FEWKEs] PUEBLO VIEJO KUINS 175 



Pueblo Viejo was a garden spot, and there is every reason to believe 

 that when it was inhabited by aboriginal farmers more acres of its 

 land were under cultivation than at present. 



Former Population' of the Valley 



If we judge from the number of ruins, the capacity of ancient reser- 

 voirs, and the size of irrigating ditches, the extent of the terraced 

 gardens, and other evidences of aboriginal agriculture, Pueblo Viejo 

 was formerly densely populated. To be sure, there is no proof that 

 all the ancient buildings were simultaneously inhabited, and, on the 

 other hand, there is no reason to suppose that they were not. 



The aboriginal i^oiuilation was not huddled into a few beehive 

 pueblos for protection, but was spread over the plains in small 

 rancherias, or farming hamlets, dotting the valley from one end to 

 the other. The evidences of the large ancient population are, how- 

 ever, rapidly disappearing, and in a few years will have completely 

 vanished. 



C'REJIATIOX UF THE DEAD 



There were apparently two methods of disposing of the dead prac- 

 ticed by the ancient people of the Pueblo Viejo ruins, ^^z, house- 

 burial and cremation. 



Evidences of the former method were found at Epley's ruin and at 

 Buena Vista, and the same are reported from the ruins near Thacher 

 and elsewhere. The skeletons found in house-burials at Epley's ruin 

 were mostly those of infants, and were accompanied with mortuarj' 

 food vessels and bowls, generally rude ware. It was also common to 

 find metates in the neighborhood of such interments in such positions 

 as to indicate that they were placed there by design. 



Evidences of cremation were common, consisting of calcined human 

 bones in mortuary oUas, with ashes, evidently of bones, buried on 

 certain low mounds adjoining the houses. It was apparently the 

 ancient custom to burn the dead on certain pyral mounds and then 

 to gather up the remains of the burnt bones and deposit them in small 

 rudely decorated vases. A circular disk made of pottery was luted 

 to the orifice of these vases and the whole was buried in an upright 

 position near the edge of the mound upon which the burning took 

 place. In its neighborhood there were also placed jars or other 

 mortuary objects, as in the case of intramural interments. 



This method of disposing of the dead is similar to that adopted by 

 the ancient people of the great ruins of the Gila-Salado region, add- 

 ing one more indication of a close resemblance between the ancient 

 inhabitants of the Pueblo Viejo and those lower down the Gila river. 



There survive among aboriginal people of the Gila-Salt valley two 

 distinct forms of disposal of the dead, burial and cremation. The 



