The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-10-24

or America. In the last ten years there has been a wholesale ripping open of tombs of prehistoric warriors. a search ing for ancient turouoises. battle weap- ons. personal finery, household utensils and other articles used by the unknown ancients who dwelt in the Gila Valley. The building of the enormous irrigation plants in the Salt and Giia Valleys has obliterated acres of very interesting re- mains of aboriginal irrigation systems. while ranchmen and cattlemen have laid low many an outline of prehistoric struc- lures. where a trained archaeoiogist might have learned facts of inestimable value in solving the problem of who these aborigines were. how they lived, whence they came and whither they departed. During the last year several fine speci- mems of the engineering skill of the mys- terious race who dwelt here ages agp have been covered over and well nigh ob- liberated by alfalfa growers
 There are no more interesting aboriginal remains in the Union than these of tho buried towns in the Gila and Salt Val leys. within fifty miles of Phenix. In- deed an aggregation of mines of prehis- toric towns may be traced across the hot. sandy desert wastes from Florence southward into Sonora. Mexico. Frank H. Gushing estimated that the population
 
 ties was once over 300, 900. In age. these ruins of the buried cities of Arizona are far earlier than Pompeii and Herculan- cum.
 The evidence Is overwhelming that there were once fourteen aboriginal cities, each having a population varying from 10000 to 75,000 In Southern Arizona. here, in what was a wholly unclaimd desert until the last few years. and is yet largely waste of hot. drifting sands. there lived several thousands of years ago a dense population of intelligent, ambitious and skillful farmers. That these people lived in this region hundreds of years, Is not gainsaid by any archaeologist. and that they were the peers in brains and progress of any contemporaneous race on the Western Hemisphere Is patent to the most careless investigator. The irrigation system, which comprise canals sixteen miles long, with ingenious water gates; the arrangement of streets and buildings; the polished woods stones and shells the finely woven fabrics that have been re- covered from these buried and ruined cities, all tell of the high degree of civili- zation reached by these mysterious people. There Is no more fascinating subject in the realm of scientific exploration and study than that which concerns the origin and aspirations. the wars. and the final and wonderfully complete disappear ance of the several hundred thousand men and women who made a garden of the Arizona desert wastes centuries ago.
 The regains of the largest cities are on a sloping plain-about forty-five miles acress in any direction-between the Salt and Gila Valleys.
 The irrigating canals are characteristic of this region Over TOO 600 acres of land must have been watered by these great systems. Even in this day of mechani- cal devices and the finest tools and ap- pliances. the construction of such canals. big dams, storage reservoirs and dykes would be no mean. engineering work Fancy, then. what years of patient labor their construction required from this pre- historic race. who had only rude stone inn plements to excavate with and wicker baskets in which to carry away the earth. Mir. Cushing belives the great canals of these ancient peoples were used for navi- gatiou, as well as for irrigation. He found there evidences of very large pine timbers which could not have been ob- tained within seventy miles of the cities. and he believes that these and enormous stones for building purposes were fioated down the artificial waterways. a These aborigines were travellers, for shells that came from the lower Pacific
  are frequently exhumed. They were also | adopts in inlaid and mosaic work. In a very durable cement made from the gum | deposited by insests on greasewood twigs | fragments of turquoise bits of polished granite and shells were artistically enn- bedded. Then when the matrix had been polished and rubbed down. a very supe- rior mosaic for home ornamentation was made.
 The location of the temples. which are determined by the character of the relics found in the ruins, shows that these peo- pie were sun worshippers. In one city, twenty miles from Phoenix. the remains of an estufa or temple have photographs (picture writings) which show the priests and others worshiping in the rising sun.
 The excavation of the prehistoric tombs and valuts reveols facts concerning the characteristics of the aborrigines and the religious and social classes among them. Hundreds of skeletons have been recover ed The people were small In stature, and their skulls were broader than those of the Astecs and Peruvians. To secure the liberation of the soul after death the body was burned, and the ashes were inclosed in an urn placed at the foot of the pyral mound. Priests and warriors of distinguished prowess were not cre- mated, but were buried in sepulchers oe- heath the house where they died. Recently A erlic hunter unearthed four skeletons Of priests. The bodies were thickly wrap ped in cotton cloths. and over this thick coating of adobe was put. When the earth had dried. 1t formed an air-ught covering. Then the bodies were placed In a shallow grave and covered over. Like all sun or nature worshippers. these peo- ple endowed each object with It's spirit counterpart. and either buried or burned the individuap belongings beside their owners body. that they might accom- pany him on his spirit journey.
 South of Phoenix. some thirty-eight miles. on a high mesa. Is a ruin that tells of the ordinary occupations of the inhab- itants There are the outlines of ruined cor, als or stock pens. in which domestic animals were kept. Many finds prove the purposes for which they were used. What the animals were is not so easily deter mined. but on slats found in ruins south of the Salt River are splendid figures of llamas, now bred only in Central and South America, and Used as beasts Of burden there These pens might have been for the purpose of securing herds of sheep; and without the slats, on which the figures can not be mistaken. one would be inclined to the opinion that