﻿■82 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 78 



work, however, traces of earlier structures underlying" the floors of 

 the great puehlo were frequently disclosed by the explorers. Such 

 discoveries naturally required thorough understanding and. to this 

 end. the studies planned for Pueblo Bonito in 1925 were intended 

 to be mainly chronological and stratigraphical. While these tech- 

 nical investigations — by their very nature, slow and tedious — were 

 in progress, most of the 25 Indian laborers employed by the expe- 

 dition were put to work in the neighboring ruin, Pueblo del Arroyo. 



This latter structure is severely rectangular except that its two 

 ends are connected by an eastward curving series of low, one-story 

 rooms. Since the south wing and the extramural habitations adjoin- 

 ing it had been excavated during the two previous field seasons, the 

 efforts of the 1925 party were centered on the middle portion of the 

 village. Some of the outward results of this investigation are apparent 

 in the accompanying illustrations. 



In accord with the original plan of procedure, the north wing of 

 Pueblo del Arroyo and the curved series of rooms on the east have 

 been left undisturbed. This decision was made deliberately and with 

 realization that modern archeological research, no matter how thor- 

 ough, is rarely conclusive ; that the National Geographic Society or 

 some other institution might, at some future time, wish to confirm the 

 deductions of the current expedition. 



In seeking last summer to establish a chronology for Pueblo Bonito 

 several outstanding discoveries were made. Not all of these could have 

 been anticipated. It was learned, for example, that the site occupied 

 by this largest of all prehistoric villages in Chaco Canyon National 

 Monument had been utilized long prior to construction of the great 

 pueblo itself — a pueblo whose massive architecture has won the ad- 

 miration of American antiquarians generally. Vast quantities of 

 wind-blown detritus, floor sweepings and other refuse had accumu- 

 lated during the centuries throughout which Pueblo Bonito was in- 

 habited — accumulations on which the more recent dwellings were 

 constructed. Ten feet below the foundations of these latter houses 

 were the broken remains of two primitive structures erected by pre- 

 Pueblo peoples ; that is, by Indians who had not yet learned the bene- 

 fits of such community enterprise as is represented by the complex 

 dwellings and obvious civic organization of later house-building 

 tribes. The deposits which covered these primitive structures — de- 

 posits consisting of successive layers of ash, blown sand and rubbish 

 from razed and rebuilt dwellings — gave the long-sought stratigraphic 

 evidence by means of which the inhabitants of Pueblo Bonito could 

 be separated. 



