Arizona republican., 1921-03-07
Ruins of Villages of Ancient Desert
 Peoples Are Discovered Near Tucson

about 150 acres Between this group of towns and the high walled noun tain, which is called Tumamic by the Papago Indians, meaning horned toad, is rocky spur. the summit of which shows a well-defined Qualification.
 About this spur and also at various places on Mount Tumamoc are numer- ous groups of pictographs-picture writing of the ancients-very few or which had been discovered up to my first visit in the fall of 1917.
 Mount Tumamoc was protected by three lines of Qualifications. two walls built of loose rocks picked up from the surface zigzagging about the slopes more than half way to the top, while a third fort crowns the edge of the peaks summit.
 "On the summit itself, which is com paratively level, are which seemed to be a collection of rooms or small houses, proof of which was secured before I knew the mountain was not a part of the public domain.
 Scientific examination of these ruins has been forbidden by the director of the laboratory. who favors the theory that the rooms are tombs. Comparison of these rooms with several hundred stone graves on a nearby mountain showed that they were not at all similar. Fourteen miles from Tucson near the road to SilverbeI, Is a splendid group of photographs. Under the name of Picture Rocks the place is a favor ite objective of picnic parties. "Of equal interest, but comparatively unknown, is a small fortified mountain close by, on the sumit of which still stand Is small stone towers, probably used as lookouts by the ancients. Seven feet of the walls of one are still stand hing of the west side of the summit. ! s-44 l-- myself in the winter of 1920 they had | been seen by less than a., half dozen people.
 Examination of the 36 ruined pue- | bios showed a notable lack of proJectile points and weapons of war. Very few axes were found and not over a half dozen arrow points were recovered, showing a marked contrast to villages l occupied by the warrior tribes of the north in prehistoric times.
 "So far as known, but one skeleton | which can be said to belong to the an
 cient desert people who occupied the villages described has been recovered.
 In the winter of 1918 found a skeleton beneath the floor of a house ruin in the village at the northern base Of Mount Tumamoc
 1 The long bones of the skeleton had been placed in bundle and the skull laid near one end. The leg and arm bones were mere shells, but the skull
 was removed from the excavation all most entire and has been preserved The skull was presented to the arch theological museum of the University of Arizona.
 Ut is decidedly dolichocephalic, or long, in marked contrast to the cranio
 tian, which are brachycephalic, or
 tion, which tre brachycephalic, or
 round In February. 1920, excavating in
 the same ruin, found parts of another
 skeleton minus the skull. With the
 skeleton were some manos, broken pot
 tery which might have been food
 bowl, and some brilliantly colored
 stones, together with what had evil ldently been a string of shell heads of l kind I never encountered elsewhere. . 'Tn other villages cremation was practiced, Professor Sarle having found many mortunary jars containing bits of calcined human bones.
 "All of the pottery from the ancient village sites is of a high grade, bott in texture and in decoration, the latter [ being in many colors and intricate fir design. In shape there were ollos oi l many forms and some exceedingly large r bowls, cups or spoons and vessels made r | to represent birds and reptiles"