An exploration into the past

From the Coastal Plain to the High Desert
July 15-16, 2014

PETROGLYPHS AND ACOMA PUEBLO

           My journey to explore the lands where the Pueblo people developed their culture began on July 13, 2013. After visiting the Texas Rockies for two days, I moved to the area of central New Mexico.  I was interested in visiting Petroglyph National Monument, a Paleo-Indian site in .the vicinity of Albuquerque, across from the city, on the west side of the Rio Grande. The University of New Mexico Museum of Anthopology also offers visitors interested in the ancient cultures a magnificent collection of artifacts and a valuable research center. Finally, the Acoma Pueblo, a living monument of the resilience of the ancient inhabitants of the high desert, stands high, almost invisible on a "mesa".  This community has been continuously inhabited at least since before the Spaniards arrived in the area.

PETROGLYPH NATIONAL MONUMENT:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juvhU57DrjY

Figure 1 - The lava fields - home of the Petroglyphs

     

The Petroglyph National Monument at Albuquerque is a 60 foot high obstacle to anybody walking the Rio Grande valley at the point where Albuquerque stands today.  It consists of a wide lava field created by three small volcanoes that can be seen in the distance. Ancient travelers would have found it difficult to walk or, or cross it, being forced to go around it. It seems to me as an obvious place to rest and climb its edge to look how far it went.  Most of the petroglyphs inscribed on the patina of the lava rocks are on the edges of the field.  Some have cosmic references in the form of stars.  Others depict animals, such as lizards, deer and birds, among others.

Fig. 2 - Birds and directions

Figure 3 - An armadillo or a lizard

     

Fig. 4 - Taking the record of years past

     To find the petroglyphs the visitor has to travel through several tenuously marked trails, and at several points begin to wander around the rocks.  The terrain is difficult and the rise to the top is steep,  I was able to photograph more than 30 in the part of the park that is open to the public.  The rocks are a record of all the different wanderers and visitors to this spot of the earth.  Some may be 10,000 years old, the record of hunters of woolly mammoths. The signs for the primitive Atl-atls are many.  Others date to the time of the Spanish era since horses are depicted.  Unfortunately, others, like Gladys and Paul also left their mark by scarring the stone.

What do the ancient etchings mean? Maybe the record of some religious experience.  I think it is more likely that they are graffiti from ancient times.  "Fast Runner was here and chased a rabbit", "Avoid this place", or some other more practical message.

MAXWELL MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY - UNM:

Fig. 5 - Entrance to UNM museum

      The Maxwell Museum at the University of New Mexico central campus is a good stopover.  Its exhibits provide a timeline of the development of the ancient people of the high desert. It has a life size representation of a "pit-house".  Many of the sites available to visit have been developed over the years by research teams related to UNM.  

Figure 6 - A sample of the ancient pottery display

Fig. 7 - Adobe style inspired chapel

      


     The architecture used by many buildings on campus is inspired by the forms and aesthetic language of the Pueblo people.  The Alumni Chapel is a beautiful reproduction of a Pueblo mission church.


      The museum itself is a non-descript educational building.  I would call it a missed opportunity to create an extraordinary educational experience.  Their repository is the largest of all the regional museums and their vaults would fill many exhibit rooms.

       The campus that surrounds the museum is beautifully landscaped and a real oasis in the city.  It provides a great environment for learning.



ACOMA PUEBLO:

Figure 8 -  Map of Acoma Pueblo location

Figure 9 - Aerial view of Acoma Pueblo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lroTQ47ANCA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGoxek23vwA

         The Pueblo of Acoma is some 50 miles away from the Rio Grande Valley and does not share some key characteristics with the eastern pueblos.  They speak Keresan, a language different from the Tiwa (Tigua) spoken in many of them, nor Jemez.  It is also almost invisible to the traveller.  It was built on top of a mesa, surrounded by desert and other distant mesas, accessible only by secret steps that could be easily blocked.  A road to the top was not built until the XX century, when a movie studio paid for it in exchange for using it as a set for part of the movie.

Fig. 10 - The Cultural Center -Museum
A new addition that welcomes the tourists
for guided visits 

Fig. 11 - Climbing the secret stair

Fig. 12 - The entrance to a Kiva

Fig. 13 - A sampling of modern Acoma pottery

Fig. 14 - The Mission Church and Convent from the Spanish Colony

             The pottery from Acoma has been renowned for centuries.  To this day, Acoma potters, men and women still practice their craft and have elevated their wares to artistic pieces found in many galleries.  The people today no longer live in the mesa pueblo.  There are two moderns communities nearby: Acomita and Sky City.   Only a select group of their elders and their families live in the mesa during their tenure as leaders of their clans.

Key words: Texas 4th-7th grade Social Studies, Native American tribes, habitat and lifezones, cultural adaptation, Anazasi, Ancestral Pueblo, Rio Grande cultures, New Mexico and Colorado tribes, Paleo-Indians, Archaic and Classic Indians of the Southwest, Geography of the Rio Grande, Mesa Verde, Chaco, Taos, Acoma, Indian ruins, archaeological artifacts, teacher resources, Fund for Teachers, Texas.