ARCHEOLOGICAL FIELD WOKK IN ARIZONA. 321 



north, grouped around three sides of a plaza (Plate 54). Some dis- 

 tance to the south on the sand ridge arc evidences of detached houses. 

 About 2i miles to the southwest, on the neighboring ridge, are three 

 small village sites where artifacts are different from those in Stone 

 Axe ruin. The winds have full sweep and power. The loose char- 

 acter of the soil renders it easily displaced by the infrequent and 

 often torrential rains, and by these agencies many of the ancient 

 pueblos of this locality have been almost swept away. In some cases 

 the obliteration has been thorough. Near Stone Axe large tanks with 

 hardpan bottoms, seemingly excavated by human agency, were found 

 to be a result of wind action. It appears that wind erosion is equal 

 to the erosion by water in this region. Much of the surface of the 

 former mound of Stone Axe has been swept away, but enough remains 

 to render it probable that the houses were formed by sinking a square 

 hole in the ground to the depth of 3 to 4 feet and throwing the earth 

 up around it to make low walls. The roof covering was probably a 

 thatch of brush and grass. The roof in this region was required more 

 for protection from the sun's rays than from the storm. The detached 

 houses to the south of the pueblo show no ground plans. Their loca- 

 tion was indicated by the presence of large coiled jars, ornamented 

 vases, and pottery fragments exposed by the wind. These large jars 

 had evidently been buried in the ground for storage of water as 

 Castaneda relates of the Hopi." 



Great quantities of potshards are scattered over the ruin and a 

 number of stone hammers, metates, and hand stones lay about. Bits 

 of copper paint stone, obsidian. Hint, shell, and an occasional arrow 

 point rewarded the search. The pottery fragments on the surface 

 show ware of better quality and decoration, on the whole, than that 

 excavated iii the cemeteries, but not different in character. 



The cemeteries, three in number, are on the glacis directly in front 

 of the main division of the ruin (see plan, Plate 54). A few sporadic 

 burials exist on the east side. The burials were at length, with heads 

 usually to the west, at a depth from 2 to 5 feet, in soil mainly of 

 house refuse, and the skeletons were in rather good condition. From 

 150 to 200 burials, it is estimated, were made around this pueblo. 



It was customary here to place food bowls, vases, cups, and other 

 articles of pottery in the grave near the head. Many of the graves 

 contained no mortuary objects whatever, which is unusual. Shell 

 beads, ornaments of shell, awls, and tubes of bone, arrow-smoothing 

 stones, scrapers and knives of obsidian and chert, red, green, yellow, 

 and black paint were commonly found, also fragments of mats, coiled 

 basketry, and pahos. Clinging to one skull was a fragment of a 

 mosaic earring, formed of oblong, rectangular plates of turquoise set 



"Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau <>!' American Ethnology, p. 490. 

 NAT Mis L901 21 



