 | Pueblo del Arroyo, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico |  |
OBJECTS OF BONE
The list given on page 126 includes all 4-footed mammals whose
bones were found in the rubbish piles of Pueblo del Arroyo. All, or
nearly all, of those mammals presumably are represented among the
bone artifacts now before us. Doubt must remain in those instances
or extensively altered. Bones of the mule deer (Odocoileus
hemionus) predominate, and because they are straight and strong it is
understandable that deer leg bones should have been used most frequently
for implements. The process of manufacture echoed that in
woodworking, namely, separating the desired portion by sawing with
a piece of flint or sandstone and then rubbing it to shape.
Awls, the most common of bone tools, vary greatly in shape and
size and in the amount of labor expended upon them. Some are mere
splinters, pointed to meet a need of the moment; others are so neatly
fashioned they must have been treasured by the maker. There are
long awls and short awls; thick and thin awls. Typical examples are
shown in plate 37. One, 3⅛ inches in length, was shaped from a fragment
of deer mandible (U.S.N.M. No. 334927); at least one was
made from a deer rib (No. 334881); one, with an exceptionally
sharp point (No. 334885), is unidentified but appears to be made
from a fish bone. Leg bones of the deer, rabbit, and wild turkey
were favorite awl materials.
We discarded in the field the less meaningful awl fragments but
retained 186 specimens for the national collections. Among these,
several groups appear of passing interest. Nine, drilled at the butt
end like needles, vary in length from 2 to 9[fraction 1 by 16] inches and in maximum
width from [fraction 3 by 16] to ⅞ inch. One of them (field No. 48), found in the
narrow room east of Kiva B, was made from a splinter of bird bone
and is at once the shortest and the narrowest of the lot. The longest,
from which the tip is missing, was made from a deer metapodial. It
was found in Room 1, and its surface, glossy from use and yellowed
by age, has the appearance of old ivory (U.S.N.M. No. 334922).
Thus the shortest and longest of our nine drilled awls came from
rooms I believe were built by immigrants from the north.
Another group consists of six delicate, double-pointed implements
needle-sharp at one end, thinned, flattened, and somewhat blunted at
the other. They range in length from 2¼ to 3⅛ inches; in width, from
⅛ to ¼ inch. A third series, 13 in number, is of the type sometimes
described as "pins." All are round in cross section or nearly so,
⅛ to ½ inch in diameter, 3 to 8[fraction 7 by 16] inches in length, and usually
square cut at the butt.
Dagger (?).—Half of the tibia of an elk (Cervus canadensis),
pointed at one end and worn smooth along the edges, seems too large
and unwieldy for ordinary household tasks (pl. 37, f). It could
have served as a dagger, although there is doubt that Pueblo tribes
weapons reported by chroniclers of the Conquest period.
Scrapers.—The Pueblo del Arroyo collection includes only one end
scraper made from a deer humerus (pl. 37, s). Another of the same
general type but fashioned from a metapodial (U.S.N.M. No.
334935) was recovered in Kiva I. We have six end scrapers made
from deer phalanges, plus a seventh in process of manufacture. One
of the six, from Room 32 (field No. 183), has 3 "turkey tracks" incised
on its convex surface. Morris (1939, p. 122) collected phalanx
scrapers from the Chaco horizon at Aztec Ruin; he expressed the
belief they were peculiar to that phase of P. III. Our collection includes
only one scraper made from a mammal rib (U.S.N.M. No.
334932), its distal end worn at an angle but without the bevel common
to its kind.
Still another variety of bone end scraper is illustrated by four
fragments (pl. 37, a-c, e). All are toothed, and the teeth are polished
through wear, especially on the under side. The second example,
1⅛ inches wide, retains part of both edges but its blade, flatter and
sharper than the others, lacks two teeth. That on the outside was
broken off first and its stub smoothed by abrasion. The third specimen,
least worn of the four, is only a scrap but appears to be full
length, 1⅞ inches. Our fourth example, e, found among the razed
structures west of Room 29 and south of Kiva "c," was cut from a
piece of scapula. With both ends present, an original length of 2⅞
inches is indicated. The added specimen, d, is of antler, sharp bitted
but without notches.
Side scrapers are represented by a fragment of leg bone and two
pieces of scapula. One of the latter (U.S.N.M. No. 334929) has
been reduced to an oval, 2[fraction 5 by 16] inches long by [fraction 13 by 16], its edge worn all
around and the lower end thin and knifelike.
Bull roarer.—Although made from the cannon bone of an elk instead
of lightning-riven wood, and although it bears two transverse
incisings rather than lightning symbols, the bone instrument, plate
37, q, was nevertheless recognized by some of our Zuñi workmen as
a "bull roarer," a prayer device twirled at the end of a cord to simulate
the wind and thus invite rain.
Flakers.—One of three antler tines apparently had been used as a
flaking tool until its tip was blunted and thereafter as a buffer of some
sort since the end is now rounded and polished (U.S.N.M. No.
334948). Another possible flaker is a former bone awl (No. 334925).
Bone "beads."—Our collection includes 24 bone beads, so-called,
polished through wear. Morris (1919, p. 42) found necklaces made
up of the shorter examples, and Hodge (1920, pp. 126, 134) found
some of the longer ones paired upon the left wrist of skeletons as
though once attached to a wrist guard. Still longer examples have been
reported in lots of 10 to 200 with burials at Aztec Ruin and at Pecos
(Morris, 1919, p. 42; Kidder, 1932, p. 260). The significance of such
numbers and such association remains a mystery.
At Pueblo del Arroyo we unearthed only four of this longer
variety, their ends more or less smoothly rubbed but muscle attachments
remaining at the sides. Two, 4¾ inches in length and from
Kiva E, are of jack rabbit tibias (U.S.N.M. No. 334941); the others,
from a cottontail tibia and a wing bone of an unidentifiable bird,
were found outside the ruin, west of Room 29 (No. 334942).
Dice.—Two bone "gaming counters," ¾ and ⅞ inch long, were recovered
in Rooms 51 and 54, respectively (U.S.N.M. No. 334947).
The shorter, made from the leg bone of a rabbit or bird, is without
ornamentation but its edges are ground flat on the concave side; the
longer, of heavier bone, has rounded edges and its convex face is
crowded by four incised X's.
Antler.—In proportion to the numbers of deer and elk bones in
local rubbish piles, implements made from antler are surprisingly
few. We have only the chisel-like implement shown on plate 37, d,
a punch or buffing tool (pl. 37, r), two unworked tine tips, and two
club fragments. One of these latter is of deer antler, its butt end
rounded by abrasion (pl. 38, f). The second and larger fragment is
of elk antler, the remnant of a once formidable weapon (pl. 38, g).
In Room 32 at Pueblo Bonito, Pepper (1920, p. 161) found a 19-inchlong
elk-antler club with a drilled hole at the lesser end for attachment
of a wrist cord.
| Pueblo del Arroyo, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico | |