The pottery from Sikyatki is especially rich in picture writing, and
imperfect as these designs are as a means of transmitting a knowledge
of manners, customs, and religious conceptions, they can be
interpreted with good results.
One of the most important lessons drawn from the pottery is to be had
from a study of the symbols used in its decoration, as indicative of
current beliefs and practices when it was made. The ancient
inhabitants of Sikyatki have left no written records, for, unlike the
more cultured people of Central America, they had no codices; but they
have left on their old mortuary pottery a large body of picture
writings or paleography which reveals many instructive phases of their
former culture. The decipherment of these symbols is in part made
possible by the aid of a knowledge of modern survivals, and when
interpreted rightly they open a view of ancient Tusayan myths, and in
some cases of prehistoric practices.[116]
Students of Pueblo mythology and ritual are accumulating a
considerable body of literature bearing on modern beliefs and
practices. This is believed to be the right method of determining
their aboriginal status, and is therefore necessary as a basis of our
knowledge of their customs and beliefs. It is reasonable to suppose
that what is now practiced in Pueblo ritual contains more or less of
what has survived from prehistoric times, but from Taos to Tusayan
there is no pueblo which does not show modifications in mythology and
ritual due to European contact. Modern Pueblo life resembles the
ancient, but is not a facsimile of it, and until we have rightly
measured the effects of incorporated elements, we are more or less
inexact in our estimation of the character of prehistoric culture. The
vein of similarity in the old and the new can be used in an
interpretation of ancient paleography, but we overstep natural
limitations if by so doing we ascribe to prehistoric culture every
concept which we find current among the modern survivors. To show how
much the paleography of Tusayan has changed since Sikyatki was
destroyed, I need only say that most of the characteristic figures of
deities which are used today in the decoration of pottery are not
found on the Sikyatki ware. Perhaps the most common figures on modern
food bowls is the head of a mythologic being, the Corn-maid,
_Calako-mana_, but this picture, or any which resembles it, is not
found on the bowls from Sikyatki. A knowledge of the cult of the
Corn-maid possibly came into Tusayan, through foreign influences,
after the fall of Sikyatki, and there is no doubt that the picture
decoration of modern Tusayan pottery, made within a league of
Sikyatki, is so different from the ancient that it indicates a
modification of the culture of the Hopi in historic times, and implies
how deceptive it may be to present modern beliefs and practices as
facsimiles of ancient culture.
The main subjects chosen by the native women for the decoration of
their pottery are symbolic, and the most abundant objects which bear
these decorations are food bowls and water vases. Many mythic concepts
are depicted, among which may be mentioned the Plumed Snake, various
birds, reptiles, frogs, tadpoles, and insects. Plants or leaves are
seldom employed as decorative motives, but the flower is sometimes
used. The feather was perhaps the most common object utilized, and it
may likewise be said the most highly conventionalized.
An examination of the decorations of modern food basins used in the
villages of East Mesa shows that the mythologic personages most
commonly chosen for the ornamentation of their interiors are the Corn
or Germ goddesses.[117] These assume a number of forms, yet all are
reducible to one type, although known by very different names, as
Hewüqti, "Old Woman," Kokle, and the like.
Figures of reptiles, birds, the antelope, and like animals do not
occur on any of the food bowls from the large collection of modern
Tusayan pottery which I have studied, and as these figures are well
represented in the decorations on Sikyatki food bowls, we may suppose
their use has been abandoned or replaced by figures of the
Corn-maids.[118] This fact, like so many others drawn from a study of
the Tusayan ritual, indicates that the cult of the Corn-maids is more
vigorous today than it was when Sikyatki was in its prime.
Many pictures of masks on modern Tusayan bowls are identified as
_Tacab_ or Navaho _katcinas_.[119] Their symbolism is well
characterized by chevrons on the cheeks or curved markings for eyes.
None of these figures, however, have yet been found on ancient Tusayan
ceramics. Taken in connection with facts adduced by Hodge indicative
of a recent advent of this vigorous Athapascan tribe into Tusayan, it
would seem that the use of the _Tacab katcina_ pictures was of recent
date, and is therefore not to be expected on the prehistoric pottery
of the age of that found in Sikyatki.
