At least 25,000 years ago there were men in New Mexico who lived in caves and hunted animals, many of which no longer exist. Over 10,000 years ago there were already distinct groups of people in the Southwest, some of whom were primarily hunters and some of whom were largely dependent on the gathering of wild foods. Since the most ancient cultures of North America have already been covered in detail in a previous book in this series,[130] only a very brief resume will be given here.
The earliest culture of the Western Hemisphere, about which we have any information, is the Sandia,[64] so named because the cave whose deposits showed that it had been occupied by men about 25,000 years ago is located in the Sandia Mountains of New Mexico. In the bottom layer of this cave were found fairly large, crudely flaked stone spear points with a more or less leaflike shape and a slight basal inset on one side. With these points were found bones of prehistoric horse, bison, camel, mastodon, and mammoth, probably the debris from meals of ancient hunters who lived in the cave. Space does not permit a detailed consideration of the geological studies[9] which enable us to assign a date to this early occupation, but above the layer in which the Sandia points were found there were other layers which included one of calcium carbonate and one of yellow ochre. Geologists can interpret the climatic conditions under which such deposits were formed and they have correlated them with geologic periods when such conditions prevailed. Great humidity, such as is indicated by the Sandia Cave deposits, is characteristic of certain areas during glacial stages and the lowest level of Sandia Cave has been assigned to the period preceding the last major ice advance in the Pleistocene Period or Ice Age. This glaciation is believed to have occurred about 25,000 years ago.
The most famous of the ancient cultures is the Folsom whose name is derived from the town of Folsom, New Mexico, near which the first generally accepted American discovery of man-made objects associated with the bones of extinct animals was made.[25] Prior to this find, which was made in 1926, it had been believed that man had not reached the New World more than a few thousand years before the beginning of the Christian era. At the Folsom site, however, were found finely flaked projectile points in clear association with the articulated bones of a type of bison known to have been extinct for many thousands of years. These were fluted or grooved points characterized by the removal of longitudinal flakes from either face. Geological evidence from the Lindenmeier Site in Colorado, which was a camp site of the makers of the grooved points, indicates that the Folsom people lived between 10,000 and 25,000 years ago.[11] This conclusion was reached by correlating the valley bottom in which the site occurs with river terraces and moraines, which in turn could be related to glacial stages. A number of important discoveries of fluted points have been made in the Southwest. Two notable sites are the one near Clovis, New Mexico, and Burnet Cave in the Guadalupe Mountains.[65]
Fig. 2—Map of the Southwest showing sites referred to in Chapter II.
Probably contemporaneous with the Folsom people were others who made thick, roughly flaked, square-based points with parallel sides. These points were first found near the town of San Jon, New Mexico, and are named after it.[114]
From a somewhat later period we have evidence of ancient hunters who made some of the most beautifully flaked stone projectile points that have ever been created. These points, which were first found in Yuma County, Colorado, are known as Yuma or Parallel Flaked Points. They are of two types.[130] One is marked by the removal of long narrow spalls running obliquely across the blade and the other is characterized by the removal of shell-shaped spalls from either side which tends to give the point a diamond shaped cross-section.
Evidence of another early hunting culture of the Southwest was found in Gypsum Cave, Nevada.[47] Here were found lozenge-shaped projectile points, about two inches long, with small convex stems. They were associated with the remains of now extinct ground sloth and llamalike camels. The time of the first occupation of Gypsum Cave may have been several thousand years B.C. One thing which makes this find of particular interest is that, due to the protection afforded by the cave, some normally perishable material was preserved. Painted dart shafts and foreshafts were found and also a piece of basketry. Lacking direct association with Gypsum Cave type points or extinct animal remains, it is impossible to state with certainty that the basketry belonged to this ancient culture, but there is every reason to believe that it did, since it was found under a stalagmitic growth and is of a type different from that of later cultures.
While hunters roamed the plains farther north there were other people, with a different type of economy, living in what is now southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico.[118] This culture, to which the name Cochise has been given, is believed to have begun over 10,000 years ago and to have lasted until 500 B.C. or later. The chief characteristic of the Cochise culture is the extensive use of grinding stones which suggests that the people were primarily dependent on the gathering of wild grains, nuts, roots, and similar foods. The finding of some split and burned animal bones in the sites where they lived indicates that they did hunt, but the lack of projectile points in the earliest period and their scarcity until the most recent phase provides additional evidence that the economy was based on food gathering rather than on hunting.
