The Coolidge examiner., 1930-05-23

pound this week who is engaged
in counting and sorting potsherds.
We shall want to know how many
chroome, featureless sherds there
were in each Of the houses. Then
we shall be able, in some Of the
houses. too guess with fair degree
of accuracy the relative age Of the
houses in point Of sequence. 1t is
fun to study potsherds. Many of
them are so coated with lime that
it is necessary to wash them in
muriatic acid to find the designs.
This morning at sunrise we were
in the northeast room of the lower
floor of the great house Of Casa
Grande ruins. The reason for our
being there at sunrise was this:
In the east wall of the room,
which is several feet in thickness.
at about the height Of a mans
middle. is a hole about one and
one-half inches in diameter. This
hole is horizontal and pierces the
short axis of the wall. Opposite
it, III the west wall of the room,
is anoother hole, at approximately
the same height.
1t has been observed that at
on every seventh Of March
and on every seventh of October,
the sun shines through the hole
in the east wall, and almost ctrikes
the hole in the west wall Of the
room. Ergo, the Ho-ho-kam
pierced the wall and made the OPP
posite hole in order that they
might know somewhat of their
calendar, in terms of solar year.
Get History From Potsherds
1t is too bad that the suns rays
do not actually fall on the oppo-
site hole. on the seventh day Of
March and of October. Personally
| am not strong on explanations
after the fact unless the evidence
is very sufficient. The fact that
the sun does not strike exactly on
the hole in the west wall, when
shining through the hole in the
east wall, is explained by an al
legged settling Of the east wall
which threw the two holes out of
All of this may be factual. May
be the Ho-ho-kam did arrange
-hese holes to mark the suns pas
sage and divide the year into two
periods, one of five months and
)ne Of seven months. There is no
proof that they did not
There is no proof that they did.
The holes are there. The sun
shines through. How did the holes
get there? Why was the seventh
If March chosen (of course the
did not know about
he seventh of March, but why the
time of spring and fall.
why the five and seven division,
,r rather the unequal division of
the solar year,? A very interesting
hing, is it not? And while we
the phenomenon, a wood
)ecker nonchalantly hammered a
'ousing tattoo on the tin roof
which covers the ruins of a mas
erpiece of primitive building art.
1t was Saturday afternoon, about
quitting time. Put the gold in
hese burlap sacks, and the dia-
nonds in these white sacks. and
veil pick them up Monday morn
Int." | said to one of the Mex
cans who understands and speaks
English. He look at me as though
was in truth "mucha loco" but
lid not explain. was speaking
or the benefit of lanky youth
nearby who is quiet convinced that
We are digging for gold. They
,annot for the life of them imag-
ne anyone carrying on as we are
merely to find floors and walls and
pots and arrowheads and such.
Help Offered.
One fellow informed one of my
men that he and his brothers cal
clated to get on thecrew, find out
where we were selling the stuff
we are finding, and go into the
business for themselves.
Over across the way two men