212 ABORIGINAL REMAINS IN VERDE VALLEY (eth.an.n. 13 



and northwestern, 194 feet. The northeastern and southwestern sides 

 are nearly eqiial in length, but between the southeastern and the north- 

 western sides there is a difference of 12 feet, and this notwithstanding 

 that the room at the western end of the southeastern row has been set 

 out 3 feet beyond the wall line of the southwestern side. This differ- 

 ence is remarkable if, as the ground plan indicates, the village or the 

 greater part of it was laid out and built up at one time, and was not 

 the result of slow growth. 



As already stated, long occupancy of a village, even without increase 

 of population, produces a certain effect on the ground plan. This 

 ett"ect, so strongly marked in all the ruins already described, is conspic- 

 uous in this ruin by its almost entire absence. The ground plan is 

 just such as would be produced if a small band of pueblo builders, con- 

 sisting often or twelve related families, should migrate en masse to a 

 site like the one under discussion and, after occupying that site for a 

 few years — less than live — should pass on to some other location. 

 Such migration and abandonment of villages were by no means anoma- 

 lous ; on the contrary, they constitute one of the most marked and most 

 persistent phenomena in the history of the pueblo builders. If the 

 general principles, already laid down, affecting the development and 

 growth of ground plans of villages are applied to this example, the 

 hypothesis suggested above — an incoming of people en masse and a 

 very short occupancy — must be accepted, for no other hypothesis will 

 explain the regularity of wall lines, the uniformity in size of rooms, and 

 the absence of attached rooms which do not follow the general plan of 

 the village. The latter is perhaps the most remarkable feature in the 

 ground plan of this village. The addition of rooms attached irreg- 

 ularly at various points of the main cluster, which is necessarily con- 

 sequent on long occupancy of a site, even without increase of popula- 

 tion, was in this example just commenced. The result of the same 

 process, continued over a long period of time, can be seen in the ground 

 plan of any of the inhabited villages of today and in most of the ruins, 

 while a plan like that of the ruin under discussion, while not unknown, 

 is rare. 



Plate XX, which is a general view of the ruin from the southwest, shows 

 the character of the site and the general appearance of the debris, while 

 plate XXI illustrates the character of the masonry. It will be noticed 

 that the level of the ground inside and outside of the row of rooms 

 is essentially the same; in other words, there has been no filling in. It 

 will also be noticed that the amount of debris is small, and that it con- 

 sists principally of rounded river bowlders. The masonry was peculiar, 

 the walls were comparatively thin, and the lower (courses were com- 

 posed of river bowlders, not dressed or otherwise treated, while the 

 ui)per courses, and presumably also the coping stones, were composed 

 of slabs of sandstone and of a very friable limestone. The latter has 

 disintegrated very much under atmospheric influences. The white 



