Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1926-01-06
Story of Ancient
PEOPLE in Ruins

Denver, COl0., Jan. (AP)-EX-
cavation of archaeological ruins In
Southwestern United States has un-
covered records of an ancient civili-
zation established perhaps as long
ago as the beginning of the Christian
era.
DR.. Jean Allard Jeancon, curator of
archaeology of the Colorado State
Historical and Natural History
Society, in his research has pieced
together a picture of that life which
existed 1900 years before Columbus
came to the New World.
From the shape of the skulls I'M
earthed he has formed the theory
that the first civilization in this
region was established by a people
of Asiatic origin, resembling in
stature the modern japanese. His
work in the Pagosa Springs district
of Colorado, along the New Mexico
border. led to their classification as
the Basket Workers, the Post Basket
Workers, and the Pre- Pueblo people.
The two first We're primitive but
the last highly advanced, using the
bow and arrow, baking pottery IN
kilns and cultivating several varieties
of corn. The Basket Workers did not
iooilAOh POlSCAS, doCo a I'LL - " III .
stick instead of bow to hurl their
hair into Yucca fabric for boGy
covering. The Post-Basket Workers
made a crude, unbaked pottery, and
grew coarse, flint corn. being other
wise virtually barbarian.
The change in skull and skeletal
form prompted the belief that the
Pre-Pueblo race conquered the others
and from their advent began a high
ly interesting and efficient" state OF
life. They were agriculturiStS of no
mean degree and many of the prin-
ciples of gravity irrigation were
known to them. Irrigation bitches,
miles in length, We're constructed
and they damned streams and made
reservoirs for the storage and con-
servation of water. Their principal
crops were beans, corn, several
varieties of squash. They used as
food the edible seeds. tubers and
roots of wild plant life. A short sta
pie cotton was grown and used for
garments, while the Yucca furnished
food in the form of fruit and fiber
for ropes, baskets, mats and other
textile articles.
House building reached a high
point of development, the archi-
lecture of some of the ruins COM
pairing well with modern buildings.
The Yucca House, a ruin in the lower
Montezuma Valley, is a structure
covering many acres of ground. 1t is
several stories high and was capable
of housing several hundred persons.
This and other examples such as the
Cliff Palace and the Spruce Tree
house, eXcavated in this part of the
country, tend to show that this early
race lived communistic lives.
The structures were habitations
during Indictment weather only, being
mainly utilized as storage and burial
places. There seemed to be no indi-
vidual ownership of the rooms, build
ings or the adjacent land.
Specimens dug from the ruins dis
close well-developed artistic sense
as expressed in beautifully decorated
pottery or weird. grotesque designs
not alone in these ceramic products
but in the woven sandals, baskets
and head and breast bands, and on
the surfaces of rocks and canyon
walls which they carved.
Certain of these petroglyphs have
a religious or ceremonial meaning
and sometimes are duplicated in the
modern carvings or paintings of the
Pueblo Indians.
When this civilization ceased is
not definitely known, but it ended
probably 900 years ago. Scientists
believe the culture of these Indian
Inhabitants was wiped out quickly,
but are undecided as to whether it
was by an upheaval of nature, con-
quest or the simple scattering of the
clans to other regions, leaving behind
a silent record for the archaeologist
to explore.