A Splendid Field Prepared for Us by the Ancient Agriculturists
of Cave Valley--House Groups in Caves Along a Pretty
Stream--Well-preserved Mummies Found in Caves--More Trincheras--Our
Excavations in Caves and Mounds Confirm to the Mormons their
Sacred Stories--We Move to the Plains of San Diego--Visit to Casas
Grandes and the Watch-tower--Successful Excavations of the Mounds
near San Diego.
Finding the locality so inviting for research, I decided to remain
here, returning to Pacheco only to despatch the rest of my party to
make excavations at the ranch of San Diego, thirty miles to the east,
down on the plains of Chihuahua. The ranch was temporarily leased
by an American, Mr. Galvin, who received my expedition hospitably,
and invited the members to remain as long as they pleased and to make
excavations wherever they wanted.
Cave Valley is the widening of a long, low-walled canon through which
the Piedras Verdes River flows. As its name implies, it contains
many caves in the felsitic conglomerate overlying the region. It is
from one-quarter to half a mile wide, and has a fine, rich, loamy
soil. The stream is ten to twenty feet wide and from one to three
feet deep. Fine forests of pine, oak, cedar, and maple surround it,
and make it an ideal dwelling-place for a peaceful, primitive people.
The little knoll on which we were encamped rises on the north side
of a brook which empties itself in the river. It was in equally close
proximity to the dwellings of the living and the dwellings of the dead.
Up the main stream, on the western wall of the canon, and about
a mile from our camp, is a large cave containing the curious
cupola-shaped structure already mentioned. The cave is easy of
approach up a sloping bank from its south side, and arriving at it
we found it quite commodious and snug. It is about eighty feet wide
at its mouth, and about a hundred feet deep. In the central part it
is almost eighteen feet high, but the roof gradually slopes down in
the rear to half that height.
A little village, or cluster of houses, lies at its back and sides. The
interior of most of the rooms must have been quite dark, though the
light reaches the outside of all the houses. The walls are still
standing about six feet high. The compartments, though small, are
seldom kennel-like. Some of the houses have shallow cellars. The roof
of the cave was thickly smoked over its entire surface. From traces
of walls still remaining on it, we may infer that a second story
had been built toward the centre of the cave, though this could only
have been five feet high. These traces of walls on the roof further
prove the important fact that this second story had been built in
terrace-fashion, receding about four feet back from the front of the
ground story.
The cave had evidently been occupied for a very long time, the houses
showing many alterations and additions, and on the walls I counted as
many as twelve coatings of plaster and whitewash. The conventional
design of the ear of corn is well preserved in every doorway. Rude
scrawlings of soot and water cover nearly all the front walls,
mixed here and there with a few traces of red ochre. There are
meander designs, lightning, and drawings of cows and horses; but
the latter were doubtless put on after the walls were demolished,
and their general appearance denotes recentness.
Several of the cyclopean riffles lead from the cave cliff to the
stream.
The houses here, as well as in all other caves we examined, were
built entirely of a powdery substance, the decomposed material of
the cave itself. Great quantities of it were found on the floors
of caves which had not been occupied by man. It is not of a sandy
nature, and its colour is light brown, sometimes almost grey, or
even white. The ancient builders simply had to mix it with water
and mould it into bricks, which, though fairly uniform in thickness,
were very irregular in size. There were no marks of implements on the
walls; all the work seems to have been done by hand and smoothed over
with some wetted fabric. In one cave of this valley the walls show
finger-marks on the plaster. Occasionally we found a small boulder
of hard stone embedded in the wall.
The most unique feature of this cave, however, is the cupola-shaped
structure which stands in an open space in front of the house group,
near the mouth of the cave, but still under its roof. Its height,
measured inside, is twelve feet, and its widest inside diameter is
eleven feet. Its walls average eight inches in thickness. It has
one aperture three feet wide at the top, another one of the same
dimension near the base, and there are several others nearly opposite
each other. In the two upper ones are seen distinct impressions of
timber in the plaster.
