NO. lO ARCHEOLOGY OF MIMBRES VALLEY FEWKES 1 7 



point of a low hill to the north of an ancient ruin at Cook's Peak, 

 according to this observer, 



occurs a feature which the writer had nowhere else seen, save on the east side 

 of the same mountain. I refer to the great number of mortars which occur in 

 this sandstone back a few feet to the north of the ruins, and which were made 

 and long used by the ancient pueblo-dwellers. There exists at this one place 

 fifty-three of these mortars, nearly all of them occurring in an area of surface 

 not more than seventy-five or eighty feet in diameter. .... Nearly all the 

 mortars are circular or sub-circular in outline, symmetrical and smooth inside, 

 and the upper edge or margin usually rounded by the pestle. In a few cases, 

 however, these mortars have an oblong or subovate outline, somewhat like 

 some forms of metates found among the ruins. 



These mortars often contract to a point at the bottom, when circular in mar- 

 ginal outline, although at times are longer than broad, as just stated, and in 

 this case have a more flattened bottom. They vary from two to eleven inches 

 in diameter, the smallest forms being those apparently only just begun, and are 

 few in number. The deepest mortar observed was seventeen inches, though 

 the great majority of them would vary perhaps from four to ten inches in 

 depth. Often the rock was smooth and polished around the margin of the 

 mortars, and [their distances apart] vary from a few inches to several feet 

 from each other. 



At times these mortars would be located on the top of a large block of sand- 

 stone which might happen to occupy this area ; these boulders sometimes being 

 four to five feet in diameter and perhaps four feet in height. It was plain to 

 be seen that this ancient mill-site was long used by these peculiar people, but 

 just why so many quite similar mortars should have been made here and used 

 by these people is a matter of conjecture. 



It seems certain that a sufiicientl}' large number of people could not have 

 been congregated here, under ordinary conditions, to warrant the forming of 

 so many mortars for the purpose of grinding food.^ 



The present writer accepts the theory that these rock depressions 

 were used in pounding corn or other seeds, but their great number in 

 localities where ruins are insignificant or wanting is suggestive. We 

 constantly find arable land near them, indicating that communal 

 grinding may have been practised, and suggesting a large population 

 living in their immediate neighborhood, which may have left no other 

 sign of their presence. 



MINOR ANTIQUITIES 



The artifacts picked up on the surface near ruins or excavated 

 from village sites resemble so closely those from other regions of the 

 Sotithwest that taken alone these do not necessarily indicate special 



^ Mr. Webster describes " ancient pueblos " on the western side of this group 

 of mountains as well as on the eastern slope of Cook's Range. Certain cave 

 lodges, or walled caves, in a wild canyon on the east side of Cook's Peak are 

 supposed by him to be the recent work of Apaches. 



