Archeology of the lower Mimbres valley, New Mexico

by Jesse Walter Fewkes

Sites of Ruins in the Lower Mimbres Valley

The portion of the Sierra Madre plateau called Lower Mimbres, or Antelope Valley, extends from where the Mimbres sinks below the surface at Oldtown to Lake Palomas in Mexico, twenty-five miles south of Deming. According to some writers this region has no prehistoric ruins, but several of the beautiful specimens described and figured in the present article came from this valley, and there are doubtless many others, equally instructive, still awaiting the spade of the archeologist. The purest form of the Mimbres prehistoric culture is found in the lower or southern part of this plain, but it extends into the hills far up the Mimbres almost to its source.

The plateau on which the prehistoric Mimbres culture developed is geographically well marked, and distinguished from other regions of the Southwest geographically and biologically, facts reflected in human culture. The cultural gateway is open to migrations from the south rather than from the east, north, or west.

The evidences drawn from the poor preservation of the walls of the ruins, and the paucity of historical references to them, instead of indicating absence of a prehistoric population suggest the existence of a very ancient culture that had been replaced by wandering Apache tribes years before the advent of the Spaniards. Chronologically the prehistoric people belongs to an older epoch than the Pueblo, and its culture resembles that which antedated the true Pueblos.[10]

The ruins here considered do not belong to the same type as those of the Lower Gila and Salt, although they may be contemporaneous with them, and may have been inhabited at the same time as those on the Casas Grandes River in northern Chihuahua. Not regarded as belonging to the same series of ruins as those on the Upper Gila and Salt rivers, they are not designated numerically with them.

Although the indications of an ancient prehistoric occupancy of the Mimbres are so numerous, they are so indistinct and have been so little studied that any attempt here to include all of them would be premature. 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. These sites are commonly called "Indian graves," skeletons often having been excavated from the enclosures outlined by former house walls. There are also evidences of prehistoric ditches at certain points along the Mimbres, showing that the ancients irrigated their small farms.

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. From remains that were examined it appears that the walls were sometimes built of stone laid in mortar and plastered on the inside, or of adobe strengthened at the base with stones and supported by logs, a few of which have been found in place upright. No differentiation of sacred and secular rooms was noticed, and no room could be identified as belonging to the type called kiva. 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 very generally throughout the prehistoric Southwest, and supposed to antedate the communal dwellings or pueblos of northern New Mexico.

The two aboriginal sites in the Mimbres Valley that have yielded the majority of the specimens here figured and described are the Oldtown ruin and the Osborn ruin, a small village site twelve miles south of Deming and four miles west of the Florida Mountains. There are some differences in general appearance and variations in the minor archeological objects from these two localities, but it is supposed that specimens from both indicate a closely related, if not identical, culture area.

About a year ago Mr. E. D. Osborn, of Deming, who had commenced excavation in these ruins,[11] obtained from them a considerable collection of pottery and other objects. His letters on the subject and his photographs of the pottery, sent to the Bureau of American Ethnology, first led the author to visit southern New Mexico to investigate the archeology of the Mimbres.

VILLAGE SITE NEAR OSBORN RANCH[12]

A few extracts from Mr. Osborn's letters regarding this site form a fitting introduction to a description of the sites and the objects from them:

At the present time [December 8, 1913] the nearest permanent water to this place [site of the cemetery] is either the Palomas Lake in Mexico, twenty-five miles south, or thirty miles north, where the Mimbres River sinks into the earth.... This supposed Pueblo site is situated upon a low sandy ridge which at this point makes a right-angle bend, one part running south and the other west from the angle. The top and sides of the ridge, also the "flat" enclosed between the areas of the ridge, to the extent of about an acre, is littered all over with fragments, charcoal and debris containing bones to the depth of from one to three feet. There are also a great many broken metates and grinding stones.... In digging on top of this ridge, near the angle, we occasionally found what appeared to have been adobe wall foundations, but not sufficiently large to determine the size or shape of any building. In digging on the ridge a few stone implements were found, including one fine stone axe, stone paint pots and mortars, and a few arrowheads, also two bone awls and a few shell beads and bracelets, the last all broken. The only article of wood was the stump of a large cedar post full of knots, badly decayed; it had been burned off two or three inches below the surface of the ground. The cemetery was found on the inner slope of the angle facing the southwest.... In a large proportion of cases the body was placed upon its back, feet drawn up against the body, knees higher than the head; sometimes the head was face up and sometimes it was pressed forward so the top of the head was uppermost. In other interments the body was extended its full length with face up. A large majority of the skulls had a bowl[13] inverted over them, though I judge twenty per cent were without any bowl.... In a great many instances after the body had been placed in the grave with bowl over the head, a little soil was filled in, and about one foot of adobe mud was added and tramped down then filled up with soil. This adobe mud is almost like rock, making it difficult to dig up the bowl without smashing it.... No article of any kind except the bowl over the head was found in any grave. In one case a bowl was found with a skull under it and under that skull was another bowl and another skull.

