FEWEKES] CASA GRANDE MOUNDS 111 
REFUSE-HEAPS 
The large structures, especially compounds A, B, and C, are sur- 
rounded by refuse-heaps, the surfaces of which are strewn in some cases 
sparingly, in others plentifully, with fragments of pottery and with 
ashes and other evidences of human occupancy. No remains of 
house walls were found in these mounds and their structure shows 
_ that they may be regarded as dumping places for the habitations in 
the vicinity. Some of these heaps were thrown up from neighboring 
depressions, or reservoirs, and their stratification indicates that layers 
of earth were deposited on them at different times. A vertical 
section exhibits beds of ashes and other refuse alternating with sand 
and soil, showing how the mounds increased in size.1 
Distinct from these are the small mounds or elevations, rising a 
foot or two above the plain, that likewise mark man’s presence. 
These mounds indicate the former existence of dwellings in the open, 
and it is reasonable to suppose that outside the compounds, espe- 
cially along the irrigation ditches, there were isolated dwellings some- 
what resembling the modern Pima houses. While these may have 
been shelters used by farmers only while planting or watching their 
crops, they show that the country around the compounds had its 
quota of inhabitants. Within and near the compounds these houses 
may have been very numerous, so closely arranged as to give the 
appearance of a village, in the middle of which rose the great com- 
munal structure that served as a place of refuge in great emergencies 
or for ceremonies when desired. 
A mound situated a short distance east of Compound B was exca- 
vated to the depth of 9 feet. Trenches were dug across it at right 
angles, bisecting the mound east and west, north and south. This 
mound was found to contain fragments of pottery, sticks, charcoal, 
and other refuse; also the remains of several skeletons, extended at 
leneth, the skulls of one or two being in fairly good condition. It 
thus appears that the inhabitants of Casa Grande buried some of 
their dead in mounds and others in the floors of houses and plazas. 
As will presently appear, they also cremated the dead here as else- 
where in the Gila and Salt River Valleys. 
RESERVOIRS 
Tt has been already mentioned that, scattered over the area occu- 
pied by the Casa Grande Group of ruins, there are several depressions 
into which drains from the compounds have been run. The largest 
and deepest of these is found northeast of Compound B. These 
depressions, which have no masonry walls, appear to be the places 
1 One of the largest of these refuse-heaps lies between Compound A and Clan-house 1, nearer the former. 
This mound, which extends about parallel with the east wall of Compound A, contains many fragments of 
pottery. 
