.AHT. 5 EXCAVATION" AISTD REPAIB OF BETATAPvIN"— JUDD 53 



BBTATAKIN ARTIFACTS IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The cultural plane attained by any primitive people is determina- 

 ble in part by their habitations; to an even greater degree, by articles 

 daily employed in and about those habitations. This truism holds 

 not only for Indian tribes living in the United States a generation 

 ago but also for those that passed on before the origin of what we 

 commonly call the " history " of our country, beginning with the 

 voyages of Eric the Red and Columbus. 



It would be altogether unjust to the prehistoric builders of Beta- 

 takin, therefore, were I to attempt portrayal of their arts and in- 

 dustries from the few, miscellaneous artifacts recovered during the 

 course of our work in 1917. These were ail casual finds, disclosed 

 as we cleared away the vast accumulation of detritus and household 

 rubbish with which the ruin was blanketed. Alone, these chance 

 objects tell an incomplete story. But they may add something to 

 that history of the village which is yet to be written; hence, it seems 

 desirable briefl}'^ to list those minor Betatakin antiquities now pre- 

 served in the national collections.^* National Museum catalogue 

 numbers accompany those specimens mentioned but not illustrated; 

 the list on page 75 gives the numbers and dimensions of those shown 

 by plate and text figure. 



OBJECTS OF STONE 



Metate (pi. 31, 1). — The only milling stone brought away was 

 last used for pulverizing yellow ocher; a rubbed area on its under 

 side is smeared with red paint. Of fine-grained sandstone, the speci- 

 men has a grinding surface transversely plane but longitudinally 

 concave, being worn in the middle to a depth of five-eighths of an 

 inch. 



To judge wholly from want of contrary statements in my field 

 notes, the characteristic Betatakin metate is relatively thin, rather 

 carefully shaped by pecking with hammerstones, and rarely, if ever, 

 deeph^ troughed. 



Manos^ or mullers (pi. 31, 2-5) are the hand stones with which 

 maize and other foodstuffs were ground on metates. Among the 30 

 manos (312207-27) in our collection, certain dissimilarities of shape 

 and size are obvious. This variation is owing to the structure of the 

 sandstone, volcanic breccia, and vesicular quartzite from which all 

 are made and, perhaps in equal degree, to personal differences in 

 method of use. Eight of the 30 appear to be reworked and reused 

 mano fragments; they vary in length from 4% to 63/4 inches (0.120 



" Every specimen regarded as reasonably secure from the habitual curio collector was 

 left at the ruin. 