The building was made by twisting long grass into a compact cable
and laying it up, one round upon another. As the coil proceeded,
thick coats of plaster were laid on inside and outside. This plaster,
which is the same material as that of which the houses are constructed,
got thoroughly mixed with the straw during the process of building,
and the entire structure was finished without any opening except
the one at the top. The other apertures were undoubtedly cut out
afterward. There is no trace of withes or other binding material to
hold the straw cables in place. They are kept in position only by
the plaster, which here, as in the houses, is almost as hard as the
conglomerate of the surrounding rocks.
My Mexicans from Sonora called it _olla_, a jar, and insisted that it
was a vessel used for keeping water; but this is entirely improbable,
for several reasons, mainly because the river is in close proximity and
easy of access. It was without the slightest doubt a granary. Similar
structures, used for that purpose to the present day, may be seen in
the States of Vera Cruz and Tlaxcala. In a cave only a short distance
away, the rear portion of which also contained a group of houses, we
found between the mouth of the cave and the house walls the remains
of five of these peculiar buildings which I call granaries. They,
too, were made of straw and plaster, similar to the one described,
but the walls here were only two inches thick. The remains showed
that they had not been set up in any special arrangement, nor were
all five alike. Two of them were deeply sunken into the floor of the
cave, and inside of them we found, between the rubbish and debris
that filled them, several grains of corn and some beans.
The other caves which we examined in this valley were of the same
general character as these two, although we found no granaries in
them. On this page is shown the ground plan of a cave on the east
side of the river, and attention is drawn to the singular concrete
seats or blocks against the wall in the house on the west side of
the cave. A floor of concrete had been made in this cave extending
inward and fairly level.
Evidence of two-storeyed groups of houses was clearly noticeable
in many caves; but our investigations were somewhat impeded by the
destruction wrought by some Mormon relic-hunter, who had carried off
almost everything removable. He had even taken away many of the door
lintels and hand-grips, in fact, most of the woodwork, from the houses.
In the rear of some of the caves it was so dark that we had to light a
candle to find our way, crawling from house to house. In one instance
we found a stone stairway of three steps.
In spite of the tremendous dust which is raised by digging into the
ground, and which makes the work very arduous, we searched diligently
and succeeded in bringing to light a number of objects which fairly
welt illustrate the culture of the ancient people. Among them were
needles and awls of bone; a complete fire drill with a stick showing
drilling, basketry work covered with pinon pith mats and girdles,
threads of fibre or hair, and sandals plaited of yucca leaves. Wads
of cotton and pieces of pottery were found in many places; and an
interesting find was a "boomerang" similar to that used to this day
by the Moqui Indians for killing rabbits. The handle is plainly seen,
but the top is broken. The implement, which is made of very hard,
reddish wood, has but a slight curve. We discovered many smooth pieces
of iron ore that had probably been used for ceremonial purposes,
and a bow that had been hidden away on a ledge.
That the ancient cave-dwellers were agriculturists is evident from
the numerous corncobs, as well as grains of corn and beans, that we
came upon. Datems, a green, sweet fruit still eaten by the Mexicans,
were identified everywhere in the cave-dwellings.
Having effectually started the work of investigation here, I went to
look after the second section of my expedition, which had been sent
to San Diego. I covered the thirty-five miles with four pack mules in
one day. There is a charming view from the brow of the sierra over
the plains of San Diego, which are fully ten miles wide; but after
descending to them I found a hard, cold wind blowing. The weather
here is not at all as pleasant as in the sheltered Cave Valley up in
the mountains.
I went to Casas Grandes, a village of 1,200 souls, six miles north
of San Diego, and succeeded in getting a draft cashed. On learning
that Mr. Moses Thatcher, a prominent Mormon apostle from Utah, was on
a tour of inspection of the colonies, I proceeded to Colonia Juarez,
a prosperous Mormon settlement on the Piedras Verdes River, ten miles
from Casas Grandes and six miles from San Diego. It was only four
years old, but had already a number of well laid-out broad streets,
set on both sides with cottonwood trees, and all the houses were
surrounded by gardens. I explained to Mr. Thatcher that I desired
to make excavations in Cave Valley, and he courteously acceded to my
wishes, adding that I might take away anything of interest to science.
