The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1919-12-05
PREHISTORIC CASTLE
PROVES INDIANS SKILL
Bulletin of Bureau of EthnOlOgy De.
scribes Towers. No Trace of Race
OF People Remains.

Washington, Nov. SOTO meet the
demand for information regarding
prehistoric ruins in the neighborhood
of the Mesa Verde National Park, the
Bureau of American Ethnology of the
Smithsonian Institution has just is
sued a bulletin o lthe prehistoric
Villages, Castles, and Towers of
Southwestern Colorado" by DR.. j..
Walter Fewkes, chief of the bureau. :
The Mesa Verde National park was
created for the preservation of its
wonderful prehistoric cliff houses and
! the Bureau of American Ethnology in
cooperation with the Department of
the Interior has done much by the ex-
%cavation and repair of these monu-
ments to increase their educational
Importance. The bureau, in order to
make known the nature Of that work,
is publishing bulletins from time to
time on these monuments and their
builders.
Most of the buildings described in
this pamphlet have long been known
to cowboys and sheep men, and many
have been described by psychologists,
but this knowledge is local or scat
tered in many publications often in
accessible to the general public. 1t is
the purpose of the bulletin to collect
this information in n publication
and to show the relation of towers,
castles and other remains to the great
cliff buildings of the Mesa Verde Ma
tional park.
The three questions usually asked
by visitors to the cliff houses of our
Southwest are: Who were the build
ers, when did they live and what be-
came of them. A fourth question:
were they pygmies,-is easy to an
swer, for there are many known num-
mics of the cliff jewellers of the Mesa
Verde and while they show that cliff
dwellers were a small people they were
not pygmies. The widespread belief
that they were pygmies very naturally
arose from the small size Of the door
ways and rooms of cliff dwellings, but
small rooms are not sufficient evil
dence of a diminutive size of their in
habitants. The origin, antiquity, and
fate of the ancient people of the Mesa
Verde are the subjects Of scientific in
vestigation and no archeologist can
yet give a decided opinion regarding
them. Evidence bearing on these
questions is, however, yearly acumu-
lating, and the bulletin above mention
ed furnishes important data.
AS Historical documents are silent
regarding the people who constructed
these buildings the student is obliged
to gather what information he can
from the buildings and the household
and other implements buried in the
rooms or graves or from the physical
characters as shown by mummies OF
skeletons.
This bulletin treats especially of
architecture and points out that we
have in buildings an index of social
organization. The characteristics OF
an individual may be judged from the
style of his dwelling, and those of a
race by their monuments. The social
life Of a people, no less than the abil.
ity of ancient workers, may thus be
shown by the relative perfection Of
their %habitations. A comparison Of
different types built by the same peo'
pie tells the story of the evolution Of
the complex from simple types.
The tower type of ruin is n of the
most picturesque forms of prehistoric
buildings of our southwest. We fine
them in many forms and situations, il
caves, on top of pinacles, o. in valley
shut in by cliffs. They may be circular
square or semi-circular, isolated o,
rising from basal rooms, one or man.
stories high. Hovenweep ~castel, tn
best preserved building mentioned il
the report, calls wildly to mind som
ancient castle of medieval Europe.
is over rs feet high and from on
point Of view shows the form it hat
when built, as the sky lines are still
intact.
Prehistoric buildings, made of hug
stones called negaliths, in the regio
considered, were described over 4
years ago. 1t is shown in this bulleti
that before the prehistoric inhabitant
: of the region constructed building
with horizontal masonry in which il
dividual stones were laboriously ftte,
they built structures of huge stone
set on edge, some of which still stan
in line as high as ones head. Thes
1s!;1s1