TWO MIMBRES RIVER RUINS By EDITHA L. WATSON HE ruins along the Mimbres river offer material for study unequaled, T so far, by any other ruins in southwestern New Mexico. However, as these sites are being torn apart by pot-hunters, the notes which have been made in the course of some few scientific investigations are doubly valuable. Notes have been made on two ruins, about twenty miles apart. These are known as the Gonzalez place, which is located near San Lorenzo, on the upper Mimbres, and the Golass place. This latter location is the onel which Dr. J. Walter Fewkes describes as where the rocks come down to the river. It is also known as the Dam Site. These names refer to a ridge of rocks which crosses the river at this point. While the method of construction of these two ruins varies considerably, both of them are built over the walls of earlier houses, and part of the Gonzalez ruin is built over two layers of walls in this manner. Since these houses were in ruins at the time of the Conquest, one may safely attribute considerable anti,quity to the lower layers, and the pottery from the third stratum of the Gonzalez place may be considered archaic, as it differs from that found above it, and is of the thick, black, coiled or plain ware considered to be very early. Pottery found in the second stratum of the ruins resembles that in the upper rooms, and may, therefore, have been intrusive. From the manner in which the two uppermost strata have been dug over, it is impossible to state accurately more than the above. Little work was done, at the time of the writer s visit, to the lowest stratum at the Gonzalez place. The weather was extremely warm, and only a small hole, barely large enough for one man to dig in, was made to this depth. The hole was sunk along a wall of the top room, and penetrated through two distinct floors, several feet apart. The few pieces of pottery found at the bottom of this hole were as described above, and in very good preservation. Both the ruins considered in this paper are situated at some distance above the river, on the level of the present road. However, the Gonzalez ruin appears to have always been above the level of the water, while at the lower ruin the river has risen at times above the bench on which the houses are located and has covered them, then receded into its usual channel, some twenty feet below. This is not unusual with mountain rivers Archaeology of the Lower Mimbres Valley. SI-MC, vol. 63, no. 10. 51
and evidently did not happen often enough to drive the Indians permanently from their homes. In one of the rooms on the upper level, a skeleton of an Indian was found who had been caught in one of these floods. The body had been driven against the wall of the room, so that the head was turned back at a right angle to the body, which was lying on its stomach. River mud, sand, and debris had packed around it and held it in this psition. From the arm of this skeleton, twenty-one shell bracelets were taken. In the last thirty years, a house has been built on this site, the builtlers FIG. 1. I etroglyphs from Golass ruin. utilizing the rocks strewn on the surface of the ground, which were once part of the walls of the ruin. Since this house was built, the Mimbres has risen until it covered the roof. To see it in the summer, a feeble, narrow stream, this appears almost unbelievable. No petroglyphs or iiictographs have been discovered at the Gonzalez ruin, but at the Golass place there is a bluff of considerable size behind the ruins, and this bluff is thickly engraved with petroglyphs. These inscriptions are of great variety and interest, and in some places are superimposed
WATSON] MIMBRES RIVER RUINS 53 over each other. Some of the designs are very realistic, while others appear to be meaningless scrawls. (See fig. 1.) Many rocks in this place have been used as mortars and mealing pits, also. One can stand on the bluff, overlooking the ruins and the river, and imagine the scene: the women busy grinding corn in the shelter of the bluff, the activity of pueblo life, and the hunters and fishermen returning with their spoils from across the river. The builders of the Golass ruin used more care than those of the Gonzalez place. The upper ruin is made of plastered adobe, with large rocks set in the walls. A mortar with the orifice opening into the room was placed in this way. The floors were of hardened earth. At the Golass ruin, on the other hand, the plastered walls were more carefully made. The floors were formed of thin slabs of rock or layers of charcoal. One room had a banquette on one side. FIG. 2. Bowl from room with banquette. Golass ruin. (The above discussion concerns the upper layer of rooms only.) The Gonzalez ruin was indicated on the surface by a low mound. The pottery from this ruin, while resembling that from the Golass place very closely, showed more variety. A red ware, incised in geometrical designs, has not been found elsewhere. This incised ware is thin, beautifully made, and the decoration was carefully applied. From this ruin was taken an effigy jar, with the body of a duck and the head of a hawk. The Golass ruin was so badly dug over that its former outlines were destroyed. Pottery found in this ruin did not include effigy ware or incised ware. However, painted ollas with concave bases were found here. (The concave base is a very rare form.) Also found in this ruin was a
54 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. S., 33, 1931 bowl which had been pressed, while the clay was still pliable, into a foursided shape. This bowl was found with an interment. (See fig. 2.) Some of the pottery from this ruin was so thickly encrusted with a lime coating that the design was completely hidden. Pottery with human and animal designs is not rare in either ruin. An occasional piece in three colors is found, but for the most part two colors are used, and of these black and white are by far the most prevalent. FIG. 3. Designs of bowls used in cremation burial. Two very interesting cremation burials were found at the Golass ruin. One of these consisted of calcined bones in a small bowl about six inches in diameter. This bowl rested in a slightly larger one, and they were covered with a still larger bowl with a geometrical decoration. With this group was found a small coiled ware jug with a handle. (See fig. 3.)
WATSON] MIMBRES RIVER RUINS 55 In the other burial, the calcined bones were placed in a small bowl with a lizard painted in it. Inverted over this was a smaller bowl with a quail design, and these rested in a larger bowl with a fish decoration. This group of bowls and a mano were found on a metate which had been in a fire as it was blackened and broken into three parts from the heat, and the mano was also blackened. Near these was a broken corrugated olla, which FIG. 4. Designs on two of the bowls used in cremation burials. The design on the third and smallest bowl is nearly worn away and so cannot be properly copied. had been killed -a small hole drilled through the side-and burned. This burial was found in the room with the banquette. (See fig. 4.) These two cremations are the only ones recorded from this region, and are of especial interest on that account. It is to be regretted that these two ruins could not have had scientific excavation. 711 17th STREET, DENVER, COLORADO