Three Rivers As Transitional Zone: Considering a Collective Metanarrative in Pueblo Prehistory Heather Kline
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University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Art & Art History ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 7-1-2012 Three Rivers as Transitional Zone: Considering a Collective Metanarrative in Pueblo Prehistory Heather Kline Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/arth_etds Recommended Citation Kline, Heather. "Three Rivers as Transitional Zone: Considering a Collective Metanarrative in Pueblo Prehistory." (2012). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/arth_etds/18 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Art & Art History ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Heather Kline Candidate Art History Department This thesis is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Thesis Committee: Joyce Szabo, Chairperson Aaron Fry Patricia Crown i THREE RIVERS AS TRANSITIONAL ZONE: CONSIDERING A COLLECTIVE METANARRATIVE IN PUEBLO PREHISTORY by HEATHER KLINE B.A., UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA M.L.I.S., UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA THESIS Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS ART HISTORY The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico MAY, 2012 ii THREE RIVERS AS TRANSITIONAL ZONE: CONSIDERING A COLLECTIVE METANARRATIVE IN PUEBLO PREHISTORY by Heather Kline B.A., Art History, University of Nebraska, 2005 M.L.I.S., Library and Information Studies, University of Alabama, 2007 ABSTRACT The Three Rivers petroglyph site in what is presently south central New Mexico represents important concepts for the study of southwestern prehistory. This site has been studied to a limited degree from the perspective of archaeological site surveys that have categorically classified the motifs represented on the petroglyphs, but at this point very little is known about the cultures that lived and created art in the Three Rivers area. The iconography of these images is remarkably similar to that represented on ceramics at both Mimbres during the Classic period (ca. AD 1000-1150), as well as Casas Grandes during the Medio period (ca. AD 1275-1450). While these similarities cannot be approached systematically due to the decontextualized nature of their cultural ideations, it is possible to consider these similarities through explorations of a proposed metanarrative dependent upon shared cultural knowledge that was in some way transmitted between cultures. Through linguistic theories, archaeological semiotics, and comparative visual analysis, this thesis proposes that Three Rivers was one possible cultural link between Mimbres and Casas Grandes and that all three cultures shared a basic metanarrative that informed the expression of iconography on the media of rock art and ceramics. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………...v INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………….1 CHAPTER 1 – STORIES IN STONE…………………………………………………..7 CHAPTER 2 – EXPANSION OF A MIMBRES METANARRATIVE.……………17 CHAPTER 3 – THE CASAS GRANDES CONNECTION………………………….47 CHAPTER 4 – THE ROOTS OF PUEBLO CEREMONIALISM………………….73 CONCLUSIONS………………………………………………………………………..81 IMAGE ANALYSIS…………………………………………………………………....85 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………..115 ENDNOTES…………………………………………………………………………...121 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Map of region (adapted from Lekson, Stephen H. “Chaco, Aztec, and Paquimé: The Origins of Casas Grandes” in From Paquimé to Mata Ortiz: The Legacy of Ancient Casas Grandes. San Diego: Museum of Man, 2001.) Figure 2. Pictograph mask at Hueco Tanks (photo by the author) Figure 3. Petroglyph mask at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 4. View of the Three Rivers site with the Sacramento Mountains in distance (photo by the author) Figure 5. Mask on protruding rock face at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 6. Mask on cracked boulder at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 7. Sheep “gallery” at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 8. Animal hybrids at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 9. Circle-and-dot motif at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 10. Abstract modifier design at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 11. Abstract spiral or mountain sheep horns at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 12. Rider on mountain sheep panel at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 13. Casas Grandes pot with rabbit iconography (photo courtesy of ARTstor) Figure 14. Mimbres pot with rabbit iconography (photo courtesy of ARTstor) Figure 15. Human effigy figure from Casas Grandes (photo from Powell, Melissa S. “Secrets of Casas Grandes.” El Palacio 4 (2008). Figure 16. Animal displaying geometric body fill on Mimbres effigy vessel (photo