To reduce expenses, I paid off many of my Mexican men, who then
returned to their homes in Sonora, going over the sierra by the
trail we had made in coming east. A few months later several of them
returned, bringing others with them, and asked to work again in the
camp, which remained in San Diego for about nine months longer--long
enough for us to see quite a little trade in oranges, sugar, tobacco,
etc., developing between Sonora and Chihuahua by way of the road cut
out by us, and called, after me, _el camino del doctor_.
Excavations in Cave Valley were continued, and the burial caves gave
even better results than the cave-dwellings. They were located in
the eastern side of the canon, which is rarely touched by the sun's
rays. With one exception the ceilings and sides of these caves were
much blackened by smoke. There was not the slightest trace of house
walls, and no other sign that the place had ever been inhabited;
therefore, a fire here could have had no other purpose than a religious
one, just as the Tarahumares to this day make a fire in the cave in
which they bury their dead. Indeed, at first sight there was nothing
in the cave to indicate that they had ever been utilised by man;
but below the dust we came upon a hard, concrete floor, and after
digging through this to a depth of three feet, we fortunately struck a
skull, and then came upon the body of a man. After this we disinterred
that of a mother holding a child in her arms, and two other bodies,
all lying on their left sides, their knees half drawn up, and their
faces turned toward the setting sun. All were in a marvellous state
of preservation, owing to the presence of saltpetre in the dust. This
imparted to the dead a mummy-like appearance, but there was nothing
to suggest that embalming or other artificial means of preservation
of the bodies had been used. The entire system was simply desiccated
intact, merely shrunken, with the skin on most of the bodies almost
unbroken. The features, and even the expression of the countenance,
were in many cases quite distinct. Some had retained their eyebrows and
part of their hair, and even their intestines had not all disappeared.
The hair of these people was very slightly wavy, and softer than
that of the modern Indian; in fact, almost silky. The statures were
quite low, and in general appearance these ancients bear a curious
resemblance to the Moqui Indians, who have a tradition that their
ancestors came from the south, and who, to this day, speak of their
"southern brethren"; but it would be very rash to conclude from
this that the cave-dwellers of northwestern Chihuahua are identical
with the Moqui ancestors. I afterwards brought to light several
other bodies which had been interred under similar conditions. The
bottom of the burial caves seems to have always been overlaid with
a roughly level, concrete floor. There was no trace here of cysts,
or other formal sepulture.
None of the remains wore ornaments of metal, but various shell
ornaments, anklets and bracelets of beautifully plaited straw, which,
however, crumbled into dust when touched. Their clothing consisted of
three layers of wrappings around the loins. Next to the body was placed
a coarse cotton cloth; then a piece of matting, and over that another
cotton cloth. Between the legs was a large wad of cotton mixed with
the feathers of the turkey, the large woodpecker, and the bluejay. In
a few instances, the cotton cloth was dyed red or indigo. Near the
head of each body stood a small earthenware jar of simple design;
in some cases we also found drinking gourds placed at the head,
though in one instance the latter had been put on the breast of the
dead. Buried with the person we found a bundle of "devil's claws"
(_Martynia_). These are used by the Mexicans of to-day for mending
pottery. They drill holes through the fragments to be joined and pass
into them one of these claws, just as we would a rivet. The claw is
elastic and strong, and answers the purpose very well. My Mexicans
understood at once to what use they had been put.
As already alluded to, trincheras were also found in Cave Valley,
where they were quite numerous. There was one or more in every
ravine and gully, and what was a new feature, some were built across
shallow drainages on the very summit of a hill. This summit was a
bald conglomerate, about 150 feet above the valley. In one place we
observed eight trincheras within 150 feet of each other, all built
of large stones in the cyclopean style of masonry. The blocks were
lava and hard felsite, measuring one and a half to three feet. As
a rule, these trincheras had a lateral extent of thirty feet, and
in the central part they were fifteen feet high. After all the great
labour expended in their construction, the builders of these terraces
had secured in each only a space thirty feet long and fifteen feet
wide; in other words, these eight terraces yielded together barely
3,000 square feet, which means space enough for planting five or
six hundred hills of corn. People who do not know the Indians would
consider this too small a result to favour the theory that these
terraces were erected for agricultural purposes. But the Indian's
farming is, in proportion to his wants, conducted on a small scale,
and he never thinks of raising more corn than he actually needs;
in fact, many tribes, as for instance the Tarahumares, seldom raise
enough to last the family all the year through.
