14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 82 



the other, owing to incomplete burning. It rested near the northwest 

 corner of the room, about a foot below the surface and approximately 

 the same distance above the floor. By slowly working around it in a 

 vertical cut and wrapping the end with string as it was exposed, the 

 specimen was removed and turned over to Doctor Douglass who was 

 present to witness its removal. The initial study which the specimen 

 immediately received brought out its importance and historic value. 

 Its central ring dated A. D. 1237 ; its outer gave a cutting date at about 

 1380. The inner rings cross-dated with the last rings of Doctor 

 Douglass' relative chronology ; the outer agreed with his modern 

 ring series, extending from 1929 to A. D. 1260.^ The archeological 

 importance of this particular specimen, therefore, lay in the fact that 

 it definitely and convincingly joined the Douglass modern and pre- 

 historic ring chronologies and thus made possible the absolute dating 

 of this and other pre-Spanish ruins. 



From room 4 there were recovered 30 other specimens, mostly 

 small fragments of charred pine, of which 15 have been dated. A 

 majority of these do not give actual cutting dates, but their broken, 

 outer rings end somewhere in the early 14th century. The most 

 recent identifiable year of the pieces giving terminal dates from this 

 room is 1378 which apparently marks the beginning of a short build- 

 ing period in the north end of the pueblo. One specimen, giving a 

 true cutting date of 1279, or approximately 100 years earlier than 

 the other pieces from the room, is probably a fragment of timber sal- 

 vaged from an abandoned dwelling and re-used. Doctor Douglass has 

 found that such a custom still exists in the Hopi town Oraibi where 

 beams cut as early as the 14th and 15th centuries are in use in present- 

 day dwellings and kivas. 



From room 2 of test 11 (pi. i, fig. 2), a total of 243 pieces of 

 charcoal were obtained. Of these, no have been matched into the 

 established calendar ; 44 pieces registering cutting dates and 66 near 

 cuttings.^ Among the pieces are two beam sections shown in situ in 

 plate 2, figures i and 2, both giving 1378 as the cutting date. The 

 inverted bowl over the charred timber in plate 2, figure i, was on the 

 roof of the dwelling when the fire took place. Thirty-one fragments, 

 some possibly parts of the logs pictured, also gave 1378 as the true 

 outside. Eight other pieces dated 1382, and the years 1356, 1369, 1375, 

 and 1381 are represented by one specimen each. 



^ Douglass, A. E., December, 1929, Nat. Geogr. Mag., pp. 766-767. 

 * On specimens giving near cutting dates the immediate outside has either 

 been worn or broken away. 



