Archaeological Explorations at Pecos, New Mexico

Abstract

The beds thus formed were built up very slowly, and when completed and solidified were so compact and fine grained as to be nearly or quite impermeable to liquids from the outside. If infiltrated by any material from without before the water originally included was drained and dried away, it is difficult to see how this could be done by liquids lighter than water, coming into it in the form of a uniform seepage from below. Exactly contemporaneous with the gradually progressive disappearance of the water and the chemical changes accompanying this, the sediments were compacted, solidified and lithified to their present texture and condition, and it seems highly probable that penetration by liquids from any outside source during the induration would be increasingly difficult. If these views are correct, the gaseous and liquid compounds obtained by distillation from the shale are not of external origin, but result from the decomposition of the carbonaceous material laid down during the formation of the rock. The absence of demonstrable liquid hydrocarbons in the shale itself would tend to strengthen this view, although not an insurmountable objection. Department to undertake the thorough exploration of a site large enough and of sufficient scientific importance to justify work upon it for several years. Pecos lies in the well-watered and fertile upper Pecos valley at an elevation of about 7000 feet. The buildings are located on the summit of a flat-topped ridge of sandstone slightly elevated above the surrounding plain, and consist of two house-clusters containing together, as nearly as can be made out in their present state of ruin, about 1100 ground floor rooms. A few hundred feet to the south stand the roofless walls of the large Spanish mission church. The place was discovered by Coronado in 1540. At that time it was the most populous of the Pueblo villages, being able to muster 500 fighting men. The chroniclers of the expedition describe the town as a quadrangular structure, four stories in height, on the balconies of which ANTHROPOLOGY: A. V. KIDDER 119 The beds thus formed were built up very slowly, and when completed and solidified were so compact and fine grained as to be nearly or quite impermeable to liquids from the outside. If infiltrated by any material from without before the water originally included was drained and dried away, it is difficult to see how this could be done by liquids lighter than water, coming into it in the form of a uniform seepage from below. Exactly contemporaneous with the gradually progressive disappearance of the water and the chemical changes accompanying this, the sediments were compacted, solidified and lithified to their present texture and condition, and it seems highly probable that penetration by liquids from any outside source during the induration would be increasingly difficult. If these views are correct, the gaseous and liquid compounds obtained by distillation from the shale are not of external origin, but result from the decomposition of the carbonaceous material laid down during the formation of the rock. The absence of demonstrable liquid hydrocarbons in the shale itself would tend to strengthen this view, although not an insurmountable objection. Department to undertake the thorough exploration of a site large enough and of sufficient scientific importance to justify work upon it for several years. Pecos lies in the well-watered and fertile upper Pecos valley at an elevation of about 7000 feet. The buildings are located on the summit of a flat-topped ridge of sandstone slightly elevated above the surrounding plain, and consist of two house-clusters containing together, as nearly as can be made out in their present state of ruin, about 1100 ground floor rooms. A few hundred feet to the south stand the roofless walls of the large Spanish mission church. The place was discovered by Coronado in 1540. At that time it was the most populous of the Pueblo villages, being able to muster 500 fighting men. The chroniclers of the expedition describe the town as a quadrangular structure, four stories in height, on the balconies of which