Further groups of cave-dwellings were found some ten miles higher
up the river, in what is called the "Strawberry Valley," probably
through the prevalence of the strawberry tree, of which several
beautiful specimens were seen. The largest cave there contained
fourteen houses. Unlike the dwellings in the Cave Valley, here a
gallery ran in front of the houses. The woodwork here was fresher than
that of the Cave Valley houses, and as the walls had only three coats
of plaster and whitewash, and the corners did not show much wear,
these dwellings were undoubtedly of more recent origin. But the
general character of the structures was similar to those we first
investigated. No implements were found in these caves. In the same
locality were quite a number of smaller caves containing houses in
demolition. In one of them the walls were composed of stones and mud,
and here we also saw the first circular-shaped house in a cave.
By digging below the concrete floor of one of the rooms, we came upon
the skeletons of five adults. This was a singular fact, showing that
these ancient cave-dwellers observed the custom of burying their
dead under the floors of their houses when conditions permitted
it. Cave-dwellings comprising twenty rooms were also seen by the
Mormons at the head of Bavispe River.
My relations with the Mormons continued to be friendly, and in my
dealings with them I found them honest and business-like. While
thriftily providing for the material requirements of this life, they
leave all their enjoyment of existence for the future state. Their life
is hard, but they live up to their convictions, though these, in some
points, date from a by-gone stage in the development of the human race.
They were much interested in our work, never doubting but that
it could only be to their advantage to have light thrown upon the
mysteries buried in their caves, as, in their opinion, our researches
would only confirm the statements made in the "Book of Mormon,"
which mentions the prehistoric races of America. They told me that
the book speaks of the arrival of three races in America. The first
landing was made at Guaymas in Sonora, the people being fugitives
from the divine wrath that destroyed the Tower of Babel. They were
killed. The second race landed in New England, coming from Jerusalem;
and the third, also coming from Jerusalem, landed in Chile.
We spent altogether about six weeks in Cave Valley, and the weather,
as far as our experience went, was pleasant enough, although in
February, for several days, a strong, cold wind was blowing, so as to
interfere with our work in the mounds at daytime and with our sleep
at night. In addition to the discomforting feeling that at any moment
my tent might be blown down, I was worried by the possibility of its
falling on the results of our excavations, the pottery and skeletons,
which, for safety's sake, I kept in my tent. The situation was not
improved by some indiscreet burro (donkey), who would stray into the
camp and get himself entangled in the tent ropes.
On January 30th nearly seven inches of snow fell. One day a flock of
twenty-five turkeys was observed near our camp; but our efforts to
get within shooting distance proved futile, as these cunning birds,
who apparently move about so unconcernedly, always disappeared as if
they had vanished into the ground, whenever one of us, no matter how
cautiously, tried to approach them.
News of Apaches was again afloat, and one day a Mexican officer called
at the camp obviously in pursuit of Apaches from whom he had recently
taken twelve horses: but unfortunately the men had escaped. The
presidente of Casas Grandes had been advised of the killing of two
Americans near San Bernardino by some Apaches, and had also ordered
some men to look for the miscreants in the sierra.
Having thoroughly investigated the caves, we turned our attention to
the mounds, which are very numerous in this part of the country. They
are always covered with grass, and sometimes even trees grow on
them. When excavated they disclosed the remains of houses of a type
similar to that of the cave-dwellings. Some of the mounds were high
enough to justify the supposition that the houses had two stories,
each six or seven feet high, and containing a number of rooms. From
the locality in which the mounds were found it becomes at once
evident that the houses which once stood there were not destroyed by
inundations and covered by diluvial deposits. The mounds are composed
of gravelly cement and fine debris of house walls, and the rooms left
are completely filled with this material. It is easy to imagine how
the mounds were formed by the gradual demolition of the ceilings,
plastering, and roofs, forming a heap which to-day appears as shapely
as if it had been made by man for some definite purpose.
