A Visit to the Past and Awatovi

• Main Author: Hester A. Davis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ubiquity Press 1992-05-01
• Series: Bulletin of the History of Archaeology
• Subjects: Awatovi; Penny Davis Worman; Mott Davis; Antelope Mesa; Mesi Reservation
• Online Access: http://www.archaeologybulletin.org/article/view/453

It was a beautiful cool Arizona morning in August, 1991, when Anna Silas, Director of the Hopi Cultural Center Museum, guided me, Penny Davis Worman and Mott Davis to Awatovi, the large prehistoric and Spanish mission site on Antelope Mesa on the Hopi Reservation. The road consisted of two sandy ruts most of the way, well worn but, to a stranger, through a sameness of sage brush and small pinyon. Even for Anna, who had not visited the site for three years, a fork in the road was confusing, and we made a wrong turn. Reversing, we made our way back to the fork and continued anew to the fenced-in ruin. This was my first visit to this famous site. For Penny and Mott, it was the first visit in 52 years. They had both been a part of the Peabody Museum Expedition there in 1939.