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Show THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE to Photograph by O. C. Havens THE WORK OF WIND AND SAND IN CHACO CANYON, NEW MEXICO Upon this massive bowlder the elements have chiseled an inscription telling of their power. too thorough. A beautiful jar, hopelessly shattered through an unfortunate accident, was discarded without any consideration for future archeologists. The larger fragments were gathered up and thrown on the village rubbish pile or into some convenient, abandoned dwelling; the lesser pieces were removed with the daily sweepings. And I have sometimes thought while searching for lost parts of a particularly charming vessel, that all the pieces had been carefully divided at the time of the accident into half a dozen or more fairly equal piles, and that these in turn were then handed to the several youthful members of the household and sent to the four cardinal points, there to be cast on wholly separate and distinct trash heaps. If Bonitian wives had deliberately set about rousing the archeological ire, they could have found no more certain means than this. THE ANCIENTS WERE CONSTANTLY REBUILDING One of the most astonishing discoveries yet made in the ruins of Pueblo Bonito is the amount of reconstruction undertaken during the period of occupancy. It is difficult to measure the full extent of this work and utterly impossible to identify all the influences which prompted it. Houses were torn down and replaced; partitions were built in; walls were changed and new levels established. First-story ceilings were braced to receive the additional weight of later rooms erected above. Fully 30 per cent of the dwellings in the newer portion of the pueblo overlie the remains of unfinished or partially razed structures. On the outer northeast quarter of the village, there is a veritable maze of interlaced foundations that never supported the walls for which they were prepared. An enormous amount of labor was involved here. What operated to change the intentions of the builders ? It now appears that plans for a considerable addition to the village were suddenly altered after the work was well under way, and that the proposed outer tiers of rooms were drawn in to their present positions. Final solution of this puzzle, it is hoped, may follow additional excavations which are now in progress. |