Few evidences of upright walls of buildings are found at or near this site. The surface of the ground in places rises into low mounds devoid of bushes, which grow sparingly in the immediate neighborhood, but no trees of any considerable size were noticed in the vicinity. Before work began at this place the only signs of former occupancy by aborigines, besides walls, were a few broken fragments of ancient pottery, metates, or a burnt stump protruding here and there from the ground. None of the house walls projected very high above the surface of the ground. Excavations in the floors of rooms at this point yielded so many human skeletons that the place was commonly referred to as a cemetery, but all indications support the conclusion that it was probably a village site with intramural interments.

The human burials here found had knees flexed or drawn to the breast in the "contracted" position, sometimes with the face turned eastward. 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. While there is not enough of the walls above ground to show the former extent of the dwellings, the indications are that they were extensive and have been broken down and washed away.

OLDTOWN RUIN

Near where the Mimbres leaves the hills and, after spreading out, is lost in the sand, there was formerly a "station," on the mail route, called Mimbres, but now known as Oldtown. Since the founding of Deming, the railroad center, the stage route has been abandoned and Mimbres (Oldtown) has so declined in population that nothing remains of this settlement except a ranch-house, a school-house, and a number of deserted adobe dwellings.

Oldtown lies on the border of what must formerly have been a lake and later became a morass or cienega, but is now a level plain lined on one side with trees and covered with grass, affording excellent pasturage. From this point the water of the Mimbres River is lost, and its bed is but a dry channel or arroyo which meanders through the plain, filled with water only part of the year. In the dry months the river sinks below the surface of the plain near Oldtown reappearing at times where the subsoil comes to the surface, and at last forms Palomas Lake in northern Mexico.

In June, when the author visited Oldtown, the dry bed of the Mimbres throughout its course could be readily traced by a line of green vegetation along the whole length of the plain from the Oldtown site to the Florida Mountains.[14]

The locality of emergence of the Mimbres from the hills or where its waters sink below the surface is characteristic. The place is surrounded by low hills forming on the south a precipitous cliff, eighty feet high, which the prehistoric inhabitants chose as a site of one of their villages; from the character and abundance of pottery found, there is every reason to suppose this was an important village.

The Oldtown ruin is one of the most extensive seen by the author during his reconnaissance in the Deming Valley, although not so large as some of those in the Upper Mimbres, or on Whiskey Creek, near Central. Although it is quite difficult to determine the details of the general plan, the outlines of former rectangular rooms are indicated by stone walls that may be fairly well traced. There seem to have been several clusters of rooms arranged in rows, separated by square or rectangular plazas, unconnected, often with circular depressions between them.

There is considerable evidence of "pottery hunting" by amateurs in the mounds of Oldtown, and it is said that several highly decorated food bowls adorned with zoic figures have been taken from the rooms. It appears that the ancient inhabitants here, as elsewhere, practised house burial and that they deposited their dead in the contracted position, placing bowls over the crania ([fig. 1]).[15]

Fig. 1.—Urn burial. (Schematic.)