Fig. 3—Projectile points of the most ancient cultures. a. Sandia, b. Folsom, c. San Jon, d. Eden Yuma, e. Oblique Yuma, f. Gypsum Cave.
As may be imagined, we know comparatively little about the most ancient inhabitants of this continent. However, when one considers the thousands of years which have elapsed and how little of their material culture could be preserved since they had neither pottery nor metals, it is rather remarkable that we know as much as we do. At least we know something of the tools and weapons which they used, the animals which they hunted, and the conditions under which they lived.
Apparently the earliest Americans had a rather simple culture and did not practice agriculture nor have fixed habitations. Little is known of their physical appearance since only two skeletons have been found in this country which are accepted as being of relatively great antiquity by any considerable number of competent scientists.[69][70] What evidence we have suggests that the first men to enter the new world were sufficiently modern in morphological type to differ very little in appearance from many present day Indians.
The question naturally arises: Where did the aboriginal inhabitants of America come from? Man did not evolve on this continent; therefore he must have come to this hemisphere from the Old World where he had existed for many thousands of years. All evidence points to migrations from Asia and the logical route is by way of Bering Strait where the two continents are separated by only fifty-six miles of water broken by three islands. Later migrants may also have arrived from Asia following a route through the Aleutian Islands. It must be emphasized that it is not believed that there was only one immigration. Actually there must have been many and they apparently continued into relatively recent times.
From the time of the earliest cultures until the early centuries of the Christian era we have little knowledge of prehistoric life in America. Work is being done and reports are expected which will eventually clarify much which is now shrouded in darkness. It is not that the Southwest was uninhabited at this period, it is just that we know very little about it. It may readily be seen how difficult it is to assemble evidence for this time. There was undoubtedly only a very simple material culture with little save stone tools which would survive. Even though we find implements of this period, however, how are we to assign them to their proper chronological position? With the most ancient cultures some approximation of age may be made on the basis of association with the remains of extinct animals, the climatic conditions indicated by deposits containing artifacts, and other geological data. In the case of fairly recent cultures, the invaluable tree-rings come to our aid and through stratigraphic studies the chronological positions of the cultures immediately preceding them can be established. For the intermediate period only stratigraphy can help us very much and stratigraphic evidence is hard to find. In the Cochise Culture, a sequence lasting until about 500 B.C. has been worked out and the report on Ventana Cave in Arizona, when it is published, will undoubtedly give us much additional information.
Fig. 4—Folsom diorama in the Museum at Mesa Verde National Park. (Courtesy Mesa Verde National Park.)
In the Tabeguache drainage of southwestern Colorado have been found caves containing stratified deposits, the lowest of which are believed to be quite old although considerably more recent than the really ancient cultures previously discussed.[66][67] These deposits contained lined and unlined firepits and there were little holes, dug in the cave floor, filled with ashes and charcoal. These are thought to have been too small to have served any utilitarian purpose and it has been suggested that they may have been ceremonial in nature. Also found were grinding stones and a distinctive type of long slender projectile point with side notches to which the name Tabeguache Point has been applied. There was no pottery.
Obviously, a great deal of work will have to be done and probably many years will elapse before we have any clear picture of what was happening in various parts of the Southwest prior to the time to which we assign the letters A.D. If only all the descendants of the first people had stayed in the same place and placed their cultural remains neatly on top of those of their ancestors, archaeologists would find everything more simple, though probably rather dull.
Once we pass on to a time which is separated from our own by hundreds instead of thousands of years we are on firmer ground. Two main basic cultures have been differentiated by archaeologists and it now seems probable that two more may be recognized. The best known and the first to be considered is often called the Anasazi. This is a Navajo name for the “ancient ones” and is applied to the prehistoric inhabitants of the plateau area of the Southwest which includes the drainages of the San Juan, Little Colorado, Rio Grande, Upper Gila and Salt Rivers, much of Utah and some of eastern Nevada. The term plateau must not be interpreted as referring to a plain. Actually, it is a vast expanse of territory with a greater elevation than the surrounding areas, but with many drainage sources which have formed gorges in the tableland. It contains prairies, mountains, and terraced mesas.
