146 MEMOIRS OP THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Work was continued in the valley of the Salado or Salt Eiver until June 1888, a period of 

 about sixteen months. During this time, besides isolated ruins and small groups of ruins, the 

 party discovered the remains of six other large cities within a distance of about 10 miles from that 

 first discovered. Of these, three were named : First, Las Acequias from the number, size, and 

 distinct appearance in its vicinity of the old acequias or irrigating ditches through which the 

 departed inhabitants conducted water to their fields ; second, Los Homos or The Ovens, from the 

 number of earthen ovens found there, and third, Los Guanacos, because in it were found small 

 terracotta images of animals thought to resemble the guanaco of South America. In these ruined 

 cities the remains of other buildings like the Casa Grande were found. 



The houses in these cities were of four kinds, designated by Mr. Gushing as follows : 1, priest 

 temples; (2) sun temples; (3) communal dwellings and (4) ultra-mural houses. 



The priest temples. — These were the most conspicuous buildings in the ancient cities. As a 

 mle there was only one to each city, and this was centrally located ; but in one of the cities 

 observed there were seven such buildings, the largest of which was centrally located. The reasons 

 for this peculiar distribution, Mr. Cushing believes, are explained by Zui5i folklore and modern 

 Zuni customs. The ruins gave evidence that the buildings, when standing, were many stories 

 high — from four to seven stories it is estimated The Casa Grande on the Gila is said to show 

 traces of five floors in that portion of its walls which still remain, and it is probable that one or two 

 stories have fallen. Each building was surrounded by a high rectangular wall from 5 to 10 feet 

 thick. A portion of this wall remains, and, being filled with the debris of the fallen building 

 within, lends to the mo^^nd-like ruin that terraced appearance before alluded to. The lower story 

 ' in each building was divided into six apartments, four great and two lesser. These apartments, 

 the explorer believes, were used as store rooms for the priestly tithes in maize, etc. The other stories 

 are supposed to have been used for priestly residences and for sacerdotal purposes. The entire 

 building is thought to have served, not only as a storehouse and temple, but as a fortress in times 

 of danger. Besides these in Arizona, there are great houses of similar construction in Sonora and 

 Chihuahua, in northern Mexico. 



The manner in which these buildings were constructed is perhaps peculiar. They might be 

 regarded as great mud-covered baskets. For the thicker walls two rows of posts were erected 

 and secured, one post to another, in different directions, by means of smaller sticks firmly lashed 

 to them. The ftamework thus constructed was wattled with reeds, so as to form two upright 

 hurdles braced together. The space between these was filled with well-packed mud, and the hur- 

 dles were thickly plastered within and without with the same substance. The thickness of the 

 wall depended on the distance between the hurdles. For the thinnest walls, the internal parti- 

 tions, but one hurdle was erected, and this was plastered on both sides. These structures of wood 

 and reed no longer remained when the excavations were made, but the cavities found in the walls 

 gave evidence of their former existence. 



ISun tenqiles. — The buildings which Mr. Cushing designates by this name, though not as lofty as 

 the priest temples, covered a greater superficial area. The smallest measured was 50 feet in width 

 by nearly 100 feet in length. One was discovered whose dimensions were about 150 feet in width 

 by over 200 feet in length. Like the priest-temples they were built of earth on a great basket 

 form or frame of hmdles; birt the basket form instead of being rectangular was elliptical in shape. 

 There is evidence that this frame of hurdles gradually tapered toward the top, and that the 

 structure was roofed in with a dome made of a spirally contracting coil of reeds, resembling the 

 coil baskets now so commonly made by the various tribes of the southwest. This spiral coU, as 

 well as the rest of the frame, was heavily covered outside with mud, so that the structure when 

 finished must have appeared, as Mr. Cushing expresses it, like an unburned, inverted and elon- 

 gated terracotta bowl. The floor was elevated at its edges so as to form a sort of amphitheater 

 and in the center was a hearth. It is thought that in these buildings the public rites of esoteric 

 societies were performed as well as the sun drama and other ceremonies. The sun temples were 

 usually in close proximity to the priest temi)les, and theii- ruins presented the appearance of low 

 oval mounds depressed in the center. 



