38 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 68 



groups, which are culturally distinct and widely distributed geograph 

 ically. The western group originated in the Gila Valley, and extend 

 ing across Arizona spread northward making its influence felt as 

 far as the Hopi villages ; the eastern culture was born in Colorado and 

 Utah and extended to the south along a parallel zone. The former 

 sprang into being in low, level, cactus plains ; while the latter was born 

 in lofty mountains and deep canyons filled with caves. Each reflects 

 in its architecture the characteristic environment of the locality of its 

 origin. As they spread from their homes and at last came together 

 each modified the other by acculturation. The expansion of these two 

 nuclei of culture, and the products of their contact is the prehistoric, 

 unwritten, evolution of primitive people in the Southwest upon which 

 documentary accounts throw no light, and the function of archeology 

 is to read this history through the remains left by this prehistoric 

 people, as interpreted by surviving folklore, ceremonials, legends, 

 and artifacts. Both types of culture reached their highest develop 

 ment before the arrival of the white man ; and the advent of the 

 European found both on the decline. The localities where both 

 types originated and reached their highest development were either 

 no longer inhabited or occupied by descendants with modified archi 

 tectural ideas. Some of the survivors lived in houses of much ruder 

 construction than the cliff dwellings or pueblos of their ancestors. 

 The habitations of others were scattered rude, mud huts. In short the 

 cliff dwellers of the Mesa Verde and the prehistoric inhabitants of 

 the Gila compounds left survivors possessed of inferior skill. Both 

 architecture and ceramic art had declined before the advent of white 

 men. 



