Many large ruins are located in the narrow and twisting Canyon del
Muerto. One of the biggest is Antelope House, some 5 miles above del
Muerto’s junction with Canyon de Chelly. This 40- to 50-room village was
built on the stream bank against the base of a cliff which towers nearly
600 feet above it.
Antelope House received its name from four antelopes painted in tan and
white, about half life size, high on the cliff nearby. Navajo families
living in the canyon believe that these well-executed paintings were
done by Dibe Yazhi (Little Sheep), a Navajo artist who lived here in the
1830’s. Other figures in white paint are probably the work of the
prehistoric inhabitants of Antelope House.
Because it stands on the river bank, Antelope House has also eroded
badly. Yet many of the house walls still rise two and three stories
high, and the masonry outlines of dozens of unexcavated rubble-filled
rooms and of two kivas can still be seen.
[Illustration: Antelope House in Canyon del Muerto is on the canyon
floor under a towering, overhanging cliff.]
[Illustration: An Anasazi pictograph.]
The famous “Burial of the Weaver” was found in a small cliff alcove not
far from Antelope House. The grave was against the cliff, and a curved
masonry wall in front held back the earth. Inside was the tightly flexed
body of an old man lying on his left side. His hair was streaked with
gray and tied back in a bob; a billet of wood served as a pillow. The
body’s outer wrapping was a feather blanket made from the breast down of
golden eagles. Under the feather cloth was a white cotton blanket,
excellently made and appearing as clean and new as if freshly woven; and
under the white blanket was an old gray cotton blanket. Beneath that
blanket, lying on the mummy’s breast, was a single ear of corn.
A reed mat covered the floor of the grave, and the amount and variety of
objects laid away with the body suggest that the individual was highly
respected in life. A long wooden digging stick, broken to fit into the
grave, lay across the burial bundle. Beside this, and also broken, was a
bow so thick that only a powerful arm could have pulled it. With the bow
was a single reed arrow with a fire-hardened wooden point. Five pottery
jars, one broken, together with four bowl-shaped baskets woven from
yucca leaves, were also in the grave. These containers were filled with
cornmeal, shelled corn, four ears of husked corn, pinyon nuts, beans,
and salt. Tightly packed around the body and offerings were thick skeins
of cotton yarn which measured more than 2 miles in length. A spindle
whorl—a wooden disc on a reed stem which probably had been used to spin
the cotton—lay on the yarn.
[Illustration: A National Park Service archeologist examines a
storage jar found at Antelope House.]