OCR Text |
Show 20 almost isolated fragment of terrace near Galiente Greek. It has beeu constructed chiefly of adobe, and has consisted of rows of apartments surroundiug a number of large open courts. Individual walls cannot be traced, and the rows of houses are reduced to smooth rounded ridges of earth. These are iudicated on the plan, and are often as much as 8 feet high, and 30 feet wide at the base. The courts contain a number of small circles and mounds, a, a, and the single eatufa is identical in appearance with those among the ruins of Colorado. A number of openings, 6, 6, through the walls indicate the location of gate- ways. Metatex, arrow- heads, and many fragments of pottery were found. Many other groups of ruins similar to this occur in this as well as in the neighboring valleys. Near Abiqoiu, a large pueblo occurs, at which I found a stone axe and a number of arrow- heads and metates. A couple of skeletons were also obtained here. This ruin is described at length by Dr. Yarrow, in his report for 1874.* PLATES XI AND XII. Although it is quite impossible to read the curious rock- inscriptions of unknown tribes, or even to conjecture to any extent their meaning, yet it is conceded that in most cases they have a meaning and represent an idea or record an event. Aside from this, however, they are valuable to the historian as records of the grade of civilization reached by the tribes who executed them. That the examples given in the two followiug plates, belong to the age of the cliff- builders cannot be satisfactorily proved, but, at the same time, evidence that they do, is not wanting. Some are found on tbe cliffs and in the niches with the cliff- dwellings, while all are in localities that must have been frequently visited by these people. Some are found in the canon of the Mancos, others on the bluffis of the San Juan, and many in the caiions farther west. Figures 1, 2, and 3, Plate XI, occur on the Mancos near the group of cJiff- houses figured in Plate V. They are chipped into the rock, evidently by some very hard implement, and rudely represent the human figure. They are certainly'not attempts to represent nature, but have the appearance rather of arbitrary forms designed to symbolizd some imaginary being. Figures 4,5, and 6 were found in the same locality, not engraved, bat painted in red and white clay upou the smooth rocks. These were certainly done by the cliff- builders, and probably while the houses were in process of construction, since the material used is identical with the plaster of the houses. The sketches and notes were made by Mr. Brandegee. The reproduction is approximately oue- twelfth the size of the original. The examples given in . figures 7, 8, 9,10, and 11, as well as those in Plate XII, occur on the Rio San Juan about ten miles below the mouth of the Bio La Plata. A low line of bluffs, composed of light- colored massive sandstones, that break down in great smooth- faced blocks, rises from the river- level and sweeps around toward the north. Each of these great blocks has offered a very tempting tablet to the graver of the primitive artist, and very many of them contain curious and interesting inscriptions. Drawings were made of such of these as tbe limited time at my disposal would permit. They are all engraved or cut into the face of the rock, and the whole body of each figure has generally been chipped out, frequently to the depth of one- fourth or one- half an inch. The work on some of the larger groups has beeu one of immense * Report of the Chief of Engineers for 1875, page 1064. |