Evening star., 1930-06-25
KNOW EXACT YEAR
OF OFPUEBLOBU|LD|NG
Neil M. Judd to Trace Life of
North American Indians
in Lecture.

Two thousand years of the life of
North Americas Indian aristocrats, the
Pueblo dwellers of the Southwest United
States, will be traced in an illustrated
address by Neil M. Judd, leader of Ma
tional Geographic Society expeditions,
to be given before the National Educa-
ton Association convention in Column
bus, Ohio, Wednesday, July 2. MT: Judd
is curator of American archaeology at the
National Museum, Washington, D. c.
Tree rings, masonry, bits of broken
pottery and turquoise ornaments COM
prise the difficult literature which Mr..
Judd has discovered and studied for
eight years to round out the dramatic
story of the Pueblo Indians from the
time of the birth of Christ down to
the present. His findings were news
even to the modern Hopi and Zuni In
dams, survivors of the ancient tribes,
whose oldest legends do not reach into
the dead years the expeditions opened
to view.
So accurate are the archeologiSt's de-
examinations, which he will report be-
fore the educators assembled at Colum-
bus, that it is possible now to know
the year in which any of 40 famous
Southwest pueblos were built as GER
tainly as the year of Columbus diScov-
cry Of America.
Culture at Peak 1000 Years Ago.
Indian life in the Southwest reached
its highest cultural levels about 1000
years ago, and the very peak of its de-
velopment Is represented by Pueblo
Eonito, Americas first apartment house,
q communal dwelling four stories high
rising in terraces like the newest Man
haitian apartments and housing 1900
Indians. Because of its special status
Pueblo Bonito has been carefully ex-
cavated and repaired by National Geo.
graphic Society expeditions led by Mr..
Judd, beginning in 1922 and continuing
down through 1929. The structure has
been made a national monument in or
der to insure its preservation.
"ArcheologiSts now divide the civil
lization of the Pueblo Indians into f1ve
distinct states of development" says Mr..
Judd, 1.-The last of which is that now
existing in New Mexico and Arizona.
The fourth Pueblo period ended with
the coming of Coronado and his fellow
adventures In 1540. The first period
lies in that distant, unmeasured past,
when Pueblo culture was still relatively
crude.
Pueblo Bonito and similar large COM
munal structures, housing numbers OF
independent clans or family groups,
characterized the tnlro period or Pueblo
history. The earliest ceiling beam re-
covered during the National Geographic
Society'S explorations was felled in the
year 919 A. D.; the latest in 1130. The
tree-ring calendar, by means of which
the age of Pueblo Bonito was finally
ascertained, represents % generations
of Arizona pine trees whose overlapping
annual growth rings form an unbroken
series extending from 1929 back to 700
A. D.
Deserted Before Columbus Birth.
pueblo Bonito was under construc-
ion, therefore, just seven centuries be-
fore the Pilgrim Fathers landed on Ply
mouth Rock. 1t was undergoing extern
sive alteration and repair while William
the Conqueror was defeating the Eng
lish at the battle of Hastings. 1t grad
ually fell into decline and finally was
deserted three centuries before Column
bus was born.
"Tn part, at least, the Pueblos were
descended from long-headed people
commonly called the Basket Makers.
This unidentified people made excellent
basketry and other textiles, yet were
quite unfamiliar with the technique of