EXCAVATIONS IN THE CHAMA VALLEY, 
NEW MEXICO 
By J. A. JEANCON 
INTRODUCTION 
In presenting this paper on the excavations carried on during the 
summer of 1919 in the Chama Valley it is the intention to deal with 
certain phases of the pre-Columbian pueblo culture of the Rio Grande 
and Jemez Plateau which it is believed have not been presented be- 
fore in full detail. This culture has been studied to a certain extent, 
but there remains a vast field of virgin territory to be opened up. 
On the two sides of the Chama River, from its mouth to Abiquiu, 
a distance of about 25 miles, there are 10 or more ruins of which 
practically nothing is known. From Abiquiu west the country is 
still a closed book, not even a scientific reconnaissance having been 
made in a territory covering 
over a hundred miles in width, 
and of greater length. Sur- 
veyors, ranchmen, and others 
who have passed through this 
region tell of the large numbers 
of ruins and minor antiquities 
which abound there. 
Ata point about 224 miles Fic. 1.—Map showing location of Po-shu-ouinge with 
above the confluence of the reference to Abiquiu, New Mexico. 
Chama River and the Rio Grande, on the south side of the Chama 
River, is located a ruin which was formerly known as the ‘‘ Turquoise 
village.” The name, when applied to this particular ruin, was not 
known to any of my Tewa informants, and I learned that the cor- 
rect name for it is ‘“‘ Po-shu-ouinge,”’ meaning ‘‘Calabash at the end 
of the ridge village.””* (Pl. 1; fig. 1.) 
As a preliminary study of the farther western country this ruin 
was selected for excavation, with the hope that it might be a guide 
1J, P. Harrington in his Ethnogeography of the Tewa Indians, 29th Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., 
translates it as ‘“‘ Squash projection height village.’’ 
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