Basketmakers

Through the centuries the climate and animal life became much the same as today, but there seems to be little trace of man. Before the Christian era, as far back as 1000 or 1500 B.C., there came a people whose relics are usually found near water. These people still used the atlatl, and real pottery was unknown to them. However, they made excellent baskets still found in caves and storage places, a characteristic which has given them the name of the Basketmakers.

It is theorized that these people went through a non-agricultural stage called Basketmaker I, but the oldest Basketmaker cave-deposits reveal corn-cobs and husks, a sure sign that they were farmers.

Besides the atlatls and darts, the Basketmakers carried crooked, flat clubs and knives made of flinty stone as weapons. Also, in addition to baskets, they wove bags of native hemp fibers. Their skulls were long instead of round.

At atlatl rock, a towering crag in the Valley of Fire west of Overton, Nevada, visitors find evidence of the basketmakers. Here one can see curious figures scratched into the rocks-petroglyphs. Of course, these scratchings may be from earlier people who also used the atlatl. These "writings" are not stories, but pictures of single events, prayers for good hunting, directions for finding water, maps, religious amusement, or perhaps just a way to pass the time.

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