Aboriginal Remains in Verde Valley, Arizona | Page 8

subordinate to stone villages. To this latter type
belong a number of cavate lodges on the northern side of Clear creek,
about 4 miles above its mouth. The cavate lodges of the Verde differ in
some particulars from those found in other regions; they are not
excavated in tufa or volcanic ash, nor are the fronts of the chambers
generally walled up. Front walls are found here, but they are the
exception and not the rule.
Bowlder-marked sites are scattered over the whole region here treated
although they are more abundant in the southern part than in the
northern. They are so abundant that their locations could not be
indicated on the accompanying map (plate XI). These constitute a
peculiar type, not found elsewhere in the experience of the writer, and
present some points of interest. They vary in size from one room to

considerable settlements, but the average size is two or three rooms.
They are always located with reference to some area, generally a small
one, of tillable land which they overlook, and all the data now available
support the inference that they mark the sites of small farming or
temporary shelters, occupied only during the farming season and
abandoned each winter by the inhabitants, who then return to the main
pueblo--a custom prevalent today among the pueblos. These sites are
found on the flat bottom lands of the river, on the upper terraces
overlooking the bottoms, on points of the foothills, in fact everywhere
where there is an area of tillable land large enough to grow a few hills
of corn. They often occur in conjunction with irrigating ditches and
other horticultural works; sometimes they are located on small hillocks
in the beds of streams, locations which must be covered with water
during the annual floods; sometimes they are found at the bases of
promontories bordering on drainage channels and on the banks of
arroyas, where they might be washed away at any time. In short, these
sites seem to have been selected without any thought of their
permanency.
Irrigating ditches and horticultural works were found in this region, but
not in great abundance; perhaps a more careful and detailed
examination would reveal a much larger number than are now known.
Fine examples of irrigating ditches were found at the extreme northern
and the extreme southern limits of the region here treated, and there is a
fair presumption that other examples occur in the intermediate country.
These works did not reach the magnitude of those found in the Gila and
Salt river valleys, perhaps partly for the reason that the great fall of
Verde river and its tributaries renders only short ditches necessary to
bring the water out over the terraces, and also partly because irrigation
is not here essential to successful horticulture. In good years fair crops
can be obtained without irrigation, and today this method of farming is
pursued to a limited extent.
[Illustration: Plate XV. MAIN COURT, RUIN AT MOUTH OF THE
EAST VERDE.]

PLANS AND DESCRIPTIONS.
STONE VILLAGES.
Ruins of villages built of stone, either roughly dressed or merely
selected, represent the highest degree of art in architecture attained by
the aborigines of Verde valley, and the best example of this class of
ruin is found on the eastern side of the river, about a mile above the
mouth of Limestone creek. The site was selected without reference to
defense, and is overlooked by the hills which circumscribe a large
semicircular area of bottom land, on the northern end of which the
village was located. This is the largest ruin on the Verde; it covers an
area of about 450 feet square, or over 5 acres, and has some 225 rooms
on the ground plan. From the amount of debris we may infer that most
of the rooms were but one story in height; and a reasonable estimate of
the total number of rooms in the village when it was occupied would
make the number not greater than 300 rooms. The ratio of rooms to
inhabitants in the present pueblos would give a population for this
village of about 450 persons. Zuñi, the largest inhabited pueblo,
covering an area of about 5 acres, has a population of 1,600.
It will thus be seen that, while the area covered by this village was
quite large, the population was comparatively small; in other words, the
dense clustering and so-called beehive structure which characterize
Zuñi and Taos, and are seen to a less extent in Oraibi, and which result
from long-continued pressure of hostile tribes upon a village occupying
a site not in itself easily defensible, has not been carried to such an
extent here as in the examples cited. But it is also apparent that this
village represents the beginning of the process which in time produces