HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



reader of the prevalent use of adobe mud in the construction of pre- 

 historic dwellings in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, and 

 briefly to call attention to the wide distribution of aboriginal habita- 

 tions whose walls were more or less completely built with adobe, either 

 in the shape of bricks or blocks reenforced with twigs and grass, or 

 laid in courses and exhibiting no intentional effort to add strengthen- 

 ing materials. 



With no more than our present knowledge, it is idle to speculate 

 on the probable relationship which existed between these prehistoric 

 builders of widely separated but architecturally similar adobe dwell- 

 ings. Primitive man easily adapted himself to his environment and 

 readily utilized the most convenient and accessible material for the 

 tasks which he encountered. The aboriginal use of adobe found its 

 greatest development in those sections of our Southwest in which 

 more desirable building materials were lacking. That the architec- 

 tural results attained in the several regions bear certain resemblances 

 to each other suggests, but does not establish, a cultural affinity be- 

 tween the builders of the respective structures. That they were lin- 

 guistically related can be safely assumed only after a more minute 

 comparison of the major and minor antiquities in the several regions. 



United States National Museum 

 Washington, D. C. 



[252 ] 



