RECENT ARCHEOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE 

 VICINITY OF EL PASO, TEXAS 



By frank H. H. ROBERTS, JR. 



bureau of american ethnology 



(With Five Plates) 



In the winter of 192 1 the writer visited a number of caves approxi- 

 mately 20 miles northeast of El Paso, Texas, for the purpose of 

 examining a series of pictographs which were painted on their walls. 

 The mountains in which the caves are located lie between El Paso 

 and the far famed Hueco Tanks, in the range bearing the same name, 

 which played so prominent a part in the early history of that section 

 of the Southwest. These water holes formed the oasis for many a 

 wandering band of Apaches, and have long been the rendezvous of 

 cattlemen and a resting place for travellers in that semi-desert region. 

 There is a much greater variety and number of pictographs in the 

 vicinity of the tanks than in the immediate neighborhood of the caves 

 mentioned above, but the drawings in the latter are of greater interest, 

 not for what they represent but because their presence led to the dis- 

 covery that the caves were once occupied and that many objects of 

 the material culture of a people not yet definitely identified were 

 buried beneath the sand which covered the floors and filled the back 

 portions of the recesses. 



At the time of his first visit to the region the writer was impressed 

 with the possibility of finding traces of occupation in the caves, but 

 he was unable to make the necessary investigations because of lack 

 of time and equipment. In the following years there was no oppor- 

 tunity to return to the region, and consequently no definite steps could 

 be taken towards a careful examination of the caves. In the mean- 

 time others became cognizant of their existence, through the reports 

 that paintings were to be seen on the rocks of the neighborhood, and 

 it was soon discovered that interesting " curios " could be dug out 

 of their sandy floors. No extensive finds were made, however, until 

 the spring of 1927 when Mr. Robert P. Anderson, then president 

 of the El Paso Archaeological Society, and Mr. R. W. Stafford 

 began a systematic exploration of the caverns and secured a large 

 amount of material. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 81, No. 7 



