Page 16 - Black Range Naturalist, Vol. 3, No. 1

Bighorn sheep
are often
depicted in the
art of the early
people of the
west, on their
pottery, in
glyphs (like the
two above from
the area
southwest of
Cooke’s Peak),
at apparent
religious sites*,
and in personal
ornamentation
including
headdresses.
The latter,
especially, is
often assumed
to be associated
with religious
activities. I am
not aware of
glyphs in our
immediate area
which depict
humans with bighorn
sheep headdresses, but there are a number of examples farther to the east.
Given the media that the Mimbres were working with, they left a remarkable record of the natural history which was all around them. It shaped their lives and, at least to some extent, was shaped by them.
It is now assumed that ceramic pottery was first utilized by the Mogollon in about 300 CE.** The use of clay to make unfired figurines dates from 5600 to 5000 BCE and unfired bowls from ca. 200 CE. It should not be assumed that these facts represent an evolution in technology in the region. It seems more likely that “fired” technologies were introduced from outside the region and that the two technologies were simultaneously used by the early
peoples for a considerable time (unfired clay bowls were used [at least] as late as the 13th century CE).
____________
*”Great Basin Bighorn Ceremonialism - Reflections on a Possible Sheep Shrine at the Rose Spring Site, (CA-INY-372), Rose Valley, Alta California”, Robert M. Yohe II and Alan P. Garfinkel. California Archaeology, Volume 4, Number 2, December 2012, pp. 201–224.
** “The First Occurrences and Early Distribution of Pottery in the North American Southwest”, James M.
Heidke and Judith A. Habicht-Mauche,
Desert Bighorn Sheep were extirpated from this area by the end of the 1800’s.
14
Revista de Arqueología Americana, No. 14, La Cerámica Más Antigua De Norte Y Mesoamérica (enero-junio 1998), pp. 65-99.