Aboriginal Remains in Verde Valley, Arizona: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1891-92, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 179-262Mindeleff, Cosmos
History
Aboriginal Remains in Verde Valley, Arizona: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1891-92, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 179-262
Mindeleff, Cosmos
Pueblo Indians -- Antiquities; Verde River Valley (Ariz.) -- Antiquities
The absence of clearly defined traces of passageways to the interior of
the village is noticeable. This absence can hardly be attributed to the
advanced state of decay in the ruin, for nearly all the wall lines can
still be easily traced. At one point only is there a suggestion of an
open passageway similar to those found in the inhabited pueblos. This
occurs in the southeastern corner of the ground plan, between the
southern cluster and the southern part of the northeastern cluster.
It was about 25 feet long and but 6 feet wide in the clear. There were
undoubtedly other passageways to the interior courts, but they were
probably roofed over and perhaps consisted of rooms abandoned for that
purpose. This, however, is anomalous.
There are several other anomalous features in the ground plan, the
purposes of which are not clear. Prominent among them is a heavy wall
extending about halfway across the southern, side of the village and at
some distance from it. The total length of this wall is 164 feet; it is
4 feet thick (nearly twice the thickness of the other walls), and is
pierced near its center by an opening or gateway 4 feet wide. The
nearest rooms of the village on the north are over 40 feet away. This
wall is now much broken down, but here and there, as shown on the plan,
portions of the original wall lines are left. It is probable that its
original height did not exceed 5 or 6 feet. The purpose of this
structure is obscure; it could not have been erected for defense, for it
has no defensive value whatever; it had no connection with the houses of
the village, for it is too far removed from them. The only possible use
of this wall that occurs to the writer is that it was a dam or retaining
wall for a shallow pool of water, fed by the surface drainage of a small
area on the east and northeast. There is at present a very slight
depression between the wall and the first houses of the village toward
the north--about a foot or a foot and a half--but there may have been a
depression of 2 or 3 feet here at one time and this depression may have
been subsequently filled up by sediment. This conjecture could be easily
tested by excavating a trench across the area between the wall and the
houses, but in the absence of such an excavation the suggestion is a
mere surmise.
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