EXPLORATION OF A PIT HOUSE VILLAGE AT LUNA. 



NEW MEXICO. 



By Walter Hough, 



Curator of Ethnology, United States National Museum. 



While excavating a small stone house ruin at Stevens Cienaga, 

 near Luna, New Mexico, in 1905, a circular pit was laid bare beneath 

 the plaza. It was apparent that the pit had been filled with debris 

 by the occupants of the stone houses and smoothed over to form a 

 level dance place. This find led to the search for other evidence of 

 pit structures. Several sites were discovered and were noted in Bul- 

 letin 35, Bureau of American Ethnology (pp. 59-64). All these 

 sites except one were associated with stone houses ; that one, a site at 

 Luna, New Mexico, which appeared to be a village of pit dwellings 

 pure and simple.^ This site was discovered through the curious cir- 

 cumstance that the weeds grew higher in circular areas over a large 

 tract of land, evidently due to greater moisture and fertility of 

 certain spots, apparently buried pits. Although discovered in 1905 

 no work was done here till June, 1916, when a small grant from the 

 Bureau of American Ethnology permitted a preliminary examina- 

 tion. 



Permission to carry on archeological work on the Gila Forest 

 Reserve was kindly granted the Smithsonian Institution by the 

 United States Department of Agriculture. The land embracing the 

 ruins has been filed upon by James Melvin Swap, of Luna, who gen- 

 erously approved of the work of excavation. 



Topography. — The ruin occupies a gentle slope inclining south 

 by east on the third terrace above the San Francisco River, which is 

 about 1^ miles away. The terrace abuts on low hillocks to the north. 

 The area, about 30 acres in extent (see map), has been naturally 

 forested since the abandonment of its use for human habitations, 

 but a majority of the trees (pines) have matured and died or have 

 been logged off. The soil is loose but is not washed, the only rim-off 

 being to the east and west of the tract. The eastern drain is a 

 rivulet carrying permanent water from springs in high ground a few 

 miles to the north. The field is smooth and is covered with dark 

 loam about 1 foot thick. Below this is a yellow-brown clayey 



* Another site 7 miles north of Luna was discovered In 1917. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 55— No. 2280. 



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