THE RUINS OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA. 53 



the foundations of houses, while a surrounding area of the same size is strewn with pottery, 

 but less thickly than the main area. The Hohokam of Sabino, being close to the moun- 

 tains, employed stones to strengthen the foundations of many of their houses. The 

 outlines can still be seen with perfect distinctness, rectangles of boulders 1.5 to 2 feet in 

 long diameter set up on end a foot or two apart. My companion (Mr. Bovee) and I 

 counted 62 houses in the 35 acres of the central area, and there may have been others 

 concealed by gravel washed down from the mountains. Moreover, part of the old houses 

 may have had no stone foundations. At any rate the village certainly contained at least 

 62 houses of various sizes scattered at intervals of 100 or 200 feet over an area of 35 acres. 

 The houses vary in size. Many small ones, located as a rule on the outskirts of the village, 

 are only about 15 by 20 feet in dimensions and are often divided into two rooms. The 

 ones nearer the center of the village are larger, and one inclosure has a size of 250 feet by 

 110; another of almost equal size appears to have been a temple; it is divided into several 

 rooms surrounding a courtj-ard, in the midst of which is located a circular pavement about 

 15 feet in diameter. Judging by the number of houses, the amount of pottery, and the 

 presence of a temple or other large public structure, this was no temporary village, but 

 was inhabited permanently. The inhabitants must have been cultivators of the soil, 

 for their village is carefullj' placed where the stream comes out of the mountains and 

 the arable land begins. Across Bear Canyon Wash a minor village or suburb still shows 

 the ruins of six houses. Apparently at least 68 families hved here, which would mean at 

 least 250 people. Their support would require 500 acres of land, according to the estimates 

 of Professor Forbes. There is apparently sufficient land in the vicinity, but only a small 

 part of it can now be watered. The villagers can scarcely have used the lands or the water 

 farther down the valley or in other neighboring valleys, for each of these has its own ruins. 



Leaving the matter of water supply, let us attempt to form some idea of the number 

 of people who lived in the old Jaynes village. The pottery at Sabino is by no means so 

 abundant as at Jaynes, indicating that the population was less dense. It also seems to 

 extend to a less depth in the ground, suggesting a less long occupation; yet there is enough 

 to indicate an occupation of centuries, if comparison with modern Indian villages is any 

 guide. However this may be, it seems clear that the great double village near Jaynes was 

 more thickly populated than Sabino. If the 300 or more acres, which were densely strewn 

 with pottery, were covered with houses placed no more closely than those of Sabino, that 

 is, at average intervals of 140 feet, the total number must have been at least 500, without 

 taking account of the large number which clearly existed in the surrounding, less densely 

 populated areas. This would mean at least 2,000 people in the main town and certainly 

 500 in the suburbs. These 2,500 would need at least 5,000 acres of irrigable land, according 

 to the best authority on modern agriculture in Arizona. In other words, we have seen that 

 in the vicinity of the sites where agriculture is now most feasible something like 5,500 acres 

 of land are in use. Ruins indicate that all of this was cultivated in the days of the Hoho- 

 kam, and common sense tells us that no sane man would leave the easily watered land 

 uncultivated and betake himself to land with a precarious water-supply. Nevertheless, 

 in the region just below the Tucson area of cultivation the Hohokam established a great 

 village which must have demanded almost as much land as the entire amount now in culti- 

 vation. All the land available for their use was in a district below, that is, downstream 

 from the last extensive area which now is capable of profitable cultivation. Its case is 

 exactly like that of the Sabino ruins. Both appear to have been permanent agricultural 

 villages, but both demand an amount of irrigable land far in excess of that now available. 



Ruins of the Jaynes type are numerous. One of the most important is located at the 

 so-called "Point of the Tucson Mountains," or Charco del Yuma, as the Mexicans call it, 

 a mile or more south of Rillito Station on the Southern Pacific Railroad. The name is 

 commonly abbreviated to Charco Yuma, and has sometimes been incorrectly printed as 