The author excavated several buried skeletons from a rectangular area situated about the middle of the Oldtown ruin, surrounded on three sides by walls. The majority of the dead were accompanied with shell beads and a few turquoise ornaments, and on one was found a number of shell tinklers made of the spires of seashells. One of the skeletons excavated by Mr. Osborn appeared to have been enclosed in a stone cist with a flat slab of stone covering the skull. The remains of a corner post supporting the building stood upright on this slab.[16] In another case a skull was found broken into fragments by the large stone that had covered it. Several skeletons had no bowls over the heads, an exceptional feature in Mimbres burials; and in some instances the bowl had been placed over the face. In the case of numerous infant interments the bowl covered the whole skeleton.

RUIN ON BYRON RANCH

This ruin lies not far from the present course of the Mimbres near the Little Florida Mountains. The place has long been known as an aboriginal village site and considered one of the most important in the valley. The remains of buildings cover a considerable area. They have a rudely quadrangular form, showing here and there depressions and lines of stones, evidently indicating foundations of rooms, slightly protruding from the ground. Although this ruin has been extensively dug over by those in search of relics, no systematic excavations seem to have been attempted. It is said that valuable specimens have been obtained here, and fragments of pottery, arrowheads, and broken stone implements are still picked up on the surface.

The important discovery of burial customs of the ancient Mimbreños was made by Mr. Duff at this ruin. He excavated below the floor of one of the rooms and found a human cranium on which was inverted a food bowl pierced in the middle, the first example of this custom noted in the Mimbres region.

RUIN NEAR DEMING

About seven miles northwest of Deming, in a field on the north side of the Southern Pacific Railroad, there is a small tract of land showing aboriginal artifacts strewn over the surface, affording good evidence of prehistoric occupation. There are no house walls visible at this place, and only a few fragments of food bowls, but in the course of an hour's search several small mortars ([fig. 2]), paint grinders and other objects were procured at this place.[17]

Fig. 2.—Paint mortar. Diam. 2½″.

PREHISTORIC SITE NEAR BLACK MOUNTAIN

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. Its color on the outside is red, with a white interior surface decorated with black geometric designs, the border is flaring often with exceptional exterior decoration. These bowls have broken encircling lines—a feature yet to be found in other Mimbres pottery—and none of the few pieces yet obtained from the ruin near Black Mountain has animal pictures. The whole appearance of this pottery recalls old Gila ware and suggests an intrusion from without the Mimbres region, possibly from the north and west.

The circles of stones on the top of Black Mountain have many points of resemblance to similar structures on hilltops near Swarts' Ranch on the Upper Mimbres, described by Mr. Webster, as follows:[18]

The tops of nearly all the mountains of this valley, and particularly those here mapped, are occupied by hundreds of rock mounds, breastworks, pits, etc. The region shown in plate 3, and which represents an area about one mile in length and three-fourths mile in width, exhibits 240 of these structures.... These rock mounds are composed of more or less rounded rocks gathered from the region, and generally weighing from four to eight pounds each; although many are smaller: and again others weigh from twenty-five to fifty pounds or more each. These structures are generally circular: although at times they are ovate, and again assume an oblong or linear marginal outline. They vary considerably in size, although usually being only from three to four feet in diameter: the linear ones being from six to eight feet or more in length. Some of the larger circular mounds assume a diameter of seven to eight feet. The height of these mounds varies considerably; but as a rule assume a height ranging from one to one and a half feet.

The distance apart of these structures is variable; being as a general thing from five to fifteen feet; but not infrequently they are only two to four feet apart: at other times, however, they may be observed to be from sixty to ninety feet or more distant from each other.

Mr. Webster discovered on a rocky ridge near Swarts' ruin, somewhat higher on the Mimbres than Brockman's Mill, seven similar earthen pits of much interest, which remind the author of subterranean or half-sunken dwellings. They are saucer-shaped or linear depressions, averaging about two feet in depth; when circular they are from five to fifteen feet in diameter the linear form in one instance being fifty feet long. Some of these have elevated margins, others with scarcely any marginal ridge. The western margin in one instance has a "wall of rounded stones."

There are similar saucer-shaped depressions near Brockman's Mills and elsewhere in the Mimbres, almost identical with "pit dwellings" found by Dr. Hough near Los Lentes. These saucer-like depressions, often supposed to have been the pits from which adobe was dug, were also places of burial, the dead being presumably interred under or on the floors; the original excavation being a dwelling that was afterwards used as a burial place for the dead. Their form suggests the circular kiva of the Pueblos and has been so interpreted by some persons.

