THE CLIFF VILLAGES OF THE RED ROCK COUNTRY. 565 



the main part of the ruin the walls still rise to a height of over 30 feet, 

 and the wooden rafters still project from the masonry in several places 

 at the level of the former floor. Thirty inclosures, some of which were 

 four-storied, attest the former capacity of this forgotten village. In sev- 

 eral of the rooms were ancient fireplaces filled with ashes of extinct fires, 

 which long ago had blackened the walls with soot which was still visi- 

 ble. The well-worn stones on which the former people ground their 

 corn were in place, and fragments of pottery were present everywhere 

 in the debris which covered the floors. The fallen rubbish yielded a 

 rich harvest of objects connected with the life of the former inhabitants, 

 and in its alkaline dust, shielded from the rains by a common roof cover- 

 ing the whole settlement, we dug up many cotton fabrics, sandals of 

 yucca fiber, objects used by prehistoric weavers, warriors, and farmers. 



A problematical stone implement made of a small slaty stone 

 mounted in a wooden handle, to which it was cemented by black pitch, 

 was found a few feet below the surface on the floor of one of the rooms. 

 This implement is unique, for so far as known it has not been duplicated 

 from any cliff house near or remote. Opinions of experts as to its use 

 are divided, but its double handle suggests an implement held in both 

 hands when used. 



Among most of the objects from these cliff ruins, however, there is 

 a striking similarity to those reported by others from other cliff dwell- 

 ings, which leads me to the conclusion that in studying them we have 

 to deal with the productions of a people in a like stage of culture, 

 extending from Utah on the north to the southern boundary of Arizona 

 and beyond on the south, the limits of the so called Pueblo peoples. 

 As a rule, also, there is a remarkable similarity in the objects dug out 

 of these ruins and those of the pueblos which have become extinct, 

 which in turn are almost duplicated among the survivors in the inhab- 

 ited pueblos. We are, in fact, dealing with the works of a people 

 which, if not the same in blood, were practically the same in culture. 



No aspect of southwestern archaeology presents more interesting 

 problems than aboriginal rock pictures, on which account especial 

 attention was given by me, wherever I wandered, to the forms and 

 import of figures cut or painted near the ruined towns on adjacent 

 cliffs. Two radically different kinds of pictographs, ascribed to two 

 distinct peoples, the house builders and the nomadic Apache- Mohave, 

 are found on the rocks, yet but little experience is necessary to dis- 

 tinguish the two varieties. As a rule, the pictography of the cliff 

 dwellers is pecked out, evidently with a stone, through a superficial 

 layer of rock exposing a different colored, deeper layer. The Apache 

 pictographs, however, are ordinarily painted or drawn on the surface 

 of the rock and are not incised. 



] have not here the opportunity to discuss the various figures char- 

 acteristic of each kind of picture writing which was found, but will not 

 omit reference to the pictured rocks of Cliff Eanch and those near the 

 cavate rooms. 



