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
In the southern part of the region here treated bowlder-marked sites are
more clearly marked and more easily distinguished than in the northern
part, partly perhaps because in that section the normal ground surface
is smoother than in the northern section and affords a greater contrast
with the site itself. Plate XXXIII shows one of these bowlder-marked
sites which occurs a little below Limestone creek, on the opposite or
eastern side of the river. It is typical of many in that district. It
will be noticed that the bowlders are but slightly sunk into the soil,
and that the surface of the ground has been so slightly disturbed that
it is practically level; there is not enough débris on the ground to
raise the walls 2 feet. The illustration shows, in the middle distance,
a considerable area of bottom land which the site overlooks. In plan
this site shows a number of oblong rectangular rooms, the longer axes of
which are not always parallel, the plan resembling very closely the
smaller stone village ruins already described. It is probable that the
lack of parallelism in the longer axes of the rooms is due to the same
cause as in the village ruins, i.e., to the fact that the site was not
all built up at one time.
The illustration represents only a part of an extensive series of wall
remains. The series commences at the northern end of a mesa forming the
eastern boundary of the Rio Verde and a little below a point opposite
the mouth of Limestone creek. The ruins occur along the western rim of
the mesa, overlooking the river and the bottom lands on the other side,
and are now marked only by bowlders and a slight rise in the ground. But
few lines of wall are visible, most of the ruins consisting only of a
few bowlders scattered without system. From the northern end of the
mesa, where the ruins commence, traces of walls can be seen extending
due southward and at an angle of about 10° with the mesa edge for a
distance of one-fourth of a mile. Beyond this, for half a mile or more
southward, remains of single houses and small clusters occur, and these
are found in less abundance to the southern edge of the mesa, where the
ruin illustrated occurs. The settlement extended some distance east of
the part illustrated, and also southward on the slope of the hill. Two
well-marked lines of wall occur at the foot of the hill, on the flat
bottom land, but the slopes of the hill are covered with bowlders and
show no well-defined lines. Scattered about on the surface of the ground
are some fragments of metates of coarse black basalt and some potsherds,
but the latter are not abundant.
The bowlders which now mark these sites were probably obtained in the
immediate vicinity of the points where they were used. The mesa on which
the ruin occurs is a river terrace, constructed partly of these
bowlders; they outcrop occasionally on its surface and show clearly in
its sloping sides, and the washes that carry off the water falling on
its surface are full of them.
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