Evening star., 1925-05-31
Metropolis of Prehistoric American Tribes to Be Explore

ed. We have reason to believe that
we may be carried back centuries be
fore the coming of Christ upon earth.
Some of the pottery we found y
feet below the valley surface is differ
ent from that found in the ruin, AMI
we know it was made by different
people.
Our effort 10 determine why the
first great American apartment house
was vacated while still in excellent
condition should prove very interest
ing 1t il the history of the world
that nomauIc tribes, peoples with no
fixed place Of abode, have throughout
the centuries been preying on those
who dwelt in fixed places and culti-
waited the soil or engaged in other
cultural pursuits. We find abundant
evidence of defensive warfare about
the Pueblo Bonito.
we are reasonably convinced that
was but one of the reasons for aban-
donment of the communal hotel. We
believe that the agricultural problem
even more than the harassment of
their enemies forced their migration.
was led to speculate on that sub
Ject the first Summer | invaded the
old ruins, when l noticed puddles Of
rain water standing for days in front
Of our tent. / noticed that the water
would lie until il was evaporated by
II4S sun anu "llnOul SINKING QOND
into the ground as much as an inch
That meant to me that the soil was
lmperVious to water, and. naturally.
when water cannot get TO the roots
of plants the plants cannot grow.
| Corn, beans and squash cannot grow
there today, yet we know that they
did grow there more than 10 cen
turieS ago.
we have found. by chemical
/ an lN-GiC of he I.st L. Ill
is present. Black alkali is known to
the Indians of southern Arizona and
proved a serious problem in some of
our great United States irrigation
projects. 1t has 4 strong tendency
to tighten the soil and harden it so
that water cannot get through. The
tests made last Summer are not con-
conclusive. and we are carrying on
soil Investigations this year As we
identify the lower levels that were
/ farmed by the old Indians we will
make further chemical tests to de-
termine whether black aIkali is pres
ent at those levels.
/ = < \
HTHE Bonitians had to have good
/ farming land in order to sup
port so large a population. They ir-
rigated their lands, not by bitches,
as was done in the Gila River Val
I ley, in southern Arizona, where the
/ prehistoric bitches are still used by
! the farmers today. but by flood irri-
gation-by impounding rain waters
! that came down off the canyon walls
] BY experience they learned through
/ the years, unquestionably, what linn
/ tied areas received the most of the
rain waters, and there they planted
their fields. They held the water on
their corn and beans and squash by
building up dikes around these fields
and forcing tsS water 10 stand and
settle into tk8Soil
"One of our most important excur-
sions this Summer will be to un-
cover the upper end of the old arroya.
or water chanel. We found evidence
Of such a prehistoric water course
/ last season If we can trace il to
the upper end We will know that by
its mere presence the water. level in
ancient times would have been low
cred so that chemicals in the soil
would have been drained out from
/ below, leaving the upper surface soil
/ to tighten under the desert sun
/ That also would have made farming
with primitive tools a dificult-in-
deed, an problem.
The only agricultural! tools we
I nav 1Ouilu were NOOu6ll SUCKS. some
of which We're most likely tied TO
mountain goat horns.
80. if the water level had been
| lowered, if the black alkali was pres
ent. the soil would have become so
hard it would have been impossible
10 work it with such primitive tools
with sufficient success TO feed $500
| persons
Ghouls and vandals left their traces
I in those far.crpna da,- nd rob
bers disturbed the rest of those pre-
historic Bonitian Indians just as they
despoiled the tomb of the Pharaohs
along the Nile, DR.. Judd discovered
After clearing several burial cham
bers, he collected Il skeletons.
This beautiful village must have
been famous in ancient times" he
said, for the wealth of its primitive
jewelry, as we have established that
other Indians came on foot 500 miles
to swap macawS for these trinkets.
Grave robbers, most likely tribal
enemies on raiding expeditions, dis
covered the burial rooms and stripped
the bodies of their turquoise and shell
ornaments. In their search they
showed a disregard for the dead.
Burials were disturbed, portions of the
bodies were torn from the remainder.
and the heads. in most instances,
placed in a corner or along the walls
of the room.
"Only the deeper burials were left
intact. With these we found our bet.
ter treasures. And all these precious
objects of antiquity. collected with
such infinite care o5 the National
Geographic Society. are shortly to be
presented to the United States Ma
ltional Museum as a permanent index
to the cultural accomplishments of
prehistoric Americans"