66 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1916. 



contained circular, semisubterranean houses in which no stone was 

 used for construction. Seven of the pits were cleared, and it was 

 ascertained that many more existed beneath the surface, dug in the 

 sandy substratum of the region. Burnt sections of roofing clay 

 showed that these houses were roofed with beams, poles, brush, and 

 mud, as in present pueblo construction. The roof was supported 

 by wooden posts, charred remains of which were found. Nothing 

 was ascertained respecting the construction of the sides of the dwell- 

 ings or in regard to the height of the roofs. On the floor of each 

 of the pits uncovered were a rude metate, grinding stones, slabs of 

 stone, and the outline of an otherwise undefined fireplace not quite 

 in the center of the chamber. A bench about a foot high and a few 

 feet in length was cut in the wall of some of the pits, and in one of 

 the pits, against the wall, was a fireplace with raised sides of clay. 



Another type of structures adjoined the pits; these were rectan- 

 gular, open-air houses with mud roofs, in which mealing and culinary 

 work was carried on. Here were numerous metates, manos, rubbing 

 stones, pottery, etc. ; some of the metates were set up on three round 

 stones. Near the pit was a cemetery in which infants were buried, 

 the burials being associated with clay hearths and much charcoal, and 

 near the bodies were placed small pottery vessels. Scrapers of flint 

 and bones of deer were also found among the burials. So far as as- 

 certained, the people who used the circular semisubterranean houses 

 had a limited range. Traces of their culture have not been found 

 below an elevation of 7,000 feet in the mountain valley, and it appears 

 probable that their culture was associated with an environment of 

 lakes which once existed in these valleys. It is evident in some cases 

 that the pit dwellings were displaced by houses of stone. In most 

 instances artifacts are different from those of the stone-house build- 

 ers, and the latter have more points of resemblance to, than of differ- 

 ence from, the ancient inhabitants of Blue River. It is probable that 

 the range of the pit-house people would be found to be more exten- 

 sive by excavation around the sides of stone houses in other locali- 

 ties, the remains of pit structures being easily obliterated by natural 

 filling. At this time the pit-dweller culture can be affiliated only 

 with uncertainty with that of the ancient Pueblos. At the present 

 stage of the investigation the lack of skeletal material is severely felt, 

 but further work may overcome this difficulty. 



In continuation of his preliminary examination of archeological 

 remains in western Utah, summarized in the last annual report of 

 the bureau (pp. 51-53), Mr. Neil M. Judd, of the National Museum, 

 returned to Utah in June, 1916, and excavated one of the large 

 mounds near Paragonah, in Iron County. Limited in time and 

 handicapped by unfavorable weather, the results obtained were less 

 than those anticipated ; nevertheless they show the similarity existing 



