KIDDER—GUERNSBY ] ARCHEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN ARIZONA 29 
much decayed remains of an infant of about one year. Near the 
head, but in exactly what position could not be determined, were some 
small cylindrical beads of asphaltite. Skeleton 5, an adult female 
in a bad state of preservation, was directly below No. 2, and therefore 
side by side with No. 3. It was flexed on the right side, with the 
head under the pelvis of No. 2. Remnarts of baskets could be seen 
over the knees and under the hips. Among the ribs and just above 
the pelvis of this body were the bones of a very young child, probably 
unborn. Skeletons 6 and 7 were young children; No. 6 with its head 
on the pelvis of No. 5; No. 7 with its head at the sternum of No. 5. 
Under the chin of No. 6 were a pendant of greenstone and one of 
abalone shell, and a quantity of olivella shells. 
Cist B was found 4 feet behind Cist A, and a little to one side of it. 
While its structure was exactly the same and it was only a little 
larger (4 feet 6 inches deep by 4 feet in diameter), it contained the 
skeletons of no fewer than 19 individuals—8 adults and 11 children, 
under 5 years of age. There is no possibility of this remarkable 
deposit having been an ossuary, or repository for bones stripped of 
their flesh, for all the skeletons lay in order (pl. 8, a). It appeared 
to us that the cist must have been filled at one time, perhaps to hold 
the dead from some particularly virulent epidemic. The bodies . 
could hardly have been packed in so tightly, and yet show so little 
disturbance, if they had been put in one by one and the cist closed 
up between times. An example of a later interment was found in 
Cist C, and in that case the evidence was quite clear (see below). 
No signs of violence, no crushed or cut skulls, no bones apparently 
broken before death, were noted; a massacre theory seems untenable. 
The bodies were all tightly flexed and packed in together in all 
kinds of positions. Great pressure seems to have been exerted in 
cramming them down. All the skeletons were badly decayed and 
so fragile that few complete crania could be recovered. Those at 
the bottom of the pit were much more pooriy preserved than those 
near the top; this was not due, we think, to greater age of these 
skeletons, but to the decomposing effect of the bodies above them. It 
was noticed in Cist A that the skeletons were most badly rotted 
where they came in contact with others; those in Cists C and D, on 
the other hand, which were not crowded and did not touch one 
another, were excellently preserved, some so well that portions of 
the hair and tendons still adhered to the bones. 
The remains in Cist B lay in fine red earth which was so loose 
that the skeletons would not hold together, but had to be re- 
moved bone by bone; this, and the fact that they were so tightly 
packed and so decayed, precluded the possibility of recording the 
exact position of each body. 
