The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-04-10
(BY NEIL NJ. IrDDN

"HERE is at the University of Utah
the nucleus of an interesting and eX-
ceptonally valuable collection OF
archaeological material Under the lead
ership of Dean Byron Cummings, four
expeditions from the Ctah branch of the
Archaeological Institute of America have
been sent into the desert lands of south
ern Utah and northern Arizona to study
the remains of the prehistoric peoples who
once inhabited those isolated regions.
Each of these expeditions has been sue
cessful, the material collected has been
placed in the University museum, and
the reports OF the work have been mad0
ready for the public.
Southeastern Utah is recognized the
world over as the home of the cliff
DWellers." The remains of these people
have been collected and deposited in
nearly all of the woTld-famous museums.
They may be found in Berlin, London.
Paris. Rome, ConstantinOple and a few
other European cities; in America they
. are on exhibition in Los Angeles. San
Francisco. Santa Fe. Denver. St. Louis,
Field Museum at Chicago. Peabody Mu-
scum at Cambridge, National Museum at
Washington, others at Philadelphia, New
York and lesser depositaries. 1t was this
rObbing of the Utah field TO supply other
parts of the country that aroused Dean
Cummings and few other educators TO
the need of a local museum. place
where the last of this material could be
collected and preserved for the Utah TO
come.
Nucleus For Museum.
As a result of theii unselfish efforts
there is the beginning of this museum
1t is still in an embryonic stage, 10 be
sure, but the interior department has, dur
ing the past year, made 1t a national de
postary. giving il that official approval
which will make its permanent existence
possible. Most Of the material is from
pueblo, communal and cliff-dwelling
ruins of Utah, yet there are fifty pieces
of Panama pottery, about one hundred
Daeoiiths from the Ohio valley and sew
eral specimens of MoQui and Hopi pottery
from central Arizona. All of these may
be best studied in their respective groups
The HoDi pottery is modern ware, that
is, it is made by present-day Indians The
group is. for the most part. made up OF
bowls. cups and pitchers. one small ola
shadows the rest. but il is q poor speci-
men in comparison with what the tribe is
capable Of producing. All of the vessels
would rank very low as household uten-
sis They were made TO sell 10 the tour
lists, not TO be used by the natives them
selves They are highly decorated like
all Moqui ware, the decorations being IL
red brown black and yellow. In some
instances animals, the deer and antelope
for example. have been crudely painted il
the bowl, but for the most part the deco
rations are made up of different combina-
tons of the curved or straight line. This
group forms one Of the lesser divisions OF
the museum.
Pre-GlaciaI Relics.
PaeoIiths-By this term is meant those
articles manufactured by paeOlithiC
men in some pre-glacial epoch. He is dis
tinguished from neOlithic man primarily
BY his workmanship and the character OF
the implements he made, The earlier
tools were roughly Clipped from the first
stone at hand; the later articles Were
made of selected materials and usually
polished The collection of these paeo-
lithic implements is mostly made up of
knives, arrow and spear heads, scrapers.
hatcbets, hammer-stOnes and sOapstone
sinkers. With these are a couple of
earthenWare vessels and string OF shell
beads but while found in the lower Mis-
sissippi valley, they belong 10 later pc
Rod than the accompanying paeoliths-
These bits of ancient handiwork are i'm
calmly creations. Some of the knives were
made of coarse granite or sandstone, only
the corners being Clipped off, leaving the
blade nearly round, with the weight in
re middle In the hands Of primitive
man they undoubtedly answered their pur-
pose.
panans. pottery is in a class by itself. 1t
is entirely different from all other earth
enware vessels and is peculiar only to the
isthmus The specimens are very Irall.
usually low. and are so symmetrical that
one would be easily convinced that they
collection are examples OF the famous
..lost Color the tripod" and the "alli-
Gator ware The greater number of the
snecimens are in their natural clay col
ors but few are a very dark red,
brown or the whitish yellow of the lost
coIor." Small toads, lizards or fish form
the handles for most of the vessels. The
legs are usually low curved and hollow,
with small clay rattles showing through
the incisions in the sides. These show an
Intentionally high degree of civilization
unusual skill on the part Of. the makers
and a rare sense Of the artistic. They
1rnd,ubtedly belong to a cOmpaTaIiVely re
cent epoeh in the development of early
man.
Utah's Material.
The Utah material is easily divided into
three classes. that of the White Canyon
district that of Alkali ridge, and that
from the region south of the San Juan
river. From White canyon, where Pro-
lessor Cummings and his party surveyed
The three great natural bridges in 1897.
several coiled-ware oilas were secured.
these We're without exception, much
broken and partly lost, but the general
form is easily seen from the mended pots,
the complete restoration Of which IS de-
laved only until larger rooms are secured
Two boards of well-seasOned oak were
also brought back. These had been cut