Archaeological Finds in Arizona

ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDS IN ARIZONA By J. M. Sjodahl In the Improvement Era for July, 1925, there appeared a paper on certain "Archaeological Finds in Arizona." The informa- tion contained in that paper was gathered from letters addressed to President Anthony W. Ivins. The finds consisted of metal plates, in the form of double crosses, fastened together with lead rings, or rivets, and containing very legible inscriptions in Latin. At the time, six such crosses had been found, and also some other -objects, and illustrations were given of some of them. Two of the inscriptions were dated A. D. 880 and A. D. 895, respectively, and contained references to wars, convulsions in nature, and an "unknown land. They also contained Scripture names in their Latin forms. In the Era article. I tried to point out that the artifacts, if genuine, in all probability were made some time after the sixth century and before the arrival of the Spaniards. (This may perhaps be said to have happened in 1530, or thereabouts, counting from the remarkable cross-country journey of Cabeza de Vaca and his three traveling com- panions.) The reason for this assumption was, in the first place, that the use of the Christian chronology for the annotation of dates, Anno Domini, was not thought of previous to the sixth century, and did not become general till very much later; and, .in the second place, that the inscriptions show no trace of Spanish origin. One point suggested in my previous paper, I beg to refer to again. There is on one of the crosses an inscription in which a great religious leader, Benjamin, is said to have been slain. The recorder of that event, who, as I understand it, signs himself "Josephus," says that he heard this of his father five hundred years "after the mountain." Now, according to the Book of Mormon, one of the most terrible battles of history was fought around the hill Cumorah. This, accord- ing to the accepted chronology, happened in the year 385 A. D. Five hundred years after that "national tragedy" would be 885 A. D. But the two dates in the inscriptions, A. D. 880 and 895, respectively, are so close to the Book of Mormon date referring to the battle of Cumorah, as to form a very striking coincidence. The article in the July number of the Era received some attention in the press, and the question of the genuineness of the finds was brought up. According to an Associated Press dispatch, dated Tucson, Arizona, Dec 14, 1925, Dr. O. A. Turney, from Phoenix, Arizona, an archaeologist, did not believe that the finds antedated the coming of the Spaniards.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDS IN ARIZONA 41 Dr. James T. Shotwell, professor of history at Columbia Uni- versity, according to a dispatch from New York, of the same date, expressed doubt on the "authenticity" of the relics, because it would be most unusual for persons living in the 8th or 9th century to date their documents such and such a year, A. D. Documents of that period are usually dated with the year of the reign of some king or emperor, or not dated at all. This is perfectly true, but, as I called attention to in my previous article in the Era, the use of the Christian annotation of years was first proposed in the year 527 and was quite early adopted in Italy, and became general after the year 1000. It follows that a document dated in such and such a year A. D. may, possibly, have been written some time between the years 600 and 1000, especially if the text is Latin, since the Romans were the first to adopt the proposed innovation. There is another line of reasoning which may have some bearing on the age of the inscriptions. The very early writings extant have no divisions between lines and words. Towards the end of the 5 th century writers and copyists began to break the letters off into lines, and in the 9th century they began placing a dot between the lines. From this improvement there was but a step toward the separation of the words by a dot, as in the inscriptions on the Arizona crosses. That does not prove a definite date, but neither does it preclude the possibility of the authenticity of the dates inscribed. Now, according to further information received by President Anthony W. Ivins, Dr. Byron Cummings some time ago delivered an address before the A. A. A. S., at Kansas City, Mo., in which he gave a detailed description of the objects found and the circumstances under which they were brought to light. He believes they were deposited there before the coming of the Spaniards to Arizona. Dr. Cummings, formerly of the University of Utah, is now at the head of the depart- ment of archaeology at the University of Arizona. His address follows: The Swords and Crosses Recently Discovered Near Tucson, Arizona (Address by Dean Byron Cummings before the A A. A. S., Jan., 1926, at Kansas City, Mo.) In September, 1924, Mr. Chas. E. Manier and his father, while in- specting an old lime kiln about nine miles northwest of Tucson, noticed a bit of metal projecting from the side of the trench that had been cut through the formation to open an entrance to the bottom of the kiln. On digging away the gravel and caliche in which it was imbedded, the object proved to be a cross made of lead alloy. It has been cast in a crude mould on the sur- face of ground over which were scattered fragments of ore, caliche and gravel. Made in two parts, the inside of each half had been smoothed and engraved with inscriptions in Latin. Excavations were then made to the right and to the left of this trench by Mr. Thomas Bent, who owns the land, and Mr. Manier. Scattered over considerable area at between two and one-half to six feet below the surface have been found four other double and three single crosses. Besides these crosses there have been uncovered three swords and four parts of swords, three spears

