22 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I47 



Pueblo I. In any case this deep-lying pit-house and the one we cleared 

 8 miles down valley were both occupied in the 8th century, A.D. 



The broken floors of two more BM. Ill or P. I pit-dwellings were 

 revealed by our 1925 exploratory trench 11 feet 9 inches below the 

 West Court surface or approximately 6 feet below the present valley 

 surface south of Pueblo Bonito (fig. 7), In both instances sandstone 

 slabs on end, packed between and held upright with mud, marked 

 floor limit. Another early house remnant, including a 16-inch-high 

 section of stone-topped adobe wall, was bared on a silt surface 6 feet 

 3 inches below floor level in Room 241. The builders of Pueblo Bonito 

 probably were unaware of these and like remains deep beneath their 

 foundations. 



THE RUINS OF PUEBLO BONITO 



Based on our tabulation (Appendix A), Pueblo Bonito included 

 an estimated 651 rooms of which 152 were Old Bonitian and the 

 remainder, Late Bonitian. If all were inhabited simultaneously, which 

 is unlikely, and if an average family of five occupied three rooms, a 

 local population of 1,090 is indicated. But these are only approxima- 

 tions ; the real totals lie beyond our reach. Thus, for our present pur- 

 pose, Pueblo Bonito at the height of its fame, A.D. 1000-1100 or 

 thereabout, was a compact pile of 600 or more rooms from one to 

 four stories high, the home of possibly 1,000 individuals (pi. 8). 



Pueblo Bonito was the creation of two distinct peoples, each self- 

 sufficient and each with its own cultural heritage. The original set- 

 tlers had been in residence a long, long while before the second group 

 arrived to take up joint occupancy of the village and proceed, forth- 

 with, to dominate its varied activities. Lacking the names by which 

 they knew each other, I have called the first group "the Old Boni- 

 tians"; the second group "the Late Bonitians" because they were, 

 in fact, late comers to Pueblo Bonito. Their common home, more 

 than 3 acres in ground area, was strictly utilitarian ; shelter and sub- 

 sistence were of primary concern to both peoples. Neither built 

 monumental religious structures; neither sought to commemorate 

 the accomplishments of previous leaders. 



In 1920 during the Society's reconnaissance of the Chaco area the 

 four Zufii accompanying me returned from their first tour of Pueblo 

 Bonito and voiced their joint conclusion: "White men built those 

 walls ; Indians could not." From Simpson's time forward the masonry 

 of Pueblo Bonito and its neighbors has astonished all visitors to 

 Chaco Canyon, irrespective of nationality. 



I 



