Pilling Figurines

In March 1950, Mr. Clarence Pilling discovered the group of clay figurines displayed below in a small side canyon of Range Creek, east of Price. They have since been called the “pilling Figurines”, and the rock overhang where they were found is known as Pillings Cave. The photo above shows Mr. Pilling at the natural recess in the cave wall where the figurines were lying at the time of their discovery.

Mr. Pilling, the third of nine children, was born in 1900 at Desert Lake near Cleveland, about thirty miles south of Price. In 1920 he started a dairy business in Carbonville just outside of Price, where he worked and raised his family for twenty seven years. He and his youngest son Bud, moved to Range Creek in 1950 and maintained two ranches. Mr. Pilling returned to Carbonville in 1963 and established a trailer court on the old dairy farm land where he now resides. He has been exploring the desert since he was sixteen; and next to his family, prospecting for anything he could find and hunting for Indian artifacts have been his main affections. When he guided a small group of local museum buffs back to Range Creek in June, 1978, to be photographed at the site of the figurine cave, it was the first time he had returned since he guided Noel Morss of the Peabody Museum there in 1953.

The rock overhand contained a ruined oval room about 10 by 6 feet constructed with a stone foundation and wood poles which had been trimmed with stone tools. A small, poorly preserved Fremont anthropomorphic pictograph, a deeply troughed sandstone metate, and a single sherd of plain gray pottery where the only other cultural material observed during Morss’ visit.

All of the figurines are made of unbaked clan and are decorated with applied clay ornaments. While still soft they were laid on the bottom of baskets or trays, as the imprints of such can be seen on the back of several of the specimens. The sexes are clearly distinguished in both anatomy and dress. The females have breasts, wide hips, wear aprons, and dress their hair in heavy bobs, bound with cord, hanging down over the shoulders. The men wear breech-clouts.  Both sexes wear necklaces and belts which employ pear shaped pendants, pierced near the upper end, or disc shaped objects with a hole for attachment near the edge. The eyes are formed by transverse slits and face painting is evident above and below the eyes. While the clay color variation indicates that they may have been made at different times, the style indicates that they were probably made by the same individual. The delicate figurines are in remarkably good condition considering their age – 800 to 900 years old.

“Although human figurines are rather widespread in America, the Pilling Figurines must be regarded as the most elaborate and carefully made specimens of figurine-making”. They have been sought by many outstanding museums and this museum if grateful to Mr. Pilling for their exhibition.

Geographical and Cultural Setting

While our discussion and presentation here is aimed specifically toward the eastern Fremont area because of our own grographical location and main area of investigation, it should be understood that the Fremont Culture was not limited to this region, but was the predominate culture over most of Utah from A.D. 400 to A.D. 1300. This area, however, appears to have held the greatest concentrations of Fremont population.

The Fremont Culture area of eastern Utah extends from the Uinta Mountains on the north to the Escalante and San Juan rivers on the south, with only scat y evidence south and east of the Colorado River. The western boundary is defined by the high ranges of central Utah; and the eastern boundary extends slightly into western Colorado. These boundaries encompass an area characterized by numerous mesas and plateaus dissected by the deep river canyons of the Green and Colorado and their tributary canyon systems. The coolest areas are the higher mesa regions, ranging from 5000 to 8000 feet, which receive sufficient rainfall to sustain a pinon and juniper forest and the associated flora of the Upper Sonoran and Transition Zones. The lower areas are much warmer and manifest the arid and semi-arid conditions of the Lower Sonoran Zone.

In this very harsh environment the Fremont people grew corn, beans, and squash. They depended upon hunting to a greater extent than is usual for agriculturists, and it is also probable that there was a large dependence on wild plant foods.

Objects d’art & Supernatural Relationships

To implement numerous rites associated with the supernatural, sculptured figures and other objects were almost universally used by primitive man. The majority of those represented sculpturally were usually given stylized shapes which were derived from human form (anthropomorphic).

The Fremont Figurine Cult was elaborate, and scores of little clay figures, fragile and unbaked, attest to a fertility cult of other religious activities of great importance.

Typical Fremont Culture figures are armless and legless, with inverted trapezoidal heads, broad shoulders, narrow waists, and flaring bases. Many figures suggest that women wore aprons and men wore kilts or breech-clouts; and that both wore belts and necklaces. Elaborate necklaces are also shown on some rock art; and marks above and below the eyes on rock art and figurines may indicate face painting. Perhaps both portray ritual costume rather than the usual everyday dress and may be linked with supernaturals or their human representatives.