The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-10-11
BURIED AMERICAN CITIES
Ruins of Vast Communities of Which the World
Knows Nothing.

was put. When the earth had dried,
it formed an air-tight covering Then
the bodies were placed in a shallow
grave and covered over. Like all sun
or nature worshippers, these people
endowed each object with its spirit
counterpart, and either buried or burn
ed the individual belongings beside
their owners body, that they might
accompany him on his spirit journey.
South of Phoenix, some thirty-eight
miles, on high mesa, is ruin that
tells of the ordinary occupa ton of the
inhabitants. There are the outlines of
ruined corrals 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 determined, but
on Stats found in ruins south of the
Salt river are splendid figures of liza
mas, now bred in Central and South
America. and used as beasts of bur
den there. These pens might have
been for the purpose of securing herds
of sheen; and without the stats, on
which the figures cannot be mistaken
one would be inclined to the opinion
that they were intended for sheep or
goats
In the ruins that have best withstood
the exposure of ages, many interesting
VI Tic art nave DtGn
found. Ollas of all shapes and sizes,
urns containing the ashes of the dead,
which were either placed in mauso-
Ieums or Kept in the houses of friends,
ana jars, partly filled with parched
corn and beans, were found in a re-
markable state of preservation.
Evidences of 81 Flood.
1t seems as If the entire region had
hhAn hxF,
were shaken by some terrible earth
quake and toppled into a thousand
fragments. giving the inhabitants
barely time to escape. Few of the
skeletons that the amateur diggers in
the ruins have taken out show signs of
mutation or have broken bones.
Inc largest of these cities, the anna
teur psychologists of Arizona and CAL
lfornia have named Los Muertos-the
the dead city. The ruined walls pro-
trudlng through the soil may be traced
Tor three miles own the valley. The
outlines of the buried city show that it
was almost square. Several streets are
clearly traced by the bits of walls
sun above the earth, and these show
tnat the streets were very marrow but
regular--in which they differ, from the
ancient Mexican nueblos of the South
west. Here and there were evidently
usual thickness of the ruined walls
shows that the buildings facing these
plazas were the biggest in the cum
munity-probably Notifications or tenn
pies, or meeting-halls, several stories
high.
The ruin of wall twelve feet thick
may be followed all about the city. In
some places 1t is two feet above the
earth, and in few places the wall has
disappeared. When MIR. Cushing ex-
plored it, he found where the ruins
showed that enormous towers had been
built upon the walls, probably for pur-
poses of defense. Stone implements of
warfare are frequently unearthed. One
of these articles found in great number
is battle-ax of polished granite and
weighing from five to twenty pounds.
There is also a peculiar sling found oc-
casionally in the dry sand. Long spears
of iron wood. wood indigenous to the
arid regions, tipped with fiint-heads
have been found in Los Muertos by the
dozen. The aborigines there evidently
had not reached the bow and-arrow
period.
Whoever the mysterious and won
derful people who lived at Los Muer-
tos may have been, they belonged
strictly to the stone age, for not a bit
of metal has ever been dug up in the
ruins. The little ornaments and gew-
gaws that the Indian mothers loved
to wear and bedeck their infants with
were invariably bright shells brought
from the sea, or polished stones of va
ried colors. Large quantities of these
are found. such as turquoises, ruby,
mother-of-pearl in the shape of neck
amulets or wristlets.
The extensive irrigating bitches were
dug with stone implements, and the
huge rafters of the lofty buildings
were worn off with the same rude
tools. 1t must have taken years of in
cessant toll and a patience beyond
that Of modern men to complete the
work these people accomplished with
the crude means at hand. That they
were a pastoral folk is certain. In
their fields grew the pumpkin, cotton
flax. tobacco, a species Of potato, bar
ley and corn. OF domesticated animals
they had the COW, sheep, dog, and tur-
key. They were not given much to car
nervousness. The meal of their corn
or barley or the wild acorn was more
toothsome, baked into cakes, than the
flesh of animals. 1t Is not positively
known that they ate meat at all. The
Yuma Indians of this day are very
careful about eating flesh. They be-
Eeve in the transmigration of souls
into the animals about them. No evil
dence has been found that they lived
upon other foods than cereals, oysters,
fish and fruits. Helen T. Griswold.