St. Paul daily globe., 1895-09-20
LIVED IN HOLES.
Prehistotric Men Did Not Always
Build Their Homes Above the

Prehistoric Men Did Not Always
Build Their Homes Above the
Ground.
New York World
Explorations in the Rio Verde val
ley of Arizona, conducted for the bu-
reau of ethnology by Cosmos Minde-
left. have brought about interesting
discoveries respecting a prehistoric
race. These people burrowed in the
earth like rats. Their houses were
holes in the hills, some of them so ex-
tensive as TO be veritable subterran-
can hotels, the apartments being in
suites for the occupancy of families.
Eight miles south of Verde, on the
east side Of the river, is now the empty
nome OF a once prosperous under
ground community 1t has 200 rooms
on the main level, divided into seven
ty-four distinct and separate SETS 1t
Is believed that the entire establish
ment accommodated 150 to 200 people.
followed out of the faces of the
cliHs In that region are thousands of
rooms, sometimes in clusters of two
or three, while now and then will be
round such an elaborate excavation
as that just described, affording quar-
terS for community of considerable
size. The places chosen for such
workings are along the faces of cliffs,
Where strata of soft rock occur. The
rooms generally are rudely circular,
the largest being thirty feet and the
smallest hve or six feet in diameter
In the underground hotels a suite or
olnarily consists of one large main
room In front, entered by a narrow
nall from the face of the bluff, and
NUMBER OF smaller rooms connected by
narrow doorways or passages. There
Is no outlet into the open except
through the main room or parlor.
Usually there are a number of little
storage rooms or cubby holes, corre-
spending to closets. These are from
one foot to five feet in diameter. on a
level with the floors.
NOT much is known about the his
tory of the Rio Verde valley. Within
recent years that region has been a
stamping ground of the hostile Apache
and Walapal
Remains OF large villages are found
on the river terraces, some of them of
elaborate and complex ground-pIan. in
olcating long occupancy. The ruins
cover space of five acres. This vii
lage, like all the others, was built
after the fashion Of a Pueblo. being
merely an aggregation of rooms. most
OF which are only one-story in height.
1t mad 22o rooms on the ground floor
anu ABOUT 800 rooms in all, providing
accommodation for perhaps 45O persons.
ms interesting structure of antiquity
Is OF roughly dressed stone, with a
number of courts or open spaces sep
arating the clusters of rooms. One
room that stands by itself is thought
10 nave been sacred ceremonial
chamber.
The ancient inhabitants of the Verde
valley relied mainly If not wholly upon
agriculture for their support Of the
military art they knew so little that
lthey built no Notifications of any
X K,na: n;, dRey In grew much corn, and re-
mans OF irrigation canals and reser-
Hoirs utilized by them are found.
mat they domesticated the sheen and
the dog is proved by Photographic
In the rooms were found fragments
OF baskets. bits of grinding stones,
bundles of fibers, pieces of cotton
clotn, pottery, arrow shafts anG
sanoaIs OF woven yucca fiber Some
times the house had a cavity in the
rock for holding fifteen or twenty gall
ions OF water months supply for
an aboriginal family. These people
buried their dead in inches in the rock.
A few Of their mummies have been
found, preserved merely by the dry
ness of the atmosphere in the arid re-
g1on. That climate is particularly
favorable to the preservation OF bones.
The origin of naturalization is natural
and not artificial It was so in ancient
Egypt, which is very dry country.
The population of the Verde valley
was never large, probably not exceed
ing 600 souls. There were few fila hle
areas, and apart from these the coun-
try is forbidding and not suited to
agriculture. The rains in the region
are so numerous and extensive as to ba
attributed formerly to an immense
population, estimates running as high
as 500 600. But these people had way
OF moving continually on and on, and
band of 500 of them might leave be-
hind them the remains of fifty villages
in a century.