A BURIED CITY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIII, Issue 151, 22 July 1901, Page 2

A BURIED CITY.

Ari?ma Antiquariaa Sxsiety will i b gin in a few d*ys the work of excavaj ting in the ruins four miles east of Phcenix, of what was the largest of any |of tin cities that were f known to txist in Arizona. This vast , wreck of wban appears to have be n a t city of magnificent temples and pa'aces ( covers an area nearly a mile wide, and [in some portions has b ea undisturbed. i Civilis«tion has placed fa>nn and . irrigtfing ditches through a large part; i of the runs, arid in many plmes all traces ef tin old wails hav>? haen rei mov.d. Saveral qf the larger orumbl«d S ruofur s are still in comparatively gooJ condition, although the vandal the relic buater have done great damage, In some of the lower portions of the land p.irts of ths ruins have bean found some distaooe below the suiface of. the earth, a fact which leads to the belief thit the city m«y have extended many miles fan her down the Silt River Valley, the lower pirt having been buried by a great flood, The last of all the ruins above ground wa* apparently a temple or amphitheatrf, and covers a spoce of 200. feet wide by 300 feut loog, and is. from 10 to 20 feet in height, This immense st uotura has sorely been disturbed, the antiquarian society protecting it from re ; io searchers and vandals. Only once, about six years ago, has deep excava'ion been made in it. At thit time a deap hole was dug near the centra of the great pile by men who c'aimed to represent the Smithsonian Institution, They found a quantity ef pottery, engraved tablets and stone imp'emenis, which the-y sent to the Insti ution, but which, later developments ibowe.!, never reached the Gjverunien*; collec'un. It was reported that the samo men fou id a large y of gold, but this cannot ha verified. i

The antiquarian a-ciety is of the opinion that the buiud tii'.y was the lugest acd mo3t important of the many towns, tbe remains of wbioh cover this portion of Arizooa, and the investigation is expected to devalop some important new facts and reoords of prehistorio America,