Utah Statewide Archaeological Society Newsletter, Volume 1, Number 3, November 1955

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ARCLi.:/)L~'GY

A Newsletter Nove~ber

Vol" 1, No .. ;3

1955

CONTEj~TS

Editor's Notes

ilnge 1

New Pu hI iea t ions

Pa£je

SUMmer Field Reports

PaOe :3

Ar':;H~\)loGir.()l

Evidence of I!unting l:agic

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EDITCH'S N(;TES stIll

~Aembership in the increa~lng and 1 t im~! to co.ne 0 If

Utah Statewide ArcheologIcal 50clety is

feel thet it will continue to do so for

any members know of other people interested in Jolnlng the Society, 1 will be glad to mail ap~lication blanks

some

to them .. ·0 i splays In addItion to the regular displays in the Anthropolo~y ~useu m at the University of Utah, t~ere will be speCial anthropology displays in the "University of Utah Library, November 1Z-Z5 .. Any ~ e rn .. bers of the Society who have sons or dau£hters attendin£; the :: nl ~ vgrslty and who will be vlsltlns the University on Parents' Day, November 12, are extended a special invitation to see the exh Iblts In the Lihrary and to visit the Anthropology ~useu~o The Museu n will be open Saturday forenoon, NoveMber 12, and will be a sto p on the bus tour of the campus .. ~!~embe

rs

J have received Interestlns communicatIons from two sf o~r .. Frs .. Jean.ial Tr11ie and fa"'1ilY,of Ogden were ent f l'i sias ti c over- their visit to several rulns, incl:Jdinr, Hovenwee p , in SO u P :-· eeJstern l·t~h and adJoinin~: states. Anyone who has not visite a t"l ~~ National Parks and ~onuments which contain lndi&n r u ins will he

")er!l~)ers

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lJlah I\rcheo}cGY Is mailed to mej1~bers of C)e Utah S.tat.ewide Archeo·, lcoical'Societyo All corresponclcnce shot.;ld be dIrected to the ~~ditor .. ~J:.l!TIes lin Gunnerson l gepaT'tl;;ent of j\nthro~oloSY, 'Cniversity' of Ltah p Sc.lt Lahe City,. ttaho

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as excited as the Tribes were when they take advantage of these op, .ortuni ties.

Mrs. Amy Avery of Venice, ~tah, has begun to map and photograph plctograph~ and petroglyphs in her area. She increased loca l interest"through a letter to the editor of the Richfield .

ReaFer. This worthwhile project coulo be'duplicated wIth greet pro It in all parts of the state. Urs. A~ery1s request for addltl~nal informatier. ~n pictocraphs prompted me to summarize what is known of Utah pictographs for a ~, uture isst:e of Utah Arc h e ol o~ .

New Publications I should like to call attentlcn to several recent publications which deal primr.rily with l'tah ar.cheology.

Wormington, 1955.

Wormington, Curator of Anthropology at th~ Denver ~useum of Natural History, includes a report on the Turner-Look site, a Fremont site near Cisco, Utah. The "Northern Periphery" include~ most of utah, and the Fremont culture, which she describes In greater detaIl, is focnd chiefly In the northeastern quarter of the state.

Rudy, Jack 1955.

lJtaha

Rudy reports excavaticn at nine sites west of MontIcello, Utah. All are of Pueblo (Anasazl) affiliation and are located in what was a nearly inaccessIble area until roads were constructed to facilitate urcnium prospection. Rudy conducted the excavations for the University of Utah in 1953.

Jennings, Jesse D. and Edward Norbeck 1955. Great Rasin prehistorr: A Review. American Antiq u ity, Vol. XXI, No .. 1, pp • . -11., Un Iversity of T!tah Press, Salt Lake City.

This interpretative article has greatly clarified the probable line of development of the various prehistoric cultures in the Great Rasin. JennIngs, Head of the Department of Anthropology at the University of ~tah, and Norteck, member of the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, demonstrate a very early widespread hunting and gathering way of life, the Desert Culture, which apparently served as a basiS for such subsequent developments as the agricult~ral Anasazi and Fremont groups.

3

This hunting and gatherinu economy would see m to have continued essentially unchanged into hlstor~c times in the dase of t he" Pai u tes.

