A PREHISTORIC MESA VERDE PUEBLO AND ITS 



PEOPLE. 



By J. Walter Fewkes. 



[With 15 plates.] 

 INTRODUCTION. 



The Mesa Verde, or Green Plateau, is situated in the southwestern 

 corner of Colorado and was set apart by Congress from the Ute 

 Reservation for protection of its prehistoric remains. Its form is 

 oval, measuring about 42,000 acres, with an average elevation of over 

 7,000 feet above sea level, rising abruptly on the north side to 8,700 

 feet, over 1,500 feet above the plain. Its surface is cleft by deep, 

 almost parallel canyons opening into the Mancos Valley on the south, 

 between which are spurs of the mesa sloping gradually southward. 

 In the canyons (pi. 2) are located the most remarkable cliff dwellings 

 of the Southwest. The top of the plateau is dotted with mounds 

 of earth and stone. The present article deals with one of these 

 mounds, which was excavated and the exposed ruins repaired by the 

 Smithsonian Institution, during the months of July, August, and 

 September, 1916, at the request of the Secretary of the Interior, fol- 

 lowing a recommendation of the writer in his report to the latter on 

 field work at Sun Temple in the summer of 1915. 



Clusters of mounds composed of artificially worked stones and 

 earth situated on the surface of the mesa have long been known, and 

 from indications these piles of stones were believed to mark the 

 sites of buildings. None of these mounds, however, had been opened, 

 or their contents investigated. The plan of operations was to de- 

 termine, by excavations, the character of the buildings concealed in 

 them, and to interpret their cultural relations and significance. A 

 cluster of mounds known as the Mummy Lake group was chosen as 

 promising and advantageously situated for this purpose. The exca- 

 vation of one mound of this cluster revealed a large building of a 

 type new to the plateau. 



The importance of the results of the work and their bearing on 

 southwestern archeology may be better appreciated after reading 

 what immediately follows. A portion of the area now known as 



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