A Stone Carving in Bas-Relief from the Upper Gila Area

Extract

The stone carving in bas-relief pictured herewith (Plate 19) was found during the summer of 1936 by the writer while in the course of conducting archaeological explorations at Starkweather ruin in the Reserve district of the Upper Gila area, New Mexico. Newspapers learning of this rather unusual find sensationally spread the story throughout the country that Aztec and Toltec art objects had been found in New Mexico. It is really amusing to note how they jumped at conclusions, for there is nothing in the find that would indicate any relation to the Aztec or Toltec. The writer hopes that all such inaccurate information will be corrected through the following description of the find and the conditions under which it was made.