Aboriginal Remains In Verde Valley, Arizona Part 5

East of the main room there is another of considerable size in the form of a bay or cove. It measures 13 feet by 6 feet, and its floor is 20 inches higher than that of the main room, as shown in the section (figure 295). Attached to this bay, at its northern end, is a small cist about 3 feet in diameter, and with its floor sunk to the level of the floor of the main room. East of the cove there is another cist about 4 feet in diameter and with its floor on the level of the cove. Adjoining it on the south and leading out from the southeastern corner of the cove or bay, there is a long pa.s.sage leading into an almost circular room 9 feet in diameter. The back wall of this room is 33 feet from the face of the cliff. The pa.s.sage leading into it is 6 feet long, 2 feet wide at the doorways, bulging slightly in the center, and its floor is on the same level as the rooms it connects; its eastern end is defined by a ridge of clay about 6 inches high.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate x.x.xIV.

IRRIGATING DITCH ON THE LOWER VERDE.]

In the eastern side of the circular room last described there is a storage cist about 3 feet wide and 2 feet deep. No fire-pit was seen in this cl.u.s.ter, although if the princ.i.p.al apartment were carefully cleaned out it is not improbable that one might be found.

A cl.u.s.ter of rooms somewhat resembling the last described is shown in plan in figure 296. This cl.u.s.ter occurs at the point marked _B_ on the map. The main room is set back 5 feet from the face of the bluff, which is vertical at this point, and is oblong in shape, measuring 19 by 11 feet. Its roof is 7 feet above the floor in the center of the room.

Attached to its southern end by a pa.s.sage only a foot in length is a small room or storage cist about 5 feet in diameter. At its northeastern corner there is another room or cist similar in shape, about 7 feet in diameter, and reached by a pa.s.sage 2 feet long. This small room is also connected with a long room east of the main apartment by a pa.s.sage, the southern end of which was carefully sealed up and plastered, making a kind of niche of the northern end. At the southeastern corner of the room there is a small niche about 2 feet in diameter on the level of the floor.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 296.

Plan of cavate lodges, group _B_.]

The eastern side of the main room is not closed, but opens directly into an oblong chamber of irregular size with the roof nearly 2 feet lower and the floor a foot higher than the main room. This step in the floor is shown by the line between the rooms on the ground plan. The second room is about 6 feet wide and 20 feet long, its southern end rounding out slightly so as to form an almost circular chamber. Near the center of its eastern side there is a pa.s.sageway 2 feet long leading into a circular chamber 10 feet in diameter and with its floor on the same level as the room to which it is attached. The back wall of this room is 35 feet from the face of the cliff.

A group occurring at the point marked _E_ on the map (plate XXV) is shown in plan in figure 297. It is located in a projecting corner of the bluff and marks the eastern limit of the cavate lodges at this end of the canyon. The group consists of five rooms, and has the distinction of extending four rooms deep into the rock. The main room is set back about 13 feet from the face of the bluff, about 7 feet of this distance being occupied by a narrow pa.s.sageway and the remainder by a cove. The depth from the face of the bluff to the back of the innermost chamber is 47 feet. The main room measures 16 feet in length and 11 feet in width, and its roof is less than 7 feet high in the center. Near its center and opposite the long pa.s.sageway mentioned there is a fire-pit nearly 3 feet in diameter.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 297.

Plan of cavate lodges, group _E_.]

At the northeastern corner of the main room there is a wide opening leading into a room measuring 8 by 7 feet, with a floor raised 2 feet above that of the princ.i.p.al apartment. The roof of this chamber is but 4 feet above the floor. Almost the whole eastern side of this room is occupied by a wide opening leading into another room of approximately the same size and shape. The roof of this room is only 3 feet 10 inches above the floor, and the floor is raised 6 inches above that on the west. In the northeastern corner there is a short narrow pa.s.sageway leading into a small circular room, the fourth of the series, having a diameter of 4 feet. The roof of this apartment is only 3 feet above the floor.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate x.x.xV.

OLD IRRIGATING DITCH, SHOWING CUT THROUGH LOW RIDGE.]

