PAULA R. NELSON 



An overall view of the Snow flake site. A grid has been staked out over an 

 area approximately 40 to SO yards square. Piles of sifted dirt, excavated 

 from each section of the grid, are visible to the left. Beneath the clump of 

 junipers at the upper right, slab-like sandstones, projecting from the ground, 

 first called attention to the site as a possible habitation of prehistoric Indians. 



An archaeologist's view of a Desert Culture house. Note the circular dis- 

 tribution of post holes marking the outer walls of the dwelling. The narrow, 

 elongated depression to the left is the floor of the entrance tunnel that 

 opened to the east. Between the entrance passageway and the house are 

 remains of a low, curved wall of stone slabs. Several storage pits are visible; 

 the largest (marked with a meter stick) is more than a yard deep. Within 

 it were found the broken remains of its ring-slab cover and charred whole corn. 



Page 2 NOVEMBER 



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hat may well prove to be the old- 

 est human dwelling ever discovered in 

 the United States has been excavated 

 near Snowflake, Arizona, by an archae- 

 ological team from Chicago Natural 

 History Museum led by Dr. Paul S. 

 Martin, the Museum's Chief Curator of 

 Anthropology. 



The prehistoric people who built the 

 house belonged to what is known as the 

 Desert Culture, which flourished from 

 Idaho south to Mexico, between the 

 Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Ne- 

 vadas, from 11,000-9,000 b.c. until ap- 

 proximately the time of Christ. The 

 house was built during the later stages 

 of this culture. 



It was the Stone Age, and Desert Cul- 

 ture people did not know the art of mak- 

 ing pottery. They obtained food by 

 gathering the roots and fruits of wild 

 plants and hunting small animals with 

 stone-pointed weapons. Although some 

 of their populations developed agricul- 

 ture as early as 3,000 b.c, no evidence 

 of cultivation had ever been found 

 within the upper Little Colorado River 

 drainage area, of which Snowflake is a 

 part. Throughout their history — as far 

 as archaeologists knew — Desert Culture 

 people lived only in caves or, possibly, 

 in impermanent camps. 



It now appears, however, that impor- 

 tant aspects of this picture must be re- 

 vised, in light of the discoveries made 

 by Martin and his assistant, James Hill, 

 a research assistant and graduate stu- 

 dent at the University of Chicago. These 

 discoveries reveal that, somewhere be- 

 tween' 4,000 b.c. and the time of Christ, 