RUINS ON THE MIMBRES RIVER FROM OLDTOWN TO BROCKMAN'S MILLS

On low terraces elevated somewhat above the banks of the river, between Oldtown and Brockman's Mills, there are several village sites, especially on the western side.[19] The most important of these is situated about four miles north of Oldtown. The ruin at the Allison Ranch, situated at the Point of Rocks where the cliffs come down to the river banks, is large and there are many pictographs nearby. The ruins at Brockman's Mills on the opposite or eastern side of the river lie near the ranch-house. Many rooms, some of which seem to have walls well plastered, can be seen just behind the corral. North of the ruin is a hill with low lines of walls like trincheras. On some of the stones composing these walls and on neighboring scattered boulders, there are well-made pictographs.[20]

PICTOGRAPHS

Pictographs occur at several localities along the Mimbres. As these have a general likeness to each other and differ from those of other regions, they are supposed to be characteristic of the prehistoric people. They are generally pecked on the sides of boulders or on the face of the cliffs in the neighborhood of prehistoric sites of dwellings. Although there is only a remote likeness between these pictographs and figures on pottery, several animal forms are common to the two.

Fig. 3.—Pictographs.

The most important group of pictographs ([fig. 3]) seen by the author are situated about nine miles from Deming in the western foot-hills of Cook's Peak.[21] Some of the pictographs recall decorations on bowls from Pajarito Park.

Another large collection of Mimbres pictographs, visited by the author, is found at Rock Canyon, three or four miles above Oldtown, at a point where the cliffs approach the western bank of the river. On the river terrace not far above this collection of pictures, also on the right bank of the river, lies the extensive ruin of a prehistoric settlement, the walls of which project slightly above the surface. 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. 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. Mr. Webster has given the most complete account of this type of mortars in a description of the ancient ruins near Cook's Peak.[22] On the surface of the southwestern point of a low hill to the north of an ancient ruin at Cook's Peak, according to this observer,

occurs a feature which the writer had nowhere else seen, save on the east side of the same mountain. I refer to the great number of mortars which occur in this sandstone back a few feet to the north of the ruins, and which were made and long used by the ancient pueblo-dwellers. There exists at this one place fifty-three of these mortars, nearly all of them occurring in an area of surface not more than seventy-five or eighty feet in diameter.... Nearly all the mortars are circular or sub-circular in outline, symmetrical and smooth inside, and the upper edge or margin usually rounded by the pestle. In a few cases, however, these mortars have an oblong or subovate outline, somewhat like some forms of metates found among the ruins.

These mortars often contract to a point at the bottom, when circular in marginal outline, although at times are longer than broad, as just stated, and in this case have a more flattened bottom. They vary from two to eleven inches in diameter, the smallest forms being those apparently only just begun, and are few in number. The deepest mortar observed was seventeen inches, though the great majority of them would vary perhaps from four to ten inches in depth. Often the rock was smooth and polished around the margin of the mortars, and [their distances apart] vary from a few inches to several feet from each other.

At times these mortars would be located on the top of a large block of sandstone which might happen to occupy this area; these boulders sometimes being four to five feet in diameter and perhaps four feet in height. It was plain to be seen that this ancient mill-site was long used by these peculiar people, but just why so many quite similar mortars should have been made here and used by these people is a matter of conjecture.

It seems certain that a sufficiently large number of people could not have been congregated here, under ordinary conditions, to warrant the forming of so many mortars for the purpose of grinding food.[23]

The present writer accepts the theory that these rock depressions were used in pounding corn or other seeds, but their great number in localities where ruins are insignificant or wanting is suggestive. 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.

MINOR ANTIQUITIES

The artifacts picked up on the surface near ruins or excavated from village sites resemble so closely those from other regions of the Southwest that taken alone these do not necessarily indicate special culture areas. A few of the more common forms from the Mimbres are here figured for comparison, but, with the exception of the pottery, there is little individuality shown in the majority of these objects. Among other objects may be mentioned stone implements, mortars, idols, bone implements, shell ornaments, and pottery.

