Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-01-08
ANCIENT INDIANS
BUILT WIDE ROADS
Purpose of Apparently Costly
Highways Puzzles Smith.
Sonian Scientist.

The Indian population If Chac,,
Canyon, y Mex. thousand wears
ago hult wide roads extending
many miles across the mesas. and Gu,
broad Sta!rways out of the solid rock
Of ;he canyon wall, Neil NJ. Judd
arcteooSist Of the Smithsonian lusti
tutft n, ie0orts as the result of his in
vestigahcns there this wear
The purpose served by the roads
-nd stairways Is unknown
Pueblo Sonito. one of the greatest
el9rtment house cities of prehis,ori,
america, lies ruined on the floor nj
ChaCo Canyon. 30 miles north of Gal
lap, n, Alex. The aboriginal inhab.
rants wrung their livelihood from the
sItN soil of the canyon bottom. and
could not have farmed the wind
blown mesas above
Had No Metal Tools.
Yet they hewed dozens of stairwa IS
In the terraced lodges OF the sand
stone cliffs which extend back from
the canyon rim and then built road
ways north and south across th''
mesa. Some of these roads are said
hy the Navajo to extend 40 miles, up
hill and down. And these innmnera
hammers. for the Bontians We're PEG
rie Of the Stone Age They had no
metal tools no beasts OF burden.
The Stairways are from ! Ia 10
feet wide. and some of them have n
10 inch tread. The roads. il that is
what they were. vary in width from
l. to 80 feet. and are usually lined
with the l,oultiers which We're rolled
to'one side in the clearing process.
On sIoping ground the lower side of
the road was built up. and where til"
mesa changes levels abruptly steps
We're cut inthe rock.
Great Terraces Found.
"On upper. retreaiing hedges. built
against the foot of the red sandstone
cliffs. the expedition found terraces 10
10 IL feet high. hraced with massive
masonry wallis. Cine of these. varying
I'm width from 10 10 80 feet. il trace
able for more than mile With the
manpower available Ia the Pueblo, the
building of this single terrace must
have been a Herculean task. But.
with definite objective In view, the
Bonitians seem never To have con-
sidered The human labor involved"
Why the canyon dwellers built these
things is not yet absolutely clear. In
able, "A task quite incidental 10 the
major explorations of the society.
Judd found that they all seemed 10
lead back into the rincons where pine
trees formerly grew. In building their
pueblo the Bonitians used thousands
of pine. logs. and ii may be that they
constructed the roadways and the
stairs as a means of facilitating the
transportation of such logs. OF the 200
fragmentary beams exe3vated from
Pueblo Bonita by the National Geo
graphic Society = expedition in the last
seven years. not one bears any esi
dence Of soaring. "A fact which indi
Gates that the timbers were carried
instead OF being slid down the cliffs.
Does Not Explain Purpose.
While this may explain the stairs
and the ''roadways." ii is not SO help.
fuI in explaining the terraces Further
Investigation may throw new light on
them. sS So
I'm addition In the Investigation If
these problems, Judd unearthsd
further evidence that Chace Canyon
VAS RE center Of a larger and more
anci1t prehistoric population than
had been thought. He discovered sev
eral sites Of half-sunken villages If
TIE past basket makers. peoples who
came centuries before the builders of
Pueblo Bonito. he expects that in
vestigation Of these sites viii reveal
other house groups ar extensive AZ the
ons excayated this past Summer by
the Smithsonian. and which was first
discovered by the National Geographic
Scciety's expedition in 1926.