CONCLUSIONS 
It is evident that there existed on the mesas between Mancos and 
La Plata Rivers a culture differmg in many respects from that of 
the cliff-dwellers of the Mesa Verde. The meager information at 
hand seems to connect it with the pre-Pueblo pit-house culture now 
generally conceded to have existed in the Southwest. 
The true Pueblo culture has as its diagnostic character compact 
community villages several stories in height, usually in terrace 
form. The absence of the terraced form of architecture serves 
equally well to characterize the pre-Pueblo culture. 
The pottery especially indicates the greater antiquity of the dwell- 
ing sites on the mesas. The wide range of form, as well as the un- 
skilled workmanship displayed, shows the ceramic art still to have 
been quite plastic, and not bound by the rigid convention which is 
apparent in the pottery from the cliff-dwellings. The same may be 
said of the symbolism. Though crude, the designs are more boldly 
executed than are the conventionalized decorations on the cliff 
pottery. 
The skulls offer another point of difference. Of 33 crania 11, or 
334 per cent, do not show the occipital flattening general among the 
crania from the cliff-dwellings. Too much importance must not be 
attached to this, however, until further research shall prove whether 
the variation continues in evidence, or whether the skulls offering a 
basis for the statements here made comprise only a small aberrant 
group. 
The limits of the type of remains here described can be determined 
only by extended excavations. Whether they are typical of a small 
area, or Whether they continue and connect with other localities in 
which the pit-house culture is already known, remains to be seen. 
The discovery in the northern part of their domain of a more 
ancient culture than that of the cliff-dwellers should be of special 
interest, since it appears that the region north of the San Juan 
River is the center from which migration carried the true Pueblo 
culture to the south, southeast, and perhaps to the west. 
The direct relationship between the people of the cliffs and those 
of the mesas can not be established at present. The inhabitants of 
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