The Anasazi cultural sequence is a continuous one but can be divided into successive horizons: the earlier of which are called Basketmaker and the later ones, Pueblo. The end of the Basketmaker era is placed at approximately 700 A. D. in most areas, but it is as yet impossible to give any beginning date for it. The earliest date provided by tree-rings for wood from a Basketmaker site is 217 A.D.,[122] but the culture was well established by that time. Some charred wood found in a primitive Basketmaker site near Durango, Colorado, has yielded information which is still considered tentative but which seems to indicate occupation well before the birth of Christ.[95]
The beginning date for the Pueblo era coincides with that given for the end of the Basketmaker period which preceded it. No terminal date may be given, for Pueblo Indians still live in New Mexico and Arizona.
The first evidence of the Basketmaker people was discovered in 1893 when ninety bodies accompanied by a great many finely woven baskets were found in a cave in Butler Wash in southeastern Utah. It was apparent that these people were older than the builders of the cliff houses, and of a different culture, and the profusion of baskets led to the term, Basketmakers, being applied to them to differentiate them from the later people. The name soon found its way into scientific literature and has continued to be used. It soon became apparent, however, that all the Basketmakers were not of the same age, and archaeologists found that they had to have names to distinguish the different cultural periods.
Fig. 5—Map of the Southwest showing sites, towns, and areas referred to in Chapter III.
In 1927 the leading archaeologists of the Southwest gathered at Pecos, New Mexico, and worked out a system of terminology.[74] An early stage characterized by a nomadic life with no knowledge of agriculture had been postulated although no direct evidence had been found. This hypothetical period was named Basketmaker I. The early semi-agricultural, semi-hunting culture which produced fine baskets but no pottery, and for which there was evidence, was called Basketmaker II. To the third and final phase, when pottery was made, the term Basketmaker III was assigned. Clear-cut evidence for Basketmaker I has been lacking and the term is little used although the finds in the Tabeguache Caves may be attributed to this period. A simpler terminology than that proposed at the Pecos Conference has since been suggested and it will be used in this book.[110] The term Basketmaker is applied to the people formerly assigned to Basketmaker II and their immediate successors are called Modified Basketmakers.
The Basketmakers were widespread over the Southwest and remains of their culture have been found in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. We know them best from the San Juan Drainage. It is probable that they really reached their highest development here, but we must also take into consideration the fact that here we have ideal conditions for the preservation of much normally perishable material, and this gives us far more information than is available for many sections of the country.
Many Basketmaker remains are found in caves along cliff faces. The term cave, although widely used, however, is perhaps misleading, for it has a connotation of darkness and of deep enclosed places. Actually the so-called Basketmaker caves are fairly shallow rock shelters, worn in the rock by the action of water and wind, and open to the sun. In them are found ash and dust deposits which contain the bodies of the ancient inhabitants and their possessions.
Many references are found to Basketmaker “mummies”. It is quite true that, due to the aridity of the climate and the protection offered by the shelters, which make it difficult for the bacteria of decay to survive, many of the bodies were “mummified” with the dehydrated flesh still on the bones and the hair looking much as it did in life. These must not be confused with Egyptian mummies, however, which were preserved by artificial means and highly specialized techniques. It is simply a happy accident that these people buried their dead in places which permitted the preservation of their bodies.
Fig. 6—Basketmaker mummy. (Courtesy Peabody Museum, Harvard University.)
Probably, though, in the Southwest as in ancient Egypt, belief in a life after death is shown by the mortuary offerings placed in the graves. With the bodies are found baskets, food, weapons, and various personal possessions. With almost every corpse is found a pair of new, unworn sandals. This would suggest that they were not a possession of the deceased but a special offering which, it is logical to assume, was designed for use in a later life.
We may now return to the Basketmaker culture as archaeologists have reconstructed it from the evidence which they have painstakingly dug out of the dust and ashes of rock shelters which had not echoed with the sound of human activity for many centuries. The problems which these ancient people faced stagger the imagination of modern man. They had no metal, no pottery, no cotton or wool, no draught animals. Really all they did have was their own ingenuity to wrest the necessities of life from a none too favorable environment. It is remarkable how, by utilizing wood, bone, stone, plant fibers, and even their own hair, they not only produced all that they needed to survive, but also provided a base from which arose the high culture which culminated in the great communal dwellings of later times.
