﻿NO. 5 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I922 lOI 



dently belonging to other cardinal ])oints — l)nt no other shrines were 

 discovered. 



The heads of two stone idols, homeless or withont a shrine, were 

 picked up outside the walls of Pipe Shrine House, on rock piles 

 between the retaining" wall and the south side of the ruin. One of 

 these (fig. 99) is thought to represent the head of a mountain sheep, 

 another a serpent, and a third (fig. 98) a bird. The instructive thing 

 about these idols, next to their crude technique, is the fact that stone 

 images rarely occur on the Mesa Verde, few similar stone idols or 

 images having previously been reported from ruins on this plateau. 

 Their crude form reminds one of pueblo idols. 



Fig. 99. — Stone idol of a mountain 

 sheep. Pipe Shrine House. Size : 

 3x5x6 in. 



An aboriginal cemetery, ransacked of its mortuary contents years 

 ago by vandals, was found near the southeast corner of Pipe Shrine 

 House. The human skeletons found in this cemetery show the dead 

 were buried as a rule in an extended position. In cave burials the 

 bodies were fiexed or in a seated posture. The accompanying 

 pottery contained food and drink for the deceased. On the western 

 fringe of this graveyard Dr. Fewkes discovered about a dozen human 

 skeletons that had escaped desecration, one or two of which were 

 buried only a few inches below the surface ; the deepest grave was 

 shallow, not more than three feet deep. All the skeletons that were 

 found were well preserved, considering their antiquity, and had been 

 buried in an extended position on a hard clay bed. They lay on their 

 backs at full length with legs crossed and heads oriented to the east. 



