The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-07-19
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, D. G.
EXPLORING THE PAST.

new and Interesting archaeological
finds, both of which were literally
dug up.
A temple of ancient fire worship.
which seems to indicate that the pre-
historic inhabitants of the southwest
reached a higher degree Of civiliza-
ton than had formerly been sup
posed has been unearthed and studied .
in detail by DR.. J. Walter Fewkes,
chief of the bureau of American Eth
nology of the Smithsonian institution.
And two skeletons, those of boy
and of a girl, have been found buried
in the ruins of a stone house, probably
of prehistoric origin. These remains
have been shipped to the National
museum here, where they will be care
fully studied. They may shed new
light on the race and physical char
acter of the early inhabitants of the
region.
This digging up of the 1ong-buried |
past seems a futile and perhaps an
uninteresting occupation to those who
have never followed or studied it, but
as a. matter of fact it has the highest
scientific value and it exercises a
peculiar fascination. Nearly everyone
who goes to the Southwest with the
slightest bent for scientific investiga-
ton falls under the spell of the coun-
try's romantic past, and develops
something of a mania for hunting the
remains of it.
Where the Past Lives.
The country is remarkably well
adapted to the Indulgence of this
taste. 1t is extremely dry-the greater
part of it a desert-so that in the
first place bones, pottery and other
ancient remains tend to be preserved,
whereas in a more moist country they
would disintegrate. In the second
place, there is no heavy growth of
vegetation to cover these traces OF
occurrence when riding across the
mesa-lands of this country to come to
a slight mound of earth dotted with
bits of broken pottery This, you may
be sure. is the remains of an Indian
dwelling abandoned long ago. 1t may
be only a few hundred years old, or
it may be q thousand or more If you
dismount and dig about in the ruins
with a sharp stick, you will bring to
light more pottery and probably also
.'artefacts" as the ethnoIogists call
them. These bits of departed hu-
man era will surely inflame your i'm
agination if you have any. You can
not refrain from trying to reconstruct
in your mind the lives of the people
who made and used these things
OF course. the thoro exploration OF
one of these ancient ruins is great
work, and unless you are either
wealthy or very fond of manual labor,
exclusively with your imagination, in
stead of with a shovel and pick, which
is the really scientific way. Then,
too. if you do go in for the heavy
work of excavation, the proba bilites
are that YOU are only delving into
habitation like those of the present
Pueblo Indians, and not more than
few hundred years old. You may re-
cover a few articles of some interest
or value-a perfect bit of pottery. per-
but the very ancient ruins are neces-
sarily the rarest-
A Fascinating Science.
None-the-less, if you have once
delved into the past on your own &C
count, you can understand the keen
ia scination which has kept the scien-
lists busy for years, reconstructing in
their imaginations the lives of these
long dead peoples, trying to make an
hypothesis that will fit the facts.
In doing this they have told them
selves and the public some beautiful
fairy tales. For example, when the
numerous ''cliff dwellings" in Colorado
and New Mexico were discovered, the
scientist proceeded to reconstruct a
whole race of cliff jewellers. Solely
because the doors of these dwellings
were very small so that a man of or
binary height had to get down on his
hands and knees to enter, they ad-
vanced the theory that the cliff dwell
ers had been a race of pygmies, who
had subsequently become extinct.
This charming idea became very pop
ular, was woven into fiction, and is
still believed by many non-scientific
persons Subsequent scientific inves
tigation completely exploded it. It
showed that the people who occupied
the cliff dwellings were in all proba-
biIity racially identical with the
Pueblo Indians who now ihhabit the
region, and that they built their habl-
tations under and against the cliffs for
protection against enemies who were
pressing them hard, and they made
their doorways small for the same rea-
son. They entered on hands and
knees just a the subsequent investiSa-
tors did, and afterward rolled boulders
into the openings to keep out intrud-
ers.
Bandelier. one of the greatest eth
noIogists and archa biologists that
America has produced. did most of the
work of refuting the pygmy cliff
dweIler theory and showing the racial
identity of the ancient with the pres
ent inhabitants of the southwest he
wrote a remarkable novel. The De
Makers" depicting the life of
these ancient Americans. which is per-
haps the only one of the many ro-
mances based on prehistoric America
which has any claim to scientific con-
sideration.
New Light on the Problem.
The theory advanced by Bandelier
was that all the sedentary Indians OF
| the southwest from Colorado far
down into Mexico were of the same
racial stock and had attained about
| the same degree Of civilization Cor
/ rather barbarism- Thus the wonder
| fui romance which Prescott wrote
4 in his Conquest of Mexico" was
| shown to be romance and nothing
more. It is probable that the Aztec
culture which COrtez overcame was
I fundamentally similar to that of the
Pueblo Indians in New Mexico today,
/ but founded on a much greater popu-
| Iation and somewhat greater wealth.
The recent discovery of Doctor
! Fewkes, however, may make necessary
yet another revision of our ideas of
/ the prehistoric southwest While 1t
presumably does nothing to refute the
/ theory of the racial identity of the