NO. ly SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I916 I03 



had a limited range. Traces of their culture have not been found 

 below an elevation of 7,000 feet in the mountain valley, and it 

 appears probable that their culture was associated with an environ- 

 ment of lakes which once existed in these valleys. It is evident in 

 some cases that the pit dwellings were displaced by houses of stone. 

 In most instances artifacts are different from those of the stone- 

 house builders, and the latter have more points of resemblance to, 

 than of difference from, the ancient inhabitants of lUue River. It 

 is probable that the range of the pit-house people would be found 

 to be more extensive by excavation around the sides of stone houses 

 in other localities, the remains of pit structures being easily obliterated 

 by natural filling. At this time the pit-dweller culture can be afifiliated 

 only with uncertainty with that of the ancient Pueblos. At the 

 present stage of the investigation the lack of skeletal material is 

 severely felt, but further work may overcome this difficulty. 



ARCHEOLOGICAL RFX'ONNOISSANCE IN WESTERN UTAH 



In the last report ' of the explorations and field-work of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution notice was given of the inauguration of an arche- 

 ologic reconnoissance of western Utah, conducted under the auspices 

 of the Bureau of American Ethnology by Mr. Neil M. Judd of the 

 National Museum. During June, 1916, it was found possible to 

 supplement this first survey, and Mr. Judd was again directed to 

 proceed to Utah, there to engage in limited excavations in continua- 

 tion of his previous work. 



As observed in the report of last year, the mounds at Paragonah. 

 in Iron County, represent but a small portion of the large number 

 which formerly existed at that place ; the recent reconnoissance was 

 undertaken primarily for the purpose of gaining definite information 

 regarding the remaining ruins before their final destruction was 

 accomplished by removal of the elevations which concealed them. 

 Limited in time and handicapped by unfavorable local conditions, 

 the expedition was less successful than had been anticipated : the 

 results obtained, however, establish a similarity between the ancient 

 P^aragonah habitations and those previously exposed in I'eaver and 

 neighboring valleys and tend to show that the builders of the western 

 Utah ruins were more closely related to the house-building peoples 

 of other sections of the Southwest than has been generally suspected. 



One of the largest and at the same time one of the least disturbed 

 of the Paragonah mounds was selected as a type for examination. 

 Its dimensions were approximately 100 by 300 feet ; its average 



^ Misc. Coll., Vol. 66, No. 3, 19 15, pp. 64-71. 



