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In the southern part of the region here treated bowlder-marked sites are more clearly marked and more easily distinguished than in the northern part, partly perhaps because in that section the normal ground surface is smoother than in the northern section and affords a greater contrast with the site itself.
Bowlder-marked sites are scattered over the whole region here treated although they are more abundant in the southern part than in the northern. These constitute a peculiar type, not found elsewhere in the experience of the writer, and present some points of interest. They vary in size from one room to considerable settlements, but the average size is two or three rooms.
The bowlder-marked sites and the small single-room remains illustrate other phases of the same horticultural methods, methods somewhat resembling the “intensive culture,” of modern agriculture, but requiring further a close supervision or watching of the crop during the period of ripening.
The domiciliary ruins of this region fall easily into three general classes, to which may be added a fourth, comprising irrigating ditches and works, the first class having two subclasses. They are as follows: Stone villages. a. Villages on bottom lands. b. Villages on defensive sites. Cavate lodges. Bowlder-marked sites. Irrigating ditches and works.
Plate XXXIII shows one of these bowlder-marked sites which occurs a little below Limestone creek, on the opposite or eastern side of the river. It is typical of many in that district.
An examination of many sites leads to the conclusion that permanency was not an element of much weight in their selection. Externally these bowlder-marked sites have every appearance of great antiquity, but all the evidence obtainable in regard to them indicates that they were connected with and inhabited at the same time as the other ruins in the region in which they are found.
It is probable that the bowlder-marked ruins are the sites of secondary and temporary structures, erected for convenience in working fields near to or overlooked by them and distant from the home pueblo. The character of the sites occupied by them and the plan of the structures themselves supports this hypothesis.
No traces of this construction were found in the bowlder-marked sites, perhaps because no excavation was carried on; but it is evident that the rooms were not built of stone, and that not more than a small percentage could have been built of rammed earth or grout, as the latter, in disintegrating leaves well-defined mounds and lines of debris.
In the vicinity of the large ruin just above Limestone creek, previously described, the bowlder-marked sites are especially abundant.
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