On this slope two small artificial terraces had been cut out to provide level ground for building houses. The floors of 35 houses were found in on these terraces, many of them superimposed over others; at least nine, however, were occupied simultaneously. The individual house floors were roughly circular in outline and they measured from 2.5 to 9 meters in diameter, with most of them approximating the smaller figure. They were clay-lined and had a saucer-like appearance.
The houses actually were only slightly subterranean and much shallower than the later Basketmaker III pithouses. They were walled with a curious wood-and-mud mortar masonry of which the bottom course was made up of a series of large logs laid horizontally on the ground at the edge of the saucer-like concavity of the floor. Smaller log chunks and mud were stacked on these foundations, probably to about head height. The roof supports rested on the tops of the walls. Entrance must have been through a small side door, without a passage entryway.
The buildings were heated by placing large hot stones in a small central heating-pit. Besides these heating pits, the only other distinctive feature of the Talus Slope Village houses were floor cists for storage. Some of these were bottled-shaped; others were more open and stone-lined and frequently were covered with dome-shaped “bee-hive” tops that stood above the surface of the house floor. These bee-hive tops were made of clay and were often decorated with puched and incised designs that were made to represent animal tracks and clawmarks.
The Talus Slope Village site is supplemented by finds from contemporancous rock shelters nearby. Similar houses were built within these shelters, although these structures tended to be less substantial, and in some instances were so constructed as to utilize the natural backs or sides of the shelters as a wall side to the house. Domesticated plant remains were found in these dry-shelter deposits. The economy was obviously varied, with hunting, wild-plant collecting and domestication all contributing to the support of the village.
Basketmaker peoples were of average American Indian stature with smallish, high-valuted crania of meso-to-dolichocphalic form, the physical type referred to by George Neumann as the “Ashiwid” and by Seltzer as the “ Southwestern Plateau type.” A series of skeletons of this general description were found in graves at the Durango sites. The flexed bodies had been buried directly in or near the dwellings, occasionally in old cists, and were dressed in sandals, loincloths, string aprons, and robes of the hides or fur and feathers, accompanied by baskets, bark bags, and various weapons, tools, and ceremonial objects of wood and bone. Some sandals were woven from tule reeds, some from yucca, and others were made of leather; garments with fur-and-feather strips were wound on yucca fiber cordage; and baskets were made by coiling and stiching together several rod-and-bundle-splints.
The bodies were also adorned with shell, bone, and stone beads and other ornaments. No fired clay vessels accompanied the burials or have been found at the characteristic of Basketmaker II Period cultures, although fragments of what may have been unfired clay containers and an unfired figurine have been found at Durango.
Typical Durango projectile points were medium sized and corner-notched. The Durango metates were horse-shoe shaped-that is, one end had a tapered opening more like some of the Mogollon forms than the Cochise shapes, which were always closed basins. Tubular stones pipe have have been found along with a profusion of bone implements and ornaments such as notched animal scapulae and ribs that were probably used for separating yucca fibers, the basis of cordage and textilles. Little bone “gaming disks” are another interesting item. These usually have been found in sets, and in other Basketmaker caves have sometimes been recovered in hide bags. They were rectangular or circular and usually with bore incised lines. In some instances they may have been fastened to stone or wooden bases with pitch.
Print this page
