PEWKE.s] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VEEDE NATIONAL PARK 89 



among all the ruins along the Gila and Salt rivers in southern 

 Arizoila. The custom was also practiced in the San Pedro and Salt 

 River valleys, and along other tributaries of the Gila river. Casta- 

 iieda (1540) says that the inhabitants of Cibola, identified with Zuiii, 

 burned their dead, but no indication of this practice is now found 

 among existing Pueblos, The ancient Pueblo inhabitants of the 

 Little Colorado, so far as known, did not burn their dead, and no 

 record has been made of the practice among their descendants, the 

 Hopi and Zuiii. 



In his excellent work on the ruins of the Mesa Verde, Baron 

 Nordenskiold speaks of calcined human bones being found in a stone 

 cist at Step House, and Mr. Wetherill is referred to as having ob- 

 served evidence of cremation elsewhere among the Mesa Verde cliif- 

 dwellings. There can be no doubt from the observations made in 

 the refuse heaps at Cliil Palace that the inhabitants of this village 

 not only burned their dead but there was a special room in the 

 depths of the cave which was set aside for that purpose." One 

 of these rooms, situated at the northern end of the refuse heap, was 

 excavated in the progress of the work and found to contain bushels 

 of very fine phosphate ashes, mixed with fragments of bones, some 

 of which are well enough preserved to enable their identification as 

 human. Accompanying these calcined bones were various mortuary 

 objects not unlike those occurring in graves where the dead were not 

 cremated. The existence of great quantities of ashes, largely con- 

 taining phosphates, apparently derived from the burned bones, form- 

 ing nnicli of the refuse, and the densely smoke-blackened roof of the 

 cave above them, are interpreted to indicate that the dead were cre- 

 mated in the cave back of the houses. 



In addition to these burning places, or crematories, in the rear of the 

 buildings of Clilf Palace, there is good evidence of the same j^ractice 

 on the mesa top. Here and there, especially in the neighborhood of 

 the clearings where the cliff-dwellers formerly had their farms, are 

 round stone inclosures, oftentimes several feet deep, in which occur 

 great quantities of bone ashes, fragments of pottery, and some stone 

 objects. The surface of the stones composing these inclosures shows 

 the marks of intense fire, which, taken in connection with the existence 

 of fragments of human bones more or less burned, indicate that the 

 dead were cremated in these inclosures. It is not clear, however, 

 that the dead were not interred before cremation, and there is reason 

 for believing that the bodies were dried before they were committed 

 to the flames. The mortuary offerings, especially pottery, seem to 



<■ While only one place where bodies were burned was found in Cliff Palace, several 

 such places were found on top of the mesa. Evidences of similar iuelosures occur at 

 Spruce-tree House and at Step House. 