STONE IMPLEMENTS

The stone axes are not very different from those of the Rio Grande and the Gila, but it is to be noticed that they are not so numerous as in the latter region, and are probably inferior in workmanship, fine specimens indeed being rare. The majority of the axes ([fig. 4]) are single grooved, but a few have two grooves. In Dr. Swope's collection, now in the Deming High School, there is a fairly good double-bladed axe.

Fig. 4.—Stone axe. Length 8¾″.

Fig. 5.—Arrow polisher. Length 3¼″, breadth 2½″.

Miss Alnutt, of Deming, has a remarkable collection of arrowpoints gathered from many localities in the valley, and also a few fine spearpoints, conical pipes, and other objects taken from the sacred spring at Faywood Hot Spring. A beautiful arrow polisher found near Deming is shown in [figure 5].

The pipes from the Mimbres take the form of tubular cloud-blowers, specimens of which are shown in [figure 6]. Apparently these pipes were sometimes thrown into sacred springs, but others have been picked up on the surface of village sites or a few feet below the surface.

Fig. 6.—Cloud blowers. Faywood Hot Springs. (Swope collection.) ½ nat. size.

Lateral and top views of one of the characteristic forms of small stone mortars with a handled projection on one side is shown in [figure 7]. This specimen is in the Swope collection in the Deming High School. In the same collection there are also two beautiful tubular pipes, or cloud-blowers, from the same spring.

Fig. 7.—Handled mortar. (Swope collection.) Length 10¾″.

The stone mortars from Mimbres ruins vary in size. Many are simply spherical stones with a depression on one side; others are larger but still spherical, or ovate; while others have square or rectangular forms. The most remarkable feature in these is the presence of a handle on one side, which occasionally is duplicated, and in one instance four knobs or legs project from the periphery. These projections appear to characterize the mortars of the Mimbres, although they are not confined to them, as the form occurs in other regions of New Mexico and in California. One of the most instructive of these small spherical paint mortars, now owned by Mr. E. D. Osborn, has ridges cut in high relief on the outside.

Metates and manos, some broken, others whole, are numerous and can be picked up on almost every prehistoric site. While some of these metates are deeply worn, showing long usage, others have margins but slightly raised above the surface. The majority of metates found on the sites of habitations have no legs, but a typical Mexican metate with three knobs in the form of legs was presented to the National Museum by the Rev. E. S. Morgan, of Deming. 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; or again, they were possibly used in foot races, as by the Hopi of to-day.

COPPER OBJECTS

Native metallic copper was formerly abundant at the Santa Rita mines, and there is every probability that the material out of which some of the aboriginal copper bells were made was found here, and that these mines were the source of float copper found in Arizona ruins. Although no copper implements were found by the author in the Mimbres ruins, he has been told that objects of copper apparently made by the aborigines have been found in some of the graves.[24]

STONE IDOLS

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. In one instance they were made on an elevated ridge, which unfortunately was broken. The author has also seen several small amulets, perforated apparently for suspension. The stone idols here figured (figs. [8], [9], [10]) were presented to the Deming High School by Dr. Swope.

Fig. 8.—Frog fetish. Black Mountain Ruin. (Swope collection.) Length 3½″.

Fig. 9.—Fetish. Byron Ranch. (Swope collection.) Length 5¾″.

Fig. 10.—Fetish. Byron Ranch. (Swope collection.) Length 6¾″.

SHELL BRACELETS AND CARVED SHELLS

Two or three shell bracelets were excavated from Mimbres ruins, and there were also found carved shells and tinklers not unlike those of northern New Mexico ruins. Some of these when excavated were found near the head and are supposed to have been earrings. Five shell rings were still on the bones of the forearm of a child when found. One of the shell bracelets owned by Mr. Osborn was cracked but was pierced on each side of the break, indicating where it had been mended; another had figures incised on its surface, and a third had the edges notched, imparting to it a zigzag shape, like that of a serpent. Many shell beads, spires of shells used for tinklers, and other shell objects, all made of genera peculiar to the Pacific Ocean, were found during the excavations.