Antiquities of the Jemez plateau, New Mexico / by Edgar L. Hewett.

  • Edgar Lee Hewett
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Antiquities of the Jemez plateau, New Mexico / by Edgar L. Hewett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    59/102 (page 51)
    ments of stone. On these heaps were growing dwarfish wild potato plants, the tubers, although ripe, not being more than half an inch in diameter. This ruin presents every appearance of antiquity, and, so far as observed, contains no definite trace of the presence of the white man. The fallen roof timbers, which still, remain among the debris in some of the chambers, had been cut with primitive tools. . . . No. 49.—Sixteen miles above Jemez pueblo, occup}dng a low slop- ing terrace on the west side of the valley and 30 or 40 yards from the creek, is a small pueblo group, of usual type (fig. 31). It is about 40 feet above the creek bed and covers a space some 50 yards long, facing the stream, and 50 yards deep, reaching back to the steeper ground. Th6 low crumbling walls of small irregular stones indicate a squarish structure of numerous rooms, including an open space or court, in which are two circular depres- sions, probably the remains of kivas. A third depression occurs in the midst of the ruined walls on the north side. . . . Scattered stone lodges.—An important feature of the antiq- uities of Jemez valley is the ruins of small stone houses that are encountered by the explorer at every turn in the tributary val- leys, on the steep slopes of the plateaus, and scattered over the upper surfaces of the wooded tablelands. In the foothills they are seen sometimes occupying very precipitous sites, and in riding through the deep forests of the uplands they may be counted by the score. They consist generally of a single room, rarely of two or more rooms, and the dimensions of the apartments seldom exceed ten or twelve feet. The walls are thin and loosely laid up, and to-day are rarely more than three or four feet in height, the dearth of debris indicating that they could not have been more than one story in height at any time. . . . These houses occur in considerable numbers in the valley of the San Diego near the great bend, 20 miles above Jemez pueblo; in the vicinity of the warm springs, a few miles above the bend; on the plateau east of Jemez springs; and along the terrace-like projections of*the western slope of the canyon wall. . . The existence of other important ruins exceptionally well preserved has been reported from the high Valle Grande and San Antonio valley on the eastern rim of the Jemez basin; also from the foothills of the Nacimiento range on the upper Guadalupe. Fig. 31.—Ground plan of ruined pueblo 16 miles above Jemez.