Were we able to project ourselves back into the time of the Basketmakers and watch the people of that day we should find men and women not too different from many Indians of today. The Basketmakers were rather short. They had coarse, black hair which, while straight, had slightly more of a tendency to waviness than that of present day Indians. Their skins were brown and they had little body hair.
What clothing the Basketmakers wore, besides sandals, is not certain. Woven bands, sometimes referred to as “gee strings,” have been found in a number of sites but no mummy has ever been found buried with any loin covering. Many little “aprons”, consisting of waist cords to which was attached a fringe of strings of cedar or yucca fiber, have been found. Some of the longer ones, usually of cedar bast, were used as menstrual pads, but there are also a few shorter, finely woven, little aprons which probably served as skirts for women. Their scarcity, however, would suggest that they were not considered essential garments. Since the country in which these people lived is cold in the winter and can become quite chilly after nightfall even at other seasons of the year, they undoubtedly had some covering to give them warmth. Almost every body is found wrapped in a blanket made of fur and it is probable that these served as wraps and blankets for the living as well as shrouds for the dead.
The manner in which these coverings were constructed is most ingenious. Strings were made of yucca fibres, then narrow strips of rabbit fur were wrapped around them. These fur covered strings were then tied together in close parallel rows, producing a light warm blanket. Sometimes they were ornamented with borders made of cords which had been wrapped with strips of bird skins. Some mantles of tanned deerskin were also made and it may be that there were some woven robes, for a few fragments of woven cloth have been found. These fragments bear patterns similar to those shown on the chests of individuals depicted in Basketmaker paintings on cliff faces, and they may have been parts of shirts or ponchos. It is also possible, however, that the designs shown in pictographs simply indicated body painting.[38]
Fig. 7—Basketmaker diorama in the Museum at Mesa Verde National Park. (Courtesy Mesa Verde National Park.)
Diagram showing the method of making a fur-cloth blanket. The upper figure shows the construction of a fur strip; the lower shows the manner in which the strips were held together.
The major item in the limited Basketmaker wardrobe was sandals. Anyone who has walked much in the canyon country of the Southwest can readily see how vital such equipment would be, and apparently the Basketmakers devoted much time and energy to keeping themselves shod. Sandals were woven of cord made from the fibers of yucca and apocynum, a plant related to the milkweed. They were double-soled, were somewhat cupped at the heel, and had a square toe which was sometimes thickened, but was usually ornamented with a fringe of buckskin or shredded juniper bark. To attach them to the foot there were heel and toe loops with a cord passing between them. These cords were often made of human hair. Hair was also sometimes used to provide the secondary warps in the sandals themselves. A few pairs of large coarse sandals have been found coated with mud and it is thought that they may have served as overshoes for wear in bad weather.
Fig. 8—a. Basketmaker sandal. b. Modified-Basketmaker sandal.
Whatever the Basketmakers may have lacked in clothing, they compensated for with jewelry and ornaments. Our information is derived not only from mortuary finds but also from pictures painted on cliff faces by the Basketmakers themselves. Hair ornaments were widely used. Most of them consisted of bone points tied together to form comblike objects and topped with feathers. Feathers have also been found made into little loops and worn as pendants. Beads of all sorts were among the favorite means of decoration. They were used in making necklaces and as ear pendants. Some were of stone, carefully ground and polished, some of bone, sometimes engraved. Seeds and acorn cups were also used to make necklaces. Shells were very widely used, and it is interesting to note that many of them were olivella or abalone which can have come only from the Pacific coast.
It seems unlikely that either the Basketmakers or their contemporaries along the coast were much given to transcontinental tours when their only means of transportation was their own sandal-shod feet, but the shells prove some sort of contact. Probably it was a contact by trade carried on through the peoples who inhabited the country between the two locales.
This preoccupation with ornamentation might suggest some degree of vanity, and it is probably true that Basketmaker men gave a good bit of time and thought to their personal appearance. Basketmaker women, however, seem to have been a practical lot, far more concerned with material for their weaving than with their own appearance. The hair of female mummies is hacked off to a length of two or three inches. Of course cutting with a stone knife could hardly be expected to provide a particularly glamorous hair-do, and the fact that strands of hair seem to have been cut off at different times, presumably as the need for weaving material arose, added nothing to the general effect. While Basketmaker women would hardly furnish “pin up” material according to our standards, they presumably seemed attractive to Basketmaker men which, after all, was far more to the point.
