Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-10-12
TELLS OF CLIFF PEOPLE
Prof. a. V. Kiddcr of Harvard Heard
In Interesting Lecture at
Library Hall.

Prof A. " Kidder OF Harvard, gave
an interesting and instructive lecture
Saturday night in Library hall on tho
Utah cliff dwellers. Judge Henderson
presided, and Prof Cummings eX-
planned it was through the generosity
of Col, Il. A. Wall that the last ex-
petition through the ancient south
county had accomplished so much.
making possible a mapping of Monte
yuma canyon The excavations had re-
vealed discoveries of the highest I'M
portance. In the course of his address
Prof. Kidder said:
1.-THE cliff dWellcrs were people VINO
once inhabited the more arid parts OF
the southwestern United States Their
range included the southern part OF
Utah, southwestern Colorado and large
sections Of Arizona and New Mexico.
They are to be distinguished from
other southwestern tribes by the fact
that they built permanent houses OF
stone or adobe, invariably associated
with which We're semi subterranean
ceremonial rooms or kiyas. They de-
pended largely for sustenace on the
cultivation of corn, beans and pump
| kins, and reached n degree of excel
| lence in making pottery far in advance
! of any of their neighbors
'"The development of pottery-makinS
| among the cliff-dwelers is one of the
| unsolyed riddles of American archaeo-
| logy, and the same Is true of their cul-
| ture as a whole. 1t Is a culture without
| Il beginning. We find their remains
| scattered over the whole southwest,
| and everywhere their houses are well
built, their ceremonial rooms all fol-
I low certain carefully worked-out
| scheme, and their pottery is of an ex-
cellence which could only be reached
by centuries of growth. We find no
| rough, undecorated. badly-shaped pot
| terry, no experiments. These people
seemed to have sprung up fully ma
| tured. nouriShed for time, and then
| mysterious!y been reduced to mere
| handful who now inhabit the pueblos
| of Arizona and New Mexico.
"The ancient potters of San Juan
| Utah, made as fine examples of the
great class OF black and white ware
| as can be found III the whole south
west. Red pottery, except In lower Sal
| Juan, Is rather uncommon, and no
very we'll made, being thin and brittle
t.,rhe great art of the San Juan pot
| tiers lay In the wonderful way In which
! they could, freehand, paint In com
| plicated design, make it encircIe the
| pot and Join itself again so accurate.
| " that 1t Is often impossible to tel
| where 1t begins. l say freehand. be-
| cause you can never find scratches
| guidelines or preliminary divisions or
| the surface which would help in the
accomplishment of the design. The
| whole surface OF the pottery is not
| marked over with figures, as Is so com
| mon in primitive art. Certain effective
| areas, such as the border under the
| rim, are picked out and decorated
| AS to the symbols themselves. 1t is not
| yet possible to give any real EXPLAIN,
| ton Some link between the ancient
| pottery, whose symbols are yet a riddle
| course, shrdlu shrd cnlfwySHRDLu
| to US, and the modern which OF
| course, can be studied, Is absolutely
| necessary, and If such a link can be
| found it is possible that we may yet
| discover the fundamental meaning OF
at least some of the designs. 1t is OF
| the greatest Importance that thor
ough exploration OF these virgin fields
! In San Juan county should be made
| at once