Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1920-07-12
SEALED UP ROOM
IS DISCOVERED
IN PUEBLO RUIN
Aztec, San Juan County, N.
w., is Location of Magnif-
lCant Shrine of Prehistoric
People.

discovery--the most wonderful ye
i'm the form of a sealed-up room
has just been made at the Pueblo
ruin in Aztec, N. M, which is il
the course of excavation by thu
American Museum of National His.
tory of New York City.
DIR. Clark Wissler, curator OF
the Museums department of an,
thropology, recently reported by
letter to his associates in New
York:
"1ne roof is in perfect condition
The interior is p.as,ered and paint
ed in brilliant white with dull
red side borders and a running
series of triangular designs. No
room approaching this in beauty
and perfection has ever been dis
covered in America. There are sew
eral adjoining rooms that seem to
have some relation to this, but 1t
will be some time before they can
be dug out.
What we have is obviously the
hottest sanctum or shrine of these
prehistoric people. There is not
much in it, all the sacred objects
having been removed from the al
tar. But a sacred@serpent is carved
in wood over the ceiling. 1t is IL
feet long and of the finest work
manship. On the ceiling beams are
imprints of hands made by rubbing
white paint on the palms and fin
gers and then pressing down upon
the beams. Several strands of beau
tifully made rope hang from the
ceiling. presumably for the sup
port of hanging objects. On the
floor were a large number of nice
" cut stone slabs, one of which was
1-2 by / IL feet and / IA inch
es thick. M....
Room VIII Be Protected.
This room will be carefully pro-
tected from visitors and will be
one of the best exhibits here.
There is a painted room in one
of the cliff houses in Mesa Nerde
park that has some resemblance TO
this. but does not compare with
the one we have just found. This
room is. however, one more sug-
ges ,on that the people VINO llyed
in the cliff houses were the round
ers of the culture at Aztec and Bo-
nito.
DR.. wissler writes that the ruin
ia now most impressive, large
mart of it having been uncovered
Nv the American Museum excava-
tior, party, which has for five sea
sons past worked under the dlree-
tion of Mr.. Earl H, Morris.
y"since the greater part Of the
west side is now uncovered, one
can get a full sweep over TINS I'M
mense complex Of stone walls ana
touaint doorways. This west side
Of the ruin was occupied last, Tor
here all the rooms are well fllleo
with objects left behind, whereas
on the side fist excayated ana ap-
parently long unoccupied we founo
little.
"Our excavations have revealed |
one calamity that befell this CITY
The greater part of the east ana
north sides were swept by fire. We
can not be sure that this was Que
to one, big fire, but 1t was most
likely so. The ceilings were or
wood, supported by great logs OF
cedar and spruce, overlaid by spllt
cedar and bark. These fell down
upon each other and lay in the
lower rooms in great charred mass
90 No doubt many precious OBJ
tects went out In this great fire'
AS I have said before, we found the
bodies of SEVERAL unfortunates
caught in the rooms
Ceilings Shll Intact.
"As the fire did not reach the
west side we found a large. number
NJ rooms with their ceilings still
intact and their household uten-
sils on the floor just as they were
left.
4 81 have spent some time esu-
mating the amount of timber USED
in building this city. There were
the logs of some 200 pine trees 80
feet long and about II inches in
diameter. About 900 cedar logs OF
the same size, but averaging ~ ieet
IN length. (The cedar log mere
rarely produces a longer TRUNK,
About 1900. straight beautifu'
poles of pine and cottonwood. FL
,ally there is not less than loo
cords of split cedar splints for COW
,ring the ceilings All this WOOD
vas worked with stone. From this
I is clear that these people were T.
rood "lumberjacks.' i
"A Mexican who has been work
NO for us came In to report that
las uncovered skeleton. upon
va mination we found that the
,odv had apparently been buried
= q fallen room at the edge Of the t
ain. A little lower down we came
mon the skeleton of his grand r
hid (?) probably about five years b
Id.
I .Th,s reminds me that we have c
orrad the extreme southwest L
orner of the ruin 'Potters Field n
Wong the bodies buried here no II
tensils or implements have been "
ound, and they are not wrapped ].
his was also poorly built sec
i'm The rooms contain very III W
4 Further back the rooms have T
mo stone walls and the burials st
now every sign of wealth. I'll
IA few DAYS ago at the west side W
I the ruin the digging OF post
o,a brought to light the stone wall
!, kiva below the level of the Il
,,n This seems to belong to N
nail but much older ruin that d.
receded."
The seasons plan is to work OUT