﻿I02 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 74 



generally accompanied by mortuary vessels of burnt clay and other 

 objects. Several whole pieces of typical Mesa Verde pottery were 

 taken out of the soil of this and another cemetery southeast of Far 

 View House. These vessels once contained food and water, the 

 spirit of which was thought to be suitable food for the spirit of 

 the defunct. One of these skeletons (fig. lOo) was as fresh as if 

 buried a few years ago and the bones were so well preserved that they 

 were left in situ. Every bone of one skeleton remains where it was 

 found and was not raised from the position in which it was interred 

 over 500 years ago. Walls of a stone vault (fig. lOo) were con- 

 structed around the skeleton, reaching to the surface of the ground, 

 and to a wooden frame firmly set in cement was nailed a wire netting, 

 above which one of the workmen constructed a waterproof wooden 

 roof hung on hinges. By raising this roof the visitor may now behold 

 the skeletal remains of a man about 45 years old, 5 feet 6 inches tall, 

 as he was laid out in his grave centuries ago. Visitors called him a 

 mummy ; his flesh had not dried as is sometimes the case with the 

 cliff-dwellers, but turned into a brownish dust. So far as known this 

 is the first time care has been taken to preserve a skeleton of a 

 Pueblo in its aboriginal burial place so that it may be seen by visitors. 

 It shows the environment of the defunct and satisfactorily answers 

 the question whether the cliff-dwellers were pygmies. 



In a refuse heap a short distance east of the sun shrine of Pipe 

 Shrine House were found a hundred worn-out grinding stones and 

 metates with many stones once used for pecking, all evidently thrown 

 in a heap when they were no longer needed. 



The grading of the area about Pipe Shrine House was a work of 

 considerable magnitude, as the surface was very irregular and over- 

 grown with vegetation. The soil, earth and stones fallen from the 

 rooms had raised mounds of considerable magnitude around the ruin. 



Pipe Shrine House appears to have served as a ceremonial building 

 rather than a habitation — a kind of temple, originally constructed for 

 the accommodation of the inhabitants of the neighboring Far View 

 House. The tower was probably devoted to the worship of Father 

 Sun and other celestials ; the kiva to that of Mother Earth and terres- 

 trial supernaturals. 



In the thick cedars south of Far View House there were two 

 mounds, one of which (fig. lOi) was completely excavated by Dr. 

 Fewkes, who found in it a fine central kiva surrounded by low walls 

 of rooms, the whole probably being the house of one clan, for which 

 the name. One Clan House, seems appropriate. It was probal^ly the 



