606 ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD WORK IN ARIZONA IN 1897. 



visit. The coUectious made at Piuedale not liaviiig been of sufficient 

 size to enable me to draw conclusions regarding the arts of the people 

 who forme rly lived on this tributary of the Little Colorado, I camped 

 at Four-Mile Euin on my return from the mountains, intending to make 

 a brief reconnoissance. While the results were at first very discourag- 

 ing, I was later rewarded with one of the most instructive collections 

 yet obtained in Arizona. 



The site of the Four-Mile Euin is a bluff overlooking the creek. 

 This elevation rises abruptly on the west side, but slopes more grad- 

 ually to the east to the surrounding plain. On the north and south 

 sides the rise is also abrupt from i)lains which were probably originally 

 the farms of the aboriginal inhabitants. The ancient cemeteries were 

 discovered on these two sides, but had apparently been washed away 

 on the eastern section. 



Four-Mile Euin was evidently formerly a pueblo of considerable size, 

 certainly as large as modern Walpi, which contains about 300 inhabit- 

 ants. It was similar in form to that at Chevlon Fork, but was some- 

 what more extended.' There was no evidence of a central j)laza in 

 this pueblo, which was a solid mass of houses, probably of i)yramidal 

 shape, crowning a natural hillock and extending along a crest of a 

 hill. Excavations at the highest point of the ruin showed the exist- 

 ence there of three well-marked stories, jiossibly a fourth, and we were 

 able to lay bare a floor of hardened clay. Some of the wooden floor 

 joists, very much decayed, projected from the side walls, and cooking- 

 vessels in fragments were thrown out from a level about 6 feet below 

 the surface of the ground. 



Early in my work at Four-Mile Euin it was discovered that the creek 

 had encroached on one side of the mounds, and good evidence was 

 found that a portion of the fields north of the ancient pueblo had been 

 washed away by frequent freshets in the rainy season. These inroads 

 were particularly clearly marked in the northern and western sections. 

 An examination of the bank of the creek north of the bluif, about 200 

 yards from the ruin, revealed a human bone projecting from the bank, 

 which led to extensive excavations at that point. This was the site of 

 an extensive cemetery, which continued under the bed of the stream, 

 or, rather, the stream in freshets had washed away the superficial soil, 

 so that the graves were very shallow, often only a few inches deej). 

 This part of the river bed, which was only occasionally flooded, was 

 stony and scantily covered with a growth of sage bush. The roots of 

 these plants grew from skeletons, near which were accompanying bowls 

 and other offerings which are customarily deposited with the dead. 

 The base of the northern slope of the ruin at the level of the plain was 

 found to be another burial ]3lace, containing many skeletons, deeply 



'For want of space several small ruins discovered near Four-jMile Ruin are not 

 described. The mounds of an ancient pueblo near Shumway are of considerable 

 size. 



