Mi:.M«)ii;s «)i' Till'; national acadkmv ok sciknces. 



55 



now becoming: nipiilly lilK'tl witli white settlers, and the ancient town sites are beiiifieovered with 

 tiuiiis and crossed with irrigatinjj ditches, all aiiti(iuarian i)roblenis become more dillicult of solu- 

 tion every day. 



ANTlyllTY. 



In 1 ").'?!), when Friar Marcos made his journey to Zuni, and when, a year later, Coronado 

 marciicd witli an army to the same jxiint, they passed within about 100 milcsof these towns. Had 

 tlicy been inhabited in those days, the travelers would doubtless have heard of tiiem, for the fani«! 

 of the less sinniticant Seven Cities of Cibola reached them in the heart of Mexico and induced 

 them to travel 200 miles further northeast than the mouth of the Salado. They were ruins, no 

 doubt, three huudied and titty years ago, or at the beginning of the historic jK-riod of Arizona. 

 No vestige i>\' anytliing belonging to the iron age or of Europea?! origin was brought to light in 

 the excavation. Tlie writer knows of other ruins in New Mexicnand Arizomi which, from reci.rded 



^.^^^ 







:?^ 



evidence, arc known to have fallen to decay and been abandoned long before the historic period; 

 yet in these textile fabrics and other jjerishable articles are still found fairly preserved, and i)ar- 

 ticularly the hair of the dead has survived the process of decay. In Los Muertos were found no 

 hair, no cerements, nothing that might have escaped destruction in a thousand years. It is 

 thought by Mr.Cushingthat fromonetliousand to two thousand years may easily haveelapsed since 

 the priests of Los Muertos worshiped in its standing temples. The Casa (".raiideof the Cila was a 

 ruin standing in the sixteenthcentury i)robabIy much as it stands today; tiiree and a half centuries 

 have wrought little change in it; but the similar priest-temples of the neighb(uing Salt Kiver are 

 mere mounds of earth. The writer has seen two photographs of the Casa Grande of the Gila taken 

 from the same i)oint of view, one twenty years after the other; yet in the i)ictures no difference 

 can be discerned in the most minute points and prominences of the ruin, which were stibject (udy 

 to tlie modifying inlluences of rain and wind, though the parts withiu the ea.sy reach of human 

 hands have sull'ered notably. 



