Shields and Shield Bearers in Hopi Rock Art

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Shields and shield bearers are recurrent and widespread motifs in Pueblo IV (AD 1300-1540) rock art. Polly Schaafsma has argued that depictions of shields and shield bearers in the Rio Grande were part of an iconographic complex that expressed ideas about warfare and war ritual. When inscribed on the landscape, shields may have recalled actual warfare, but they also may have been intended to attract supernatural protection and to project the village's strength and willingness to defend itself. Schaafsma has argued that war iconography is more frequent, diverse, and complex among the protohistoric Eastern Pueblos, suggesting the eastern origins of the imagery and associated concepts. However, her conclusions are based on a limited sample of Western Pueblo rock art. This poster evaluates Schaafsma's claims about Western Pueblo war iconography with more than 100 representations of shields and shield bearers recently recorded on the Hopi Mesas. Potential sources of shield iconography at Hopi are explored with reference to Pueblo III (AD 900-1300) rock art and through Hopi migration accounts. Temporal and spatial variability among Hopi shield depictions suggest that multiple communities of practice produced shield iconography and that they may have had diverse origins or influences.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25915