throughout the great pueblo.  These beads lie where they literally supported the whole roof, exactly under the principle structural members.

                                         Kiva remains at Pueblo Bonito: kivas are underground
                                         ceremonial chambers serving native purposes as churches
                                         serve Christian purposes.

            In discussing turquoise beads as they relate to pre-historic ceremonial offerings, Neil Judd, who worked over twenty-five years on the excavation of Pueblo Bonito, offers this observation:

            “Most of the turquoise mined was discarded because of its unfavorable color.  Sky-blue tones have everywhere been preferred, but the ancient pueblos were not adverse to those of lesser merit.  The Bonitans, for example, often used pale blue or greenish stones for mosaics and beads: less frequently, for pendants.  And, with native canniness, when called upon to make personal offerings they sacrificed their off-color ornaments first.  We note relatively few prize stones in ceremonial offerings.” *

*Page 83, The Material Culture of Pueblo Bonito

Beads in the Southwest, Part I: Mythic Turquoise

     Bluebird wore a robe of blue beads and on his head a bright blue cloud.  In his right hand he held a rattle made of blue turquoise and in his left a stalk of blue corn.  When the people asked what he had brought, Bluebird said: I bring you blue sky, summer rain and soft corn. --Old Navajo Myth

     Turquoise is the sacred stone for Native Americans of the Southwest.  It is the vehicle for the creative force which awakens and animates all life, both temporal and spiritual.  Coming from the womb of earth where all life emerged, according to Pueblo legend, it possesses the power associated with the color blue.  The Hopis tell of an all-pervasive spirit, Whuring Whuti, or Hard Beings Woman, mother of the universe who is always identified with beads of turquoise and shell.  Like turquoise, she is of the earth, but like the color blue, she is also of the skies and all the earth's waterways.  It is she who created the Male Earth-Spirit of crops and the Childbirth Water Woman, dual symbols of human fertility.  The Sun Spirit, ritually dressed in eagle feathers and beads of turquoise and shell, crosses the sky each day and finishes his journey at her home in the western ocean.
     The Navajos have many myths concerning the birth of the Turquoise Goddess or Changing Woman.  When Mother Sky and Father Earth came together they created her, born as a small turquoise image who grew in beauty, an ever-renewing life spirit.  In some myths she has her island home in the western ocean where the sun-bearer rests at the end of the day.  In other stories, she has a twin, White Shell Woman, who has her home in  the ocean from where she sends spring breezes and summer rain.  Turquoise woman made the sun with turquoise beads taken from her right breast and created the moon with white shells from her left breast.

Coming Sunday, July 3, 2011: Part II, Turquoise in Pre-Historic Ceremonial Offerings
  

Books I'm Working On

Here's a blurb about the first two books in my trilogy.  They are finished and in the hands of a publisher at this moment.  If I don't get a contract, I'm going to publish them as e-books.  Stay tuned!

Waiting for Mr. Wu: A Novel of Intrigue, Cultural Clashes and Desire
The eccentric relationship between a patrician Chinese ex-patriot and a young girl from rural Arizona form the crux of this book.  The yin-yang of imperial China juxtaposed against pop America, the frustration of lovers separated by years, culture, and distance set up a dynamic tension that plays out in the American Southwest and Beijing.  Mr. Wu, the illusive millionaire and occasional spy, didn't plan on mixing it up with rednecks and cowboys, but most of all, he didn't plan on falling in love with an erstwhile flower child.

Fearless Frank's Last Chance Dance: A Novel of Rednecks, Rage and Redemption
Ex-cop Frank Toscanni is living in a Doc Holliday kind of world, shooting off a lock if he can't find the key and bullying people into submission.  In the middle of an ugly divorce and drinking heavily, harassed by the Civil Liberties Union for policy brutality and agonizing over his future, he runs into Mallory Hamilton, a careless heiress searching for her biological mother in Arizona.

She fuels his jealousy and desire, using him as a part time plaything while they look for her family.  After traversing a  trail of white supremacists, Harley-riding ex-cons, undocumented Mexican immigrants and Barbie doll collectors, the search culminates in a postmodern remake of the gunfight at OK Corral and Frank finds redemption where he least expects it.

Why The Hopis Have So Few Beads, Part Two

The Chief asked him why he had come. “I have searched for the path,” the young man replied, “and thought about the water running and knew I had to come this way that it runs. I search also for a woman, the Huruing Wuhti, goddess of all hard substances who is owner of many turquoise, shell, and coral beads.”

“You will get there because your heart is right,” the Chief told him, “but now this night you must sleep here.” During the night the Chief instructed him about the Snake cult, the altar, and the ceremony he would perform when he returned to his people.

In the morning he went with Spider Woman and made a rainbow road to the home of Huruing Wuhti high on the cliffs. They went in and found a withered old hag. All the walls were hung with beads and shells. The young man gave her a baho and she thanked him in a faint, far-away voice. At sundown she went into a side chamber and returned as an alluring young woman carrying many robes with which she made a bed. Then she commanded him to sleep with her. Spider Woman whispered that he most comply. Thus he remained four days with the goddess, but after that he wanted to return to his people. She went into a room on the north side and got a turquoise bead and from the west room the same. From the south room she brought a coral bead and from the east a hard white bead made of shell. Then she gave him all kinds of other beads and put them in a bag for him, instructing him not to open the bag or all the beads would be gone and could never increase.

He returned to the Snake kiva and stayed four nights, taking the beautiful girl who had been the most ferocious snake as his wife. Then he made ready to take her and the beads to his people waiting in the Grand Canyon country. As he was leaving the Chief said, "This woman will bear you children and there will be many. They will hold the Snake ceremony with you."

So they started on their way. Spider Woman also warned him not to sleep with his wife during the journey or she would disappear, along with the beads. As they started, the beads were not heavy and the first night they slept separately. The next three nights were spent in the same manner. The beads increased and the bag became very heavy. As they approached his home, the young man was overcome with desire to see the beads and sleep with his wife, but she remained strong and forbade it. They were almost home and had but one day’s travel to fill the bag completely with beads. During the last night the man opened the bag, although his wife begged him not to. As he took them out he saw they were the finest beads and shells. He spread them on the ground and hung them around his neck and was very happy. But in the morning all the beads had disappeared except the few original ones that the Huruing Wuhti had given him. Hence the Hopis have so few beads at this present time.