ANCIENT PUEBLOS OF UPPER GILA REGION. 



dimensions, which at an earlier time formed the rear chamber of a 



row of stone houses built across its front and protected by the shelter 



of the overhanging cliff. Only a few courses of 



flimsy masonry marked the ground plan of the 



houses, all the rest of the structure being buried 



in the steep talus which slopes to the Magdalena 



road by the stream. 



The cave was filled almost to the roof with 

 debris, only a small portion of which had been 

 disturbed by searchers who removed a desiccated 

 body buried not far from the entrance. The 

 material collected from the cave represents in 

 greater part the domestic life of the people who 

 lived in the stone houses. 



It might well be true that in the earliest time 

 the cave was a shelter for bear, and the well- 

 packed mass of grass and leaves of plants over 

 the irregular floor may have been the bedding 

 of these animals. This mass is now packed 

 densely and contains little of the personal effects 

 of human beings; but instead of being the work 

 of bears it may have been the couch of women 

 and children, who in early Pueblo times slept 

 deep in the shelter of the cave in the darkness 

 behind the screen of houses, where the men held 

 guard with bow never far from hand. 



Subsequently the cave became more and more 

 filled with discarded things, and different levels 

 appear in the section. Thus at two different 

 periods a portion, at least, of the cave was given over to the turkey 

 pen and at another level there had been human inhabitation, and 



Fig. 1. — Hair brush- 

 trom tularosa 

 Cave. 



Fig. 2. — Pottery fire vessel from Tclarosa Cave. 



a grass stem hairbrush like that of the present Pueblos (fig. 1) 

 was found here. A fire pot (fig. 2, Cat. Xo. 256532, U.S.N.M.; 