In the decoration of ancient pottery I find no trace of figures of the
clown-priests, or _tcukuwympkiya_, who are so prominent in modern
Tusayan _katcina_ celebrations. These personages, especially the
Tatcukti, often called by a corruption of the Zuñi name Kóyimse
(Kóyomäshi), are very common on modern bowls, especially at the
extremities of ladles or smaller objects of pottery.
Many handles of ladles made at Hano in late times are modeled in the
form of the Paiakyamu,[120] a glutton priesthood peculiar to that
Tanoan pueblo. From the data at hand we may legitimately conclude that
the conception of the clown-priest is modern in Tusayan, so far as the
ornamentation of pottery is concerned.
The large collections of so-called modern Hopi pottery in our museums
is modified Tanoan ware, made in Tusayan. Most of the component
specimens were made by Hano potters, who painted upon them figures of
_katcinas_, a cult which they and their kindred introduced.
Several of the food bowls had evidently cracked during their firing or
while in use, and had been mended before they were buried in the
graves. This repairing was accomplished either by filling the crack
with gum or by boring a hole on each side of the fracture for tying.
In one specimen of black-and-white ware a perfectly round hole was
made in the bottom, as if purposely to destroy the usefulness of the
bowl before burial. This hole had been covered inside with a rounded
disk of old pottery, neatly ground on the edge. It was not observed
that any considerable number of mortuary pottery objects were "killed"
before burial, although a large number were chipped on the edges. It
is a great wonder that any of these fragile objects were found entire,
the stones and soil covering the corpse evidently having been thrown
into the grave without regard to care.
The majority of the ancient symbols are incomprehensible to the
present Hopi priests whom I have been able to consult, although they
are ready to suggest many interpretations, sometimes widely divergent.
The only reasonable method that can be pursued in determining the
meaning of the conventional signs with which the modern Tusayan
Indians are unfamiliar seems, therefore, to be a comparative one. This
method I have attempted to follow so far as possible.
There is a closer similarity between the symbolism of the Sikyatki
pottery and that of the Awatobi ware than there is between the
ceramics of either of these two pueblos and that of Walpi, and the
same likewise may be said of the other Tusayan ruins so far as known.
It is desirable, however, that excavations be made at the site of Old
Walpi in order to determine, if possible, how widely different the
ceramics of that village are from the towns whose ruins were studied
in 1895. There are certain practical difficulties in regard to work at
Old Walpi, one of the greatest of which is its proximity to modern
burial places and shrines still used. Moreover, it is
probable--indeed, quite certain--that most of the portable objects
were carried from the abandoned pueblo to the present village when the
latter was founded; but the old cemeteries of Walpi contain many
ancient mortuary bowls which, when exhumed, will doubtless contribute
a most interesting chapter to the history of modern Tusayan decorative
art.
One of the largest, and, so far as form goes, one of the most unique
vessels, is shown in plate CXXVI, _b_. This was not exhumed from
Sikyatki, but was said to have been found in the vicinity of that
ruin. While the ware is very old, I do not believe it is ancient, and
it is introduced in order to show how cleverly ancient patterns maybe
simulated by more modern potters. The sole way in which modern
imitations of ancient vessels may be distinguished is by the peculiar
crackled or crazed surface which the former always has. This is due, I
believe, to the method of firing and the unequal contraction or
expansion of the slip employed. All modern imitations are covered with
a white slip which, after firing, becomes crackled, a characteristic
unknown to ancient ware. The most expert modern potter at East Mesa is
Nampéo, a Tanoan woman who is a thorough artist in her line of work.
Finding a better market for ancient than for modern ware, she cleverly
copies old decorations, and imitates the Sikyatki ware almost
perfectly. She knows where the Sikyatki potters obtained their clay,
and uses it in her work. Almost any Hopi who has a bowl to sell will
say that it is ancient, and care must always be exercised in accepting
such claims.
An examination of the ornamentation of the jar above referred to shows
a series of birds drawn in the fashion common to early pottery
decoration. This has led me to place this large vessel among the old
ware, although the character of the pottery is different from that of
the best examples found at Sikyatki. I believe this vessel was exhumed
from a ruin of more modern date than Sikyatki. The woman who sold it
to me has farming interests near Awatobi, which leads me to conjecture
that she or possibly one of her ancestors found it at or near that
ruin. She admitted that it had been in the possession of her family
for some time, but that the story she had heard concerning it
attributed its origin to Sikyatki.