The houses were communal dwellings, each consisting of one room,
which generally was not quite ten feet square. The walls, eight
to nine inches thick, built of a mixture of clay and earth, were
fairly well preserved in places. In one house, which had unusually
solid compartments, the walls were twenty, and in some places even
thirty-three, inches thick. Here nothing could be found, either in
the rooms or by excavating below the floor. The same conventional
doorways were met with in all the mound houses, but there was hardly
any trace Of woodwork.
Excavations in one of the mounds near our camp disclosed very
interesting composite structures. One part of the walls consisted of
large posts set in the ground and plastered over, forming a stuccoed
palisade. At right angles with this was a wall of cobble-stones,
and among the buried debris were fragments of adobe bricks. In one
room of this group, at a depth of less than five feet, we struck a
floor of trodden concrete. Breaking through we found a huddle of six
or seven skeletons, which, however, were not entire.
Rarely if ever was any object found in these rooms, except, perhaps,
some stray axe, or some metates and grinding stones, and in one case
a square stone paint pot. But by digging below the concrete floors
we came upon skeletons which seemed to have been laid down without
regard to any rule, and with them were invariably buried some household
utensils, such as earthenware jars and bowls, beautifully decorated;
axes and mauls, fairly carved and polished. One very rare object was
secured: a doubled-grooved axe. The skeletons were badly preserved,
but we were able to gather several skulls and some of the larger bones.
The floor material was so hard that only by means of heavy iron
bars could we break through it. As it was impracticable for us to
make complete excavations, the number of rooms each mound contained
cannot be stated. There were in the immediate neighbourhood of Cave
Valley at least ten or twelve separate groups, each of which had
from four to eight rooms on the ground floor. The entire district is
richly studded with mounds. On an excursion three or four miles down
Piedras Verdes River I saw several groups of mounds, some of which,
no doubt, contained many objects of antiquity. On top of one low hill
was a large group, and half a mile north of this another, 160 paces
long and containing two oblong mounds. Some of the mounds were ten
or twelve feet high.
A very trustworthy Mormon informed me that there were no ruins,
in caves or otherwise, along the river between this settlement and
Colonia Juarez; nor were there any, he said, for a hundred miles south
of Pacheco, though mounds could be seen in several places. Therefore
when I at last departed from Cave Valley, I took his advice and did
not follow the course of the Piedras Verdes River down to San Diego,
but led the pack train the safer, though longer, way over the regular
road. The country along the river was afterward explored by members of
my expedition. They came upon several small caves high up on the side
of the canon, some of which had once been inhabited, to judge from the
many potsherds and the smoky roofs; but no cave-houses were found until
higher up the river, where some were seen in the sandstone cliffs.
I broke camp in Cave Valley on March 11th, and arrived on the same
day at Old Juarez, a few miles from my camp at San Diego. Now the
weather was warm; the grass was sprouting, and I noticed a flock of
wild geese going northward.
The plains of San Diego used to swarm with antelopes, and even at
the time of my visit herds of them could be seen now and then. One
old hunter near Casas Grandes resorted to an ingenious device for
decoying them. He disguised himself as an antelope, by means of a
cloak of cotton cloth (manta) painted to resemble the colouring of
the animal. This covered his body, arms, and legs. On his head he
placed the antlers of a stag, and by creeping on all fours he could
approach the antelopes quite closely and thus successfully shoot
them. The Apaches, according to the Mexicans, were experts at hunting
antelopes in this manner.
We excavated a mound near Old Juarez and found in it a small basin of
black ware. There were twelve or fifteen other mounds, all containing
house groups. The largest among them was 100 feet long, fifty feet
wide, and ten feet high; others, while covering about the same space,
were only three or four to six feet high. They were surrounded,
in an irregular way, by numerous stone heaps, some quite small,
others large and rectangular, inclosing a space thirty by ten feet.
