ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD WORK IN ARIZONA IN 1897. 609 



The only insects found figured on pottery from Four-Mile Euin were 

 the butterfly and the dragon fly. Flower decorations were wanting. 

 The typical forms of feathers characteristic of Hopi ruins were not 

 observed in the southern ruins. 



The large food basins of red ware were ornamented on the exterior 

 with many highly complicated geometrical designs, and a larger num- 

 ber of figures of animals were found on the exterior of vessels in 1897 

 than in previous years. 



One of these was the figure of the paw of some large plantigrade ani- 

 mal, possibly a bear. The complete animal, of which this was i^robably 

 one of the tracks, was delineated on the exterior of a second food basin. 

 The conventionalized figures of two birds joined by the tails decorated 

 the exterior of several food bowls. 



RUINS IN THE PUEBLO VIEJO VALLEY. 



If one follows a meridian south from the Moki Reservation he will 

 find that it strikes the Gila River not far from the mouth of the San 

 Pedro. It crosses the Little Colorado near the mouth of Chevlon Fork 

 and runs about a half degree west of Snow Flake and Pinedale, which 

 are situated over two-thirds the distance from Sikyatki to the Gila. 

 This north and south line crosses a great mountainous watershed which 

 separates the drainage of the Gila and the Little Colorado, and passes 

 through sections of Arizona presenting all the different kindsiof geo- 

 logical environment inhabited by pueblo peoples. I will call this 

 north and south line an archaeological meridian to which to refer varia- 

 tions in the character of ceramics. The differences in soil at places on 

 this line have profoundly affected the character of pottery found in the 

 different localities through which it passes. 



Li examining large collections of ancient pottery made at Sikyatki, 

 Awatobi, Chevlon, Four-Mile Ruin, and Pinedale one can trace, step by 

 step, the gradual modifications in the character of ceramic ware over 

 120 miles of that distance. The beautiful yellow pottery of Sikyatki, 

 with sporadic examples of red, black, and white, gradually loses its 

 predominance and is replaced by red ware, which is most abundant in 

 the Little Colorado ruins. Bowls made of a rough coiled ware, with a 

 glossy black inner surface, unknown at Sikyatki, begin to appear 

 and increase in relative numbers as we go south. Last of all, as we 

 ascend the northern slope of the hills fringing the White Mountains, 

 while still on the banks of tributaries of the Little Colorado, a singular 

 kiiul of pottery, typical of the Gila basin, appears for the first time. 



Having detected in ruins north of the White Mountains the sporadic 

 appearance of Gila Valley pottery, I was anxious to examine the ruins 

 on the Apache Reservation intermediate between those of the head 

 waters of the Little Colorado and Gila rivers. Kot being prepared to 

 cross the reservation for this purpose, I therefore went around the 

 White Mountains to a valley south of the Apache Reservation, called 

 SM 97 39 