In the southeastern corner of the main room there is a narrow pa.s.sageway leading into a circular chamber about 8 feet in diameter. This chamber is connected with the second room of the series described by a pa.s.sageway about 2 feet long, which opens into the southeastern corner of that room. This pa.s.sageway, at its northern end, is 1 feet below the room into which it opens. One of the most noticeable features about this group of rooms is the entire absence of the little nooks and pockets in the wall which are characteristic of these lodges, and which are very numerous in all the princ.i.p.al groups, noticeably in the group next described.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 298.

Plan of cavate lodges, group _C_.]

At the point marked _C_ on the map there is an elaborate group of chambers, consisting of two groups joined together and comprising altogether eight rooms. This is shown in plan in figure 298. The rock composing the front of the main room of the southern group has recently fallen, making a pile of debris about 4 feet high. The room originally measured about 12 by 22 feet. Its eastern side is occupied by a pa.s.sageway leading into an adjoining chamber and by two shallow, roughly semicircular coves, apparently the remains of former small rooms. Along the northern wall of the room there are two little nooks at the floor level, and along the southern wall there are four, one of them (shown on the plan) being dug out like a pit. The roof of the room was about 6 feet above the floor.

The pa.s.sageway near the eastern side is 4 feet long, and is 3 feet wide--an unusual width. It opens into a roughly circular room, 8 feet in diameter, but with a roof only 3 feet above the floor. Along the northeastern side of this room, there are three small pockets opening on the floor level. On the southern side of the room there is a wide opening into a small attached room, roughly oblong in shape and measuring about 6 by 4 feet. Along the southern wall of this little room there are two small pockets, and at the southwestern corner the rock has been cleared out to form a low cavity in the shape of a half dome. In the northwestern corner of the room there is another wide pa.s.sage to a small room attached to the main room. This pa.s.sage is now carefully sealed on its southern side with a slab of stone, plastered neatly so as to be hardly perceptible from the southern side. The room into which this pa.s.sage opens on the north is attached to the northeastern corner of the main apartment by a narrow pa.s.sage, 1 feet wide and a foot long. It is roughly circular in shape, about 6 feet in diameter, and is the only chamber in the southern group which has no pockets or cubby-holes. Of these pockets there are no fewer than twelve in the southern group. Near the northern corner of the main room there is a doorway leading into a cove, which in turn opens into the main room of the northern group.

The main room of the northern group is setback about 9 feet from the face of the bluff, but is entered by a pa.s.sageway about 3 feet long, the remainder of the distance consisting of a cove in the cliff. The room is 22 feet long and 13 feet wide and its roof is 6 feet above the floor.

In the southwestern corner there is a small pocket in the wall, and in the northwestern corner two others, all on the floor level. In the eastern side, however, there is a cubby-hole nearly 2 feet in diameter and about 2 feet above the floor. This is a rare feature. The southern end of the room opens into a kind of cove, raised 2 feet above the floor of the main room, and opening at its southern end into the main room of the southern group. In the floor of this cove there is a circular pit about 18 inches in diameter (marked in the plan, figure 298). Although resembling the fire holes already described, the position of the pit under consideration precludes use for that purpose; it was probably designed to contain water. At the northeastern corner of the princ.i.p.al apartment there is an oblong chamber or storage cist, measuring 6 feet by 7 feet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate x.x.xVI.

OLD DITCH NEAR VERDE, LOOKING WESTWARD.]

Connected with the main room by a pa.s.sageway 2 feet long cut in its eastern wall, there is an almost circular chamber 7 feet in diameter, and this in turn connects with another chamber beyond it by a pa.s.sageway 2 feet long and less than 2 feet wide. The roofs of the two chambers last mentioned are but 4 and 4 feet, respectively, above the floor, and in none of the rooms of this group, except the main apartment, are pockets or niches found. The whole group extends back about 45 feet into the bluff.

BOWLDER-MARKED SITES.

Within the limits of the region here treated there are many hundreds of sites of structures and groups of rooms now marked only by lines of water-rounded bowlders. As a rule each site was occupied by only one or two rooms, although sometimes the settlement rose to the dignity of a village of considerable size. The rooms were nearly always oblong, similar in size and ground plan to the rooms composing the village ruins already described, but differing in two essential points, viz, character of site and character of the masonry. As a rule these remains are found on and generally near the edge of a low mesa or hill overlooking some area of tillable land, but they are by no means confined to such locations, being often found directly on the bottom land, still more frequently on the banks of dry washes at the points where they emerge from the hills, and sometimes on little islands or raised areas within the wash where every spring they must have been threatened with overflow or perhaps even overflowed. An examination of many sites leads to the conclusion that permanency was not an element of much weight in their selection.

