Jesse Walter Fewkes

“ The skeletons were sometimes found in shallow graves, but often were buried deeply below the surface. Almost without exception the crania had bowls fitted over them like caps. The graves as a rule are limited to soft ground, the bowls resting on undisturbed sand devoid of human remains. In some instances there appears to have been a hardened crust of clay above the remains, possibly all that is left of the floor of a dwelling. The indications are that here, as elsewhere, the dead were buried under the floors of dwellings, as is commonly the case throughout the Mimbres Valley. ”

“ A very large number of pictures of the horned snake from localities all over the Southwest might be mentioned, but a few examples are adequate to show how widespread the conception was in ancient times. They occur among the Tewa, Keres, Zuñi, Hopi and other Pueblos and vary greatly in details, but in all instances preserve the essential symbolic feature—a horn on the head and a serpentine body.
The horned serpent is known to the Hopi as the plumed serpent, and when represented by them has a bundle of hawk feathers as well as a horn attached to the head. ”

“ MAN WITH CURVED STICK
One of the most instructive food bowls found at Oldtown, now owned by Mr. Osborn, has on it a picture of two hunters, one on each side of an animal (fig. 15) . One of these hunters carries in his hand a stick crooked at the end, its form suggesting a throwing stick.29 Both hunters have laid aside their quivers, bows, and arrows, which are shown behind them. The picture of an animal between them has been so mutilated by "killing" or breaking the bowl that it is impossible28 to identify it. ”

“ The colors of Mimbres ware are uniform and often striking. There are good specimens of black and white ware; also red, black, and yellow with brown decorations are numerous. Some of the best pieces are colored a light orange. Many of the fragments are made of the finest paste identical in color and finish with ware from Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, which furnishes the best prehistoric pottery from the Southwest. No effigy jar, or animal formed vase, however, exists in any collections from the Mimbres examined by the author. ”

“ The third human figure, found on a black and white bowl from a Mimbres ruin, is duplicated by another of the same general character depicted on the opposite side of the bowl. These figures (fig. 14) are evidently naked men with bands of white across the faces. The eyes are represented in the Egyptian fashion. In one hand each figure holds a tube, evidently a cloud-blower or a pipe, with feathers attached to one extremity, and in the other hand each carries a triangular object resembling a Hopi rattle or tinkler. ”

“ No attempt is made here to consider all the ruins of the Mimbres or of the Antelope plain in the immediate neighborhood of Deming, but only those that have been visited, mainly ruins from which the objects here described were obtained.
Although few of the walls of the ancient buildings rise high above ground, they can be readily traced in several places. ”

“ We know practically nothing of the prehistoric culture of the Upper Gila.
The aborigines of the Mimbres, like those of some of the former dwellers in Pajarito Park in New Mexico, practised a modified form of urn burial, but the latter rarely decorated their pottery with figures of animals. As compared with known Pueblo ceramics, the Mimbres pottery appears to be more closely allied to ancient Keresan than to old Tewan. ”

“ Oldtown Ruin. (Osborn collection.) GROUP OF HUNTERS
An instructive group of human figures is drawn on a deep red and white food bowl (fig. 13) , which measures ten inches in diameter. It is evident that this design represents three hunters following the trail of a horned animal, probably a deer. This trail is represented on the surface of the bowl by a row of triangles, while the footprints of the hunters extend along its side. It may be noted that although there are three hunters, the trails of two only are represented, and that the hunters are barefoot. ”

“ The elaborate geometric figure composed of a scroll and comma-like dot and eye is a highly conventionalized symbol, possibly of some animal, as a bird's head, common on Casas Grandes pottery.
There is a bowl on exhibition in the Chamber of Commerce at Deming with a picture of a quadruped resembling a deer, but the base is so fractured in killing that it is difficult to determine the shape of the body or its decoration. ”

“ The character of the appendages to the thorax, or the wings, leaves no doubt that a flying animal was intended, and the legs and head being like an orthopterous insect, it may be provisionally identified as a "grasshopper."44
While the general form of head, thorax, and body appear from an inspection of the figure, it may be well to call attention to certain special features that illustrate primitive methods of drawing. The most striking of these is seen in the abnormal position of the leg which arises from the thorax on the back in the rear of the so-called wings. ”

“ Metates are sometimes found in graves with skeletons, presumably those of women. Several ancient metates are now in use as household implements in Mexican dwellings.
If the size of the population were to be gauged by the number of mortars and manos found, certainly the abundance of these implements would show that many people once inhabited the plain through which flows the Mimbres River. Narrow, flat stone slabs have an incised margin on one end. Their use is problematical. The frequency of stone balls suggests games, but these may have been used as weapons ”

“ Upon this bowl is drawn a figure of a human being, probably a woman or a girl, seen from the front. Although portions of the figure are not very legible, such details as can be made out show a person wearing a blanket that extends almost to the knees leaving arms and legs bare, the lower limbs being covered. The head is square, as if masked, with hair tied at each lower corner. Although these appendages may be meant to represent ear-pendants, it is more likely that they are whorls of hair, as is still customary in Pueblo ceremonies in personations of certain maidens. ”

“ It appears to the author that there are so many cultural similarities among the sedentary people which inhabited the Sierra Madre plateau, of which the Antelope Plain of Mimbres Valley is only a northern extension, that we may regard their culture as closely related. A specialized high development of this inland culture took place along the Casas Grandes River, culminating in Chihuahua. The Mimbres Valley was inhabited by people somewhat less developed in culture. ”

“ Walls and outlines of rooms indicated by rows of stones mark remains of a prehistoric settlement at the base of Black Mountain, eight or nine miles northwest from Deming. Here occur many fragments of pottery, broken metates, and manos, and other indications of occupation by man. On top of Black Mountain there are rude cairns or rings of stones apparently placed there by human hands.
The fragments of pottery taken from the ruin at the base of Black Mountain are very different from those from Oldtown and other typical Mimbres ruins. ”

