FUBTITER DTSCOVERI?JS AT THE AZTEC RUIN 



cm 



attached to the ears, while strand after 

 strand of beads of stone and shell en- 

 circled the neck, and anklets of shells 

 surrounded the bones of the lower 

 limbs. 



The smallest beads are disks ol" l)hick 

 stone one twenty-fifth of an inch in 

 diameter, about three thousand of them 

 making a strand six feet in length. 

 Another mass of thirty-one thousand 

 was sifted from the earth and restrung 

 into a strand fift3'-seven feet long. 

 These beads are of the same material as 

 the former, but of slightly greater 

 diameter. From these tiny specimens 

 the disk-shaped beads range in size up 

 to pieces of turquoise as large as one's 

 thumb nail. Marine shells were worn 

 in great numbers, Olivella shells, 

 pierced and strung whole, Conus shells 

 truncated and worn suspended bell 

 fashion, and abalone shells cut into 

 great iridescent disk pendants. Some 

 large disks of shell were covered with 

 elaborate mosaics set in pitch. A disk 



of pink stone formed the central ele- 

 ment of each design. This was sur- 

 1(111 IK led by narrow concentric rings of 

 t iir(|U()ise, gilsonite (commonly but 

 eiToneously called jet), and galena crys- 

 tals, repeated in the order given until 

 the periphery of the shell was reached. 

 Turquoise and gilsonite were fashioned 

 into representations of frogs and in- 

 sects. ;ind skill fidly mounted with gum 

 upon thin bone hackings which were 

 grooved on the inner side so that the 

 ornaments might be strung on a cord 

 like beads. 



The skill with which the minute 

 ])eads were drilled, and the masterly 

 execution and beauty of the mosaic or- 

 naments, mark the prehistoric Pueblo 

 artisans as jewelers of no mean ability, 

 especially when it is remembered that 

 they accomplished their ends without 

 the aid of metal tools. 



The bodies which were placed in 

 room 41 were not covered with earth by 

 human as:encies. Long after their 



What <are commonly supposed to have been spear points were the blades of knives. Tliree have 

 been found with their wooden handles intact, one in a rat's nest, the other two buried upon the 

 breast of a woman. The keen blades of agate or quartzite were cemented with pitch into slots 

 gouged out of the ends of the handles, which were strengthened with a wrapping of cord or sinew 

 that extended a short distance upon the blades. The keenness of the blades and the rigid attach- 

 ment of the handles made these implements effective tools or weapons, as necessity might demand 



