Casa Grande Ruin: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1891-92, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 289-318 — John Shaqi
Casa Grande Ruin: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1891-92, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 289-318Mindeleff, Cosmos
History
Casa Grande Ruin: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1891-92, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 289-318
Mindeleff, Cosmos
Arizona -- Antiquities; Casa Grande National Monument (Ariz.); Hohokam architecture; Indians of North America -- Arizona
Bartlett observed that the ruin consists of three buildings, "all
included within an area of 150 yards." He described these buildings and
gave ground plans of two of them and elevations of the principal
structure. He also gave a translation of a portion of Font's journal, as
well as the previous description of Mange. He surmised that the central
room of the main building, and perhaps the whole structure, was used for
the storage of corn.
Bartlett's account held place for nearly thirty years as the main
reliance of compilers, and it forms today one of the most circumstantial
and comprehensive descriptions extant. Other descriptions appeared at
intervals of a few years, some compiled from Bartlett and Font, others
based on personal observation, but none of them containing anything new,
until the account of Mr. A. F. Bandelier, published some ten years
ago,[1] is reached.
[Footnote 1: Archaeological Inst. of Amer., 5th Ann. Rep., 1884.]
Mr. Bandelier described the large group, of which the Casa Grande forms
a part, and gave its dimensions as 400 meters (1,300 feet) north and
south by 200 meters (650 feet) east and west. He also described and gave
measurements of the Casa Grande proper and discusses its place in the
field of aboriginal architecture. In a later publication[1] he discussed
the ruin at somewhat greater length, and presented also a rough sketch
plan of the group and ground plans of the Casa Grande and of the mound
north of it. He gave a short history of the ruin and quite an extended
account of the Pima traditions concerning it. He considered the Casa
Grande a stronghold or fortress, a place of last resort, the
counterpart, functionally, of the blockhouse of the early settlers of
eastern United States.
[Footnote 1: Papers Archaeol. Inst. of Amer., Amer. ser., iv,
Cambridge, 1892, p. 453 et sec.]
In 1888 Mr. F. H. Cushing presented to the Congres International des
Americanistes[1] some "Preliminary notes" on his work as director of the
Hemenway southwestern archeological expedition. Mr. Cushing did not
describe the Casa Grande, but merely alluded to it as a surviving
example of the temple, or principal structure, which occurred in
conjunction with nearly all the settlements studied. As Mr. Cushing's
work was devoted, however, to the investigation of remains analogous to,
if not identical with, the Casa Grande, his report forms a valuable
contribution to the literature of this subject, and although not
everyone can accept the broad inferences and generalizations drawn by
Mr. Cushing--of which he was able, unfortunately, to present only a mere
statement--the report should be consulted by every student of
southwestern archeology.
[Footnote 1: Berlin meeting, 1888; Compte-Rendu, Berlin, 1890,
p. 150 et seq.]
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