From an archaeological point of view, the district we now found
ourselves in is exceedingly rich, and I determined to explore it as
thoroughly as circumstances permitted. One can easily count, in the
vicinity of San Diego, over fifty mounds, and there are also rock
carvings and paintings in various places. Some twenty miles further
south there are communal cave-dwellings, resembling those in Cave
Valley, which were examined by members of the expedition at the San
Miguel River, about eight miles above the point at which the river
enters the plains. Inside of one large cave numerous houses were
found. They had all been destroyed, yet it was plainly evident that
some of them had originally been three stories high.
But the centre of interest is Casas Grandes, the famous ruin situated
about a mile south of the town which took its name, and we soon went
over to investigate it.
The venerable pile of fairly well preserved ruins has already been
described by John Russell Bartlett, in 1854, and more recently
by A. F. Bandelier; a detailed description is therefore here
superfluous. Suffice it to say that the Casas Grandes, or Great Houses,
are a mass of ruined houses, huddled together on the western bank
of the river. Most of the buildings have fallen in and form six or
eight large mounds, the highest of which is about twenty feet above
the ground. Low mesquite bushes have taken root along the mounds
and between the ruins. The remaining walls are sufficiently well
preserved to give us an idea of the mode of building employed by the
ancients. At the outskirts of the ruined village the houses are lower
and have only one story, while in its central part they must have been
at one time at least four stories high. They were not palaces, but
simply dwellings, and the whole village, which probably once housed
3,000 or 4,000 people, resembles, in its general characteristics,
the pueblos in the Southwest, and, for that matter, the houses we
excavated from the mounds. The only features that distinguish these
from either of the other structures are the immense thickness of the
walls, which reaches as much as five feet, and the great height of the
buildings. The material, too, is different, consisting of enormous
bricks made of mud mixed with coarse gravel, and formed in baskets
or boxes.
A striking fact is that the houses apparently are not arranged in
accordance with any laid-out plan or regularity. Nevertheless they
looked extremely picturesque, viewed from the east as the sun was
setting. I camped for a few days on top of the highest mound, between
the ruined walls.
No circular building, nor any trace of a place of worship, could be
found. The Mexicans, some of whom have nestled on the eastern part
of the ruins, have from time to time come upon beautiful jars and
bowls, which they sold to relic hunters or used themselves. Such
pottery is far superior in quality and decoration to anything now
made in Mexico. The ancient metates of Casas Grandes, which are much
appreciated by the present inhabitants of the valley, are decidedly
the finest I have ever seen. They are square in shape, resting on
four legs, and well finished. There have also been taken out some
stone axes and arrowheads, which are much like those found in the
Southwest of the United States.
Some years ago a large meteorite was unearthed in a small room
on the first floor of one of the highest of the buildings. When
discovered it was found carefully put away and covered with cotton
wrappings. No doubt it once had served some religious purpose. On
account of its glittering appearance, the Mexicans thought it was
silver, and everybody wanted to get a piece of it. But it was taken
to Chihuahua, and the gentleman who sent it to Germany told me that
it weighed 2,000 pounds.
There are still traces of well-constructed irrigation ditches to be
seen approaching the ruins from the northwest. There are also several
artificial accumulations of stones three to fifteen feet high and of
various shapes. One of them has the form of a Latin cross measuring
nineteen feet along its greatest extent. Others are rectangular,
and still others circular. About three miles off, toward the west,
are found pictures pecked on large stones, one representing a bird,
another one the sun.
An interesting relic of the population that once prospered in Casas
Grandes Valley is a watch tower, plainly visible on a mountain
to the southwest, and about five miles, in a straight line, from
the ruins. Well-defined tracks lead up to it from all directions,
especially from the east and west. On the western side three such
trails were noticed, and several join at the lower part of the ridge,
which runs southward and culminates in the promontory on which the
watch tower stands 1,500 feet above the plains.
The western side of the ridge is in some places quite precipitous,
but there is a fairly good track running along its entire extent to
the top. Sometimes the road is protected with stones, and in other
places even with walls, on the outer side. Although the ascent is,
at times, steep, the top can be reached on horseback.
