PART II. THE SERIES OF OIBOLA. 

 



35. THE SERIES OF CIBOLA. ORIGIN, CONDITION, ETC. 



The skeletons disinterred iu the neighborhood of Zuiii are said to number about 200. Thirty- 

 five of these, complete and incomplete, have been received at the Army Medical Museum. The 

 others are stored in a house at Zufii. These 3> were not selected for any scientific reason, but 

 were packed and shipped because nearest at hand when the expedition was about to break up at 

 Zuui. They are mostly hard and iu good condition, and present a striking contrast in this respect 

 to the bones from the Salado Valley. They came mostly from the ruins of Heshota-uthla, which 

 is about 13 miles in an easterly direction from Zuni and further up the valley of the Zufii liiver. 



Heshota-uthla was not one of the seven cities of Cibola. There is no doubt among those who 

 have thoroughly investigated the matter that it was a shapeless ruin in 1540, when Coronado's 

 army passed near its site. According to Zufii tradition it was occupied in a remote antiquity by a 

 people of their own race. Of this there is no evidence save tradition; yet for the present we place 

 the remains of Heshota uthla along with the other remains from the same neighborhood in the 

 series of Cibola. Archaeological investigation shows that the people of Heshota-uthla had the 

 same customs, arts, and general civilization as those of Cibola. 



The ruin of Heshota-uthla, which was when inhabited a large, compact, many-storied pueblo, 

 capable of sheltering a thousand or more people, lies close to the main wagon road from Zufii to 

 Wingate. Before excavations were begun it seemed to the untrained eye a natural heap of talus; 

 the careful investigation of the scientific observer only revealed the fact that it was the ruin of a 

 great edifice reared by human hands. Between the years 1880 and 1884 the writer frequently 

 inspected this ruin alone and in company with Mr. Gushing and others, and it was then the general 

 opinion that the heap of stones iu sight represented the entire walls of the building from top to 

 base. The recent excavations have shown that the loose stones were the debris of the upper 

 stories only, the third and fourth perhaps, and that the first and second stories were buried from 

 sight. The floors of the buildings were found at depths of 10 and 12 feet under the general surface 

 of the ground to such a depth had the surrounding soil accumulated by the washing of earth 

 down from the neighboring hills and other natural causes since this pueblo was inhabited. 



The skeletons in Heshota-uthla and in Hawicu, as in the ruins of the Salado Valley, were 

 found buried under the floors of the houses, but not with such care as in the latter place; no mud- 

 walled graves were found, only ordinary holes in the earth, and the bodies were laid in all direc- 

 tions with relation to the points of the compass. 



We have not given the same attention to the Gibolan collection as we have to the Saladoan. 

 We have had less time to devote to it, and besides we have not thought it proper to give the 

 Cibolan remains the fullest consideration until we should come into possession of the whole 

 collection, which we hope to do at no distant day. We have taken some of the more important 

 measurements and made sufficient study to enable us to draw a comparison between the skeletons 

 of the Salado and those of the Zufii Valley. 



Some of the 35 skeletons come from Hawicu, the Abacus of Coronado. This was about on the 

 site of the present inhabited pueblo of Zuiii. The bones were exhumed near the main pueblo on 

 the opposite bank of that narrow and inconstant streamlet known as the Zufii River, and in the 

 immediate vicinity of houses now occupied by certain extramural or outcast Zuiiians. 



$ 36. CEPHALIC INDEX. CIBOLA. 



The antero-posterior shortening, which is such a marked feature of the Saladoan skulls ( 6), 

 is no less a marked feature of the skulls of Cibola. The tables (LXXXIII, LXXXIV) indicate even 

 a greater shortening in the latter series. The shortest skull is broader than it is long, having 

 an indexof 100.69, a greater exaggeration of this shortening than is found among the Saladoaus, 



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