Ceremonies using live snakes are highly publicized events of many southwestern Pueblos, due in part to the handling of rattlesnakes. Although some of these ceremonies have been described at length, little is known of their antiquity. While informants indicated that such ceremonies are quite old and greatly precede documentation by western anthropologists, no chronological dates were specified. Without written records or clear archaeological evidence, no good assessment of the chronology of these events has been established. Analysis of three Classic Mimbres vessels ostensibly documents the Pueblo snake ceremonies to as early as the eleventh century. These archaeological data corroborate ethnographers' and informants' claims of the antiquity of the ceremonies.
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