ARCH^OLOGICAL FIELD WORK IN ARIZONA IN 1897. 617 



Tbis mound lies not far from the left bank of the Gila, a few miles from 

 Solomonville. 



The general appearance of the mounds on Mr. D. Olney's ranch is 

 practically unchanged save by superficial excavations in some of the 

 largest. The land, as a rule, has not been cultivated since the occupa- 

 tion of the valley by the whites, and is covered with a desert vegeta- 

 tion which formerly characterized the whole valley. Although not 

 unlike the ruins along the banks of the river, it is less changed than 

 they are, and affords a good type of the ruins of the higher lands. 

 There is a large spring near the mounds, and patches of cultivated 

 land, possibly the same farms as those once tilled by the Indians. 



A number of house burials were found in the rooms at Epley's ruin, 

 but they were almost invariably the skeletons of infants, the bones of 

 which showed no signs of cremation. These skeletons were found in 

 large ollas, of coarse coiled ware, and were sometimes accompanied 

 with decorated bowls or small ornamented vases. These burials were, 

 as a rule, found deeply covered with soil, near or under the floor, in the 

 vicinity of fireplaces. The earth in their immediate neighborhood was 

 loosely packed, in marked contrast to a harder soil filling the rest of 

 the room. 



Proofs that the ancient j)eople of Pueblo Yiejo burned their dead are 

 many and decisive. The existence of large cemeteries just outside the 

 pueblo walls, which is so common in the Little Colorado ruins, was not 

 detected , but there were many hillocks of ashes, indicatin g pyral moun ds. 



The jGrila Valley ruins are characterized by a large centrally placed 

 house, or fortress, and clustered about it many dwelling houses, uncon- 

 nected with each other, apparently habitations of clans. It would seem 

 that each family had its own pyral mound, and that there were several 

 ]3laces in each cluster of mounds where the dead were buried. Conse- 

 quently the interments of the incinerated bones were more scattered, 

 as each family had its own cemetery. The calcined bones were placed 

 in vases, over which was luted a pottery disk or bowl, and the whole 

 buried in a neighboring mound. Near the cinerary olla, in which the 

 cremated bones were placed, there were deposited other pieces of 

 pottery, some broken, others entire. 



Most of the pottery obtained from this valley came from the ruins 

 near San Jose and Bueua Yista or from Epley's farm, the site of my 

 most important excavations. This latter locality has yielded many 

 specimens in the past decade, as it has been a favorite place for digging 

 adobe. In the course of their work Mexican laborers have found there 

 a large number of pottery objects, which they have either given away 

 or sold to collectors. We obtained a few pieces from them by purchase, 

 others were presented, and several were dug up. The majority were 

 large ollas of coarse ware, coiled or indented, similar to those now 

 made by Pi mas or Papagoes, save that their exteriors were rarely 

 smooth. These were generally found buried in the rooms, and not a 

 single entire specimen of these large ollas was found. 



