The Washington herald., 1920-12-23
Views S Of.
Visitors in
Capital
Interviews with Guests
From ALI Parts of
The United States.

~ Il
Discoveries of prehistoric architec-
turai remains in the chaco Canyon
in Northwestern New Mexico which
rival the attainments of builders of
the ancient world are reported by
Director Edgar L. Hewett.' of the
School of American Research, Santa
Fe, seen at the Cosmos Club yester-
day.
Hewctt is here after six months In
the heart Of the Navajo Desert. New
Mexico, to make His annual report
on the excavations being made in
the Chaco Canyon to the managing
board of the School of American Rel
search. Of which DR.. william H.
Holmes. director of the National
Gallery of Art. is chairman.
1t Is a. fascinating story that
Hewett tells of the excavations in
the silent desert where work is car
ried on despite the broiling sun of
midday and the severe dust storms.
The Chaco Canyon, through which
the dry bed of the Chaco river runs
from the rugged peaks of the Con-
tinental Divide down to the San Juan
river, treeless save for occasional
clumps of stunted cedar and pinon,
was some centuries ago the scene
of the activities of a race who built
more enduringly than either the
Aztecs in our own hemisphere, or the
Egyptians. Assyrians and Babylon
ians in the Old World
BUILT MAMMOTH
DWELLING HOUSES.
They were communists, these peo-
pie who piled layer upon layer of
varicolored stone to a height of five
stories and built apartment houses
two modern city blocks in length
and almost one-third of a mile in
circumference. This stratified effect
Is typical of their mural architec-
ture, Hewett says. and is the only
APPROACH to decoration which they at
tempted. as far as is shown by mod
ern excavations.
1T is remarkable that although
they builded so well and SO endur-
ingly, they made little attempt at
ornamentation." said Hewett This
| effect was probably suggested by
the stratif1catfon of the neighbor-
ing cliffs, another indication of the
truth that nature is the basis of all
art.
"A strip of land seven miles long
by mile wide embraces the entire
| area that these communities inhab-
ited," he continued. TT is probable
that they never cultivated more
than 5000 acres of land at any one
time and never numbered more than
10000 Inhabitants, but they left as
their racial autograph evidences OF
great cultural power. In enduring
architecture for residential use, in
dicating highly organized religious
| life and social structure. they at
tanned to levels not surpassed by the
| architects of the ancient world.
The master builders Of antiquity
in Asia, Africa and Middle America
exeelled them in temples and mural
establishment but not in substan-
tial residence building. In ceramics
and some minor arts they reached a
plane worthy Of the greatest Of their
contemporaries"
But who were these folk? Whence
did they come? How did they live
| and what were their thoughts as
they dwelt in these huge dwellings
beside the then ripping Chaco
River? What arts did they know
besides building? What was their
religion! What did they know of
the natural forces around them?
DID they ever wonder as to the
movements of the stars which seem
| so near in the velvet black of the
desert night?
HISTORY KNOWS LITTLE
OF THIS RACE.
All OF these questions are st.I
unanswered. Htw"tt declares, To- no
written word ~ n.s,, ~ exists can
csIDing them, nor has arv con-
| vincing tradition of them been
found among living peoples.
The very name by which they
knew themselves and were known
! among their contemporaries is lost
utterly. If the language they spoke
still exists, we do not know of IL.
FOR OF all the people of the ancient
world whose achievements have sur
viVed, none have more completely
attained oblivion"
Hewett hopes, however, that some-
where the blood, language and cul-
tural potentialities of these remark
| able people survive. to become avail
able in the evolution of the COM
ing American race. for he declares
that 1t was evidently a virile stock.
The work of excavating these
huge communal dwellings, of which
there are many, has scarceIy begun.
BY the end of last season, the en-
tire regular stan of the School of
American, Research and the Mu-
scum Of New Mexico at Santa Fe
were ins the field. As the work
develops, sother specialists will be
| employed and an effort will be made
to uncover all facts obta0able con-
corning this forgotten people, with
view. toward reproducing as far
| as possible a picture of the life that
was lived years ago in this re-
| mote place.
The physical, intellectual and
spiritual development of a people
capable of such attainments as
those exhibited in the Chaco Canyon
culture" said Hewett. constitutes
priceless chapter in the history
of the human mind, especially val
| liable as evidence of the character
and attainment, of the native Amer
lean race" F.w.G.
/ E, 1t Happened in Boston.