fewkes] PREHISTORIC VILLAGES, CASTLES, AXD TOWERS 73 



evidence of acculturation 1 from sources outside the San Juan area 

 where it originated. 



One word in regard to the adjectives, prehistoric and historic, 

 applied to southwestern ruins. They are relative ones and obtained 

 from data somewhat diverse in character. Casa Grande on the 

 Gila was called a ruin when first seen by the European. It w;ts 

 inhabited in prehistoric times. From documentary evidence the 

 historian learns that certain other buildings were not inhabited at 

 the advent of the Spaniards, and if their statements are trustworthy 

 these also are prehistoric. Legends of modern Pueblos claim that 

 certain other ruins were inhabited houses of their ancestors before 

 the coming of the white man. The author sees no good reason to 

 throw this evidence out of court without investigation because some 

 of the incidents in it betray late introduction. Many other ruins 

 are classified as prehistoric from the purely negative, but not decisive, 

 evidence that no objects of European make have been found in 

 them. The ruin Sun Temple, on the Mesa Verde, is considered 

 prehistoric from the fact that a tree with over 360 annual rings of 

 growth was found growing on top of its highest wall. We are justi- 

 fied in calling this a prehistoric ruin. 



The evidences that villages, cliff-dwellings, castles and towers, 

 and other types considered in this article antedate the advent of the 

 white man are as follows: No historian has recorded an inhabited 

 building of this form in this or other regions; no objects of European 

 manufacture have been found in them, and the buildings and potterv 

 which characterize them are different from those of any inhabited 

 when the Spanish entered the Southwest. 



The complex, which is thought to be the highest form of pueblo 

 architecture, is composed of the following elements united: (1) Sev- 

 eral "pure types" 2 representing a religio-sociological complexion of 

 the inhabitants: (2) towers of various forms — round, D-shaped, and 

 rectangular; (3) the great houses; (4) unit type in cave. In Cliff 

 Palace these four types occur united in a pueblo built in a natural 

 cave; in Mud Spring Ruin two and possibly three of these types are 

 found in one open-air village, more spread out as site permits. In 

 Aztec Spring and Mitchell Spring pueblos the arrangement is more 

 defined. In the cluster at the head of South Fork of Square Tower 

 Canyon we have all the elements united in Hovenweep House and 

 Hovenweep Castle. Unit-type House shows the single-unit type 

 with tower near by; in Twin Towel's we have the great house with 

 cave pueblo and towers separated. Several other towers isolated 

 from other types also occur. 



1 These acculturation modifications due lo Hispanic influences in modern pueblos arc too well marked 

 to need more than a mention. 



2 The author uses the words "pure type" instead of "unit type" as a general term to denote "one-unit 

 types," "two-unit types," "three-unit types," etc. 



