The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-03-01

Discovery of Crematory Furnace Of an
Ancient People.

Denver News.
A short time ago Judge Metcalf, living at 825
Champa street. in Denver, hunting deer
with son in Mancos or Santa Lucia valley, New
Mexico, about twenty miles east of Silver
City While tracking deer over an old Indian
trail through a canyon they observed, about 15O
feet above the creek bottom where they were, an
opening or cave, apparently cut into the steep
side of the cliff. Climbing to it with some diff.
Guilty. they found cave, evidently the work OF
man. loo feet deep twenty-five feet wide, and
about twelve feet high. The floor of this cave
was covered with the excrement of bats. While
resting after the hard climb young Metcalf thrust
the ramrod of his gun into the floor, and felt
something rattle against the end. A small por-
ton OF the covering was then turned up They
ascertained that the excrement deposit was from
one to three feet i'll thickness. Beneath this was a
deposit of what was afterward found to be animal
charcoal from ten to fourteen inches deep, and
under this layer of ashes packed lightly down
from six to ten inches thick. 1t was after pen
etrating the latter that they made their most
important discovery. This was large number
OF relics of various kinds consisting OF figures OF
men rudely carved in wood evidently with stone
tools, numerous represent ations of the rising
sun made Of splints of wood sewed together with
thread made of the fibre of amole or soap weed
with the aid of avis made of bone, some OF
which were found; representation of serpent
with a birds head cut out of wood arrows with
flint heads some of them very small, bows of
various sizes. stone axes and hammers, large
punches of thread made from the soap weed
fibre, also cotton threads and cotton batting
In masses, basket work of every description
including hampers breast plates adorned with
shells and beads, and in other forms
whose use is unknown, long strings
OF beads and long, slender painted sticks tied in
bundles. and fiat painted splints of wood. the
latter having characters upon them, but whose
purpose Is a mystery, together with large num-
Der of similar articles which Judge Metcalf has
preserved notwithstanding some fattering Of
fers which have been made by the Smithsonian
and other institutions
The Judge thinks the cave was burial place,
and that the deposit of animal charcoal is the re-
mains of a wholesale cremation of the dead who
were probably killed in some great battle. This
belief is strengthened not only by the opinion Of
several learned professors who have visited the
spot in his company, but by the actions Of a
small band OF Indians whose medicine wise
men he invited to his house to see his relics.
These Indians were encamped a short distance
from his house, and he sent an invitation for the
medicine men to come over but the whole band
TO the number of forty, responded and came
trooping over in a manner that at first alarmed
him, making peculiar cries. Upon bringing
the various articles out in front of the house
they formed ring around them and joined III a
solemn dance, uttering a sort Of chant Upon
asking an explanation from the interpreter he
said they regarded the relics as sacred and
thought it sacrilege to remove them from the
the place where they had been deposited. 1t
would seem that the people who placed them in
the cave did SO as offerings to their dead
A professor of the Smithsonian Institution who
saw the cave says the articles were placed there
over 1000 years ago. and bases his estimate upon
the animal deposit covering them. None of the
Indians in the neighborhood have any reeollec-
ton or legends of the people who lived there at
this remote age.
The numerous representations Of the sun
which were found show that these people were
sun worshipers and it is well known that the
Pueblos and Zunis to this day go upon the tops
of their adobe houses every morning and with
their faces turned toward the east watch for the
rising god of the day.