One of the best parts of hiking in ancient areas is looking for artifacts. They can be anywhere. Once you get the hang of it things start to pop out of the ground. I have begun to develope the habit of what I call eye sweeping. I force my eyes to pan the area I am walking in and look for any anomolies. Walking down from a ruin on Comb Ridge I spotted something at the base of a large white pointed rock about twenty feet from the trail. On closer examination I found the little object pictured above. At first I was pretty excited, but slowly came to the conclusion, it was not an artifact. However, I could not help wondering why it was there. Since it was not an artifact the rules say I can put it in my pocket, which I did. I did not think much about it until I got to Hovenweep. At the visitor center Cissie and I saw a short film on the area. With no explanation the film briefly showed the same figure as part of the introduction. Now, I began to wonder just what the figure represented. I searched the referenced material at Hovenweep for an explanation, but could find none.
When we got to the Anasazi musuem near Cortez I had the chance to ask an archeologist about the token. He said it may have been left as part of an Indian prayer ritual. The rock where I found it looked a bit out of place. The rock was white in color and seemed to point upward. If you have any clue where this symbol comes from, let me know. It seems to have a South American aspect to it.
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