Anthropomorphic Mat from New Mexico

Extract

Several Southwestern archaeologists who have seen the mat pictured in Figure 136 consider it unusual enough to merit description in print, despite a scarcity of information about its provenience and associations.

The mat has catalog number 943/7 in the collections of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum at Canyon, Texas. It was donated to the Museum by Henry Crain of Canyon in 1942. Mr. Crain informs me that he found the mat in a multiroomed cave about 1/2 mile above the mouth of Mule Creek, a tributary of the San Francisco River in the Mogollon Range of southwestern New Mexico, not far from Clifton, Arizona. He and several hunting companions removed the mat and other archaeological materials from the cave in 1899, when he was ranching in the Mogollon region. Other items included 2 small brown pottery bowls, 2 wooden bows 4 or 5 feet long, and a number of obsidian-tipped arrows.