New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-05-25
ANCIENT PUEBLOS.
STUDIES AMONG HUMAN RELICS OF THE
SOUTHWEST

with the Approval OF tae ~, o" nT john s BIZ
, nne Surgeon l. s A. Memoirs Of the ca IA
tlonal Academy of Sciences N'iu'"e ~
eminent Printing once $50 ,.
Curing IN the illness Of Frank Hamitoh Cusn-
,,s the expert in Zuni customs ana tradl''orS.
enc noen,oir here cited lacks complete history u
,ha reqaar,hes which brought TO light remark
biz s,ora az prehistoric relics in the SAT- River
Valley Arizona, and on the site Oh a'o
cqbola near the present home oil the "u''' III
Mans The deficiency Is TO be regretted si,,ce
A. Crsb,ng,s familiarity with the present NE
=, .hs pueh,os could not fail to explain inucu
-, ca, only be guessed from the Skulls anu
other homes left by people who lhhaoi'eu '"e
At, paoion of the Southwest. one thousand per-
hans even two thousand. years ago A'"i''' '''
only data for fixing the age OF 'he Ie"VS "N
Furnished BY his comparison on the runs eva"
,o,ed with the still imposing casa "IA""o VI"
,he ella River. IT is known that CAS-" Hi"""0
ras deserted pueblo in the time OF the e"i"V9'
Snsnish invaders In spite or the lapse vi "'"''
.i... h,,,,rad wears it still remains in much the
same condition as when it was iirs' seen ~ ..''
noa,s The greatest damage 1t has suffered
hos been in fact not from the sun an" VIM
o,a violent semi-tropcal storms Of centuries. ou'
-. .ho ,.,,dal tourists of recent years. Whlie
.ba excavations were IN progress on 'ne "A'.
p,vsr Il happened frequently that when an o'u
idol rlaca had been laid bare. and all the ar'-
50 Uncovered had been put In their Original
.s,,.ors ., he photographed a party OF ssh'-
ors would appear and either in the aoSe"Oe
=. .ho ,,orkn,en or IN spite of their remons'rahceS
-, nr.sent trample the objects under 1901 OF
deliberately kick the pottery 10 see WHAT was
,ns,do In the earlier days Of the work many
On. Skeletons were lost in this way some per
uons even appropriated handsome OBJECTS anu
o,r,,ad then, away, maintaining that. as THESE
,,i,ys were found on public land, all mad an
equal right to them" But If Casa Granue mas
decayed so slowly in period OF several 0e"'u
ries then 1t must have taken propor'io"a'e''
longer time for the buildings on the site 10 VIII"
Mr.. Cushing gave the name or Los Muer'os -
fall into mere mounds Of rubbish. iau 'hv'
heen inhabited, or had they even oeeh H"PoS'"5
structures in the time Of Fray Marcos anu
Coronado these explorers, who neard OF every
thing else would have learned something apou'
.ber They were probably shapeless. forgotten
heaps in the middle OF the sixteenth century just
o. thev were when Mr. Cushing first opened them
IN 1886 for investigation. No metallic ooJec's
were found with the exception OF rev small
conner bells made in the form OF ball by JONI
Ing hammered leaflets OF copper ore with small
nebble in the cavity 70 serve as clapper' nan
dies were attached 10 these bells in way which
showed that the makers Of them knew the use
Of the blow pipe and Of some sort OF SOLDERING
material. Tools Of stone and pottery were plehu-
full The decoration Of the ancient water pots
and eating bowls is similar to that seen on the
native ware Of the modern Zunis and Moqms'
This is the first evidence OF the affiliations Of the
antique race. Even in those pecuha1ues due
TO superstition the practice of the unnamed
hans
Of years ago, was the same as that Of the zuns.
Then as now. the custom was TO Kill pottery
buried with corpse by breaking it 70 pieces
In painting their clay vessels. the modern Pue-
bios do not complete the single or double band OF
color on the outside Of necked vessels and on
the inside of open bowls near the lip They
leave a little break which they call 1.-The exit
trail Of life" their belief being that pot has
what for lack Of more accurate word may
be called a soul A similar break is found on
the ancient pottery. The natural presumption
is that the people Of Los Muertos were OF the
same race with the modern natives Of the region
This point Of course, received special attention
at the hands of the anthropologists who exam
ined the human relics found at both Los Muertos
and Cibola They found among the ancient Skulls
an extraordinary number with that anomalous
triangular bone in the back Of the head whicf
is so prevalent among the human relics of an
Gent Peru as to lead Tschudi 10 call 1t the Inca
bone. In fact the proportion of skulls with this
popularity surpassed the record Of Peru. or al
races examined, Europeans least subject t
this anomaly. But 1t is not at all certain OF
this account that the Inca bone Is mark o
low development, for 1t is almost amoni
Papuans as 1t is among Caucasians. While III
Salt River people "out-Inca the Incas' in respec
.no fxro
so close to each other in the percentage Of It's re
currence that they may practically be calle
Identical The case Is the same with the tin
neighbors Of the Inca bone, "os quadratum" an
los ;riquetrum." which almost unknown
the Eastern world, they. but whic
are startlingly frequent among Peruvians, an
still more common among these newly dscovere
skulls of Arizona. When a comparison wa
made with the skulls found at Cibola. 1t turne
out that the Inca bone less frequent ther
than on Salt River among the old Peruvian
but when all the anomalies possible TO the bac
of the skull were considered. the Ciboans weI
easy winners outrunning the Peruvians two
one and the Salt River people at the rate
nearly three 10 two While the Ciboan serlt
was too small for a fully satisfactory conclusion
yet it plain that the ancients OF Arizona
New-Mexico and Peru stood In close relation
each other and widely separated from the rest {
mankind. even from other American tribes II
question whether the Inca bone and its dimin,
tive neighbors Of any significance in dete
mining the matter OF race depends on the
origin. 1t has been argued that these anomali'
simply due TO artificial pressure used
change the shape Of the skull. The experts WI
prepared the memoir in hand are inclined
think that this conjecture. which was that OF d
NJ. LA. Gosse of the French Anthropologic
Society, has already been disposed Of by other
They acknowledge that there has been in near
all the Salt River skulls flattening Of the bac
Of the head by some means. But they cite II
case Of well-known Indian tribes where the pra
tice Of fiattening the skull is very systematic. b,
where the Inca bone is almost as rare IT