NO. 8 



SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, H;13 



53 



trary. Aside from the cemeteries or burial caves of the common coast 

 or mountain people, and their archeological remains, there was no si^n 

 of human occui)ation of these reg'ions. Not a trace suggesting;" any- 

 thing older than the well-re])resented pre-Columbian Indian was 

 found anywhere ; and neither the coast nor the mountain ])0])ulation, 

 so far as studied, can be regarded as very ancient in the regions they 

 inhabited. Xo signs indicated that any group occu])ied any of the 

 sites for even as long as 20 centuries ; nor does it seem that any of 

 these people developed their culture, except in some particulars, in 

 these places. 



ARCHEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN WESTERN NEW MEXICO 

 Mr. F. W. Hodge, ethnologist-in-charge of the Bureau of Ameri- 

 can Ethnology, in the early autum of 191 3 made a reconnoissance of 



Fk;. 54. — I'liaracter of masonry shown in one of the house-groups of the 

 compound. Note the failure of the huilders to "break" the joints and the 

 consequent weakening of an otherwise excellent wall. The face of the stones 

 is pecked to smoothtiess and all the stones are artificially squared. Photograph 

 by Nusbaum. 



a group of ruins on a mesa rising from the southwestern margin of 

 the Cebollita valley, about 20 miles south of Grant. Valencia County, 

 New Mexico, and only a few yards from the great lava flow that has 

 spread over the valley to the westward for many iniles. While no 

 very definite information regarding the origin of this ruined ]ntcblo 



