University of Virginia Library

PREFACE

The story of the vanished Indian culture of Pueblo Bonito in Chaco
Canyon, New Mexico, set forth in fascinating detail in this volume,
is the outgrowth of a program of archeological research initiated by
the National Geographic Society in 1920. In that year, at the request
of the Society's Research Committee, Neil M. Judd, then curator
of archeology at the U. S. National Museum, conducted a preliminary
survey of the vast abandoned "apartment house" of Pueblo
Bonito. Following this survey, and upon Mr. Judd's recommendation,
the Society embarked upon an extensive program of excavations from
1921 through 1927 which produced the material for this report.

Mr. Judd's painstaking investigations have made it possible to reconstruct
to a remarkable degree the everyday life and culture of the
people who lived in Pueblo Bonito approximately 1,000 years ago.
These prehistoric Indians inhabited the site at least as early as A.D.
919, and attained their "Golden Age" after A.D. 1000, about the
time of the Norman conquest of Britain and the First Crusade. They
continued to occupy the Pueblo for at least another century; then
some 300 years before the coming of Columbus they disappeared
without trace.

Our detailed knowledge of the actual dates when Pueblo Bonito was
occupied was furnished by two other expeditions of the National Geographic
Society, in 1928 and 1929, led by Dr. Andrew Ellicott Douglass,
director of Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona.
Dr. Douglass was engaged at that time in the study of climatic cycles
as revealed in the varying thickness of the annual growth rings of
trees, and the possible relation of such cycles to the 11-year sunspot
cycle.

Dr. Douglass made careful measurements of the growth rings in
logs used as supporting beams in the Pueblo Bonito structures, and
then was able to fit them into an unbroken sequence of tree rings
extending back into the past from the present day. Thus he was able
to establish the dates when many of the Pueblo Bonito beams had been
cut from living forests.

His monograph, "Dating Pueblo Bonito and Other Ruins of the
Southwest," appeared in 1935 as the first of several papers presenting
the scientific results of the Pueblo Bonito expeditions.

The researches of Mr. Judd and Dr. Douglass have clearly shown
the closely knit interrelationship of primitive man and his environment.

Their findings leave little doubt that the gradual destruction of
the forests that once flourished in and about Chaco Canyon caused
increasing erosion and steadily decreasing water supply. This in turn
made it more and more difficult for the inhabitants of Pueblo Bonito
to raise sufficient food, and undoubtedly led to the eventual abandonment
of the site.

The results of the expeditions have been described in several splendidly
illustrated articles in the Society's official journal, the National
Geographic Magazine, notably "Pueblo Bonito, the Ancient," July
1923, and "Everyday Life in Pueblo Bonito," September 1925, both
by Mr. Judd, and "Secret of the Southwest Solved by Talkative Tree
Rings," December 1929, by Dr. Douglass.

Mr. Judd spent many years of research and study in the preparation
of this report of his scientific discoveries. More recently, as associate
in anthropology of the Smithsonian Institution, he has devoted full
time to the completion of the work.

After his completed manuscript was submitted to the National Geographic
Society, its Board of Trustees, acting upon the recommendation
of the Research Committee, placed the material at the disposal of
the Smithsonian Institution and provided for its publication.

A third report, "The Geology of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, in
Relation to the Life and Remains of the Prehistoric Peoples Who Inhabited
Pueblo Bonito," by the late Dr. Kirk Bryan, was made available
to the Smithsonian Institution at the same time and has since
been published.

The National Geographic Society is happy to recognize with gratitude
and admiration Mr. Judd's devoted and untiring labor in producing
an outstanding contribution to American archeology and to
our knowledge of the way of life of the prehistoric Indians of the
Southwest.

It seems appropriate here to recognize also the deep and wholehearted
interest of the Society's Research Committee in the scientific
results of the Pueblo Bonito Expeditions and, more particularly, to
acknowledge the guidance of the Committee's chairman, Dr. Lyman
J. Briggs, Director Emeritus of the National Bureau of Standards,
and of its vice chairman, Dr. Alexander Wetmore, formerly Secretary
and now research associate of the Smithsonian Institution.