HEWETTJ ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEMEZ PLATEAU 13 



present site. Their traditions indicate a residence at this site of as 

 great a duration as at their present location. Archeological evidences 

 would reduce this period somewhat. It would thus appear that the 

 San Ildefonso have lived in the valley for from six to eight centuries. 

 The next earlier site of at least one or two clans of tliis tribe was on 

 the plateau, at the great pueblo and cliff- village of Otowi, where there 

 is every evidence, fully sustained by the traditions of the people, of 

 long-continued residence. The liistory of this village is almost a repe- 

 tition of that of each one of the Tewa villages. It appears that the 

 abandonment of the cliff and pueblo villages of the plateau occurred 

 from six hundred to eight hundred years ago as a result of climatic 

 modifications by reason of which the hardships of living at these sites 

 became unendurable. The transition from plateau to valley life was 

 not necessarily sudden. There is no evidence of any great simultane- 

 ous movement from all parts of the plateau. The change was proba- 

 bly accomplished witliin a generation or two, one village after another 

 removing to the valley or to more distant places, as the desiccation 

 of the plateau proceeded. There is at present not a single stream on 

 the east side of the Jemez plateau between the Chama and the Jemez 

 that carries its water to the Rio Grande throughout the year. The 

 ancient Tewa people were, as are their modern successors, agricul- 

 turists; hence, their living was dependent on the water supply. Only 

 the most primitive style of irrigation was practised and there is every 

 evidence that the region was never rich in game or natural food prod- 

 ucts of any kind. 



It must be remembered that the foregoing statements refer to the 

 period of continuous residence on the plateau. There have been from 

 time to time in comparatively recent years sporadic reoccupations of 

 these ancient villages by clans from the valley, as that of Puye by the 

 Santa Clara Indians, and of Kotyiti, or Pueblo Viejo, above the Canada 

 de Cochiti, by the Keres after the Pueblo rebellion of 1680. These 

 reoccupations were attended with considerable rebuilding and repair- 

 ing of ancient structures; thus may be accounted for the improved 

 irrigation system at Puye, which is a work of the last occupation and 

 far in advance of anything that was known to the ancient inhabitants 

 of any part of the plateau. 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE RUINS 



The ruins of the entire area considered in this bulletin are distributed 

 in three geographical groups : 



I. Ruins of the Pajarito plateau. 



II. Ruins of the Chama drainage. 



III. Ruins of the Jemez valley. 



