The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-09-03
RELICS CLIFF JEWELLERS
OWE BUILDING THAT SHELTERED
MAYBE 6,OOO PEOPLE
A Ruined Aboriginal City on a Ciin a Thou
sand Feet HiEh-skulls OF n Race That
Had Double Teeth All ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Relies Exposed to Ignorant Piunderin
From u, Los ANGLER Tim,i.

From n, Los ANGLER TimrE.
Laden with relics Of the vanished race Of the
Cliff Dwelers the Rev. DR. George l.. Cole has re
turned from journey 10 the ruined cities Of South
eastern Colorado and New Mexico Valuable
results were secured by excavations in an ancient
! communal dwelling, as yet unnamed, which stands
on the cliffs Of the Santa Fe River. fourteen miles
! from Espanola, n. ". This Is the largest pueblo
/ yet discovered in the United States, and DR. Cole
practically the FIRST to visit il with scientific
! objects In view. He found stone implements and
pottery Of extreme rarity. and the bones Of a race
all OF whose teeth were molars or grindcra Among
the bones excavated from burial mound on the
| mesa a woman's femurs measuring nineteen
| inches a length which indicates that this aborig
inal giantess must have been at least seven and
! half feet tall
| During the journey Just completed. which is the
| Nth DR. Cole has made 10 study the former habi
| tations Of the Cliff Dweers, he and his SON Fay C.
| Cole, visited the Mancos, the Chaco. and other
| cliff dwellings,, but they found the less visited
ruins more interesting than any others
The cliff on which the unex plored ruins stand
rises thousand feet above the surrounding coun-
try On one side Of the isolated rocky mass Is the
valley Of the Santa Fe River. on the other that of
the Santa Clara. Up TO 600 feet is shelf which
furnished nesting place for the Clif Dwelers Of
soft pumice stone they burrowed dens for their
families Eventually the original shelters in
the cliffs grew TO be great warren. Room after
room was hewn out until the rows were four or
five deep. Under the shelter OF the overhanging
cliff walls were built, extending the rows OF rooms
The Cliff Dweilers were sheltered from rain or
storm and their homes were inaccessible for their
enemies
Not satisfied with their rock caverns, the Cliff
Dwellers climbed upward, and on the mesa 400
feet above the shelf which the caves opened,
built communal dwelling.
This mean Is about tn rec q ia ters Of mile wide
and mile and half long, with cliffs all about and
the best OF opportunities for defense On its
edge was reared a watch tower Of granite whose
height DR. Cole believes TO have been not less than
sixty feet The blocks were painfully carried up
the 900 foot cliff for the granite deposits
are at considerable distance. For greater secur.
ity wall was built across the middle of the mesa
On this rock platform. !, 900 feet up in the air
there stand today the ruins Of two communal
dwellings, one evidently much older than the
other The older dwelling Is as yet untouched,
and what little exploration Of the more modern
one Dr. Cole had time for amounts to a mere scratch
on the surface
There were not less than sixteen hundred rooms
in the larger building in its prime. says DR., Cole
anu pfoodoiy Two houSand. The building meas
ured 24Ox3OO feet 1t was OF blocks OF stone
measuring six by six by fifteen inches, quarricd
from the cliffs below and carried up by the work.
men, The rooms were rooted with timber and
the walls then carried higher. In the centre was
a great court a comm on kitchen for all. from
which radiated immense numbers of roo ms The
building spread with the growth of the commun-
ity until II was three stories high and tho rooms
stretched away twelve deep from the central court
with smaller courts here and there. DIR. Cole
estimates that the population averaged about
three TO room, W hich would make between 4 800
and 5000 people dwelling in the immense pueblo,
besides those who lived in the cliff caves
The rooms at the sides of the communal dwelling
averaged about fourteen feet in size On the upper
stories they were mostly smaller some being only
seven by fourteen, others seven by twenty -one.
Some rooms were found large as fourteen by
twenty-one feet.
To day the ancient pueblo is mass Of ruins Tho
Quakes and the rooms are filled with debris The
indian tribes that dwell in the vicinity have for
gotten the history of the cliff dwellings,, IT, indeed
their fathers knew, and the Cliff Dweers are for
gotten people
With the trophies Of his summers explorations
spread out about him, DR. Cole has turned his par
Tor into an anihropological museum. One table il
covered with water jugs and incense pipes the sofa
hidden under stone axes. mortars pestles weaving
shuttles and pottery. Another table is deck ed with
a row of grnning skulls and huge crossbones:
beneath it comfortably repose all the parts Of a
skeleton, from the toe bones TO the shoulder blades
waiting TO be wired together and strewn about arc
bows and arrows, baskets jugs of twisted twigs
made water tight by pitch; modern Indian pottery
photographs by the score and a stump of poiri-
wood, n
possession.
Look at those teeth" said Dr. Cole tendery
fondling the skull OF the giantess She has no
incisors no cutting teeth in 'front.' as have all the
others races of which have any knowledge She
has grinders all around. and so have the other
skulls That shows they were grain eaters rather
man meat-eaters The foreheads are high and the
shape Of the skull shows intelligence but notice
how curously they are fattened at the back.
Charles Lnmmis thinks the Cliff Dwellers were
merely the ancestors Of the present Indians The
Cliff Dwellers skulls are different. their habits were
different their implements and pottery are different
and they were great deal more advanced than the
present Indians
IT is my belief that an earthquake tumblesi
down the communal dwelling which have Just
visited. The people were scared away. and were
afraid to go back for any of their possessions That
is why the pottery and implements are found I'M
touched.
Their religion must have been a sun Worship
Their dead were buried with the knees drawn up to
the body face down, and head toward the setting
sun. In the picture-wnung and on the pottery are
continual repeated represen tatons of the SUM- sur
rounded by streaming rays The turkey was ap-
parenty regarded as a sacred bird It's bones arc
almost always found in the graves and its picture
is frequent in the picture writings In the cave
hVE Rl