2 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 
SYSTEMATIC RESEARCHES 
The systematic researches of the chief at Elden Pueblo, 
begun in the last fiscal year and treated in the report for 
1925-26, were continued through July and August. All 
of the exterior walls and most of the interior rooms were 
completely excavated, the rough stone walls of the build- 
ing showing that it was rectangular in outline and in- 
cluded dwellings, storage rooms, and a single kiva. It 
extended over a space measuring 145 by 125 feet, oriented 
approximately north and south. The standing walls 
range from 2 to 7 feet in height. Elden Pueblo is the 
largest ruin yet excavated in the Flagstaff region, but 
there are many others of the same general character still 
hidden from the light and demanding attention. Although 
the masonry is crude, the pottery of Elden Pueblo is well 
made, well decorated, and often highly polished, in a few 
cases closely recalling glazed ware which was rarely manu- 
factured in prehistoric Arizona. Both the masonry and 
the ceramics of Elden Pueblo are closely allied to those 
of the little-known cliff ruins, Kietsiel and Betatakin, and 
the open-air pueblos situated near St. George, Utah. The 
pueblo shows affinities with a culture antecedent to that 
of Sikyatki and Homolobi, the former being late pre- 
historic and the latter post-Columbian. 
In the midst of graves forming a cemetery on the east 
side of Elden Pueblo were found subterranean walled de- 
pressions, which remind one of those post-Basket Maker 
rooms or megalithic pit houses which form such a wide- 
spread architectural feature, of archaic age, in the South- 
west. 
Abundant human burials were discovered in cemeteries 
situated outside the eastern and northern sides. The 
skeletons were not flexed but lay at full length, their heads 
generally turned toward the east; those buried at the 
greatest depth were surrounded by burial offerings, in 
one instance covered with adobe or hardened clay. About 
500 complete pottery vessels were brought back, half of 
which were unbroken. The collection also contains nu- 
