HOLMES.] ANCIENT BURIAL-PLACES. S85 



according to Lieutenant Simpson,* in all the ruined cities of l^ew Mex- 

 ico, but liaving single walls of no great height or thickness. It is stated 

 by Squier and Davis t that in Mexico the sacred enclosures were also 

 used for defensive purposes, and it certainly seems probable that these 

 curious structures served both as temples and fortifications, and that 

 the apartments between the walls were the receptacles of sacred or 

 valuable property. 



The smaller single- walled towers, which are scattered at intervals 

 along the river-courses and cafions, frequently in commanding situations, 

 were probably watch or signal towers. 



The cave-dwellings are made by digging irregular cavities in the faces 

 of bluffs and cliffs formed of friable rock, and then walling up the fronts, 

 leaving only small doorways, and an occasional small window at the 

 side or top. 



The cliff-houses conform in shape to the floor of the niche or shelf on 

 'which they are built. They are of firm, neat masonry, and the manner 

 in which they are attached or cemented to the cliff's is simply marvelous. 

 Their construction has cost a great deal of labor, the rock and mortar 

 of which they are built having been brought for hundreds of feet up 

 the most precipitous places. They have a much more modern look than 

 the valley and cave remains, and are 'probably in general more recent, 

 belonging rather to the close than to the earlier parts of a long period 

 of occupation. Their position, however, has secured them in a great 

 measure from the hand of the invader as well as from the ordinary 

 effects of age. 



Of works of art other than architectural that might assist in throw- 

 ing light upoii the grade of civilization reached by these people, but 

 meagre discoveries were made ; although I imagine that careful search 

 and well-conducted exhumation might develop many things of great 

 interest. A considerable number of arrow-heads, stone implements, 

 ornaments, and articles of fictile manufacture, that may fairly be attrib- 

 nted to the age of the cliff-builders, were collected. The greater part 

 of these are figured in plates XLIV, XLY, and XL VI. 



There are no evidences whatever that metals were used. 



Numerous rock-inscriptions were observed, both engraved and painted 

 upon the cliffs. Drawings of a large number were made, and some of 

 the more notable examples are given in plates XLII and XLIII. A 

 large number of burial places, or what we are led to believe are such, 

 were visited. The only localities which have yielded human remains 

 are in the valleys and in the vicinity of ancient ruins. Three entire 

 skeletons were obtained ; one from the banks of Hovenweep Creek, near 

 the ruin known as Hovenweep Castle; | the others from a freshly exca- 

 vated arroyo in an ancient village near Abiquiu, Kew Mexico.§ A skull 

 was obtained by Captain Moss from a grave on the Eio San Juan near 

 the mouth of the Mancos, but no particulars of the position of the skel- 

 eton or manner of burial were obtained. Two entire specimens of 

 earthen vessels|| were found with the skeleton. 



The greater portion of what are supposed to be burial places occur on 

 the summits of hills or on high, barren promontories that overlook the 

 valleys and canons. In these places considerable areas, amounting in 

 some cases to half an acre or more, are thickly set with rows of stone 



* Expeditioa to the Navajo Country, p. 78, «&c. See also, Mr. Jackson's report. 

 + Ancient monuments of the Mississippi Valley, p. 102. 

 t Described by Mr. Jackson, Report U. S. Geo!. Surv., 1874, 1876, p. 381. 

 § The crania obtained are described by Dr. Bessells in Bulletin U. S. Geol. Survey, 

 Vol. ii, No. 1, pp. 47-63. 

 II Mr. Jackson's report. 



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