Externally these bowlder-marked sites have every appearance of great antiquity, but all the evidence obtainable in regard to them indicates that they were connected with and inhabited at the same time as the other ruins in the region in which they are found. They are so much obliterated now, however, that a careful examination fails to determine in some cases whether the site in question was or was not occupied by a room or group of rooms, and there is a notable dearth of pottery fragments such as are so abundant in the ruins already described.

Excavation in a large ruin of this type, however, conducted by some ranchmen living just above Limestone creek, yielded a considerable lot of pottery, not differing in kind from the fragments found in stone ruins so far as can be judged from description alone.

In the southern part of the region here treated bowlder-marked sites are more clearly marked and more easily distinguished than in the northern part, partly perhaps because in that section the normal ground surface is smoother than in the northern section and affords a greater contrast with the site itself. Plate x.x.xIII shows one of these bowlder-marked sites which occurs a little below Limestone creek, on the opposite or eastern side of the river. It is typical of many in that district. It will be noticed that the bowlders are but slightly sunk into the soil, and that the surface of the ground has been so slightly disturbed that it is practically level; there is not enough debris on the ground to raise the walls 2 feet. The ill.u.s.tration shows, in the middle distance, a considerable area of bottom land which the site overlooks. In plan this site shows a number of oblong rectangular rooms, the longer axes of which are not always parallel, the plan resembling very closely the smaller stone village ruins already described. It is probable that the lack of parallelism in the longer axes of the rooms is due to the same cause as in the village ruins, i.e., to the fact that the site was not all built up at one time.

The ill.u.s.tration represents only a part of an extensive series of wall remains. The series commences at the northern end of a mesa forming the eastern boundary of the Rio Verde and a little below a point opposite the mouth of Limestone creek. The ruins occur along the western rim of the mesa, overlooking the river and the bottom lands on the other side, and are now marked only by bowlders and a slight rise in the ground. But few lines of wall are visible, most of the ruins consisting only of a few bowlders scattered without system. From the northern end of the mesa, where the ruins commence, traces of walls can be seen extending due southward and at an angle of about 10 with the mesa edge for a distance of one-fourth of a mile. Beyond this, for half a mile or more southward, remains of single houses and small cl.u.s.ters occur, and these are found in less abundance to the southern edge of the mesa, where the ruin ill.u.s.trated occurs. The settlement extended some distance east of the part ill.u.s.trated, and also southward on the slope of the hill. Two well-marked lines of wall occur at the foot of the hill, on the flat bottom land, but the slopes of the hill are covered with bowlders and show no well-defined lines. Scattered about on the surface of the ground are some fragments of metates of coa.r.s.e black basalt and some potsherds, but the latter are not abundant.

The bowlders which now mark these sites were probably obtained in the immediate vicinity of the points where they were used. The mesa on which the ruin occurs is a river terrace, constructed partly of these bowlders; they outcrop occasionally on its surface and show clearly in its sloping sides, and the washes that carry off the water falling on its surface are full of them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate x.x.xVII.

OLD DITCH NEAR VERDE, LOOKING EASTWARD.]

In the northern end of the settlement there are faint traces of what may have been an irrigating ditch, but the topography is such that water could not be brought on top of the mesa from the river itself. At the southern end of the settlement, northeast of the point shown in the ill.u.s.tration, there are traces of a structure that may have been a storage reservoir. The surface of the mesa dips slightly southward, and the reservoir-like structure is placed at a point just above the head of a large wash, where a considerable part of the water that falls upon the surface of the mesa could be caught. It is possible that, commencing at the northern end of the settlement, a ditch extended completely through it, terminating in the storage reservoir at the southern end, and that this ditch was used to collect the surface water and was not connected with the river. A method of irrigation similar to this is practiced today by some of the Pueblo Indians, notably by the Hopi or Tusayan and by the Zuni. In the bottom land immediately south of the mesa, now occupied by several American families, there is a fine example of an aboriginal ditch, described later.

