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A Preliminary Report on Indian Ruins Discovered Near the Crest of the Barringer Meteorite Crater, Arizona *
Author(s) -
Paz Lincoln
Publication year - 1950
Publication title -
contributions of the meteoritical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1945-5100
pISSN - 0096-2805
DOI - 10.1111/j.1945-5100.1950.tb00134.x
Subject(s) - impact crater , geology , meteorite , canyon , archaeology , pottery , astrobiology , geomorphology , history , physics
A bstract References to the superstitious fear with which the Barringer Meteorite Crater, near Canyon Diablo, Arizona, was regarded by the native dwellers of the Southwest, and to their avoidance of the Crater site, are abundant in the literature of meteoritics. Discovery of points and other artifacts on the flanks of the Crater by the Ohio State University Meteorite Expedition of 1939 first cast doubt on the validity of legendary scare‐stories concerning the Indians, and this doubt was intensified by the discovery, in 1948–49, of remarkable arrowheads and pottery‐shards, well up on the rim of the Crater, by Mr. Theodore E. Johnson, the Custodian of the Crater. In an effort to settle the question of possible Indian occupancy of the rim, archeological investigations were carried on by the Institute of Meteoritics at the Crater in the summer of 1950. As a result, not only were many points and other artifacts collected, but also Indian ruins, constructed from blocks of the Coconino sandstone occurring in the Crater rim, were discovered. One of these ruins, situated only 250 feet below the crest of the Crater rim, was completely excavated by Institute personnel, and is believed to date from a.d. 1300, at the latest.