Archeology of the lower Mimbres valley, New Mexico

by Jesse Walter Fewkes

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.