Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895: Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1895-1896, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1898, pages 519-744Fewkes, Jesse Walter
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Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895: Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1895-1896, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1898, pages 519-744
An examination of the masonry of the rooms of the western mounds of
Awatobi shows that the component stones were in a measure dressed into
shape, which was, as a rule, cubical. In this respect they differ from
the larger stones of which the mission walls were built, for in this
masonry the natural cleavage is utilized for the face of the wall.
The differences between the masonry of the mission and that of the
room in which we found a chief buried were very marked. In the former,
elongated slabs of stone, without pecking or dressing, were universal,
while in the latter the squared stones were laid in courses and neatly
fitted together. The partitions likewise are narrower, being not more
than 6 inches thick.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CX
EXCAVATED ROOM IN THE WESTERN MOUND OF AWATOBI]
SMALLER AWATOBI
About an eighth of a mile west of the great mounds of Awatobi there is
a small rectangular ruin, the ground plan of which is well marked, and
in which individual houses are easy to trace. Like its larger
neighbor, it stands on the very edge of the mesa. None of its walls
rise above the surface of the mounds, which, however, are considerably
elevated and readily distinguished for some distance. The pueblo was
built in the form of a rectangle of single-story houses surrounding a
plaza. There was an opening or entrance on the southern side, near
which is a mound, possibly the remains of a kiva. A trail now passes
directly through the ruin and down the mesa side to Jeditoh valley,
probably the pathway by which the ancient inhabitants ascended the
cliff. The Hopi Indians employed by me in excavating Awatobi had no
name for this ruin and were not familiar with its existence before I
pointed it out to them. For want of a better interpretation I have
regarded it as a colony of old Awatobi, possibly of later
construction.
Excavations in its mounds revealed no objects of interest, although
fragments of beautiful pottery, related to that found at Awatobi and
Sikyatki, show that it must have been made by people of the older or
best epoch[78] of Tusayan ceramics.
MORTUARY REMAINS
Although it is well known that the ancient inhabitants of the great
houses of the Gila-Salado drainage buried some of their dead within
their dwellings, or in other rooms, and that the same mortuary
practice was observed in ancient Zuñi-Cibola, up to the time of my
excavations this form of burial had never been found in Tusayan. I am
now able to record that the same custom was practiced at Awatobi.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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