Reid Farmer has a post up at Querencia regarding Mesoamerican imports to the Southwest. Inasmuch as he mentions macaws and parrots specifically, I thought I'd share a frame from a panel very near Santa Fe which I've been visiting lately:
I'm no rock art expert, but they sure look like parrots to me. Reid?
While I'm at it, might as well post a few more. Some things never change around here apparently; why did Kokopelli become an icon but not horned serpents?
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Evidence of Romanovs in pre-Entrada New Mexico:
Lots of good animals in this panel:
2 comments:
Absolutely parrots or macaws - look at the hook on the beaks. Down at Paquime in Chihuahua excavators have found an entire compound full of nest boxes where macaws were raised for export up this way. Poor Kokopelli has died the death of overexposure. I remember being really intrigued by the first Kokopelli pictograph I saw at Scaffold House in Tsegi Canyon 30+ years ago. Now one of my neighbors has one on her mailbox.
I'm with you on the horned serpents. Most folks think this is a late motif (post 1300) related to the rise of the kachina cult and a derivative of the Mesoamerican Quetzalcoatl.
I also have to say that is about the most realistic feline I have ever seen in Puebloan rock art. Next time I'm down your way you'll have to show me where these panels are!
The parrot/macaw in my post is in Petroglyph Nat'l Monument west of Albuquerque. My pic is so old it pre-dates the Nat'l Monument
Thanks Reid, definitely helpful! Yes please, next time you're around let's go out there. The site is 15 minutes from town and it's huge, all over 3/4 mile or so of a low basalt enscarpment. I've been out twice now and still haven't seen it all.
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