Pre-Contact Anasazi Knife

[laEspadaAncha]

While simple, small, and utilitarian in form, this is one of my favorite Native American pieces. Bought this years ago at auction from a New Mexico-based auctioneer with whom I do business. Provenance is known.

The flaked obsidian blade has a cutting edge mesauring a little over 6 cm. The overall length is near orabout 21.5 cm, though the tip of the handle is broken and looks to originally have been slightly longer. The blade is held in with pitch, and the handle is drilled near the tip. It's difficult to ascertain, but it appears as if the handle may have been wrapped at one time.

Anyway, I have several other neolithic blades, but this is the only one I've come across that was still fitted.

[colin henshaw]

Interesting piece - thanks for posting. Like to see any more you have.

Regards.

[Sajen]

I think it's very rare to have still the "handle" by a knife like this! Thank you for sharing!

[Battara]

Crazy! Never seen mention of the type of knives used in the Anasazi research.

[Tim Simmons]

Very pretty. That must be a tiny chip to the top? Do you know what type of stone it is? Looks like Obsidian? Is that found in New Mexico? Is there any research on the stone trade pre- Columbus. It would have taken some years before steel would would have been readily available to many people off the beaten track in the far SW? Nice pot, is it old? I know I drift showing this but interesting hope it does not disturb things. 10 inch plate you can google Maria Popovi.

[Tim Simmons]

Yes lots of Obsidian. Must have been in use right up to the mid 19th century.

[laEspadaAncha]

Originally Posted by Tim Simmons

Very pretty. That must be a tiny chip to the top? Do you know what type of stone it is? Looks like Obsidian? Is that found in New Mexico? Is there any research on the stone trade pre- Columbus. It would have taken some years before steel would would have been readily available to many people off the beaten track in the far SW? Nice pot, is it old? I know I drift showing this but interesting hope it does not disturb things. 10 inch plate you can google Maria Popovi.

Hello Tim,

I actually thought of you the other day while I was photogrpahing a few Native American clubs I plan on posting here sooner or later...


To answer your question regarding obsidian sources, there were (are?) multiple sources of obsidian to be found in Utah, which as I understand it were the primary sources of obsidian used by the Anasazi.

Regarding your plate/bowl, San Ildefenso blackware is considered to be of signifiant value, especially if it is made and signed by a known/published artist, and especially if that artist was active in the first half of the 20th century, and especially if that artist is no longer with us. Your plate fires on pretty much all cylinders. I'm envious...

[laEspadaAncha]

Originally Posted by colin henshaw

Interesting piece - thanks for posting. Like to see any more you have.

Regards.

An entirely reasonable request, given there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of interest in this particular item and I don't want to bomb the forum with multiple threads of similar objects that may be of interest to relatively few forumites... so instead I'll post some more in this thread.

Below is one of the more enigmatic and artistically expressive forms of Native American arms-related items. This is one of several known forms of atlatl weights, known (for obvious reasons) as a 'birdstone.' This particular example (the only example I have kept in my collection) is of the popeyed variety (again, named so for obvious reasons ), and was dug in Cook County, Illinois in the 1920s. It measures about 8.5 cm in length. You will notice the drilled holes on the bottom of the front face (another is found on the bottom of the rear face) and again on the bottom. This would have been to secure the birdstone to the atlatl.

Unlike ritual items and jewelry, these various forms of atlatl weights are not confined to burials, and have been found scattered in fields (like other implements, tools, and weapons) as well as in context with atlatls themselves.

So how did these work? Experimentation has shown the use of such weights increased the moment of inertia of the atlatl, thereby allowing the atlatl to store more potential energy (think of a compressed leaf spring) and a resulting greater acceleration of the mass which is in turn imparts a greater force to the atlatl dart.

[colin henshaw]

Thanks for posting - a beautiful piece, and no doubt very collectable. We don't see much of this material in the UK, although the British Museum in London has a smallish but good display of Native American objects. Presumably collection provenance is very important for such stone or flint artefacts ?

Regards, and do post any further such objects if you care to

[KuKulzA28]

Glad you posted this laEspadaAncha. Just throwing it out there, that while this does look like obsidian, there is a rock called dacite which can be almost as sharp but seems less brittle. It's grainier than obsidian, more like stone than glass, but still a very good blade-making material.

I wonder what kind of glue it is that holds it in... Pine pitch? Birch tar?
I'm not familiar with the materials that the indigenous Southwestern Americans used.

[Tim Simmons]

Very interesting and a lovely item to have in a collection. The stone looks as if it is a lime or sand stone?

[laEspadaAncha]

Thanks Colin - I've included another item below...

KuKulz, regarding the pitch on the knife, I'm not sure what exactly was used - pinyon pitch, maybe?

Tim, with regards to the stone, while I am certain it is netiher sandstone nor limestone, I am (again) at a loss as to the type...

Okay... staying with the artistic lithic theme, I'm attaching a photo of another item below - Tim, this one is carved from steatite. Does anybody know what it is?

[colin henshaw]

Originally Posted by laEspadaAncha

Okay... staying with the artistic lithic theme, I'm attaching a photo of another item below - Tim, this one is carved from steatite. Does anybody know what it is?

Hi laEspadaAncha, thanks for posting this. The only thing I can imagine this could be is an Inuit doll, maybe originally to be in a model cradle ?

I have one Native American piece, as per this image - I think its a Pueblo pot ? The design looks like Art Deco... (hope the moderators will permit a non-weapon item).

Regards.

[laEspadaAncha]

Hi Colin,

In overall appearance, the design on your olla seems to resemble Casas Grandes (Ramos Polychrome) pottery, but even though the shape and clay (color) are atypical, the design seems to speak to a Hopi, or possibly Santo Domingo origin IMO.

However, I am no altogether sure... I'll look through some old Indian auction catalogs and let you if I can give you a more definitive answer.

Regarding the item I posted above, I am attaching another photo below, which contains a rather revealing clue as to the object's purpose...

Cheers,

Chris

[colin henshaw]

Originally Posted by laEspadaAncha

Hi Colin,

Regarding the item I posted above, I am attaching another photo below, which contains a rather revealing clue as to the object's purpose...

Cheers,

Chris

Thanks Chris - so its an arrow-straightener !

[Tim Simmons]

Also rather nice.

[laEspadaAncha]

Originally Posted by colin henshaw

Thanks Chris - so its an arrow-straightener !

Yessir... And thank you as well, Tim...

It is in fact a Chumash arrow straightener, unusual in being figural in form. The Chumash were the Native American people who inhabited the Channel Islands and the mainland area around present-day Santa Barbara. They were seafaring, semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers who routinely navigated the deep waters covering the 50+km distances in their tomols to the Channel Islands and to Catalina Island further south. They were known not just for their accomplished maritime travel but for their steatite/soapstone implements and carvings as well as their basketry. Chumash steatite was traded all over Southern and Central California.


Chumash man ca. 1878

I would presume the Chumash straightener depicts a seal or sea lion, as the general form as well as the renderings of the eyes and mouth resemble several other Chumash lithics I have that unmistakingly portray seal lions and/or seals.

Most arrow straighteners used by the indigenous peoples of Southern California were simple utilitarian objects, or more stylized abstractions based on simple geometric forms. I've attached a photo below of two more arrow straighteners from Southern California; the left-most one was recovered near the home in which I grew up in inland San Diego. The circular one was recovered in Costa Mesa, in the very southern part of coastal Orange County.

The arrow in the photo(s) is Yokut; Yokut territory bordered the Chumash to the NE.