Basketmaker men usually wore their hair long and formed into three bobs tied with a string, one on either side of the head and one in the back. In some cases the hair was clipped away to form an exaggerated part and tonsure, and from the hair at the top of the head was formed a queue about the thickness of a pencil, which was wound with cord for the entire length. The reason for this variation in hair dressing is not known. Perhaps the rare form with the clipping and the queue had some ceremonial significance, or was a mark of rank. Brushes made of yucca fibers have been found, which we know were used for the hair. Human hair is found clinging to them and they are a form still used by some modern Indians.
Having determined how these people looked we may now turn to the consideration of how they lived. For a great many years lack of evidence of house construction, coupled with the fact that most Basketmaker caves do not contain any great amount of ash and refuse, led to an acceptance of the belief that the Basketmakers either had no dwellings, or perhaps erected flimsy brush shelters which had since disappeared. Recent excavations near Durango, Colorado, however, have yielded evidence of well developed Basketmaker houses. Dates, tentatively assigned, fall in the early part of the fourth century. Doubtless, in other parts of the Anasazi province there were many other Basketmaker houses which have been destroyed by erosion, root, and frost action. Some of those found in the Durango area were in a cave and others on a terrace which had been made by cutting into the talus and removing the earth until a level surface large enough to accommodate the intended dwelling was produced.
“The house floors ranged in diameter from eight to thirty feet. They were saucer-shaped, formed of adobe mud not too smoothly spread over the surface of the excavation. The rim of the saucer was plastered against a series of short horizontal foot logs, laid to conform to the arc of the circle. These served as the foundation of the wall, the construction of which may be characterized as wood-and-mud masonry. Sticks and small timbers were laid around horizontally, and the interstices were crammed full of adobe to produce a strong, tough shell. The wall leaned somewhat inward as it rose to a convenient head height. Roofs were cribbed. Since the roof rested directly on the wall there was no necessity for stout vertical supporting timbers such as have been found in dwellings of the succeeding period.
“In no instance did a room boundary remain to a height sufficient to reveal the position, size, or shape of the entrance. At the approximate center of each floor was a heating pit (heating pit is used advisedly, because fire does not seem to have been maintained in the pits). Metates, varying from basin to trough shape, were a normal feature of each living surface. Interior storage devices occurred with great frequency. Some were merely slab-lined pits dug into the floor. Others were mud domes built entirely above the floor. The most common variety consisted of a combination of the two—a sub-floor, slab-lined basin surmounted by a mud dome with an opening in the top.”[96]
Even before these discoveries were made it had been known that the Basketmakers had some knowledge of construction. In the caves or shelters they built cists which provided storage space for corn and which often served a secondary purpose as a final resting place for the dead. Some were lined with grass and bark and may have been used as temporary sleeping places. The cists were oval or circular pits, usually dug in the cave floor. The average diameter was between three and five feet and the average depth about two feet. There were also larger cists which reached a diameter of over eight feet and were four feet deep. Some were divided into bins by slab partitions. Cists were sometimes simply pits but in other cases they were lined with stone slabs and reinforced with adobe. Covers were usually provided. For the smaller cists they were normally only sandstone slabs. The larger cists often had more elaborate roofs of wood and plaster and some even had above-ground superstructures of poles, brush, and bark, sometimes capped by adobe.
Clothing and shelter are, of course, subordinate to man’s main physical need—the need for food. In the period in which we first find evidence of the Basketmakers they were no longer solely dependant on hunting and the gathering of wild foods but had two cultivated crops, corn and squash. Where the Basketmakers gained their knowledge of agriculture is not known with certainty. Everything seems to point to the first domestication of corn far to the south in Central[126] or South America and it Is believed that knowledge of corn and its cultivation spread to the north by diffusion.
Most of the corn cultivated by the Basketmakers was a tropical flint with small ears. Agricultural implements were so primitive that a modern farmer would be appalled at the thought of using them, even under the most favorable climatic conditions. They consisted simply of digging sticks of hard wood some forty-five or more inches in length. In most cases two thirds of the stick was round and the remainder was worked down to form a thin blade a few inches wide, with a rounded point and one sharp edge. Others had plain flattened points instead of blades.
