The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-03-03
RUIN YIELDS NEW DISCOVERIES
Aztec Burial Chambers Unearthed by
Expedition from American Museum.

Two burial chambers arc among the.
numerous recent discoveries in the Az
tee ruin, an enormous prehistoric Pueblo
community dwelling near Aztec. y. NJ.
The excavation work j. being done BY
the American Museum OF Natural His
tory as q part of the Archer NJ. Hunt
ington Archaeological Survey of the
southwest. In his 6est letter to the
museum, Earl NJ. Morris, who is in
charge Of the work, writes:
Beneath the debris adjacent TO the
famous Painted Room opened IN 1920,
there has been found a second chamber
perfectly preserved in every detail. The
pine and cedar beams in the smoke
brown ceiling are as sound as when the
trees were felled. and ON the wall-stones,
the marks Of quartzite pebbles with
which they were faced are as bright and
fresh as if the artisan who shaped them
though dead these thousands OF years,
had but finished yesterday, gathered up
his primitive tools and stepped out OF
the finished chamber.
This room was the tomb of a war
riOr who lay in solitary state against
one wall Immediately back of the Re
cessed Altar in the Painted Room. The
body was that of a veritable giant over
six feet and an inche in height, who
lowered head and shoulders over the
average man of his tribe. Death came to
the stalwart defender of the village
when he was in the prime of life, and III
the height of his glory as well, II one
may infer the esteem i'll which he was
held by the excellence of his tomb and
the number of his burial accompani-
ments.
1.-The mighty frame had been wrapped
in Il mantle OF feather cloth and en-
shrouded with Il mat of woven RUS
stems. Back of the body there We're
four magnificent pottery bowls, a cup
,nl - IaAIa4 -, .I, Al-rf1I raaaTnI 81
large spherical vase with a neatly fit
ting cover, both of them cNquIsitely
wrought and ornamented. Within easy
grasp of the right hand were the wooden
handles of two stone battle axes and
beside them Il halted knife of duartzlte
as well rs chips of flint and pTongs of
antler for arrow making. \ circular
anything previously found in the ruins,
coyered"the warrior from his thighs 10
temples.
s'1his shield is an example of coiied
baskctry technique. but unusually thlcS
and strong. The outer surface had been
coated with gum and thickly %spangled
with flakes OF mica. When held in the
sunlight, because of the mumbGrles= re-
ICcting surfaces. the great disk would
nave shoHe dazzling b~rillIaHec, perhaps
sufficiently intense to have confused
the vision Of the archer who sought 40
drive an arrow through the shield to
the living flesh behind.
A fallen chamber not far distant
from the warriors tomb contained l3
skeletons. These bodies had been laid
away at different times and covered with
ashes and swecpings from the floors of
I'll. village. Twelve of the burla}s. those
OF nine children and three aged persons.
were in no way unusual, the bodies be
ing merely wrapped in mating with
occasionally q jar or cup beside the
skull.
THE 18th. however. was one OF the
most extraordinary which has come tu
! light in the whole ruin. The remains
were those of an old woman who had
been wrapped and bound and placed in
the usual position and then put in one
corner of the room. q stout splinter
from Il broken ceiling timber had been
hewn To a point. then driven through
the pclvis and we'll into the earth below
The shrumken body thus impaled pre-.
scented Il spectacle so gruesome that al
sight Of it even the most hardened eN
cavator shuddercd.
"0f course the doubt wiz always eN.
list as to how the stake happened to b1
where il was Found. 1t may have beer
driven after the body was covered and
/ hidden from view by some one who hat
no idea what substance was 50 stubborn
| that the blows OF his stone hammer beat
/ the head OF the stake TO a pulp before