File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17972100568).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo13amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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68 THE AM ERIC AX MUSE CM JOURNAL rated from it by broad stretches of low semi-desert or barren plains, across which no living stream can reach. The river valley itself, or more pioperly its productive flood plain, varies in width from almost nothing up to four and five miles, according as the mountain ranges and occasional lava flows approach one another from oppo- site sides of the stream. This flood plain, subject in part to inundations, comprises close to 400,000 acres and is all of it suitable for irrigation. It was doubtless this fact which made the Rio Grande valley relatively popu- lous in prehistoric times. Our first definite knowledge of its inhabitants dates back to the year 1540 when the Coronado expedition reported the existence of about sev- enty pueblos or villages in the valley. At the present day only seven- teen villages of the old type remain in the entire Rio Grande drainage, and several of these such as Santo Domingo as well as additional scattered settlements near Las Graces and at Ysleta del Sur, are of modern origin. From these facts it will readily be seen how rich the region must be in archaeological data. Most of the ruins lo- cated by the expedition however are not situated on the great river or the lands described as most suitable for cultivation but to the east and the west thirty or forty miles away. It is conceded that the Museum expe- dition did not examine all the ruins known to exist close to the Rio Small bin for foodstuffs, built of stone slabs in the ,, . . . corner of a room, at Pueblo San Cristobal Grande; hilt it that had
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Ceiling and roof construction at Pueblo San Cristobal. Over the timbers was placed a thicker layer of adobe sufficient to shed the rains

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