The implements available, as well as climatic conditions, naturally influenced planting techniques which remained unchanged for many centuries. Probably several kernels were placed in a hill at a depth of a foot or more. This type of planting gives the seeds access to the subsurface water on which they must depend to a great extent in a climate like the Southwest’s. Fields were usually in the flood plains of intermittent streams, and if there was any irrigation it was of the flood type.
Corn was undoubtedly stored for the winter and for emergency use in case of crop failures. Shelled corn found in skin bags and in baskets suggests that selected seed may have been kept for the following year’s planting. Squash plants were apparently grown not only to provide food, but the fruit, when hollowed out, served as vessels. Other vegetable foods were provided by nature and included roots, bulbs, grass seeds, sun flower seeds, pinyon nuts, acorns, berries, choke cherries, and probably yucca and cactus fruit. The suggestion, that cactus fruit served as food, stems from a find which shows clearly the detective methods which archaeologists employ to gather evidence from tiny clues. No cactus fruits have been found in Basketmaker refuse, but a cactus seed was found in the decayed molar of a skull.
Meat was undoubtedly an important component of the diet and quantities of animal bones are found in all sites. Many smaller animals such as rabbits, prairie dogs, gophers, badgers, and field mice, and some birds were snared or netted. The Basketmakers developed some remarkable snares and nets. One particularly interesting net, found at White Dog Cave near Kayenta, weighed twenty-eight pounds, and contained nearly four miles of string.[38] It was two hundred and forty feet long, over three feet wide, and somewhat resembled a tennis net. It is thought that such a net was placed across the mouth of a narrow gorge or canyon and that animals were driven into it and shot or clubbed. The specimen from White Dog Cave had two sections, one nine and one six feet long, woven of a hair and apocynum mixture which gave them a darker color. It is thought that this may have been done to produce the effect of an opening toward which a frightened animal would rush. Various ingenious snares, many made of human hair, were also used.
Larger animals, including deer, mountain sheep, and mountain lion, were also hunted, and their bones and skins utilized as well as their flesh. These animals were shot with darts propelled by atlatls. An atlatl is a rather remarkable weapon which gives great propulsive force to the missile and which produces the same effect as would lengthening the arm of the individual throwing the dart. It consists of a throwing stick about two feet long, two inches wide and half an inch thick, with a prong in one end into which was fitted the hollow butt of a spear or dart. Near the middle were two loops through which the fingers of the thrower passed. The spear portion consisted of two parts, a feathered shaft five to six feet long and about half an inch in diameter with a hollow end which fitted into the prong on the atlatl and a foreshaft of hard wood, some five or six inches long, tipped with a stone point. It was set into a hole in the end of the main shaft. This foreshaft was probably used to prevent the loss of the entire spear or dart while removing it when the fore part was buried in an animal’s body. Also, if a wounded animal ran away the shaft proper would shake loose from the imbedded foreshaft and fall out.
Polished stones are often found lashed to the under-sides of atlatls. It may be that they were designed to act as weights to give proper balance to the weapon, but another possibility, suggested by their unusual shapes and careful finish, is that they were charms or fetishes and served no utilitarian purpose.
Fig. 9—a. Atlatl, b. Reverse side of atlatl showing stone, c. Dart showing shaft (mid-section removed), foreshaft, and point, d. Method of using atlatl, e. Grooved club.
Often found associated with atlatls are curved sticks two to three feet long, marked by longitudinal grooves, extending from the handle to the top and usually with one or more interruptions in the lines. These are sometimes referred to as rabbit-sticks and it was first thought that they represented a form of non-returning boomerang such as is used in hunting rabbits by the Hopi Indians. Now, however, they are believed to be “fending sticks” such as were used by the Maya for defense against the atlatl.[95] A dart or spear thrown with an atlatl moves fairly slowly and could be deflected by the skillful use of such a club. They could also serve as weapons in close fighting. There is not much evidence of violent death among the Basketmakers, but there is some and the atlatl must have been used to kill men as well as animals. Although the Basketmakers did not use the bow and arrow, they apparently were in contact with people who did. In Canyon del Muerto in Arizona evidence of a massacre of Basketmakers was found. Among the bodies which had been allowed to decay before burial was that of an old woman with an arrow foreshaft between the ribs and skin of her left side.[92]
Once the Basketmakers had acquired their food, there naturally arose the question of cooking it. Meat presented no real problem, for it could be baked or roasted without culinary vessels or could even be eaten raw. Dried corn, however, which comprised so important a part of the Basketmaker diet, was something else again. From the grinding stones found in Basketmaker sites we know that corn was ground, as it is by Indians even today. To grind corn only simple implements are needed. The dry corn is placed on a flat stone, known as a metate. The kernels are then pounded and rubbed with a stone, of a size which can be held easily, called a mano. Once the corn is made into meal it can be moistened and formed into little cakes to be baked on hot stones.
