although the other villages are named and are
readily identifiable with existing pueblos. (3) No fragment of glass,
metal, or other object indicative of the contact of European
civilization was found anywhere in the ruin. If we add to the above
the general appearance of age in the mounds and the depth of the
debris which has accumulated in the rooms and over the graves, we have
the main facts on which I have relied to support my belief that
Sikyatki is a prehistoric ruin.

AWATOBI

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RUIN

No Tusayan ruin offers to the archeologist a better picture of the
character of Hopi village life in the seventeenth century than that
known as Awatobi (plate CVII).[48] It is peculiarly interesting as
connecting the prehistoric culture of Sikyatki and modern Tusayan
life, with which we have become well acquainted through recent
research. Awatobi was one of the largest Tusayan pueblos in the middle
of the sixteenth century, and continued to exist to the close of the
seventeenth. It was therefore a historic pueblo. It had a mission,
notices of which occur in historical documents of the period. From its
preponderance in size, no less than from its position, we may suspect
that it held relatively the same leadership among the other Antelope
valley ruins that Walpi does today to Sichomovi and Hano.

The present condition of the ruins of Awatobi is in no respect
peculiar or different from that of the remains of prehistoric
structures, except that its mounds occupy a position on a mesa top
commanding a wide outlook over a valley. On its east it is hemmed in
by extensive sand dunes, which also stretch to the north and west,
receding from the village all the way from a few hundred yards to a
quarter of a mile. On the south the ruins overlook the plain, and the
sands on the west separate it from a canyon in which there are several
springs, some cornfields, and one or two modern Hopi houses. There is
no water in the valley which stretches away from the mesa on which
Awatobi is situated, and the foothills are only sparingly clothed with
desert vegetation. The mounds of the ruin have numerous clumps of
_sibibi_ (_Rhus trilobata_), and are a favorite resort of Hopi women
for the berries of this highly prized shrub. There is a solitary tree
midway between the sand dunes west of the village and the western
mounds, near which we found it convenient to camp. The only
inhabitants of the Awatobi mesa are a Navaho family, who