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
On the southern side of the canyon the lower purple stratum shows three
distinct substrata; the upper is reddish purple and about 3½ feet thick,
the middle is purple gray, about 7 feet thick, and apparently softer
than the upper and lower strata. The lodges occur in the middle purple
substratum, their floors composed of the upper surface of the lower
stratum and their roofs of the under surface of the upper stratum. Those
on the north side are similarly placed, their roofs being about 3 feet
below the white, except that in several instances the upper part of the
purple up to the white has fallen, making the cavity larger. This has
occurred, however, since the abandonment of the caves, and the debris,
still fresh looking, is in situ.
The formation in which the lodges occur is not of volcanic origin,
although the beds composing it were perhaps deposited by hot springs
during the period of great volcanic activity which produced San
Francisco mountain in central Arizona and the great lava flows south of
it. In view of the uncertainty on this point and the further fact that
almost all the cavate lodges heretofore found were excavated in tufa,
ash, or other soft volcanic deposits, the report of Mr. Joseph S.
Diller, petrographer of the U.S. Geological Survey, will be of interest.
It is as follows:
The coarse-grained specimen is sandstone, that of medium grain is
argillaceous sandstone, and the fine-grained one is calcareous clay.
The coarse-grained friable sandstone, in which the lodges have been
excavated, consists chiefly of subangular and rounded grains of
quartz and feldspar with a small proportion of black particles. Many
of the latter are magnetite, while the others are hornblende and
various ferromagnesian silicates. I did not detect any fragments of
volcanic origin.
The specimen of argillaceous sandstone is made up of thin layers of
fine-grained sand of the same sort as the first, alternating with
others containing considerable clay. In the clay layers, a trace of
carbonate of lime was found here and there, forming a transition of
the calcareous clay.
The calcareous clay when placed in acid effervesces vigorously, but
when allowed to stand the effervescence ceases in a few minutes and
the insoluble white clay remains.
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