Probably, even without having any utensils which would seem suitable for cooking to us, it was possible for the Basketmakers to cook a variety of foods by boiling or stewing. To speak of boiling foods when the only available container is a basket may seem incredible but it can be done. The Basketmakers, as their name implies, made many baskets. These were remarkably fine and often so closely woven as to make suitable receptacles for liquids. Even though the baskets could hold water, however, the problem remains as to how they could be heated, since the baskets obviously could not be subjected to fire. The technique employed by other people faced with the same problem has been to drop hot stones into the liquid, replacing them with other hot stones as they cool, until the necessary temperature is achieved. Skin receptacles can also be used in the same way. In Basketmaker sites are found scooplike wooden objects, charred, and with worn edges. They are excellent digging implements and were probably used in digging cists, but the charring suggests that they may have been used in pairs to lift hot rocks from the fire and drop them into baskets or skin bags in which food was being stewed.
The most distinctive feature of the Basketmaker culture, as is implied by the name, was the making of basketry. Most baskets were made by the coiled technique in which a basket is built up from the base by a growing spiral coil. As the basket progresses, each coil is sewed to the one below with a thin splint. The coil itself consists of two rods, usually willow, and a bundle of fibrous material. In sewing the coils together a bone awl is used to pass the splint through the fiber bundle.
The most common basket forms were shallow trays anywhere from three inches to three feet in diameter. Smaller baskets tended to be deeper than the larger models. There were also bowl forms, with steeply flaring sides and flat bottoms, which may have been used for cooking. Small baskets with restricted openings, which are called trinket baskets, were probably used to store seeds and small objects. Two distinctive forms are carrying and water baskets. Both are large, with flaring sides and pointed bottoms. Water baskets had smaller constricted openings, presumably to keep the water from splashing out. They were lined with pitch made of pinyon gum. Some of the other baskets are so tightly woven as to hold water, but these specialized forms were specially treated, possibly because water was kept in them for a sufficiently long time that, without the protection of the pitch, they would have become water-logged and lost their usefulness.
Both the carrying and water baskets are so shaped as to fit against the shoulders and it is believed that they were carried on the back, probably with a tump strap running from the basket over the forehead of the bearer. This type of woven strap, which is commonly found in Basketmaker sites, is a device which helps to support and keep in place a burden carried on the back while leaving the hands free. It would be particularly useful in cases where there were cliffs to be negotiated and it was essential to be able to utilize hand holes pecked in the rock faces. Some of the water baskets are nearly two feet high and could have held some two or three gallons of water. Since all the water used in the caves would have to be carried up from streams below, or brought down from mesa tops where rain water had accumulated in natural basins or depressions, supplying the needs of a household would be no light chore, and the Basketmakers must have needed all the help which their tump straps provided.
Fig. 11—Basketmaker coiled baskets. (Courtesy Peabody Museum, Harvard University.)
Although baskets and carrying straps were utilitarian objects, their decorative possibilities were not overlooked. Many of the baskets had red and black designs formed by dyeing the sewing splints.
Another technique which was employed, primarily for the production of bags and to a limited extent in the making of baskets, was twining. In twining, splints or threads are intertwined around a foundation of radiating rods or threads. Twined bags are very characteristic of the Basketmaker culture. These are soft, seamless sacks which vary in size from a few inches to two or more feet in length. They are egg-shaped with slightly pointed bottoms and somewhat constricted necks. Usually they were made of the fiber of apocynum, but some yucca fiber was also used. Most of the bag was of the warm yellowish brown of the undyed fiber but decoration was provided by dyeing some of the threads red or black and weaving in designs in horizontal bands. There was no introduction of specially dyed elements. When a change in color was desired, weft threads were simply rubbed with color. Possibly the finished article was treated in some way to fix the dye. Burden or tump straps and narrow sashes were also twined-woven and similarly decorated.