The three publicati'ns listed above are written pri :~rily f or the professional archeologist (and anthropolo~lst) but wo~ld be of inter-est to anyo;-~e interested in Utah archeol:1£;Y.

It is to be hoped that many of the members of the Utah Statewide Archeological Society were able to visit one or both of the archeological excav~tions reported briefly belowo Reading reports of SUGh work can never be as enlirjhtenin£j as act.ually watc!1in s; the excavation in progresso It i~J tH"obable that rJc:'1bers and 0ther intere!;ted people will have an Ol))Ol"'ttlnJty to '., : sit digs (lgai;! next SUrrllnei' but as of now no deffn ! t(! \)lans have heml madeo W;iBU sites have heen selected and dates .at , th[s newslett~r will pD~~ the information on to you q

The University of t'tah · S;Hn"Oe' archeological field s c hool under Ule direction of Dro Jesu(! iL Jennings e.><cavated t w') f~.zr;')ont c u lt u ~e sites between Salina and ~mery, Utah.

At one Site, Popl ar Knob, four rectangular hous~s with a total of f i v~ ~ 00ms were e xcavated. All had had coursed masonfty walls and had bee n built on the surface of isolated knoll s o The artifact y~eld wa ~ s~all.

The second site, the Old Woman, was more rewardin g I n that t h ree types of structures were l'~presented. T}lere were t hree r ound pit houses, each about two feet deep, and with plas tered wa lls, forming an ar.c at the edge of the siteo Centrally were two co ntl~uous rectangt.:hu" Jacal houses which had been built on the gr ound surfacBo One had burned and was rebuilt with cOl rsed adobe~ Also centrally located were two coursed adobe recta ngular granaries which had been built on the surface.

Of special tnterest were eleven ccmplete potter y vessels and four clay figur i ne~. The latter had been accidental ly fired when a ho use burned. They closely resemhle figurines reported by iVior s s fr om Range Creelt C anyon~ These excava t ions g re at l y i ncreas e our knowled£e of the Fremont. culture since only one oth e r open village site bas been excavated, and i t was much farther f r om the aran where this culture was first definedo The material frem these excav~tions is being worked up and reported by \'['e Dee Tayl::>rv r,rnduate student at the University of r"Hchigan~ who served as Dro .Jennin9s' field assistant.

The Utan Statewide Archeolor1ca1 Survey under the direst Ion " of Jam e s 11 (~11 nne r 5 en c em pie ted a !; e con G ye C1 r i nth est.: r v 'a y 0 f eastern l'tah, exclusive of the Anasazi area .. "iJork this summer was centered in the draina~e of the Dirty Devil R[ver with 0

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lLTi; ted tiiTle sr,ent in sUr're. nd:i1~, ,H'~as" Over 180 previo:.sl,.. l.1nrc(;<.)T'cieu sites wp,re locatedo !':,f)St ~j'f tIle sitf~S are n5~;~~~., ')1(; trle fr'ei7.ont. culture which ~lJa::;·,::-'i~;Inally defined fr:,'Y\ thi!' ,,;"«'5

to

'~Icrtion :~,f its area of distributi':)f, inter1'upted f Of' one r!~onth w~d Ie C:.m'(ler:;;(',n assisY.~d with iJll~eline salve.9'~ i~rrheolo~~y in eB:-·tern '.. ta;,c,::ii t..i~;uu,ls portions ()f·s,;rrolJndLi~,:3 states.

An archeolc~dca: !:. '-Ie:;, W<.~S also mRde of risht~of~waY~l of mlne access roads u'!der ((,r·st:·~(> tlon for the Atomic Enet'r:Y COffi;T]ls::'icn in eastern 1,)tah, bLt, no s<11varJ"~ excavation was necess(l~'y~ .

