BESH-BA-GOWAH-THE ANCIENT CITY.

ABOUT four years ago, many people, especially members of the Woman's club, in Globe, Arizona, became interested in the prehistoric ruin located on city property. As a result of this interest, excavation of the ruin was begun. This work, by means of city-sponsored ERA and WPA projects, has been carried on since May, 1935. Selection of a name for the site, determined to be 600 to 700 years old, was a task undertaken by the then newly formed Gila County Archaeological Society. The language of the prehistoric group inhabiting the site was not known. It is customary to give to a prehistoric site the name used by the present day Indian tribes living in the area. The Apaches, who live near Globe, had no name for this specific site but did have a name for Globe. In olden times they used the phrase "Besh-ba-gowah," which means "metal camp," to designate the Globe area and so that name was given to the village.

Long ago the roofs and part of the walls of the many rooms had fallen but today, by excavation, the remainder of those old walls are found. The floors are in much the same condition as when abandoned around 1400 A. D. Ashes may be seen in the firepits, stone implements, storage jars and other material sitting on the floors. Roof timbers are well preserved, some burned, some not.

Burials were numerous at Besh-bagowah. They were placed beneath the floors of the open courts or patios within the village. In several instances early burials have been found beneath laterbuilt walls. These people seemed to have had no beliefs which prevented their use of the floor above the burials nor did they see any harm in disturbing an earlier one for a later one. This is evidenced by the finding of many graves dug into earlier ones. In such a case, the early burial was torn up, the later placed in position and the remains of the earlier one thrown in the fill above the later burial.

They showed respect to their dead by placing pottery and other offerings with them. Respect was again shown by digging graves in a very compact gravel with stone implements and often by placing small timbers above the burial. Ornaments are usually found as offerings and often remains of bows and arrows but seldom does one find a stone axe or stone hoe. The time evidently required to find suitable material and to fashion these implements was considered and it is thought that they were not given as offerings for that reason.

By means of excavation, we are able to determine to some extent the relationship of the Salado group (as the group who lived at Besh-ba-gowah is called) with other tribes. Pottery from many regions (New Mexico, Mexico, and several parts of Arizona) are evidences of trade. Shells were obtained by means of trades or expeditions from the Gulf of Lower California. This is especially interesting when one considers the fact that there were no beasts of burden and all travel was on foot.

Remarkable, too, is the evidence of the timbers used in roof construction. Those timbers to be a good lookout; there was water in the streams below and farm land along the banks. The mountains were close enough to provide timber supply and game was fairly abundant.

Building of the village was begunboulders from the creek were carried up to the mesa, clay was dug and mixed for a mortar and timbers were carried down from the mountains. A few rooms were thus built and from this nucleus 200 ground floor rooms grew. The population increased in accordance until there were probably 400 people living at the village. Not only was this site occupied but many more were inhabited as evidence of many ruins today indicate a large prehistoric population in this area.

Let us attempt a picture of the daily life of this group of prehistoric people who lived from 1225 A. D. to 1400 A. D. at the site we now call Besh-ba-gowah. If we were to have visited the place about 650 years ago, we would have seen an industrious group. Along the creeks many of skin and wearing sandals. Likely the men wore only G-strings, the women short cotton skirts and the children nothing at all.

Arriving at the village, we find the best way to enter is through a long passageway. Strangers no doubt would have been objects of curiosity to the prehistoric people just as they were not long ago to the Indian tribes of today. In that event, many would have gazed at us from the roof tops above. No doors opened into this passageway from the living rooms on each side. At the end of the passageway, we find ourselves in a large open court of patio. It was here that the people did most of their work.

In ollas over firepits, food was cooking and meat was roasting in one of the large open pits. By means of hunting, deer and other game, small game and birds were added to the grain diet. Berries, nuts, and fruits were gathered in season. There were probably several women grinding corn into a meal with a metate or mano (grinding stones.) There were other women making pottery; some coiling it, some painting it and others perhaps firing it. One of the most interesting things was to see them paint the pottery. There were cakes of mineral paints ready for use. These had been made some time before by grinding the minerals, adding a small amount of clay and water, and shaping it into various cake forms for storage. Many dif-(Turn to Page 32) Members were probably brought from the mountains some distance away. They are very useful today as a means of dating the site, using Dr. Douglass' tree ring method. Studying the evidences of culture that remain today, the life of this ancient group may be in part portrayed; how their houses were built-how their clothing, basketry, pottery, ornaments, stone and bone implements were madehow they farmed and hunted-how they traded-how they sent expeditions for various materials how a few of their ceremonies were conducted.

Today, one may see, in the Gila museum of Globe, the hundreds of pieces of pottery found in Besh-be-gowah, the stone and bone implements, the paint materials, the evidence of cotton cloth and basketry (two portions of painted baskets) and many other things from this long abandoned site. At the village of Besh-ba-gowah, one may see the old rooms and patios with the original walls and floors, some of the burials as they were found and the metates and manos and other implements in the same position as when abandoned around 1400 A. D. One section of the village is being rebuilt so that one may readily visualize how the entire village once looked.

About 1225 A. D. a group of people came into the country near Globe, looking for a village site. They selected a high mesa overlooking the junction of two water courses which make up the present Pinal Creek. This place was high enough Most of the people were working with stone hoes and wooden digging sticks in their gardens. The crops they grew were corn, beans, squash and cotton.

As we climbed to the top of the mesa, we would have seen several persons carrying boulders for use in house build-ing. The actual construction of the mud and rubble walls might have been seen or the construction of a roof. We surely could have seen the women giving their houses a new coat of plaster. The custom of modern Pueblo people, that of plastering their homes before important ceremonies are to be held, also must have been followed by the people of Besh-ba-gowah if the many coats of plaster found today are any indication.

Let us take a moment here to describe the physical appearance of these people. They were probably a dark-skinned, dark-haired group, dressed in clothing made