by the farmers of Mexico City at the time of the Con- 
quest (Pl. XVI, A). 
Archaeological studies in the Tarahumara region of 
northwestern Mexico, in the States of Sonora and Chi- 
huahua, give a more complete picture of the methods 
used in storing maize. According to the works of C. 
Lumholtz (1902) and R. M. Zingg (1940), these are as 
follows: 1) underground cavities, 2) niches of caves 
walled in, 8) rectangular and cylindrical stone and mor- 
tar structures, 4) wattle and clay daub containers, and 5) 
vasiform structures made of coiled grass and clay daub. 
In 1981, Robert M. Zingg carried out extensive studies 
in the Rio Fuerte region of southern Chihuahua. From 
the material obtained, he concluded (1940) that it repre- 
sented a Basket-Maker and a Cave-Dweller cultural 
phase of the ancient Tfarahumaras. The methods of 
maize storage used during the Cave-Dweller phase are 
those included above under numbers one to three. These 
are of special interest because they are still followed in 
part by the modern Tarahumaras, and they are not re- 
ported from any other group in Mexico. 
During the Basket-Maker phase, Zingg finds “‘large 
bowl-like containers, 24” in diameter and 8” deep’’ hav- 
ing a funerary context but probably related also to an 
element used in the storage of maize. These containers 
‘‘made by coiling rolls of grass imbedded in mud _ as 
binder”’ appear to Zingg as ‘‘a simplification of the coiled 
mud and grass storage structures of the Cliff Houses of 
the Casas Grandes archaeological phase of northern Chi- 
huahua’’ described by Lumholtz (1902). These latter 
storage structures were found by Lumholtz at Cave Val- 
ley, close to Pacheco, and at Aros River, south of Chui- 
cuichupa, both localities in the State of Chihuahua within 
the Tarahumara region (PI. XIII, A, B). Lumholtz 
showed them to be maize granaries which he related to 
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