432 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. $2 



Specimens from San Pedro Ruins 



The only collection of small antiquities from the ruins along the 

 San Pedro examined by the author are those owned by Mr. E. O. 

 Childs, at Monmouth, who has kindly allowed the author to exam- 

 ine and publish an account of them. The prehistoric inhabitants of 

 this valley cremated^ their dead, a vessel with calcined human bones' 

 having been found by the author near one of the houses at the ruin 

 15 miles above Monmouth, where the majority of objects were 

 obtained. 



The most remarkable specimen in the collection (fig. 75, a, b) is 

 the figure made of black stone resembling lava and representing a 

 quadruped with curved horns like those of a mountain sheep. The 

 most unusual feature of the specimen is a circular depression in the 

 back, notched on the rim, as shown in the figure.- 



Several clay effigy figures (fig. 75, c^ f, h), among which are the 

 two-figured, have been found in the San Pedro ruins. An arrow 

 polisher and a circular stone disk recalls similar objects found in the 

 ruins on the Gila. Perhaps the most exceptional piece of pottery 

 consisted of a double neck of a vase, d, of which the bowl is missing. 

 The pottery is a dark brown ware, smooth on the surface and deco- 

 rated. The people of the San Pedro had flat shovels made of slate, 

 not unlike those from Casa Grande, and made use of perforated 

 stones, g, and ornaments, e, recalling those commonly excavated in 

 the Salt River Valley ruins. The culture of the people, as shown by 

 the small collections of known objects, did not greatly differ from 

 that of the rest of the Gila, but environmental conditions did not lead 

 to the erection of Casas Grandes like those near Phoenix and Tempe. 



Conclusions 



From the points where the Gila River and its two tributaries, the 

 Salt and Santa Cruz, emerge from the mountains, their broad val- 

 leys become level or rolling and slightly elevated, forming low mesas. 

 These valleys are practically deserts, on which the rainfall is not 



^ Two methods of disposal of the dead — one, house burial ; the other, crema- 

 tion — existed among the inhabitants of the Great Houses of the Gila-Salt 

 region. This might mean that two distinct peoples occupied this valley or that 

 the builders of the Casas Grandes were composite in stock. Possibly it might 

 be interpreted as an indication that one of the components was akin to tribes 

 near the mouth of the Gila, where cremation is still practised. 



■'There is a similar stone idol in the museum of the University of Arizona, 

 at Tucson. 



