Horned Serpents in Mounds and Puebloes

Wehave had announcements about the "Dinosaurian" Water Monster (Horned Serpent) Avanyu (Awanyu) before, but I just came across this stunning petroglyph representing one from the Anasazi culture. The Anasazi were the forerunners to our more familiar Pueblo (Village) Indians. It does seem that the idea is that the monster is a creature much like a Plesiosaur with a long neck and a fat body with four flippers. The tail is apparently prolonged by counting in the wake and the entire appearance is much like Oudemans' reconstruction of the Great Sea-serpent when seen from above.

 

This depiction of a Horned serpent has a human rider on its back, possibly intending to harpoon it. This is indeed intended to be an Avanyu despite its rather short and stumpy appearance: another version showing a human riding on an Avanyu is below, together with a rendition of it in "Periscope" position.. the one below definitely shows flippers and the one above from Mallory also has variations that seem to show the flippers also, at least the foreflippers.

 

 

 

 Here is an extraction I did while I was looking for "Spinybacked" reference materials, but after I was done the result still looks like a pair of big Loch Ness Monster type humps.

 

And here I a painting done by a Native artist of the area, depicting the Avanyu as a water monster in its own environment. I am not intending this should defraud the artist, I am merely using it because it is an exceptionally good depiction of the Avanyu as a water monster.

 

 

 

Another more modern depiction of Avanyu, showing the flipperlike limbs.

 

Similar creatures were depicted by the Mississippian culture, mostly in the Mississippi valley itself. These bowls with snaky heads, necks and tails have caught the attention of collectors that call them "Sea Monsters", which is a label that has been used in some museums.

 

 

 

And as has been mentioned earlier on this blog, some of the earlier Effigy mounds of the Ohio valley area generally also resemble Oudemans' reconstruction for the Great Sea-serpent, only they are more usually called "Panthers" and "Turtles". Sometimes the idea probably was to represent turtles or Water panthers, but in other cases the shape is different enough that the makers could have been trying to represent Plesiosaurian Water Monsters. I would weigh this toward the "Turtles" myself.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_Serpent

Indian Rock, Champ, And The American Bunyip

 

Scott Mardis sent me some more pdfs about the "Horned Serpent" and the Lake Champlain area. Among the more interesting items was a petroglyph rock from Southern Vermont called Indian Rock. The creature shown on it was very interesting but not well shown on the rock itself: I have some other versions here and my composite redrawing of the creature is above. Although it is called a "Great Horned Serpent" the conventionalization is different enough that it makes me think it is more like an American Bunyip. The Abnaki and surrounding peoples called it Tatoskok and said it was a snake as big as a tree with a head like a horse's and two hotns on it. The settlers later called it a "Hippogryph" but evidently this was a mistake for "Hippocampus" (and as such it was represented on powder horns also supplied by Scott Mardis) Most of the images in this blog posting are from "Horned Panthers and Erie Associates" by William Fox (2004) but the paper describes several different things and runs them all together. I am doing this as a sort of extraction of what seems to me to be a distinctly different local type.

 

The Indian Rock petroglyph is at Battleboro, Vermont and is shown below. One commentator thought the long horizontal line at top right represented a long neck turned back but I think this is more likely a bow wave. Bow waves are definitely represented on other similar petroglyphs.

This creature has some very specific Plesiosaur-like characteristics such as the long neck with a small head at the end of it, and a big body with four flippers and a short tail on the other end. The combination of the big ovoid body and four schematic limbs is what reminded me of Australian "Bunyips" in their own rock art.

 

Above: The long neck can be seen in "Periscope" position.

Below: also associated with large pointed or peaked humps on the back.

Three humps are usual.

This particular brand of Plesiosaur-like "Horned Serpents seem to be more of in the East and in New England proper, and along the St Lawrence seaway BELOW Niagra falls (gold stars on map, the Micmac version indicated by the arrow)

The more usual "Water panthers" or Mishipiziheus are more characteristic of the upper Great Lakes and inland generally. In their case there are catlike eyes and whiskers, and the "Horns" are definitely pointed ears at times.

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More Plesiosaurian Comparisons by Scott Mardis

The Great Horned Serpent of Native North America:

Above: New England Rock Art of Great Horned Serpent, featured on this blog before. Second down, comparable reconstruction of a Plesiosaur

Below, Water Panther or Mizhipizhw. Below that, Powdr Horn Plesiosaur from 1700s and the Petroglyph again. I do not consoider the Water Panther to be a Plesiosaur but to be akin to the Irish Master-Otter, for which this is a good representation (Ignoring the antlers)

Below, Western (Great Plains) subtype of Great Horned Serpent: in both this case and in the case of the Water Panther above, any sightings of creatures with such antlers in the water would actually be swimming deer or moose. However Scott is implying that other than that,the water monster represents a Plesiosaur, and compares the artwork depicting the creatures to the reconstructions of Plesiosaurs on the Right.

Scott Mardis on The Great Horned Serpent

Part three on Plesiosaurian correspondances of Lake Champlain creatures compares an old Native pictograph of the Great Horned Serpent to a modern reconstruction of a Plesiosaur:

 

Scott Mardis

here's the provenence again if you need a reference.http://www.academia.edu/823402/Horned_Panthers_and_Erie_Associates
no petroglyph date in paper but is old and represents the Chepichcalm, MicMac horned serpent