PLANS AND DESCRIPTIONS. 



STONE VILLAGES. 



Ruins of villages built of stone, either roughly dressed or merely 

 selected, represent the highest degree of art in architecture attained 

 by the aborigines of Verde valley, and the best example of this class 

 of ruin is found on the eastern .side of the river, about a mile above 

 the mouth of Limestone creek. The site was selected without refer- 

 ence to defense, and is overlooked by the hills which circumscribe 

 a large semicircular area of bottom land, on the northei'u end of which 

 the village was located. This is the largest ruin on the Verde; it cov- 

 ers an area of about 450 feet square, or over 5 acres, and has some 225 

 rooms on the ground plan. From the amount of debris we may infer 

 that most of the rooms were but one story in height ; and a reasonable 

 estimate of the total number of rooms in the village when it was occu- 

 pied would make the number not greater than 300 rooms. The ratio 

 of rooms to inhabitants in the present pueblos would give a population 

 for this village of about 450 per.sons. Zuni, the largest inhabited 

 pueblo, covering an area of about 5 acres, has a population of 1,600. 



It will thus be seen that, while the area covered by this village was 

 quite large, the population was comparatively small; in other words, 

 the dense clustering and so-called beehive structure which character- 

 ize Zuiii and Taos, and are seen to a less extent in Oraibi, and which 

 result from long-continued pressure of hostile tribes upon a village 

 occupying a site not in itself easily defensible, has not been carried to 

 such an extent here as in the examples cited. But it is also appar- 

 ent that this village represents the beginning of the process which in 

 time produces a village like Zuiii or Taos. 



Plate XII exhibits thegroundplanof the village. It will be observed 

 that this plan is remarkably similar in general characters to the ground 

 plan of Zuni.' A close inspection will reveal the presence of many 

 discrepancies in the plan, which suggest that the village received at 

 various times additions to its population in considerable numbers, and 

 was not the result of the gradual growth of one settlement nor the 

 home of a large group coming en masse to this locality. It has been 

 shown^ that in the old provinces of Tusayan and Cibola (Moki and 

 Zuiii) the present villages are the result of the aggregation of many 

 related gentes and subgentes, who reached their present location at 

 dilierent times and fi'om different directions, and this seems to be the 



' Eighth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, 1886-87, Wash., 1891, pi. Ixxvi. 

 ' Ibid., pp. 1-228. 



195 



