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Tiponi, or Corn Goddess Symbols

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Charles H. Lange Jr.
Charles H. Lange Jr.*
Affiliation:
University of New Mexico
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Extract

Among the less frequently encountered, yet widely distributed, items of material culture recovered in the Anasazi Province are tiponi, or Corn Goddess symbols.

In the excavation of the Evans Site in the Gallina region of northern New Mexico three tiponi were found. Two, the largest and the smallest, were in the North House; the third was in the South House. All were of sandstone and were simply-fashioned cones, flat on one end and bluntly pointed on the other. Aside from their shape, no distinguishing features were discernible. The largest was 48 cm. in height and 20 cm. in basal diameter; the smallest was 18.4 cm. in height and 15.2 cm. in basal diameter.

The tiponi found in the South House was one of a number of miscellaneous stones which had been used as fill in the bottom of the fireplace or had fallen into the pit.

Type
Facts and Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , April 1944 , pp. 446 - 448
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1944

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References

1 Lange, Charles H. Jr., “The Evans Site: A Contribution to the Archaeology of the Gallina Region, Northern New Mexico,” M.A. Thesis, University of New Mexico, December, 1941, pp. 44–45, Pl. 20.Google Scholar

2 Parsons, (E. C. Parsons, “Relations Between Ethnology and Archaeology in the Southwest,” American Antiquity, Vol. 5, No. 3, 1940, p. 15, note 329)CrossRefGoogle Scholar pointed out that the pair in the kiva had been used as fetishes rather than as amulets, as indicated by the fact that they had been intentionally overturned to allow the Spirit to leave at the close of the ceremony.

3 Roberts, F. H. H. Jr., The Village of the Great Kivas on the Zuüi Reservation, New Mexico, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 111, 1932, p. 61, Pl. 10, b.Google Scholar

4 Ibid., p. 143, Pl. 55, d, e.

5 Morris, E. H., Archaeological Studies in the La Plata District, Southwestern Colorado and Northwestern New Mexico, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication No. 519, 1939, pp. 129–130, Pl. 137, b.Google Scholar

6 Fewkes, J. W., Antiquities of the Mesa Verde National Park: Cliff Palace, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 51, 1911, p. 67.Google Scholar

7 Fewkes, J. W., “The Cliff-Ruins in Fewkes Canon, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado,” Holmes Anniversary Volume, 1916, p. 112.Google Scholar

8 Jeancon, J. A., Excavations in the Chama Valley, New Mexico, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 81, 1923, p. 64, Pl. 21.Google Scholar

9 Ibid., p. 24, Pl. 20, d.

10 Paul Reiter, Personal interview, February, 1942.

11 Jeancon, J. A., "A Rectangular Ceremonial Room," The Colorado Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 4, 1926, pp. 133-137, Figs. 1-3.Google Scholar

12 Through recent work at Santa Clara, Dr. W. W. Hill has identified this room as one adjacent to and connected with the residence of the Winter Cacique. Personal interview with Dr. Hill, February, 1942.

13 Parsons, E. C., Pueblo Indian Religion (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1939), p. 365.Google Scholar