468 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1916. 



this stratum, soil free from stones was found. This material, iden- 

 tical with the sand of the plateau, appears to have been blown into 

 the rooms or brought from the surrounding fields by wind storms. 

 The accumulation of debris due to falling walls and the addition of 

 wind-blown sand would progress very rapidly as long as the wall 

 projected above the ground, but w^ould then cease. That time might 

 be measured by centuries, certainly not by millenniums. Lower 

 still occurs a layer of ashes with fragments of charcoal, a " pay dirt " 

 in which artifacts are common. This is mixed with adobe, evi- 

 dently remnants of plastering. Deeper sometimes follows another 

 layer of sand or an seolian deposit; a sequence not uniform and not 

 the same in thickness in all rooms. Evidently some of the rooms 



Fig. 1. — Ground plan of Far View House. Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. 



had been deserted and the sand accumulated to a depth of 2 or 3 

 feet, after which they were reoccupied and foundations laid on the 

 sand, the new walls having been constructed to the height of the 

 adjoining walls on this foundation. 



GROUND PLAN OF BUILDING. 



The arrangement of rooms reduced to a ground plan is seen on 

 figure 1. The lowest story of the main building has 40 secular rooms 

 and four ceremonial chambers or circular kivas. A few of the secu- 



