Such
traditional connection with the present peoples could probably be
established for many more of the ruins of this country by investigations
similar to those conducted by Mr. Stephen in the Tusayan group; but this
phase of the subject was not included in our work. In the search for
purely architectural evidence among these ruins it must be confessed
that the data have proved disappointingly meager. No trace of the
numerous constructive details that interest the student of pueblo
architecture in the modern villages can be seen in the low mounds of
broken down masonry that remain in most of the ancient villages of
Tusayan. But little masonry remains standing in even the best preserved
of these ruins, and villages known to have been occupied within two
centuries are not distinguishable from the remains to which distinct
tradition (save that they were in the same condition when the first
people of the narrators' gens came to this region) no longer clings.
Though but little architectural information is to be derived from these
ruins beyond such as is conveyed by the condition and character of the
masonry and the general distribution of the plan, the plans and relation
to the topography are recorded as forming, in connection with the
traditions, a more complete account than can perhaps be obtained later.
In our study of architectural details, when a comparison is suggested
between the practice at Tusayan and that of the ancient builders, our
illustrations for the latter must often be drawn from other portions of
the builders' territory where better preserved remains furnish the
necessary data.
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