INTRODUCTION

In the following pages the author has endeavored to draw attention to some of the most important symbols on Hopi pottery, especially those of prehistoric times.

Consideration of this subject has led to a discussion of the character of pottery designs at different epochs and the interpretation, by study of survivals, of ancient designs in modern times. This chronological treatment has necessitated an examination of ceramic material from ruins of different ages and an ethnological study of ancient symbols still surviving in ceremonials now practiced. It has also led to sociological researches on the composition of the tribe, the sequence in the arrival of clans at Walpi, and their culture in distant homes from which they migrated. It will thus appear that the subject is a very complicated one, and that the data upon which conclusions are based are sociological as well as archeological. There are many ruins from which material might have been obtained, but only a few have been adequately investigated. The small number of ruins in the Hopi country which have thus far been excavated necessarily makes our knowledge not only provisional but also imperfect. It is hoped, however, that this article may serve to stimulate others to renewed field work and so add desired data to the little we have bearing on the subject.

Chronology of Hopi Pottery Symbols

At least three well-marked epochs can be distinguished in the history of Hopi ceramic symbolism. Each of these is intimately associated with certain clans that have from time to time joined the Hopi and whose descendants compose the present population. Although these epochs follow each other in direct sequence, each was not evolved from its predecessor or modified by it, except to a very limited extent. Each epoch has left to the succeeding one a heritage of symbols, survivals which are somewhat difficult to differentiate from exotic symbols introduced by incoming clans. So that while each epoch grades almost imperceptibly into the one directly following it, an abrupt change is sometimes evident in the passage.

In order to appreciate the relations between ceramic decoration and history let me sketch in brief outline what I regard as the historical development of the Hopi living near or on the East Mesa. We know little of the group of people who first settled here except that they belonged to the Bear clan, which is traditionally referred to the eastern pueblo region. At about the time they entered Hopiland there was a settlement called Sikyatki composed of Jemez colonists, situated about 3 miles from the southern point of East Mesa, and other towns or pueblos on Awatobi Mesa and in Antelope Valley, 10 miles away.

The first great additions to this original population were Snake clans, who came from the San Juan, followed by Flute clans from the same direction but originally of southern origin. Having become well established at the point of the East Mesa, the combined settlement overthrew Sikyatki and appropriated its clans.

Then came the strenuous days of Spanish invasion and the destruction of Awatobi in 1700. The Little Colorado clans had already begun to seek refuge in the Hopi mountains and their number was greatly augmented by those from Zuñi, a Rio Grande settlement called Tewadi, and elsewhere, each addition bringing new forms of culture and settling new pueblos on or near the East Mesa, as has been shown in previous publications. Traditions point out their former settlements and it remains for the archeologist to excavate those settlements, now in ruins, and verify these traditions. This can be done by a study of artifacts found in them.

As a rule archeologists have relied on technique, form, and especially color, in the classification of Pueblo pottery, leading, on the technical side, to the groups known as (a) rough, coiled ware, and (b) smooth, polished ware; and on that of form, to bowls, vases, jars, dippers, etc. When color is used as the basis of classification the divisions black and white, red, yellow, orange, and polychrome are readily differentiated. Classifications based on these data are useful, as they indicate cultural as well as geographical differences in Pueblo ceramics; but these divisions can be used only with limitations in a study of stages of culture growth. The fact that they are not emphasized in the present article is not because their importance is overlooked, but rather for the purpose of supplementing them with a classification that is independent of and in some particulars more reliable for indicating chronology and culture distinctions.

The life-forms on ancient Sikyatki and other Hopi pottery are painted on what is known as yellow ware, which is regarded by some authors as characteristic of the Hopi area; but pottery of the same color, yet with radically different symbolic life-forms, occurs also in other areas. It thus appears that while a classification of Pueblo pottery by color is convenient, differences of color are not so much indications of diversity in culture as of geologic environment. Designs on pottery are more comprehensive and more definite in culture studies than color, and are so regarded in these pages.

As there exists a general similarity in the form of prehistoric pottery throughout the Southwest, shape alone is also inadequate for a determination of Pueblo culture centers. The great multiplicity and localization of symbols on Pueblo pottery furnishes adequate material for classification by means of the designs depicted on vases, bowls, and other pottery objects. Sikyatki pottery is especially suited to a classification on such a basis, for it is recognized as the most beautiful and the most elaborately decorated prehistoric pottery found in the Southwest. Life-forms are abundant and their symbolism is sufficiently characteristic to be regarded as typical of a well-defined ceramic area. There can, of course, be no question regarding the ancient character of the designs on Sikyatki pottery, nor were they introduced or modified by white men, but are purely aboriginal and prehistoric.

Pottery from the Sikyatki ruin is chosen as a type of the most highly developed or golden epoch in Hopi ceramics. Several other ruins were inhabited when Sikyatki was in its prime and pottery from these belongs to the same epoch, and would probably be equally good to illustrate its character. Fortunately, specimens are available from many of these, as Awatobi, and the ruins in Antelope Valley, old Shumopavi, and other Middle Mesa ruins. The date of the origin of this epoch, or the highest development of Hopi ceramics, is not known, but there is evidence that it lasted until the fall of Awatobi, in 1700. The destruction of Sikyatki occurred before 1540, but Sikyatki has given the name to the epoch and is taken as the type, not only because of the abundance of ceramic material available from that ruin, but also because there can be no doubt of the prehistoric nature of material from it.

There is abundant evidence that the culture of Sikyatki was never influenced by white man. After the overthrow of Awatobi there developed on the East Mesa of the Hopi country a third ceramic epoch which was largely influenced by the influx of Tanoan (Tewa) clans. They came either directly from the Rio Grande or by way of Zuñi and other pueblos. Among other arrivals about 1710 were those clans which settled Hano, a Tewa pueblo on the East Mesa. The Hano and other symbols introduced in this epoch are best known in the present generation by the earlier productions of Nampeo, an expert modern potter.

The pottery of this epoch differs from that of the second in form, color, and technique, but mainly in its symbolism, which is radically different from that of the epochs that preceded it. The symbolism of this phase is easily determined from large collections now in museums. This epoch was succeeded in 1895 by a fourth, in which there was a renaissance of old Sikyatki patterns, under the lead of Nampeo. In that year Nampeo visited the excavations at Sikyatki and made pencil copies of the designs on mortuary bowls. From that time all pottery manufactured by her was decorated with modified Sikyatki symbols, largely to meet the demand for this beautiful ancient ware. The extent of her work, for which there was a large demand, may be judged by the great numbers of Hopi bowls displayed in every Harvey store from New Mexico to California. This modified Sikyatki ware, often sold by unscrupulous traders as ancient, is the fourth, or present, epoch of Hopi ceramics. These clever imitations, however, are not as fine as the productions of the second epoch. There is danger that in a few years some of Nampeo’s imitations will be regarded as ancient Hopi ware of the second epoch, and more or less confusion introduced by the difficulty in distinguishing her work from that obtained in the ruins.