﻿NO. I 



SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I925 



85 



Two members of Mr. Judd's scientific stafif devoted their un- 

 divided attention last summer to examination of the pottery frag- 

 ments collected from the individual rooms explored during the previ- 

 ous four seasons. These sherds were separable into various types, 

 based on the stratigraphic evidence above mentioned. As an indi- 

 cation of the vast number of vessels fashioned by prehistoric potters, 

 final tabulation of the fragments from Pueblo Bonito alone, after 

 eliminating all possible du]^Hcates, shows over two hundred thousand 



-iS- ^ ^ 



Fig. 85. — Not the least puzzling of the many riddles connected with the 

 foundations ahove pictured was the purpose served by this ijroui) of seven 

 huge, ash-filled ovens. (Photograph by O. C. Havens. C(>urtesy of tlie 

 National Geographic Society.) 



individual pieces. These represent successive periods nf occupancy 

 as well as variations in design and technique for each such period. 

 In assembling the information conveyed by these fragments of 

 broken pottery more than two million sherds were handled at least 

 twice. Lesser ceramic collections from Pueblo del Arroyo were 

 studied with equal devotion to detail. 



By a series of four great trenches the site occupied by Pueblo 

 Bonito, together with its immediate surroundings, was laid bare. 

 Each trench provided a cross section by means of which the Ex- 

 pedition stafif was enabled to visualize the sticcessive changes which 

 7 