In the vicinity of the large ruin just above Limestone creek, previously described, the bowlder-marked sites are especially abundant. In the immediate vicinity of that ruin there are ten or more of them, and they are abundant all along the edge of the mesa forming the upper river terrace; in fact, they are found in every valley and on every point of mesa overlooking a valley containing tillable land.

It is probable that the bowlder-marked ruins are the sites of secondary and temporary structures, erected for convenience in working fields near to or overlooked by them and distant from the home pueblo. The character of the sites occupied by them and the plan of the structures themselves supports this hypothesis. That they were connected with the permanent stone villages is evident from their comparative abundance about each of the larger ones, and that they were constructed in a less substantial manner than the home pueblo is shown by the character of the remains.

It seems quite likely that only the lower course or courses of the walls of these dwellings were of bowlders, the superstructure being perhaps sometimes of earth (not adobe) but more probably often of the type known as "jacal"--upright slabs of wood plastered with mud. This method of construction was known to the ancient pueblo peoples and is used today to a considerable extent by the Mexican population of the southwest and to a less extent in some of the pueblos. No traces of this construction were found in the bowlder-marked sites, perhaps because no excavation was carried on; but it is evident that the rooms were not built of stone, and that not more than a small percentage could have been built of rammed earth or grout, as the latter, in disintegrating leaves well-defined mounds and lines of debris. It is improbable, moreover, that the structures were of brush plastered with mud, such as the Navajo hogan, as this method of construction is not well adapted to a rectangular ground plan, and if persistently applied would soon modify such a plan to a round or partially rounded one. Temporary brush structures would not require stone foundations, but structures composed of upright posts or slabs, filled in with brush and plastered with mud, and designed to last more than one farming season, would probably be placed on stone foundations, as the soil throughout most of the region in which these remains occur is very light, and a wooden structure placed directly on it would hardly survive a winter.

In the valley of the Rio Verde the profitable use of adobe at the present time is approximately limited northward by the thirty-fourth parallel, which crosses the valley a little below the mouth of Limestone creek. North of this lat.i.tude adobe is used less and less and where used requires more and more attention to keep in order, although on the high tablelands some distance farther northward it is again a suitable construction. South of the thirty-fourth parallel, however, adobe construction is well suited to the climate and in the valleys of Salt and Gila rivers it is the standard construction. Adobe construction (the use of sun-dried molded brick) was unknown to the ancient pueblo builders, but its aboriginal counterpart, rammed earth or pise construction, such as that of the well known Casa Grande ruin on Gila river, acted in much the same way under climatic influences, and it is probable that its lack of suitability precluded its use in the greater part of the Verde valley. No walls of the type of those of the Casa Grande ruin have been found in the valley of the Verde, although abundant in the valleys of the Salt and Gila rivers, but it is possible that this method of construction was used in the southern part of the Verde region for temporary structures; in the northern part of that region its use even for that purpose was not practicable.

In this connection it should be noted that all the ruins herein described are of buildings of the northern type of aboriginal pueblo architecture and seem to be connected with the north rather than the south.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate x.x.xVIII.

BLUFF OVER ANCIENT DITCH, SHOWING GRAVEL STRATUM.]

IRRIGATING DITCHES AND HORTICULTURAL WORKS.

One of the finest examples of an aboriginal irrigating ditch that has come under the writer's notice occurs about 2 miles below the mouth of Limestone creek, on the opposite or eastern side of the river. At this point there is a large area of fertile bottom land, now occupied by some half dozen ranches, known locally as the Lower Verde settlement. The ditch extends across the northern and western part of this area. Plate x.x.xIV shows a portion of this ditch at a point about one eighth of a mile east of the river. Here the ditch is marked by a very shallow trough in the gra.s.s-covered bottom, bounded on either side by a low ridge of earth and pebbles. Plate x.x.xV shows the same ditch at a point about one-eighth of a mile above the last, where it was necessary to cut through a low ridge. North of this point the ditch can not be traced, but here it is about 40 feet above the river and about 10 feet above a modern (American) ditch. It is probable that the water was taken out of the river about 2 miles above this place, but the ditch was run on the sloping side of the mesa which has been recently washed out. No traces of the ditch were found east of the point shown in plate x.x.xIV, but as the modern acequia, which enters the valley nearly 10 feet below the ancient one, extends up the valley nearly to its head, there is no reason to suppose that the ancient ditch did not irrigate nearly the whole area of bottom land. The ancient ditch is well marked by two clearly defined lines of pebbles and small bowlders, as shown in the ill.u.s.tration. Probably these pebbles entered into its construction, as the modern ditch, washed out at its head and abandoned more than a year ago, shows no trace, of a similar marking.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 299.