DrQ Charles Dihble, colla~)oratin~ with Dr~.J\r'th'..ir' J .. rio (',fl,!wt'30n of the :·!.useum 01 ~.lew r:exico; lias continued the tr8f1s12tj,·" (

the extn.!me south

w~st

i.'he surve,y was

the Ft')l"'enUne Codp.x. nooH Xl. i or Sahacl1T1 is 11"1 ;ir('~',': (~n' .,, ;: t,. ': -;:;~. .~ ': "')' ('__.. ) k s -" l• 'J ,t.'"..t"Cl f . ',)l. '" \' Y" 1;; 0;'" res" (' r '.', )';" r.,· l' :. _., ,,:--;:)1'.-, I J • ,'," .I • .-, , ; .~ 1 (" f: t 1 .-; n ') f . t r , . ,. t '. ~

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'(;nl'J8rsity 01' C;?,:.tf·:i:";H Zlus l,nge.lp.s cam;.A",: C," .:.j . t. r ;! I 1l; i rl ~:l ~) r iJ Gr' i3 ~:: :~~. ! '. r c ',\ (1 F C. 1 C) !.:~ y a ttL, l :11.: ~~ r t;. :' "';;:n,.gcJ.:l:-;.h. This l:)catior:,. wtl:' :'(qH'es,nts a Itf'",:e Ind,i~, .~n t Hf'.C w::::'.ch origInally had ~:l':~; ,'it) mt)tnCUi» W8S !) Vf;St~:_8.~>;:' t,' . ,. ~! U c~; fort h (; S m i. t h s c r.. i :,c, n r w, tl f, u U 0 n i n 1 9 1 ~L. 1 ~\. S j rl'~: c .: ~ ""!. neg .. 1:" 2.11. of the Indian r.emdi·.~~ f ave h~?en destroyer.' ~)r nT,<' '.' .\ C', 1':, h'<1 U en, la nd ~ 1 ew:d i f Pf. ~ d ;'(. 'Gm,·c l. e!l t i fi C "':' 11 c c:d; ec t..r,f ;'. , ('";':r;!18 sr'!all ;;ortL;n of tr.e s1'..e ;~'(;melil<:: in ~jo:)d en('J~:;~l (>;:-.d ,,', to ./lc!d a scientific recor-d; ".!.\h\ part~ owned by :.lr" "'::~>';;' >, nobiT1;tOn of Para{;onah, h~.~ ul?" :r:r!d~: av:(dlable tor' r·",";Ccft!. {; .. ttle i>C s t two yea rs ~ l:l c 1 S 5 5 fIeld t' r 0 ; f' (~. !:1 , v~ i (; hn" s ;,s sis • e d by t. ~l ,: c: ,"). ;, . ;~~I)!.l~.hern Utah in Cedar Citys> c·"!tinu'~d wi th invc~U~!ai.ic;j;: :c·~ :il the pr,~cedin}J year" SIx plt"'h()I.,sr~s and two surface ado:'e ;:'1. I Ji!~' (S \lH~rl; uncovered by the 1955 ~rol ~)o ~~,OrT\~ of t.he pi t-ho!Js:;> hee' ".;(f' df,:s~.rDyed oy fire,p and by very '.~;·cft;l .;xcavat~"n i,t. ·4,:.:~ )".:~',; 'It, t,':J "e( ')ver i:1tact the bt:rned 1",·j".-vbnHT1s, SUjlj.;O:'t polF'~, 2,; '. ":;-:0 Dnrts of the house which :.lay :Jc, ~l)lc tc:> c,ive U',· trec-f'";'14 :'l:;-' t:.,,: st':.('o SorH3 c\larred"r)\f.<:"~c~,f' b2..shetl'y wer o ~"L;., "'" "I'l l ;

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AIl.CIIEOLOC;ICAL EVIDEt\CE OF'

HlNTJ~~G

l'.'AGIC

James H. Gunnerson

The

~usQum

of Anthropology at the University of Ltah

has recently been given several unusual wicker animal ines (fig.l)

figu~­

These were found by Mr .. Mo J. Leventis,

P. G .. Saltes and Nil J" Comas in ,\ dry cave on the Colorado

River$ abC'l1t twenty mIles downstream from Lee's Ferry, at the mouth of MJ3rble Canyon, Arizona. such

speci~ens

These are not the first

to come form the cave (Anonymous, 1943: 87)

and Leventls estimates that a total of at least thirty have been recovered over

a

period of several years..

The figurines

were reported as having been found under several inches of fine sand which could have sifted down- from the Depth of the cave was not

a second openins.

deter~lned

roof~

but a draft suggested

A search of the cave failed to

any other cultural manifestations..

