156 CASA GRANDE, ARIZONA [BrH. ANN. 28 
In the light of the various objects found at Casa Grande, already 
described, the inhabitants of the prehistoric settlement may be con- 
sidered as people of the Stone Age, notwithstanding their acquaint- 
ance with copper. There is no evidence that they were familiar 
with any other metals, as iron, bronze, silver, or gold. But even 
in this stage they must have developed a comparatively high social 
organization. Every student of the ‘‘great houses” of the Gila- 
Salado Basin must marvel at their relatively enormous size and the 
evidences of cooperation and intelligent direction of labor that they 
show. The erection of such structures requires many workmen and 
an able director, a sociologic condition not found elsewhere in North 
America outside of Mexico. In another place the writer ascribes 
the origin of this cooperation to the necessity of union of labor in 
the construction of the irrigation ditches essential for successful agri- 
culture in this region, one of many examples that might be cited of 
the influence of climate on culture history in the Southwest. 
These buildings were constructed on a characteristic plan, which was 
adhered to everywhere in the Gila Valley. As already stated, the 
builders evolved two distinct types of architecture: ‘“‘Great houses” 
with thick walls, apparently constructed by many persons, features 
which point to these structures as devoted to public purposes; (2) 
one-room habitations with wattle walls, provided with a central fire- 
place in the floor, and with a doorway in the middle of one of the 
long sides.* 
The presence of stone idols indicates a well-developed idolatry 
and ceremonial system. While the inhabitants possessed effective 
weapons in the form of spears, and bows and arrows, they were 
essentially agricultural, cultivating fields of corn and possibly beans, 
squashes, and the like. They also gathered mesquite beans. 
They wove fibers into belts or into cloth which was colored with 
bright pigments. They raised cotton and utilized the fibers of agave 
and other plants in weaving. They made basketry and pottery, 
which they decorated with symbols, but did not glaze. As potters 
they were inferior to their neighbors at Casas Grandes, in Chihuahua,” 
and to-the aboriginal artists of Sikyatki and Awatobi in the Hopi 
country. In disposing of their dead they practised both cremation 
and inhumation. 
A conclusion arrived at in the writer’s studies of the habitations, 
sometimes called pueblos, of sedentary peoples in the Southwest, is 
1 Tt is probable that the doorway served also as a smoke vent, as in modern Pima houses, which are not 
provided with an opening in the roof. 
2 The pottery from this Mexican State shares with that from Sikyatki and other ancient Hopiruins, the 
reputation of being the best painted ware of prehistoric North America, exclusive of southern Mexico and 
Central America. The relation of the polychrome ware from these two regions is close so far as colors are 
concerned, but diverse as regards symbols. 
