Aboriginal Remains in Verde Valley, Arizona | Page 7

settlements are always made on the bottom lands themselves,
while the aboriginal settlements are almost always located on high
ground overlooking the bottoms. Perched on the hills overlooking these
bottoms, and sometimes located on the lower levels, there was once a
number of large and important villages, while in the regions on the
south, where the tillable areas are as a rule very much smaller, the
settlements were, with one exception, small and generally insignificant.
The region treated in these pages is that portion of the valley of Rio
Verde comprised between its mouth and Verde, or Beaver creek, on the
north. It was entered by the writer from the south; it is not proposed,
however, to follow a strict geographic order of treatment, but, on the
contrary, so far as practicable, to follow an arrangement by types.

The domiciliary ruins of this region fall easily into three general classes,
to which may be added a fourth, comprising irrigating ditches and
works, the first class having two subclasses. They are as follows:
Stone villages. a. Villages on bottom lands. b. Villages on defensive
sites. Cavate lodges. Bowlder-marked sites. Irrigating ditches and
works.
[Illustration: Plate XIV. RUIN AT MOUTH OF THE EAST VERDE.]
The ruins of the first group, or stone villages located on bottom lands
without reference to defense, represent in size and in degree of skill
attained by the builders the highest type in this region, although they
are not so numerous as those of the other groups. They are of the same
type as, although sometimes smaller in size than, the great valley
pueblos of the regions on the north and south, wherein reliance for
defense was placed in massive and well-planned structures and not on
natural advantages of location. In the north this class of ruin has been
shown to be the last stage in along course of evolution, and there is a
suggestion that it occupies the same relation to the other ruins in the
Verde region; this question, however, will later be discussed at some
length. The best example of this type on the lower Verde is a large ruin,
located in a considerable bottom on the eastern side of the river, about a
mile above the mouth of Limestone creek. This is said to be the largest
ruin on the Verde; it is certainly the largest in the region here treated,
and it should be noted that it marks practically the southern limit of the
Rio Verde group.
The ruins of the second subclass, or stone villages located on defensive
sites, are found throughout the whole of this region, although the type
reaches its best development in the northern portion, in the vicinity of
Verde. The separation of this type from the preceding one is to a certain
extent arbitrary, as the location of a ruin is sometimes determined
solely by convenience, and convenience may dictate the selection of a
high and defensible site, when the tillable land on which the village
depends is of small area, or when it is divided into a number of small
and scattered areas; for it was a principle of the ancient village-builders
that the parent village should overlook as large an extent as possible of

the fields cultivated by its inhabitants. A good illustration of this type
of ruin is found a little way northeast of Verde, on the opposite side of
the river. Here a cluster of ruins ranging from small groups of
domiciles to medium-sized villages is found located on knobs and hills,
high up in the foothills and overlooking large areas of the Verde bottom
lands. These are illustrated later. Another example, also illustrated later,
occurs on the eastern side of the river about 8 miles north of the mouth
of Fossil creek. The village, which is very small, occupies the whole
summit of a large rock which projects into the stream, and which is
connected with the mainland by a natural causeway or dike. This is one
of the best sites for defense seen by the writer in an experience of many
years.
Cavate lodges are distributed generally over the whole northern portion
of the region here treated. At many points throughout this region there
are outcrops of a calcareous sandstone, very soft and strongly laminated
and therefore easily excavated. This formation often appears in the
cliffs and small canyons bordering on the streams, and in it are found
the cavate lodges. The best examples are found some 8 miles south of
Verde, in a small canyon on the eastern side of the river, and it is
noteworthy that in this case stone villages occur in conjunction with
and subordinate to the cavate lodges, while elsewhere within this
region and in other regions the cavate lodges are found either alone or
in conjunction with and