10 BUREAU OF AMKUICAN ETHNOLOGY 



bureau on the Smithsonian advisory committee on printing 

 and pubUcation and the Smithsonian Institution on the 

 United States Geographic Board. 



Dr. J. Walter Fcwkes, ethnologist, at the beginning of the 

 fiscal year brought to a close his archcological researches in 

 the valley of the lower Kio Mimbres, N. Mex., reference to 

 which was made in the last annual report. These studies of 

 the many village sites of the prehistoric people of the section 

 named lead to the belief that the ancient hal)itations were 

 not terraced community houses, such as characterize typical 

 pueblos, but were of an older form, hence Dr. Fewkes 

 assigns them to a period and a people which he designates 

 pre-Puebloan. This conclusion is based not only on the 

 character of the house structures as indicated by their 

 ground plans, but also on the character and decoration of 

 the pottery vessels found under the floors. The most note- 

 worthy feature of this earthenware is the remarkable painted 

 decoration on the inside of the bowls, consisting of repre- 

 sentations of men engaged in various pursuits, animals, and 

 geometric designs of exceptional forms, suggesting the cul- 

 ture of the Keres Indians of New Mexico rather than that 

 of other Pueblos. A distinctive feature of some of the 

 animal pictures on the Mimbres pottery is the fusion of 

 two different animal forms, as the antelope and a fish, in a 

 single representation. Dr. Fewkes suggests that the almost 

 constant presence of rectangular and other geometric designs 

 on the iDodies of the animals depicted on the pottery may be 

 considered in a sense parallel wuth certain very ancient 

 paintings on the walls of caves in France, as described by 

 Dr. Capitan and others. The special value of the study of 

 the painted designs on the Mimbres pottery lies in the light 

 which they cast on general problems connected with the 

 culture-genesis and clan migrations of the sedentary Indians 

 of the Southwest. .These designs are related, on the one 

 hand, to those on Pueblo painted pottery of northern New 

 Mexico and Arizona and, on Lhe other, to the decorations 

 on the earthenware of the prehistoric inhabitants of the 

 valleys of the southern part of the Sierra Madre Plateau, 

 notably those of the celebrated Casas Grandes in Chihuahua. 