The path strikes a natural terrace, and on this is seen a ruined
house group built of undressed stones on the bare rock. Some of the
walls are twenty-four inches thick. And a little to the south of
it is a large mound, from which a Mormon has excavated two rooms. A
very well-built stone wall runs for more than 100 paces from north
to south on the western, or most easily accessible, side of the pueblo.
After leaving this ancient little village, we made a pleasant ascent
to the top, where a strikingly beautiful panorama opened up before us
on all sides. The summit commands a view of the fertile valleys for
miles around in every direction. To the west is the valley of the
Piedras Verdes River, and to the east the valley of Casas Grandes;
and in the plains to the south the snakelike windings of the San
Miguel River glitter in the sun. Toward the north the view is immense,
and fine mountains form a fitting frame for the landscape all around
the horizon.
What a pre-eminently fine position for a look-out! As I contemplated
the vast stretches of land commanded from this point, I pondered
for how many centuries sentinels from this spot may have scanned
the horizon with their eagle eyes to warn their people of any enemy
approaching to disturb their peaceful occupations.
The fort is circular and about forty feet in diameter. The surrounding
wall is on one side about eleven feet high and very broad, while in
other places it is much lower and narrower. There are four clearly
outlined chambers in the centre; but by excavations nothing could be
found in them, except that the flooring was one inch thick.
It was quite warm here. Some birds were about, and there were a few
flowers out. Wild white currant bushes were growing inside of the
fortress, breathing delicious fragrance. But aside from the top,
the mountain was all but barren of vegetation.
A few days afterward I went on an excursion up the Casas Grandes
Valley, as far as the Mormon colony Dublan. This valley, which is about
fifteen miles long and equally as broad, is very fertile where properly
irrigated, and maize and wheat fields delight the eye. Naturally, the
country is well populated, and the mounds which are met with everywhere
prove that this was already the case in ancient times. In fact,
mounds, in groups or isolated, are numerous as far north as Ascension.
How richly the apparently poor soil repays the labour which man
expends on it may be seen in the flourishing colony the Mormons have
here. Wherever they go, the Mormons transform waste land into scenes
of prosperity, so much so that the Mexicans attribute the success of
these indefatigable developers to a gold mine, which they are supposed
to work secretly at night.
As I found it imperative to return to the United States in the interest
of the expedition, I considered it expedient to reduce my scientific
corps to three. My camp at San Diego I left in charge of Mr. H. White,
who later on was relieved by Mr. C. V. Hartman. During my absence
they conducted excavations of the mounds along the southern bank of
the Piedras Verdes River, near its junction with San Miguel River,
and in convenient neighbourhood to the camp. Neither the mounds
themselves nor the houses inside of them differ much from those
already described on the upper part of the river, except that some
of the mounds here were somewhat larger. Judging from the beams
left, they probably contained a few three-story houses. However, in
either locality most of the mound houses were only one story high,
and where second or third stories were indicated, they were never
found intact. In neither place were circular houses observed. The
mounds here were located on a rich, alluvial clay soil.
Here, as on the upper part of the river, the treasures we secured
were taken from underneath the floors of the houses, where they
had been buried with the dead. Here, as there, they consisted of
beautifully decorated earthenware jars and bowls, some of them in
bizarre representations of animal and human forms, besides stone
implements, shell beads, pieces of pyrites and turquoise, all being
generally unearthed intact.
The things were found alongside of skeletons, which were huddled
together in groups of from two to five in one of the corners. The
jars, bowls, etc., had generally been deposited close to the body,
as a rule near the head. The skulls of the skeletons were mostly
crushed, and crumbled to dust when exposed to the air. There was no
trace of charring on the bones, although in some cases charcoal was
found close to the skeletons.
To excavate such mounds is slow and tedious work, requiring much
patience. Sometimes nothing was found for weeks. Small mounds gave
results as good as, if not better than, some large ones. In shape they
are more or less conical, flattened at the top; some are oblong, a few
even rectangular. The highest among them rose to twenty or twenty-five
feet, but the majority varied from five to twelve feet. The house
walls inside of them were from eight to sixteen inches thick.
