32 



BULLETIN 87, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Fig. 52. — Stone tablet from 

 Spur Ranch. 



dish, shallow and with a broad margin. (Fig. 52.) It is almost iden- 

 tical with the tablets found along the Gila River. (Cat. No. 231868, 



U.S.N.M.; dimensions, 3 by If inches.) 



SCULPTURES. 



Occasionally sculptures of exceptional 

 form are found in this region. One of these 

 (fig. 53) was secured by E. W. Nelson on 

 the upper San Francisco Eiver. It is the 

 most noteworthy object of its class from this region, representing a turtle 

 in high relief on a slab of brownish 

 tufa. The specimen was removed 

 by excavation from the ruins of a 

 village. (Cat. No. 98715, U.S.N.M.) 

 Two others from the same locality 

 also show rather ambitious efforts at 

 sculptures in the round. (Figs. 54, 

 55, Cat. Nos. 98203, 98714, U.S.N.M.) 

 A remarkable specimen in the Na- 

 tional Museum is a small mortar of 

 very hard rock, representing a coiled 

 snake, and there is also a snake tablet 

 from Cochise County, Arizona, the 

 latter figured by W. H. Holmes.^ 



The Casa Grande ruin has fur- 

 nished a number of excellent small sculptures. One of these, repre- 

 senting a mountain sheep, was collected by 

 Cosmos Mindeleff, Other specimens collected 

 by Dr. Ales Hrdlicka are in the American 

 Museum of Natural His- 

 tory, New York. 



An interesting sculp- 

 tured tablet was found 

 by Dr. J.W. Fewkes in the 

 ruins at Solomonsville, 

 Arizona.- In this local- 

 ity, also, oblong dishes with two projecting nodes 

 at either end, carved from very hard stone, are 

 found, and may be considered as superior pieces 

 of work in stone. (See fig. 11.) 



A number of minute specimens in serpentine 

 and other prized aboriginal materials are encoun- 

 tered. Several fine specimens of this sort are in 

 the possession of George G. Heye, of New York. 



Fig. 53.- 



-scdlptdred slab from san 

 Francisco River. 



Fig. 54. — Sculpture in form 

 OF ANIMAL, San Francisco 

 River. 



Fig. 55. — Sculpture in 



form of ANIMAL, SAN 



Francisco River. 



at the Delgar ruin, on the Tularosa River. 



They were secured 

 In this connection, a 



1 American Anthropologist, vol. 8, n. s., No. 1, January-March, 1906, pp. 101-108. 



2 22d Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethnology, p. 180. 