The

dl~close

This lack of associated

material makes it impossible to assign to them a cultural \-

or temporal positiono

Almost identical figurines found in

Etna cave in southeastern Nevada appear to be associated t

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with late Basketmaker material, about 1200 to 1400 years old (Wheeler, 1942, ppo 23-24.) northern

A ri z ona~(Farmer

The nin e whole and mus",um by >11' .

L '2 ven ti~

and De Sa ussure, 1955) fra~mentary

G<.':ntitly~ter~.

s pecimens donate d t o the

<'Ir e ve ry s ir:-li l at' i n ap pe ara nc e a nd

ill technIqn e of maT1u f a c ture Q t·'.'f~mty~two

Still others have been found in

T ~1e'y

t" ange fr om e i gh t

h I gil at the h'?2.cl.

to

,r::a c: h was made

fro m a

sino'.e will ow l sticK ( F i r> lL t he thid<el' end of

wh ich fOl'ms the rear foot. ..

The sticlc extends vertically to

t he top of the rump where it is bent forward to form the top of the back.

At the shoulder the stick

splits~

One

half is bent. down at a right angle to for:n the, foreleg.

At the foot

i.t doubles bBCk on itself and

to form the neck.

(vtv.:· >~:;;

upward

At the top of the head it is bent for-

ward at an acute anGle and back at an even more acute anOle to form the head and noseo

It is then bent down parallel

with the neck, passes under the body behind the forelegs and up along the neck again.

The end is then wrapped around

the head and neck and tucked in.

The body was filled in

solidly after the foreleg was finished but before the head and neck we re fin 1shed hy wrap:'i nG the second ha If of the split stick spirally around the front and hind 1eoso (FI£. 2)

This same pattern is evident in all the specime ns

insofar as they are complete. stlcks~

which

The bark was left on

t he

in maximum diameter from five to t welve

ran~ed

mi 11 i me t e r s • Several of the specirlens have what appeHT' to be On e ha s the end of the split

~~

t i cl{ wra p ped

Br Dund

hOT'tISo

the necl<

· projecting back as though to represent a horn o Ano t h8r i:q) (: c l n1en~

J, T~ot';·~.~'l};~

al th OUG h fra r:rn entaI' Jr~ hss

Dr"

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:....!!\i'./ci.j~;it~/

p" Cottan:, uf

l_~ta[~jt

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1~~:r:c)]y

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of

c omp l et8 hor'l1 which

th',~

Dep;1~'tf'lent of' th{--~ VJOOGr:

idcn~.~J.:;.:'·led

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that it has been wrapped spirally with a very slIm twig, giving the impression 0f a mountain sheep or goat horn, although it is straight.

It is impossIble t.o tell whether

or not the remaIning figurines originally had horns.

The proportions of the animals, also, are suggestive of sheep or goats.

The

le~s

and neck are moderately short

and the body somewhat blocky.

There seems to be no attempt

to represent a tail.

or

special interest are the sticks, apr'arently repre ...

scntlng spears, thru't through some of the animals.

In one

case the spear is of wi llow; In the other I t is made from a reed.

These spears strongly

s~ggest

that the figurines

i"epres ent _:fet 1shes us ed for hun t i n9 mag i c •

fur ther, if the

cave in which they occurred is Indeed devoid of other evidence of occupation, it may well represent a ceremonial retreat reserved for the practl\.e of hunting magica .

(-

l\I~r.,

Ma leo 1m Fa rme r

of the 1"lU5 eum of Nor the rn Ai'" i zona

is at present preparing an extnEsive report on such figurineso BIBLlOORAPHY Anonymous 1943.

"Report on the Condition of the United States NatIonal ~useurn for the Year Ended June 30, 1942u WashIngton 8'

;,Vh eel e r, SaM ..

1942.

lIArcheolosy of Etna Cnvc, Lincoln County .. Nevada. H Nevada State Park Commissiol1o Carson City

Farmer, M. and Ro DF Saussure 1955 " " S P Ii t .~ t \Iii ~ An i rna 1 F' i 9 uri n e s .. It P 1ate a tJ ~ VoL 27, No. -4, pp .. 13···23

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Fig. 1 Basic Frame of Wicker F~gurlne Before 30ay~ Ncick and head are wrapped

Flg~

2 Complete Wicker AnimHl flgurlne