The Trader in the Alcove

6/8/11
Lori Dewson

It wasn’t easy convincing Dr. Peet to let me leave the field study, but carrying his trust with me through hours of driving back to Utah and hoping the whole time that my memory is serving both of us well, I have to admit my excitement when I spotted The Trader on the ranch.
While a part of me wanted to explode like a little girl on Christmas, the older, credit-seeking side of me couldn’t wait to leave the alcove just to deliver Dr. Peet an I told you so. There it was, The Trader’s etched figure waiting precisely where my memory had dredged it up after all these years.

It’s amazing what a person can recall. I mean, I was only eight years old when I’d last seen this seemingly insignificant, two-dimensional petroglyph. At the time it was nothing more than another sample among hundreds of samples of prehistoric rock graffiti I’d already found scattered throughout my father’s desert ranch. In fact, when I first spotted The Trader my observation was a mere noting of its presence scratched upon the concave surface of the alcove. To a kid, the gaping maw of the alcove - and all the possibilities such a natural fortress provided the imagination -was far more fascinating than a lone anthropomorphic stick-figure hanging out in the back shadows.

Funny how seventeen years and so much time and money spent on post-graduate collegiate study can erode the significance of that sandstone alcove to the background of my latest archaeological pursuit of the petroglyph within.

I’m struck by The Trader’s similarity to the etching Dr. Peet found in Chaco. It’s difficult to find two replicas of Kokopelli as similar to each other as these two Traders - the only two Trader’s known to exist. Hundreds of miles separate them and yet both etchings are the same size and shape with no more than a centimeter’s difference in their height. Both figures are simplistic in design and yet, they each have the same full-bodied stance reminiscent of the ornate polychromes found on the walls of Egyptian tombs.

Interestingly enough, it’s that mysterious something in The Trader hands that has captured my attention. In the faded and badly weathered Chaco petroglyph, the object in question appears to be nothing more than a blob; a nick in the surface of the sunwashed, New Mexican boulder. But here beneath the protective ceiling of the alcove, this second Trader I’ve found is slightly better preserved. The Trader’s cargo has maintained its shape - slightly rectangular with perhaps a notch cut away from the front surface - not exactly the shape I’d expect to resemble a pot. Perhaps The Trader isn’t a potter after all. Details are still sparing which leaves me to wonder just what exactly is being carried by these twin traders.

We can’t know for sure what was meant to be represented here by reading these petroglyphs alone. Solving this eight-hundred year old mystery might require extensive research into Anasazi artwork, but I don’t expect that to produce anything more than the educated guesses already offered. Perhaps there is an old Puebloan story that some ethnologist can find to explain this odd and very rare petroglyph. I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t something more three-dimensional, something more tangible that accompanies The Trader. After all, a cache of Anasazi pottery was found buried just beneath the Chaco Trader. Could there be another stash buried right here within this alcove?

I won’t know for sure until I’ve done a little digging.