The American Museum J 



OURNAL 



Volume XVII 



FEBRUARY, 1917 



Number 2 



Excavation of the Aztec Ruin 



By N. C. NELSON 



The American Museum began last sununer the complete excavation and reparation of 

 one of the finest and best preserved examples of prehistoric Pueblo architecture in the South- 

 west. This ruin is located in the Animas Valley, in northwestern New Mexico, a few miles 

 below the Colorado boundary and directly across the river from the town of Aztec. The 

 town, it may be explained parenthetically, takes its name from the ruin which, according to 

 erroneous but persisting popular notion, was built, not by the "Indians," but by members 

 of the Aztec tribes whose habitat since before the Columbian discovery has been confined to 

 Middle America. A resident of Aztec, Mr. H. D. Abrams, is the owner, and he has gener- 

 ously given the Museum a concession to clear out and investigate the entire ruin. It is the 

 largest single piece of scientific work of the kind ever undertaken within the limits of the 

 United States. The first season's excavation was provided for through the generous assist- 

 ance of Mr. J. P. Morgan. Mr. Archer M. Huntington has generously contributed funds 

 for the continuation and completion of the work. — The Author. 



THE Aztec ruin is the principal 

 member of a large group of 

 more or less ancient houses and 

 villages localized within a short radius. 

 If not the last of this group to be in- 

 habited, it appears at any rate to em- 

 body the highest development of archi- 

 tectural ideas attained by the Pueblo 

 Indians in that section of the South- 

 west. The site is of more than usual 

 scientific importance, partly because of 

 its relatively excellent state of preserva- 

 tion but more especially because of the 

 fact that the owner has for many years 

 guarded it against vandalism. Other 

 ruins of the identical type exist for a 

 hundred miles or so around, and al- 

 though far less accessible than the 

 Aztec pueblo, they have been for the 

 most part systematically looted. The 

 investigation of the ruin involves two 

 things : first and foremost, the collec- 

 tion of every available particle of in- 



formation that may serve to throw light 

 on the habits and attainments of the 

 builders; and second, the repair (not 

 the restoration) of the standing por- 

 tions of the structure, making it at 

 once a monument to the Indian and an 

 attraction to the more and more in- 

 terested public. 



The Aztec ruin represents what was 

 at once a great house and a village. 

 That is to say, it was something like 

 a large modern American apartment 

 liouse in size, but different from it in 

 that its inhabitants constituted a closely 

 organized community. The basic prin- 

 ciple of this organic group was cooper- 

 ation. How the Indian came to adopt 

 this cooperative plan we cannot pre- 

 cisely tell. It may be that it grew out 

 of economic necessity. Thus to insure 

 good crops even in the beautiful Ani- 

 mas Valley he was obliged to resort to 

 artificial watering, and nothing short 



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