HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



assume that the two cultures were contemporaneous, and held at 

 least a limited intercourse. This presumption is further borne out by 

 similarities in architecture, in shellwork, and in stone implements (the 

 straight-backed, three-quarter grooved ax is practically confined to 

 these two cultures). 



The newly discovered Mimbres group of pottery 1 seems also to be 

 in some way connected with that of Casas Grandes, although there 

 are so few data available that no certain conclusions can be reached. 

 The remarkable naturalism of the Mimbres art is apparently a purely 

 local efflorescence, neither parent to nor derived from the more limited 

 naturalism of Casas Grandes, yet certain figures on Mimbres vessels 2 

 and the occasional use of negative drawing 3 strongly suggest inter- 

 course between the two groups. 4 



As to the age of the Lower Gila and Mimbres cultures we know no 

 more than we do about that of Casas Grandes. Dr Fewkes, basing 

 his belief principally on a study of the house types, considers the 

 Mimbres culture to have been a very early one. In this I am inclined 

 to differ with him and to think that the Mimbres ware will be found 

 to be a late and highly specialized form of the widespread black-and- 

 white group. 



The age of the great-house culture of the lower Gila is also un- 

 known, but from its high development we are led to believe that it is 

 fairly late in the general archeological history of the Southwest. 



All that can be said at present, then, is that we have reasonable 

 grounds for connecting the Casas Grandes group with other groups 

 farther to the north. We may, in turn, be able to connect them with 

 those of the Rio Grande and the Little Colorado, whose actual 

 chronological positions are little by little becoming known to us. We 

 must in any case have more data: from the Casas Grandes district 

 itself; from the regions to the south of it in Old Mexico; and par- 

 ticularly from the lower reaches of the Rio Grande, where, if any- 

 where, we shall find the data necessary to connect these most inter- 

 esting remains with those of the rest of the Pueblo area. 



Department of Arc&eology, Phillips Academy 

 Andover, Massachusetts 



1 Fewkes in Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 63, no. 10. 



1 Fewkes, ibid., figs. 27, 28. 



3 Ibid., fig. 18. 



* The Mimbres river drains into the Chihuahua basin. 



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