“ It is often due to other more local causes, as attacks by hostiles, salinity of soil, poor site for defence, presence of wizards, contagious diseases, etc.
[61] The designation "pueblo ruins" sometimes applied to any cluster of ancient house walls in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona, should be restricted to a well-defined architectural type which originated and reached its highest development in a small area in New Mexico. It was eventually carried by colonists in all directions from the center of origin, becoming intrusive as far west as the Hopi, Zuñi, and Little Colorado. ”

“ Remains of human occupancy occur in the plain about Deming, and can be traced northward along the river east and west into the mountains, and south into Mexico.
The author has observed many evidences of former settlements along the Upper Mimbres which have not yet been recorded. The indications are, as a rule, inconspicuous, appearing on the surface of the ground in the form of rows of stones or bases of house walls, fragments of pottery, and broken stone implements, such as metates and manos. ”

“ Rabbit or Hare.—The pictured representation (fig. 31) of a quadruped whose hindlegs are larger than the forelegs and whose long backward extending ears are prominent features, probably represents a rabbit or a hare. The eyes recall figures of birds depicted on bowls from the Little Colorado ruins in Arizona, where eyes are depicted on one side of the head in violation of a law of perspective in which only one eye can appear on a lateral view. The figure appears to have a tuft of grass in the mouth. ”

“ There are not sufficient data at hand to determine satisfactorily the kinship of the prehistoric inhabitants of Mimbres Valley, but as far as may be judged by pottery symbols it may be supposed that their culture resembled that of other sedentary people of New Mexico and Arizona in early times, as well as that of peoples of Chihuahua. ”

“ Not only do forms of stone implements of a shape unknown in southern Arizona occur in southern New Mexico, but also the methods of disposal of the dead differed among the two people. The latter practised inhumation only, the other both cremation and inhumation. ”

“ Mimbres pottery as pointed out by others has a general likeness to that from Casas Grandes Valley in Chihuahua, a resemblance which no doubt increases as we follow the river to Lakes Palomas and Guzman.57 The resemblance is not close 49enough to indicate identity, but we have enough material to support the belief that the archeological area in which it occurs is Mexican, unlike that of any other ceramic area in Arizona or New Mexico. ”

“ The zoic figures represent animals with square bodies, four legs, ears, head, and tail like a young antelope. There is no design on the side of the body, but in its place four broad parallel bands extend from the belly across the bowl. Each group of parallel lines changes its direction, widening in their course or near the ends where they enlarge for the accompanying figure. The markings on the necks of these figures suggest those on fawns. ”

“ The floors of the rooms were made of "caleche," hardened by having been tramped down; the fireplace was placed in one corner, on the floor, and the entrance to the room was probably at one side. To all intents and purposes these dwellings were probably not unlike those fragile wattle-walled structures found 8very generally throughout the prehistoric Southwest, and supposed to antedate the communal dwellings or pueblos of northern New Mexico. ”

“ The author saw several stone idols that were reported to have been obtained from ruins in the Mimbres Valley. These idols represent frogs (fig. 8) , bears, mountain lions, and other quadrupeds, and have much the same form as those from ancient ruins in Arizona.25 On the backs of several of these stone idols are incised figures, like arrowheads tied to Zuñi fetishes, or possibly rain-cloud figures. ”

“ The head is long and the snout pointed. Only two legs are represented, and these are situated far back on the body near the point of the origin of the tail from the body. A lozenge-shaped symbol forms the geometrical design on the side.
Fig. 27.—Unidentified animal. Oldtown Ruin. (Osborn collection.)
The presence of only two legs in this figure would seem to indicate that a bird was intended, but no bird has a tail like this figure; and the prehistoric potters of the Mimbres certainly knew how to draw a bird much better than this would imply. ”

“ This ruin has been dug into at several points revealing several fine pieces of pottery, fragments of metates, and other implements, which are said to have been found in the rooms. A mile down the valley overlooking the river there is another cluster of pictures at a ruin called "Indian graveyard," probably because human skeletons have been dug out of the floors of rooms.
MORTARS IN ROCK IN PLACE
One of the characteristic features of the Mimbres ruins, but not peculiar to them, are mortars or circular depressions worn in the horizontal surface of rock in place. ”

“ We constantly find arable land near them, indicating that communal grinding may have been practised, and suggesting a large population living in their immediate neighborhood, which may have left no other sign of their presence. ”

“ They are commonly supposed to have been used as mortars for pounding corn, and vary in size from two inches to a foot in diameter, being generally a foot deep. We find them occurring alone or in clusters. Good examples of such depressions are found near the Byron ruin, in the neighborhood of the ruins along Whiskey Creek, at Oldtown, and elsewhere. There is a fine cluster of these mortars nine miles from Deming, near the pictographs in the Cook's Range. Similar mortars have been repeatedly described and often figured. ”

“ It is important to notice the graceful way in which geometrical figures with which the ancient potters decorated their bowls are made to grade into the bodies of animals, as when animal figures become highly conventionalized into geometrical designs. Although these decorations are, as a rule, inferior to24 those of the Hopi ruin, Sikyatki, the figures of animals are more numerous, varied, and realistic. ”

“ The boundaries of this type never extended into Mexico in prehistoric times. The ruins along the Mimbres are not community houses of terraced character and should not be called pueblo ruins.
[62] This statement is made with reservation, as the true architectural form of the Casas Grandes of Chihuahua is not yet known. The published plans show no encircling wall like that of Casa Grande on the Gila; probably the Casas Grandes of Chihuahua belong to a highly specialized type different from others. ”