Map of an ancient irrigating ditch.]

A little west and south of the point shown in plate x.x.xIV the bottom land drops off by a low bench of 3 or 4 feet to a lower level or terrace, and this edge is marked for a distance of about a quarter of a mile by the remains of a stone wall or other a.n.a.logous structure. This is located on the extreme edge of the upper bench and it is marked on its higher side by a very small elevation. On the outer or lower side it is more clearly visible, as the stones of which the wall was composed are scattered over the slope marking the edge of the upper bench. At irregular intervals along the wall there are distinct rectangular areas about the size of an ordinary pueblo room, i.e., about 8 by 10 and 10 by 12 feet.

In February, 1891, there was an exceptional flood in Verde river due to prolonged hard rain. The river in some places rose nearly 20 feet, and at many points washed away its banks and changed the channel. The river rose on two occasions; during its first rise it cut away a considerable section of the bank near a point known as Spanish wash, about 3 miles below Verde, exposing an ancient ditch. During its second rise it cut away still more of the bank and part of the ancient ditch exposed a few days before. The river here makes a sharp bend and flows a little north of east. The modern American ditch, which supplied all the bottom lands of the Verde west of the river, was ruined in this vicinity by the flood that uncovered the old ditch. Figure 299 is a map of the ancient ditch drawn in the field, with contours a foot apart, and showing also a section, on a somewhat larger scale, drawn through the points _A_, _B_ on the map. Plate x.x.xVI is a view of the ditch looking westward across the point where it has been washed away, and plate x.x.xVII shows the eastern portion, where the ditch disappears under the bluff.

The bank of the river at this point consists of a low sandy beach, from 10 to 50 feet wide, limited on the south by a vertical bluff 10 to 12 feet high and composed of sandy alluvial soil. This bluff is the edge of the bottom land before referred to, and on top is almost flat and covered with a growth of mesquite, some of the trees reaching a diameter of more than 3 inches. The American ditch, which is shown on the map, runs along the top of the bluff skirting its edge, and is about 14 feet above the river at its ordinary stage. The edge of the bluff is shown on the map by a heavy black line. It will be observed that the ancient ditch occurs on the lower flat, about 3 feet above the river at its ordinary stage, and its remains extend over nearly 500 feet. The line, however, is not a straight one, but has several decided bends. One of these occurs at a point just west of that shown in the section. About 80 feet east of that point the ditch makes another turn southward, and about 40 feet beyond strikes the face of the bluff almost at right angles and pa.s.ses under it.

About 50 feet north of the main ditch, at the point where it pa.s.ses under the bluff, there are the remains of another ditch, as shown on the map. This second ditch was about a foot higher than the main structure, or about 4 feet above the river; it runs nearly parallel with it for 30 feet and then pa.s.ses into the bluff with a slight turn toward the north.

It is about the same size as the main ditch, but its section is more evenly rounded. Figure 300 shows this ditch in section.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate x.x.xIX.

ANCIENT DITCH AND HORTICULTURAL WORKS ON CLEAR CREEK.]

As already stated, the American ditch is about 14 feet above the river, while the ancient ditch is less than 4 feet above the water. This decided difference in level indicates a marked difference in the character of the river. The destruction of the modern ditch by the flood of 1891 is not the first mishap of that kind which has befallen the settlers. The ditch immediately preceding the current one pa.s.sed nearly over the center of the ancient ditch, then covered by 10 feet or more of alluvial soil, and if a ditch were placed today on the level of the ancient structure it would certainly be destroyed every spring. The water that flowed through the modern ditch was taken from the river at a point about 3 miles farther northward, or just below Verde. The water for the ancient ditch must have been taken out less than a mile above the southern end of the section shown in the map.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 300.

Part of old irrigating ditch.]