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Show THE HUMAN REMAINS FOUND AMONG THE ANCIENT IttJINS OF SOUTHWESTERN COLORADO AND NORTHERN NEW MEXICO. BY DR. EMIL BESSELS. The human remains collected by some of the gentlemen of the United States Geological Survey, among the ruins described by Messrs. T. H. Holmes and W. H. Jackson, are of more than common interest, as they are the iirst ever examined, and furnish material for conclusions in regard to the general features of the former inhabitants of the region in question. Before giving the description of these remains, it may be advisable to insert a few short notes communicated by Mr. Holmes, bearing upoa the conditions under which the bones to be described were fouud. They are as follows: " The broken and ranch decayed skull ( No. 3) was found on the Hoven Weep, abont ten miles above its junction with the Mao Elmo, by Mr. Chittenden. This locality U in Colorado, abont thirty mjies north of the New Mexican boundary, and six miles east of the Utah line. The bones of the skeleton were projecting from the side of a deep wash and by their posltiou seemed to indicate that the body had been buried in a squatting posture.* The skull was abont four feet from the surface. " It should be noted that these stream- courses are very stationary; that this encroachment upon the compact, vitreous soil of the flats is in all probability exceedingly slow, so that a skeleton might rest for hundreds of years quite undisturbed. There is no running water whatever during the greater part of the year. Ruins in a very advanced stage of decay were found m the neighborhood. The whole region has a desert-like aspect, and the modorn tribes are not known to frequent it. " The two more perfect skulls ( Nos. 1 and 2) were obtained at an ancient rnin near Abiquin, N. Mex. The skeletons were fonnd entire, having been partially unearthed by a recent wash. They were within 20 or 30 feet from the eastern wall of the rnin, and judging from the description, within a very few feet from the spot where Dr. Yarrow obtained' his specimens, t Fragments of pottery were found with the skeletons. The earth above them was very compact. They were three feet from the surface. u A great number of burial- places were noticed, but of the graves examined, few yielded fnrtbeY evidences of occupation than small quantities ox charcoal and bits of painted pottery. These burial- places are usually found on the summits of high ridges and promontories, and are fetill marked by slabs of sandstone set on edge, and arranged in circles and parallelograms of greatly varying dimensions ; but that tbey did not always bury their dead in high places is proven by the frequent discovery of human remains in the arroyos or deep washes in tne valleys. The skeletons were obtained in the vicinity of ruined villages, from the sides of recent washes." Before treating in detail of the sknlls, we shall notice the other parts of the skeleton. * We do not doubt that the position in which the bones were found, indicated a squatting postare of the skeleton, bnt it is not probable that this posture was commonly in use in burying the dead.- AUTHOR. t Report of Chief of Engineers for 1675, p. 1066. |
