University of Virginia Library

OBJECTS OF BONE

Inlaid bone scrapers were regarded as ceremonial by Pepper (1905b,
pp. 185-196), and indeed it is difficult to believe such exquisite implements
were created for secular tasks. Yet, as has been explained in a
previous section, of our 20 humeri end scrapers only 4 were inlaid.
One of these was associated with a coiled basket tray, oval in shape,
accompanying the body of a woman buried in Room 326. Three other
female skeletons in the same room likewise were each accompanied
by an oval basket and a scraper made
from the humerus of a mule deer. It
is, therefore, the association of such
a scraper with an oval basket tray
rather than the fact one of the four
was inlaid, that suggests a possible
ceremonial connection.

Bone dice.—Games of chance are
played by all American Indians.

Fig. 79.—Painted gourd rind.

Most of them employ wooden or cane sticks but some tribes, as the
Arapaho of Wyoming and Oklahoma, prefer bone counters (Culin,
1907, pp. 53-55). Though such games may fill an otherwise idle hour,
they are more frequently played seasonally and with religious sanction.
For example, the 4-stick Zuñi game of sho'liwe is played ceremonially
in May to bring rain (ibid., p. 35). Similarly, ritual stick races in
spring and early summer are the means by which Hopi and Zuñi show
running water how to hurry on to waiting fields.

Bone dice, so-called, have been reported repeatedly from Pueblo IIII
ruins. Of the 16 we recovered at Pueblo Bonito, 12 are elliptical
in shape but the degree of pointedness at the ends varies considerably
(fig. 80). So, too, in cross section: eight are flattened on both sides,
while the others vary from planoconvex to concavoconvex. With one
exception (e), incised markings, if any, occur on the flatter side.

As to distribution, three were recovered from Old Bonitian debris;
five, from Late Bonitian debris and two from mixed rubbish; two
came from Late Bonitian rooms of which one had previously been
excavated; and four were miscellaneous finds. In their varied form
as in their markings these dice are indistinguishable from those unearthed
at older Pueblo ruins.

It is believed the small discoidal specimens, figures j-l, likewise were
gaming counters. The first is a little less than semiglobular; the second,
flat on both sides with rounded edge. The third example consists of a
cup-shaped section of bone having eight notches around the rim,
backed with a semiglobular, brown, resinous pellet molded to shape.

Fig. 80.—Bone dice, or gaming counters.

Fig. 81.—Bone die.

Figure 81 illustrates one of
three ellipsoidal bone counters
from as many Late Bonitian
rooms. The three are very nearly
equal in size but are marked
differently. On one of them
(U.S.N.M. No. 335138), traces
of a black substance remain in
the cuts. The encircling groove
appears on all three. Although
the bone is too modified for positive identification it has been suggested
that each is carved from the head of a bear's femur.