I50 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



resulted. One of the examples was composed of two and the other 

 had three connecting chambers. Each room was complete in itself, 

 to the minutest detail, but because of the lack of a separating wall be- 

 came an integral part of the larger structure (fig. 143). Every indi- 

 cation was that the associated dwellings in each cluster were con- 

 temporaneous and had been simultaneously occupied. It is possible 

 that the two groups represent one of the prototypes for the communal 

 buildings which in later times were erected above ground. If such 

 were the case there is in this district evidence of an interesting varia- 

 tion in the evolution of the house. In the more northern parts of the 

 area the single family domiciles had practically emerged from the 

 ground before the development of the multiple-roomed structures 

 began. 



The sequence of house types was demonstrated by evidence secured 

 from the trash mounds. The deposits had not been disturbed. Hence 

 it was possible to make stratigraphic studies of the changes in pottery 

 and types of implements. Inasmuch as the oldest material lies at the 

 bottom and the most recent at the top it is not difficult to determine 

 the relative ages of various parts of the site. Potsherds from the 

 crudest pit houses are like those at the bottom of the refuse mounds, 

 those from the better semisubterranean structures compare with frag- 

 ments from higher levels, and material from the surface houses cor- 

 responds to that in the topmost layers. The dump heaps also yielded 

 42 burials with accompanying mortuary offerings (fig. 144). The 

 latter constitute pottery (fig. 145), bone and stone implements, and 

 other objects of the people's handicraft. All stages are represented in 

 this collection. 



At the start of the next field season attention will be turned to the 

 large surface structures. One of them is superimposed upon the re- 

 mains of a pit house group and its refuse mound. Its excavation 

 should throw much light on certain archeological problems as yet un- 

 solved. The ruins are easily accessible from one of the main trans- 

 continental highways and already are proving of interest to travelers. 



