294 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [VOL. 50 



before the bounding walls were constructed. The compounds are 

 simple architecturally and their construction is rude. They do not 

 show the daring in building exhibited in cliff houses, nor the skill 

 displayed in pueblos built on the edges of precipices. They give no 

 evidence of any great skill in masonry or in overcoming difficulties 

 of construction. This compound type of architecture is represented 

 by many examples in the Gila drainage region, and may or may not 

 be associated with other classes of mounds. It is only rarely that 

 the type is duplicated in the same cluster, as at Casa Grande. 



I. COMPOUND A 



Two or possibly three compounds have been recognized in the 

 Casa Grande group, and of these Compound A is the largest, 

 although it contains no building equal in size to the main house of 

 Compound B. Compound A is believed to have been the last of the 

 three compounds to be deserted by its inhabitants, for it is the only 

 one with fragments of walls standing above ground. The longest 

 side of Compound A is oriented 3 east of the true north-south line. 1 

 The surrounding wall has been traced throughout and laid bare on 

 both sides, without and within. Its former height varied a little at 

 different points, having been greatest near attached rooms, where the 

 wall is also greater in thickness. The bounding wall of this com- 

 pound averages two feet in thickness, and was originally not far 

 from six feet high. 



In Kino's time, and as late as 1775, when Font visited the ruin, the 

 surrounding wall and many enclosed buildings were probably in a 

 fair state of preservation. The latter in some instances had roofs 

 supported by rafters, and plastered walls which rose somewhat 

 higher above the ground than at present. There is evidence that all 

 sections of the outside wall of Compound A were not constructed at 

 the same time, but that the structure was enlarged after a few gener- 

 ations. Considerable intervals of time may have elapsed between 

 the erection of the six ceremonial rooms and the large walls east of 

 the north room of this series. The outside wall of the compound 

 shows evidences of having been successively extended, the oldest 

 part being the western half, or that which contains the historic build- 

 ing, Casa Grande. The east wall of the six ceremonial rooms ex- 

 tends east of Casa Grande, and once formed a retaining wall about 



1 The west wall of Casa Grande, however, is north 4 30' east. The south 

 wall of the compound measures south 8° 35' east. 



