INTRODUCTION. XXXIII 
these remains many traditions were obtained from the living 
members of the tribes, several of which are published in the 
present paper, and which clearly indicate that some of the vil- 
lage ruins and cliff dwellings have been built and occupied by 
ancestors of the present Pueblo Indians at a date well within 
the historic period. Both architectural and traditional evidence 
are in accord in establishing a continuity of descent from the 
ancient Pueblos to those of the present day. Many of the 
communities are now made up of the more or less scattered 
but interrelated remnants of gentes which in former times oc- 
cupied villages on the present or neighboring sites. 
Mr. Mindeleff’s conclusions may be condensed as follows: 
The general outlines of the development of architecture, 
wherein the ancient builders were stimulated to the best use 
of the exceptional materials about them both by the difficult 
conditions of their semidesert environment and by constant 
necessity for protection against their neighbors, can be traced 
in its various stages of growth from the primitive conical lodge 
to its culmination in the large communal village of many- 
storied terraced buildings which were in use at the time of the 
Spanish discovery, and which still survive in Zuni. Yet the 
various steps have resulted from a simple and direct use of the 
material immediately at hand, while methods gradually im- 
proved as frequent experiments taught the builders to utilize 
more fully the local facilities. In all cases the material was 
derived from the nearest available source, and often variations 
in the quality of the finished work are due to variations in the 
quality of the stone near by. The results accomplished attest 
the patient and persistent industry of the ancient builders, but 
the work does not display great skill in the construction or the 
preparation of material. 
The same desert environment that furnished an abundance 
of material for the ancient builders, from its inhospitable char- 
acter and the constant variations in the water supply, also 
compelled the frequent use of this material in the change of 
house and village sites. This was an important factor in bring- 
ing about the degree of advancement attained in the art of 
building. The distinguishing characteristics of Pueblo archi- 
tecture may therefore be regarded as the product of a defensive 
8 ETH——1 
