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The ruined habitations in the valley of the Rio Verde may be considered under three divisions or types, differing in form, but essentially the same in character. In adopting this classification, which is by no means restricted to this single valley, I do not claim originality, but follow that used by the best writers on this subject. My limitation of the types and general definitions may, however, be found to differ somewhat from those of my predecessors.

The three groups of ruins in our Southwest are the following:

I—Pueblos, or Independent habitations.

II—Cliff Houses }

III—Cavate Dwellings } Dependent habitations.

In the first group are placed those ancient or modern habitations which are isolated, on all sides, from cliffs. They may be situated in valleys or on elevations or mesas; they may be constructed of clay, adobe, or stone of various kinds, but are always isolated from cliffs. They are single or multiple chambered, circular or rectangular in shape, and may have been built either as permanent habitations or as temporary outlooks. Their main feature is freedom, on all sides except the foundation, from cliffs or walls of rock in place.

The second group includes those not isolated from natural cliffs, but with some part of their lateral walls formed by natural rock in situ, and are built ordinarily in caverns with overhanging roofs, which the highest courses of their walls do not join. Generally erected in caves, their front walls never close the entrances to those caverns. This kind of aboriginal buildings may, like the former, vary in structural material; but, so far as I know, they are not, for obvious reasons, made of adobe alone.

The third kind of pueblo dwellings are called cavate dwellings or lodges, a group which includes that peculiar kind of aboriginal dwelling where the rooms are excavated from the cliff wall, forming caves, where natural rock is a support or more often serves as the wall itself of the dwelling. The entrance may be partially closed by masonry, the floor laid with flat stones, and the sides plastered with clay; but never in this group is there a roof distinct from the top of the cave.

Naturally cavate dwellings grade into cliff houses, but neither of these types can be confounded with the first group, which affords us no difficulty in identification. All these kinds of dwellings were made by people of the same culture, the character of the habitation depending on geological environment.

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY—— SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XCI^a CAVATE DWELLINGS—RIO VERDE

In Verde valley, villages, cliff houses, and cavate dwellings exist together, and were, I believe, contemporaneously inhabited by a people of the same culture.

These types of ancient habitations are not believed to stand in the relationship of sequence in development; nor is one simpler or less difficult of construction than the others. Cliff houses display no less skill and daring than do the villages in the plain, called pueblos. The cavate dwellings are likewise a form of habitation which shows considerable workmanship, and are far from caves like those inhabited by "cave men." These dwellings were laboriously excavated with rude implements; had floors, banquettes, windows, walled recesses, and the like. It is hardly proper to regard them, as less difficult to construct than pueblos or cliff houses.

Cavate dwellings, like villages or cliff houses, may be single or multiple, single or many chambered, and a cluster of these troglodytic dwellings was, in fact, as truly a village as a pueblo or cliff house. The same principle of seeking safety by crowding together held in all three instances; and this very naturally, for the culture of the inhabitants was identical. I shall consider only two of the three types of dwellings in Verde valley, namely, the second and third groups.

It has, I think, been conclusively shown by Mr. Cosmos Mindeleff, so far as types of the first group of ruins on the Verde are concerned, that they practically do not differ from the modern Tusayan pueblos. The remaining types, when rightly interpreted, furnish evidence of no less important character. Notwithstanding Mindeleff's excellent descriptions of the cavate dwellings of this region, already cited, I have thought it well to bring into prominence certain features which seem to me to indicate that this form of aboriginal dwelling was high in its development, showing considerable skill in its construction, and was fashioned on the same general plan as the others. For this demonstration I have chosen one of the most striking clusters in Verde valley.