462 ANNUAL EEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1916. 



Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico was inhabited in pre- 

 historic times by Indians culturally unlike those of any other region 

 of North America, and for that reason this unique territory bears 

 the name Pueblo culture area. It is, in fact, the only aboriginal cul- 

 ture area where buildings have determined the name, being dis- 

 tinguished from all others mainly by architectural characters. This 

 limitation of characteristic terraced communal houses to a geographi- 

 cal area leads us to associate climate or other conditions of that area 

 with peculiarities of buildings, as cause and effect. 



Of man when he first entered the Southwest, we laiow little save 

 that his physical features show that he was an Indian. The time 

 of his advent is in doubt. Considerable obscurity also exists re- 

 garding the direction whence Indian colonists entered this district, 

 but there is no doubt regarding the geographical locality where 

 Pueblo culture, judged from the character of buildings, originated. 

 The immigrant clans that first peopled the Southwest are supposed 

 to have come from people who built neither cliff dwellings nor 

 pueblos, consequently this style of dwelling originated exactly where 

 it is now found. 



But the Pueblo culture must not be interpreted solely by peculiari- 

 ties in buildings, for although it receives its name from architectural 

 characters, there are influential factors that it shares with those of 

 other tribes of Indians which are very important. One of the most 

 noteworthy of these is the possession of maize or Indian com as a 

 reliable food resource. Agriculture is one of the comer stones of 

 the Pueblo culture, as masonry is another. TVTien man first entered 

 the Southwest he knew little of the advantages of stone as a build- 

 ing material, for he built his hut of mud, sticks, or possibly of skins 

 of animals. The North American Indian became a good stone 

 mason as a result of a life in caves. Nowhere outside of the South- 

 west were elaborate buildings^ constructed of dressed stone by the 

 aborigines north of Mexico. Masonry and agriculture, then, are the 

 primary factors that determined the e-ssential peculiarities of Pueblo 

 culture. 



The Mesa Verde was set aside as a national park on account of its 

 prehistoric stone buildings and monuments. Wliile it presents rare 

 facilities for a study of aboriginal architecture, it shares with other 

 regions of the Southwest the condition that imperishable aboriginal 

 buildings have survived from prehistoric times. Evolution of 

 masonry in this region is a development which occurred in prehistoric 

 times, or before the advent of the white man. No European ever 

 saw an inhabited cliff dwelling on the Mesa Verde, and no article of 

 European manufacture has ever been found in the undisturbed debris 



1 stone walls and vaults were, of course, constructed elsewhere by Indians ; cf. Mr. 

 Gerard Fowke's article, Bur. Amer. Etlinol. Bull. No. 37, et al. 



