508 ANNUAL KEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 5 



tourists " discovered " the Pueblo country a decade ago, the South- 

 west became archeology conscious and began to capitalize its an- 

 tiquities. Local schools and colleges introduced courses on the 

 subject in their curricula, and small societies and roadside museums 

 sprang up all over the region. Whereas in former years most of 

 the excavations were conducted by large institutions located outside 

 the area, the regional organizations are now doing their full share. 

 During the winter and spring of 1933-34 the landscape literally 

 swarmed with " archeologists " sponsored by the Civil Works Ad- 

 ministration, and in the following summer and autumn the activity 

 continued under the Federal Emergency Kelief Administration and 

 other relief employment agencies. The results of this work are 

 still to be determined, although consensus is that, with a few excep- 

 tions, the investigations were not as scientifically satisfactory as 

 could be desired. 



Hundreds of articles and reports have been written, and today there 

 is an imposing body of literature on the subject. Many of the papers 

 are excellent, others indifferent, and some should never have attained 

 to the dignity of print. On the other hand, much work has been done 

 which was never reported. Unfortunately some of the most impor- 

 tant excavations ever carried on fall in this category. The publica- 

 tions fall roughly into three main classes: Graphic accounts of the 

 superficial features of greater and lesser antiquities ; detailed studies 

 of buildings and objects found, with considerable emphasis on the 

 function and symbolism of the latter ; and comprehensive treatises on 

 specifically planned investigations in an attempt to fit the data into 

 their proper position in the historical pattern and to show what part 

 they played in the course of cultural development in the area. The 

 style of report correlates roughly with the series of years in which the 

 work was done. The first belongs to the era of exploration, 1850 to 

 1880; the second to the interval of promiscuous digging with speci- 

 mens as the chief incentive, 1880 to 1910; and the last to the period of 

 excavations carefully planned with a view to solving recognized prob- 

 lems, 1910 to the present. This grouping may be criticized on the 

 grounds that a few of the earlier men did endeavor to see the picture 

 as a whole, while some now engaged in researches seemingly do not 

 recognize that there is more to the problem than their own little proj- 

 ects. But, taken by and large, the three-j)hase classification does 

 indicate what the trends have been. 



That all of the ruins were not contemporaneous was suggested by 

 various factors. Yet, although there was a broad classification of 

 modern and pre-Spanish ruins, little attempt was made to determine 

 sequential distinctions between sites until about 1910. Prevailing 

 opinion was that no such differences could be ascertained for the pre- 



