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
These four small ruins are all closely similar to the large ruin
described above in all respects except size, and peculiarities of ground
plan attendant on size. The rooms are always rectangular, generally
oblong, and arranged without regularity as regards their longer axis.
Except the one last described, the ruins consist of compact masses of
rooms, without evidences of interior courts, all of very small size, and
all located without reference to defense. The last-described ruin
differs from the others only in the arrangement of rooms. There is
practically no standing wall remaining in any of them, and even now they
can be seen for miles from the hills above. When the walls were standing
they must have been conspicuous landmarks. The masonry of all consists
of flat bowlders, selected doubtless from the river bed, or perhaps
sometimes quarried from the terraces, which themselves contain large
numbers of river bowlders. In general appearance and in plan these ruins
resemble the ruin next to be described, situated near the mouth of the
East Verde.
[Illustration: Figure 280.
Ground plan of ruin at mouth of the East Verde.]
On the southern side of the East Verde, half a mile above its mouth, a
small creek comes in from the south, probably dry throughout most of the
year; and on a promontory or point of land left by this creek a small
ruin occurs. It is similar in plan and in character of masonry to those
just described, and differs from them only in that its site is better
adapted for defense, being protected on two sides by steep hills or
cliffs. The ground plan of this ruin is shown in figure 280, and its
general appearance in plate XIV, which also shows the character of
masonry. The village overlooked a large area of low bottom land in the
angle between the Verde and the East Verde, and is itself overlooked by
the foothills rising behind it to the high mesas forming part of the
Mazatzal mountains.
The walls of this village were built of flat bowlders and slabs of
limestone, and there is now practically no standing wall remaining. The
ground plan shows a number of places where the walls are still visible,
but they extend only a few inches above the debris. There were about
forty rooms, and the plan is characterized by irregularities such as
have already been noticed in other plans. Although the village was of
considerable size it was built up solidly, and there is no trace of an
interior court. It will be noticed that the rooms vary much in size, and
that many of the smaller rooms are one half the size of the larger ones,
as though the larger rooms had been divided by partitions after they
were completed. It is probable that rooms extended partly down the slope
on the west and south of the village toward the little creek before
mentioned, but if this were the case all evidences have long since been
obliterated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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