364 EUINED PUEBLO AND BUBIAL-PLACE 



pueblos. These chambers are formed by digging in the ground a circular 

 pit from 10 to 20 feet in depth; a wall, in some cases of 2 or 3 feet in 

 height, is built around the rim of the hole, and on this branches of trees or 

 beams of wood are laid, forming a roof, which is covered with brush, and 

 earth packed firmly on top. At the pueblo of Taos each head man has an 

 estufa of his own, but in this ruin, and in other villages visited, only one 

 appears to have been in use. 



After carefully examining the remains of the village, we set out in 

 search of the graves, and found that bodies had been buried within 30 feet 

 of the walls of the town. The arroyos, as already stated, had been washed 

 out by water, and the falling away of the earth disclosed the remains. The 

 first skeleton found was in the right-hand or eastern arroyo, some 6 or 8 

 feet below the level of the mesa, and had been placed in the grave face 

 doivnwarcl, the head pointing to the south. As the body lay, we had a fine 

 section of the strata of earth above it. Two feet above the skeleton we 

 noticed two smooth black " ollas," or vases, which, when dug out, were 

 found to contain charcoal, parched corn, and the bones of small mammals 

 and fowls which had, doubtless, been placed therein at the funeral-feast; and 

 the remaining earth to the surface contained nothing but pieces of charcoal. 

 Not a vestige of clothing, no ornaments, implements, or weapons were 

 found near the corpse, and apparently no receptacle had been employed to 

 contain it. By carefully digging away the surrounding earth with our 

 knives, we were fortunate enough to secure every bone belonging to this 

 skeleton, and it has arrived in Washington in good order, and is now in the 

 Army Medical Museum. 



A further search in both arroyos revealed more bodies similarly buried, 

 and we secured several skeletons, but in some cases the crania were want- 

 ing. Three or four skeletons of children were also discovered, but the 

 bones were in such fragile condition as to crumble on exposure to the air, 

 consequently we were unable to preserve them. 



There seems but little doubt that at one time this part of New Mexico 

 was densely populated, as in the valley of the Chama we have undoubted 

 evidence of the existence of the ruins of at least six or eight towns which 

 must have been sufficiently large, from present indications, to have con- 



