Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University - No; 2, Basket-Maker Caves of Northeastern Arizona, Report on the Explorations, Ethnology, 1916-17 #271714

In the summer of 1914 the Peabody Museum of Harvard University sent an expedition to northeastern Arizona under the joint leadership of the present authors for the purpose of studying the relations between the cliff-houses of that district and those of the north side of the San Juan River. In the course of this trip, evidence was found of the presence of the Basket-maker culture. This culture had hitherto only been reported from a single rather restricted area in southeastern Utah. Furthermore, no Basket-maker remains had ever been taken out by trained investigators; so that the claims, put forward by the commercial collectors who discovered and named the culture, that it was a distinct one, antedating that of the Cliff-dwellers, had been received by archaeologists with more or less incredulity. We felt, therefore, that the opportunity for studying these little known remains in a region untouched by earlier diggers, was one which should not be neglected; all our subsequent work has accordingly been directed toward the finding and excavation of Basket-maker sites.<br><br>In 1915 the junior author regretfully gave up field work in this region to undertake other excavations, and the expeditions of that and the following years were conducted by Mr. Guernsey. The results of 1914 and 1915 have already been published, the present report deals with the explorations of 1916 and 1917; at the close of the latter season field work was temporarily discontinued because of the war. In each year the expeditions were carried on under permits granted by the Secretary of the Interior.