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Page 37
An important discovery was recently made near Mancos, Colorado,
where a party of explorers found in some old cliff dwellings
graves beneath graves that were entirely different from anything
yet discovered. They were egg-shaped, built of stone and
plastered smoothly with clay. They contained mummies, cloth,
sandals, beads and various other trinkets. There was no pottery,
but many well-made baskets, and their owners have been called the
basket makers. There was also a difference in the skulls found.
The cliff dwellers' skull is short and flattened behind, while
the skulls that were found in these old graves were long, narrow
and round on the back.[6]
[6] An Elder Brother of the Cliff Dwellers, by T. M. Prudden,
M.D. Harper's Magazine, June, 1897.
Rev. H. M. Baum, who has traveled all over the southwest and
visited every large ruin in the country, considers that Canon de
Chelly and its branch, del Muerto, is the most interesting
prehistoric locality in the United States. The Navajos, who now
live in the canon, have a tradition that the people who occupied
the old cliff houses were all destroyed in one day by a wind of
fire.[7] The occurrence, evidently, was similar to what happened
recently on the island of Martinique, when all the inhabitants of
the village of St. Pierre perished in an hour by the eruption of
Mont Pelee.
[7] Pueblo and Cliff Dwellers of the Southwest. Records of the
Past, December, 1902.
Contemporaneous with the cliff dwellers there seems to have lived
a race of people in the adjoining valleys who built cities and
tilled the soil. Judged by their works they must have been an
industrious, intelligent and numerous people. All over the
ground are strewn broken pieces of pottery that are painted in
bright colors and artistic designs which, after ages of exposure
to the weather, look as fresh as if newly made, The relics that
have been taken from the ruins are similar to those found in the
cliff houses, and consist mostly of stone implements and pottery.
In the Gila valley, near the town of Florence, stands the now
famous Casa Grande ruin, which is the best preserved of all these
ancient cities. It was a ruin when the Spaniards first
discovered it, and is a type of the ancient communal house. Its
thick walls are composed of a concrete adobe that is as hard as
rock, and its base lines conform to the cardinal points of, the
compass. It is an interesting relic of a past age and an
extinct race and, if it cannot yield up its secrets to science,
it at least appeals to the spirit of romance and mystery.
Irrigating ditches which were fed from reservoirs supplied their
fields and houses with water. Portions of these old canals are
yet in existence and furnish proof of the diligence and skill of
their builders. The ditches were located on levels that could
not be improved upon for utilizing the land and water to the best
advantage. Modern engineers have not been able to better them
and in many places the old levels are used in new ditches at the
present time.
Whatever may have been the fate of this ancient people their
destruction must be sought in natural causes rather than by human
warfare. An adverse fate probably cut off their water supply and
laid waste their productive fields. With their crops a failure
and all supplies gone what else could the people do but either
starve or move, but as to the nature of the exodus history is
silent.
Just how ancient these works are might be difficult to prove, but
they are certainly not modern. The evidence denotes that they
have existed a long time. Where the water in a canal flowed over
solid rock the rock has been much worn. Portions of the old
ditches are filled with lava and houses lie buried in the
vitreous flood. It is certain that the country was inhabited
prior to the last lava flow whether that event occurred hundreds
or thousands of years ago.
It is claimed that the Pueblo Indians and cliff dwellers are
identical and that the latter were driven from their peaceful
valley homes by a hostile foe to find temporary shelter among the
rocks, but such a conclusion seems to be erroneous in view of
certain facts.
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