406 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 52 



called a compound inclosed by a massive wall over breast high for 

 protection. 1 



In some instances nothing remains of the larger buildings, in 

 others there is no indication of those with more fragile walls, but in 

 both cases the surrounding wall is present and constructed of clay 

 or stone, whichever material was most convenient for the builder. 

 The two kinds of rooms would seem to indicate a dual use, 2 or that 

 the rooms with massive walls were constructed for a purpose dif- 

 ferent from those with fragile walls supported by logs. The former 

 may be supposed to have been used for ceremonials, councils, protec- 

 tion from foes, or for granaries, while the latter served simply as 

 habitations. 



If the number of walled compounds in the Gila Valley is any 

 indication of its former population, it is apparent, from their number, 

 that many people inhabited this part of southern Arizona in prehis- 

 toric times. As bearing on this point, attention may also be called 

 to the fact that the ancient aboriginal population was more or less 

 scattered and not confined to these great compounds, or even to their 

 immediate vicinity, for there is abundant reason to suppose that they 

 had many dwellings on farms situated between them and dotting 

 what is now a desert. The prehistoric population of the Gila Valley 

 may have risen into the thousands, and it is not too much to say that 

 the number of Indians in the valley at the advent of the Spaniards 

 could not have been more than a tithe of what it was in prehistoric 

 times. 



For convenience in the presentation of the subject, the prehistoric 

 compounds of the Gila Valley have been grouped geographically as 

 follows: i, Compounds on the Gila; 2, Compounds in the Santa Cruz 

 Valley ; 3, Compounds in the Salt River Valley. 



The first of the above groups includes those mounds of Great 

 Houses scattered all the way from the upper Gila, 3 or the vallev 



1 Refuse heaps and other artificial mounds without walls are almost always 

 found just outside the surrounding walls of the compounds. 



~ dishing, who apparently found the same "thin-walled" buildings, ascribed 

 them to an "ultra urban" population, and Bandelier (Final Report) suggests 

 that they were late Pima constructions. There seems no good reason to doubt 

 that they were dwellings as old as the massive-walled structures and con- 

 structed by the same race. 



3 Mr. F. H. Gushing writes, "Preliminary Notes," p. 184 : "Contemplating the 

 numerous structures in no fewer than thirteen cities, scattered throughout a 

 single valley not exceeding seven hundred and fifty square miles, * * * we 

 are impressed not only by the prodigious industrial energy of their builders 

 and makers, but also by the unavoidable conclusion that they harbored popula- 

 tions far denser and more numerous than heretofore had been deemed ( by- 

 scientists at large) possible, in reference to any group of ancient North 

 American remains." 



