The stone age in North America, vol. 2 of 2

by Warren K. Moorehead

THE STONE AGE IN UTAH

The remains of prehistoric and ancient people hitherto discovered in Utah consist principally of the ruins of various houses in the cliffs and valleys, and the contents thereof. Besides these there are ancient irrigation ditches of some size and importance in the southern part of Utah. There are also petroglyphs or rock carvings of various kinds upon the vertical faces of many of the rock cliffs; and what appear to be tracks or prints of the human foot in volcanic rock have been found in one or two places.

While the houses whose ruins occur in the broad valleys of Utah vary in size and in the number of rooms, and also in the structure of their floors and the interior finish of their walls, they may all be regarded as belonging to the same class of mud or adobe structures. The cliff-houses, however, differ in so far as some are stone buildings, others mostly adobe, and others small caves just large enough for occupation as dwellings or for use as storage-bins.

The more important artifacts obtained from the ruins of Utah are here enumerated and described:—

Objects made of Wood

Wooden pail or bucket, from a cave (see Fig. 632). This is formed by digging out a piece of the trunk of a tree.

Flails of several shapes are found. These are from three to four feet long, and have one end wide and flat for a length of fifteen to eighteen inches. They were used for beating the yucca plant and cedar bark in making yarn or thread. Doubtless some of these wooden articles may have been used also for digging in the earth.

Two atlatls from this region have been described, one by Professor Otis T. Mason in 1892, and the second by the present writer in 1894. (See The Archæologist for November, 1894, “Prehistoric Man in Utah,” by Henry Montgomery.) The latter atlatl or throwing-stick had two loops of rawhide and a shallow groove upon it. There had been a piece broken off the upper part.

Wooden pipes were discovered in 1894, along with mummies and relics, in cave-house ruins in eastern Utah. These are nearly ovoid in shape; the passage is not curved or bent; and they have short bone stems cemented in position for use.

Textiles

Knitted and plaited articles occur.

Corn-sacks made of the fibre of the bark of the cedar tree have been obtained by me in the caves of some of the canyon Cliff-Dwellers.

Baskets, mats, and sandals, chiefly of yucca fibre, have been found with the bodies of half a dozen mummies and elsewhere in caves in eastern Utah. These show artistic skill in their manufacture. In January, February, and March, 1894, Mr. C. B. Lang made an important collection in three caves of San Juan County, Utah, which he asked the writer to examine at that time and to make report thereon to the scientific and other journals. With that end in view I made an examination and had a number of photographs of the collection made. Only a few of these were used in publication. Some of the remaining unpublished photographs are herein reproduced for the edification of our readers. (See Fig. 631, pair of leggings, and Fig. 634, birch bark.) Mr. George H. Pepper described a number of similar articles from other localities in Utah, and referred them to a distinct race or tribe to which he gave the name “basket-makers.” As sacks and mats of much the same character have been found by the writer in other caves along with the ordinary Cliff-Dweller’s artifacts and skeletons, the propriety of separating these people from the Cliff-Dwellers proper seems, for the present at least, somewhat doubtful.

Feather Objects

Robes and mantles or shawls made of the feathers of wild turkeys were also taken from cave-house ruins in eastern Utah. Several mummies were found clothed with such feather robes, and some wearing sandals of yucca fibre, and others having deerskin coverings upon their feet.

Bone Objects

Pipe-stems, pieces of hollow bone of suitable length, cut from the hollow wing-bones of birds.

Skewers and awls of bone are numerous.

Circular and oblong pieces of bone. No doubt some of these were used in playing games.

Beads of bone of various sizes.

Objects made from Teeth

Beads made out of teeth, probably of the mountain lion, an animal which is present in considerable numbers in the Wahsatch and Uintah Mountains.

Shell Objects

Beads made out of shells from the ocean.

Stone Objects

Metates and rubbing-stones, for grinding maize. These corn-grinding mills are often quite large, and sometimes weigh as much as a hundred pounds. In the year 1892 the writer found a heavy metate in a cliff-house in a place one thousand feet above the stream in the bottom of the canyon, and in a spot very difficult of access.

Arrow-heads of obsidian, chalcedony, and quartz. They are mostly small, barbed, and well-formed. Many of them are translucent, and some are transparent. Both obsidian and chalcedony occur in nature in southern Utah.

One straight pipe-bowl of catlinite was found in a cave-house in San Juan County. This may perhaps indicate intercourse with the tribes of Dakota or Minnesota.

A nearly pear-shaped pipe-bowl of beautifully polished onyx was found with mummified human bodies and wooden flails and fibre mats in a cave in eastern Utah (see Fig. 436). It had a stem of bone in position, fastened in place by some sort of black cement or fireproof substance, which also lined the inside of the pipe-bowl.

Stone mauls and hammers are to be mentioned as occurring in Utah. They are generally provided with a groove in which the pliant, tough, wooden handle is fastened.

Grooved stone axes likewise occur.

Oblong and other-shaped pendants and ornaments of turquoise and green variscite have been found in the valley houses.

Pottery Objects

Pipe-bowls of several kinds, straight and curved. Some well-formed pottery pipes were found by the writer in 1890 in valley-house ruins.

Balls an inch or two in diameter made of partially baked clay. Probably used for games of some sort.

Vessels in the form of bowls and jugs. The bowls are of regular form, well glazed and tastefully decorated with painted designs, mostly on the inside.

The jars have one or two handles, and are of many sizes, some being very large. Occasionally the jars are highly embellished externally by painted designs of various and interesting kinds. Similar bowls, jars, and pipes of pottery are found in both the valley- and the cliff-house ruins.

That the people who built and inhabited the cave- and cliff-houses and the valley houses were one and the same race of people can hardly be doubted. This was pointed out by the writer in 1894. The stone corn-mills, the pipes, the arrow-points, the bowls and jars of pottery, are similar. The house structures were, of course, slightly different, owing to the difference in their environment. But both peoples were agriculturists, both built small rooms or houses for storing corn, gourds, water, and implements, both had arrows for defense and the chase, and both manufactured superior pottery similar in the quality of the material and also in decoration.