Rock Art
Ancestral Pueblo panel with flute players

The Hopi kachina Kokopelli has a hump and is associated with fertility, but traditionally does not carry a flute. Elder Hopis have referred to flute-playing rock art figures as "cicadas," noise-making insects with a flute-like proboscis. The cicada is an important Hopi figure, believed to bring the plant-nurturing heat essential for a good harvest.1





Traditional and modern images of Kokopelli.
1903 Hopi Kokopelli drawing and the contemporary icon.



Ancestral Puebloan Flute Player Image.
Ancestral Puebloan flute player displaying fertility characteristic of the traditional Kokopelli kachina.


Archaic anthropomorphic figures, one holding a flute.
Possibly an Archaic era painted flute player.


Pecked Flue Player.
An unusual stipple pecked flute player.


Petroglyph with a sheep playing a flute.
A flute-playing sheep, possibly Fremont.


Notes

1. Ekkehart Malotki, Kokopelli: The Making of an Icon (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2000).