102 CASA GRANDE, ARIZONA [BrH. ANN. 28 
SUBTERRANEAN ROOMS 
Subterranean rooms were found near the northeast corner of Com- 
pound B, apparently filling the whole of that section. The best- 
preserved of these (pls. 29; 41, 5, ¢) lies directly under the east wall, 
which passes over it at an angle. It seemed important to protect 
this room by erecting a roof over it, as shown in plates 29; 41, c. 
The position of the wall, of the floor beneath, and of the fireplace 
several feet below it and the level of the plain, indicates that these 
subterranean structures were made before the wall of the compound 
was constructed (pl. 41, ¢). 
The presence of subterranean rooms under the walls of Compound 
B proves that the people of this region lived in pit-dwellings on that 
site before they constructed the wall. This fact points to a belief 
that the pit-dwelling is the oldest form, and if so search for the kin 
of the original inhabitants of the Gila-Salt Valleys may be made 
among those dwelling in similar habitations. Taken in connection 
with the existence of cremation, this clue serves to direct attention 
to California tribes, thus adding weight to a legend that the pre- 
historic peopling of southern Arizona was by migration by way of the 
mouth of the Gila. 
Compound C 
Compound C, situated due west of B, is, on account of its moder- 
ate height, the least conspicuous of all the compounds. As there are 
no mounds within the inclosure it seems never to have had extensive 
buildings, but to have been merely a rectangular area surrounded by 
a wall, in which was clustered a large number of fragile-walled rooms 
that once served for dwellings but are now destroyed. (Fig.14.) The 
outside dimensions of the compound are not far from 300 feet long 
by 40 feet wide, and the surrounding wall in places was 4 feet in 
thickness and probably breast high. There appears to have been 
a gateway about midway in the west side, and at the northwest 
corner was once an opening of considerable size. The shape of the 
compound is not perfectly rectangular, the whole northern portion 
having been much more eroded by the elements than the southern 
end. In the southern section still remain fragments of walls, some 
of which were a part of buildings of considerable size, possibly of 
communal nature. Most of the walls of buildings in Compound C 
were supported by upright posts, the stumps of some of which still 
-remain, notwithstanding the walls themselves have fallen. In the 
southeast corner rose a small square tower, or lookout, the founda- 
tions of which are well preserved, although the portion of the walls 
above ground is entirely destroyed. 
The greater part. of Compound C was covered with rows of houses, 
the floors and fragments of the walls of which, although present in 
