210 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 65 
vessels. The position of these finds makes it practically certain to 
our minds that they could have been deposited in their observed posi- 
tions only after the Basket Maker cists had been abandoned. We 
assume, therefore, as a working hypothesis that the Basket Maker 
culture antedates that of the Cliff-houses in the region studied. 
RELATION OF THE Two CULTURES 
When we come to the question of the relation of the two cultures 
we are on even less firm ground. Was the Basket Maker culture the 
product of a people inhabiting the region before the coming of the 
Cliff-dwellers, and later on displaced by them; or was the Basket 
Maker the prototype of the Cliff-dweller, and did a gradual growth 
take place in the region from the Basket Maker through the Slab- 
house to the Cliff-dweller? Certain lines of evidence seem to favor 
this latter hypothesis. From the Basket Maker cist to the Slab- 
house semisubterranean room seems a logical development, the latter 
being little more than a slab cist with an adobe top to carry the walls 
a little higher than could be done with stone slabs of reasonable size. 
The masonry cliff-house or pueblo room, with its square corners, would 
be but another step in advance, the kiva perhaps being a ceremonial 
reminiscence of the earlier subterranean type of dwelling. In san- 
dals, too, a possible development may be suggested: from the square- 
toed Basket Maker type, with its more than necessarily elaborate 
weave, through the scallop-toe style (tentatively identified as Slab- 
house) with somewhat simpler weave but still unpractical toe, to the 
naturally shaped pointed toe and further simplified weave of the 
Cliff-dweller sandal. 
_ Whether the Basket Maker culture is parent to that of the cliff- 
dwellings and pueblos of the region; whether it died out entirely; 
or whether it still persists among such seminomadic people as the 
Ute and Paiute cannot be definitely stated. We know much too little 
about the comparative technology of the Southwest. 
As to the origin of the Basket Maker culture itself, we are again 
in doubt. The fact that corn was grown points, of course, to the 
South; for corn is without question southern in origin.t The fact 
that the people had corn without pottery, or at least with little pot- 
tery, indicates that it had not reacted very strongly on their method 
of life and therefore that they probably had not had it long. The 
atlat] may or may not be considered as showing Mexican influence. 
The basketry bears a strong resemblance to that of California, but 
the similarities are perhaps superficial rather than real; contact with 
California, however, is proved by the presence in the Basket Maker 
caves of Pacific coast shells such as the abalone. 
Corn (and perhaps the atlatl) from the South, and shells from 
California, do not, of course, prove anything more than trade re- 
1 Harshberger, 1893, 