The pottery which was excavated here may be judged by the accompanying
plates. It is superior in quality, as well as in decoration, to that
produced by the Pueblos of the Southwest of the United States. The
clay is fine in texture and has often a slight surface gloss, the
result of mechanical polishing. Though the designs in general remind
one of those of the Southwestern Pueblos, as, for instance, the cloud
terraces, scrolls, etc., still most of the decorations in question
show more delicacy, taste, and feeling, and are richer in colouring.
This kind of pottery is known only from excavations in the valleys of
San Diego and of Piedras Verdes River, as Well as from Casas Grandes
Valley. It forms a transition from the culture of the Pueblos of
Arizona and New Mexico to that of the Valley of Mexico, a thousand
miles farther south. In a general way the several hundred specimens
of the collection can be divided into four groups:
(1) The clay is quite fine, of white colour, with a slightly
grayish-yellow tinge. The decorations are black and red, or black
only. This is the predominant type, and may be seen in Plates I. and
II.; also Plate III., _a_.
(2) Of a very similar character, but somewhat coarser in texture, and
heavier. See Plate III., _b_ to _g_, and Plate IV., _f_ Both these
groups include variations in the decorative designs, as may be seen
in the rest of Plate IV.
(3) Brown pottery with black decorations. See Plate V., _a, b, c_,
and _e_.
(4) Black ware.
Here follows a condensed description of the more important specimens
shown in the plates:
PLATE I
Heights: _a_, 18.5 cm; _b_, 15.2 cm; _c_, 16.2 cm; _d_, 18.8 cm; _e_,
11.3 cm; _f_, 8.5 cm.
_a_, particularly graceful in outline and decoration, is a
representative type that is often found.
_c_, from Colonia Dublan, is made in the shape of a horned toad,
the lizard so familiar to anyone who has visited the Southwest of
the United States. The head with its spikes, and the tail as well,
are well rendered; the thorny prominences of the body are represented
by the indentations around the edge.
_d_, the principal decoration here is the plumed serpent with a
bird's head.
_e_, a vase in the shape of a duck.
_f_, a bowl decorated only around the edge and in the interior.
PLATE II
Height, 16.5 cm.
Here is shown what, in regard both to manufacture and to decoration,
is the best specimen in the collection. Its principal ornaments are the
plumed serpent and two birds, all clearly seen in the extension of the
design above and below the vase. The lower section is a continuation
of the upper one.
The birds are represented as in flight. Mr. M. H. Saville is
probably right in considering them as quetzals, though the habitat
of this famous trogon is Central America and the southernmost part
of Mexico. The bird and the serpent form the decoration of other
jars of this collection and would indicate that the makers of this
pottery were affiliated with the Aztecs in their adoration of the
great deity Quetzalcoatl.
PLATE III
Heights: _a_, 18.5 cm; _b_, 18 cm; _c_, 17 cm; _d_, 11 cm; _e_,
14.5 cm; _f_ 15.3 cm; _g_, 24.2 cm.
_c_, a jar in the shape of a conventionalised owl.
_d_, a jar in the shape of a fish.
_f_ is a much conventionalised representation of four horned
toads. Around its upper part it has two serpents, apparently coral
snakes, attached in high relief.
PLATE IV
Heights: _a_, 14 cm; _b_, 16.8 cm; _c_, 18.6 cm; _d_, 12.2 cm; _e_,
22 cm; _f_, 18.5 cm.
_a_, a very realistic representation of the rain-grub.
_c_ has a black slip.
_d_ is very strong and highly polished, and differs also in colouring
from the rest.
PLATE V
Heights: _a_, 3.7 cm; _b_, 9.8 cm; _c_, 25.6 cm; _d_, 17 cm; _e_,
20.7 cm; _f_, 19.3 cm; _g_, 19.3 cm.
This brown ware is very handsome, and its ornamentation is strikingly
artistic in its simplicity. See, for instance, Plate V., _e. D, f_,
and _g_ represent pottery from Casas Grandes, distinguished by a
certain solidity and a higher polish.