8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 63 



very generally throughout the prehistoric Southwest, and supposed to 

 antedate the communal dwellings or pueblos of northern New 

 Mexico. 



The two aboriginal sites in the Mimbres Valley that have yielded 

 the majority of the specimens here figured and described are the Old- 

 town ruin and the Osborn ruin, a small village site twelve miles south 

 of Deming and four miles west of the Florida Mountains. There are 

 some differences in general appearance and variations in the minor 

 archeological objects from these two localities, but it is supposed that 

 specimens from both indicate a closely related, if not identical, cul 

 ture area. 



About a year ago Mr. E. D. Osborn, of Deming, who had com 

 menced excavation in these ruins, 1 obtained from them a considerable 

 collection of pottery and other objects. His letters on the subject and 

 his photographs of the pottery, sent to the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology, first led the author to visit southern New Mexico to inves 

 tigate the archeology of the Mimbres. 



A few extracts from Mr. Osborn s letters regarding this site form 

 a fitting introduction to a description of the sites and the objects from 

 them : 



At the present time [December 8, 1913] the nearest permanent water to this 

 place [site of the cemetery] is either the Palomas Lake in Mexico, twenty-five 

 miles south, or thirty miles north, where the Mimbres River sinks into the 



earth This supposed Pueblo site is situated upon a low sandy ridge 



which at this point makes a right-angle bend, one part running south and the 

 other west from the angle. The top and sides of the ridge, also the &quot; flat &quot; 

 enclosed between the areas of the ridge, to the extent of about an acre, is lit 

 tered all over with fragments, charcoal and debris containing bones to the 

 depth of from one to three feet. There are also a great many broken metates 



and grinding stones In digging on top of this ridge, near the angle, we 



occasionally found what appeared to have been adobe wall foundations, but 

 not sufficiently large to determine the size or shape of any building. In digging 

 on the ridge a few stone implements were found, including one fine stone axe, 

 stone paint pots and mortars, and a few arrowheads, also two bone awls and a 

 few shell beads and bracelets, the last all broken. The only article of wood 

 was the stump of a large cedar post full of knots, badly decayed ; it had been 

 burned off two or three inches below the surface of the ground. The cemetery 

 was found on the inner slope of the angle facing the southwest In a 



1 Specimens were also found by Mr. Osborn at the Byron Ranch ruin, at the 

 Black Mountain site, and elsewhere. 



2 This is the ruin called Osborn ruin in subsequent descriptions. 