from Brody, J.J. To Touch the Past: The Painted Pottery of the Mimbres People. Manchester: Hudson Hills Press, 1996.) Figure 17. Animal displaying geometric body fill at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 18. Casas Grandes “Janus” pot (photo courtesy of ARTstor) Figure 19. Serpent/macaw hybrid on a Ramos Polychrome pot (photo courtesy of ARTstor) Figure 20. Ramos Polychrome pot displaying various bird iconography (photo courtesy of ARTstor) Figure 21. Design at Three Rivers integrating boulder features (photo by the author) Figure 22. Circle-and-dot motif at Three Rivers integrating boulder features (photo by the author) Figure 23. Large boulder pattern with abstract designs at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 24. Connected circle-and-dot motifs at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 25. Hybrid animal with abstract designs at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 26. Sheep heads with abstract designs at Three Rivers (photo by the author) v Figure 27. Goggle-eyed figure at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 28. Goggle-eyes on serpent body at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 29. Possible horned serpent at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 30. Goggle-eyes on possible dragonfly body at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 31. Goggle-eyes on possible owl body at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 32. Sheep and rider panel at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 33. Narrative interaction between hybridized figures at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 34. Masks in dialogue at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 35. Anthropomorph interacting with fish on Mimbres pot (photo from Brody, J.J. To Touch the Past: The Painted Pottery of the Mimbres People. Manchester: Hudson Hills Press, 1996.) Figure 36. Anthropomorph interacting with fish at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 37. Anthropomorph/horned serpent hybrid in decapitation scene on Mimbres pot (photo from Brody, J.J. To Touch the Past: The Painted Pottery of the Mimbres People. Manchester: Hudson Hills Press, 1996.) Figure 38. Floating head and goggle-eyes at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 39. Human/animal hybrid on Mimbres pot (photo from Brody, J.J. To Touch the Past: The Painted Pottery of the Mimbres People. Manchester: Hudson Hills Press, 1996.) Figure 40. Human/animal hybrid at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 41. Quadruped effigy figure from Mimbres (photo from Brody, J.J. To Touch the Past: The Painted Pottery of the Mimbres People. Manchester: Hudson Hills Press, 1996.) Figure 42. Sheep “gallery” at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 43. Serpent with abstract designs at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 44. Horned serpent pot from Casas Grandes (photo from The Road to Aztlan: Art from a Mythic Homeland. Los Angeles: LACMA, 2001) Figure 45. Ramos Polychrome human effigy vessel with terraced headdress from Casas Grandes (photo from The Road to Aztlan: Art from a Mythic Homeland. Los Angeles: LACMA, 2001) Figure 46. Anthropomorph with terraced headdress at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 47. Anthropomorph modified with abstract designs at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 48. Ramos Polychrome human effigy vessel from Casas Grandes (photo from Powell, Melissa S. “Secrets of Casas Grandes.” El Palacio 4 (2008). Figure 49. Mask integrating boulder features at Three Rivers (photo by the author) Figure 50. Ramos polychrome “Janus” pot from Casas Grandes (photo from Human effigy vessel from Casas Grandes (photo from Powell, Melissa S. “Secrets of Casas Grandes.” El Palacio 4 (2008) vi Introduction This thesis integrates the archaeological evidence connecting Mimbres, Three Rivers, and Casas Grandes with a comparative visual analysis of iconography as expressed through the semiotic properties of material culture. For the purpose of wider iconographic comparison, an exploration of multiple media has been undertaken. In this view, the metanarrative encompasses and transcends media, and wider comparisons are perhaps the only way to dig below the surface of often contrived categorical systems. This methodology builds upon previous scholarship, but attempts to contextualize the system more broadly. Figure 1 Located on a 1.5 mile long basaltic knoll west of the Sacramento Mountains (between present-day Carrizozo and Alamogordo New Mexico), the Three Rivers Petroglyph site is an intriguing zone of cross-cultural exchange and interaction.1 In the 1 centuries following Mimbres collapse and dispersal (ca. AD 1150), the designs on Classic Black-on-white ceramics seem to have been revitalized on the rock art at Three Rivers and the Ramos Polychrome iconography of the Casas Grandes culture at Paquimé. What connected these apparently