4 2 IMPROVEMENT ERA and two spear heads, and a peculiar paddle-shaped object that may be called a labrum. All of these are more or less engraved with inscriptions in Latin and various symbols and drawings. On the two unusual crosses entwined with serpents are found some Hebrew inscriptions and symbols. All of these articles were found imbedded in caliche and gravel at practically the same level. None of this superimposed material shows any evidence of having been disturbed since laid down by natural forces. The highway, now known as the Silver Bell road, takes a northwesterly course out from Tucson, along what was once the old stage and freight route from Tombstone through Tucson to Yuma. On the right stretches the Santa Cruz valley, while on the left the road is flanked by an irregular bench of sand and gravel and loose rocks that has been cut by arroyos and tiny valleys. The ridges between end in points and low, rounded hills, such as would ba left by the slow erosion that has been going on for many, many years; in fact, ever since the Tucson mountains were thrown up and formed the low volcanic range that stretches across this country for miles. These points and ridges form the foothills and lower bench of these mountains. This road threads, for the most part, along the edge of this bench which formed the bank of the Santa Cruz when its waters spread out over its entire valley. Just before one reaches the old "Nine-Mile Water Hole," the bank on the upper and left-hand sides is quite abrupt. In this bench was built the lime kiln referred to at the beginning of this article. This kiln was con- structed by sinking a cylindrical shaft down through the surface soil, gravel and caliche to the depth of about six feet. This shaft was then lined with brick. A trench was cut in to it from the edge of the bank, otherwise the bench is undisturbed. It was in this undisturbed material, principally at the right of this trench that these articles were found. One rumor says that the men who cut this trench some forty-five years ago found some pieces of metal, but up to date we have been unable to verify this report. It is easy to distinguish the material thrown out upon the surface from the shaft and from the trench when the kiln was constructed and used; but there is no evidence that this formation has ever been disturbed, either on the level at which these objects were found, or in the strata overlying them. This caliche is a lime crust formed irregularly through sand and gravel deposits by the leaching of the calcareous material from the superimposed and surrounding soil and rock. It settles into pockets, spreads out into sheets and cements the sand and gravel together in hard masses that can be broken up only by a sharp pick or a charge of dynamite. Many of these objects were imbedded, in part or the whole, in this solid caliche and could be removed only by vigorous effort with a good pick. Some lay in pockets or thin strata of sand which were overlaid with strata of caliche. Lenses of gravel and sand extend along horizontally above these articles which, if these articles had been "planted" in recent years and the holes filled up with caliche and gravel, would be broken and the lines of demarkation readily distinguishable. This formation is also similar to that of the entire bench at this point and to that of the projecting hills on either side. Just when the torrential rains swept this mass of rock, sand and grave! down from the slopes of the mountains, we may never know; but it looks as though this had once formed a continuous bench along the banks of the river and then when the waters subsided and the current changed, the arroyos cut through this bench and the storms rounded off the hills. At the bases of these mountains on both sides of the place where these objects were found, we have encountered two periods of ancient Indian culture. The floors of the homes of the earlier culture lie 3% to 5 feet below the surface, while the other is encountered close to and at the surface. The latter seems contemporaneous with the well known ruins of the Gila valley- which are estimated to be at least some eight hundred years old. Just how much older

ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDS IN ARIZONA 43 the earlier culture is, is hard to determine; but suffice it to say that it is a much cruder culture and was overlaid with from 4 to 5 feet of accumulated deposit before the homes of the later culture were built. Most of these artifacts are found at from 5 to 6 feet below the surface, a slightly lower level than that of the earliest pueblo culture yet encountered. Thus, there are two outstanding facts in this problem: the articles are covered with from 5 to 6 feet of undisturbed natural deposit and they lie at approximately the same level as the earliest prehistoric pueblo culture of the valley, a culture showing no characteristics in common with these artifacts. The condition of the overlying deposits precludes their having been "planted," and the articles could not have been of Indian manufacture. The articles are made of a lead alloy. Assays show lead and antimony with traces of tin, gold, silver and copper. Ores of this character are mined in the Tucson mountains, a few miles away, and in other mountains farther away to the south. The ores have probably been crushed and crudely smelted, the metals duddled and then used in the manufacture of these weapons and emblems. Two of the articles, the labrum and one of the serpent swords, may have been manufactured elsewhere and brought into the country. The metal seems to contain more copper and the workmanship is rather better. But the probabilities are that even they were wrought there from a different locality. The most of the articles have been cast and then shaped by hammer- ing and smoothing. The scratches made by stone and either a rasp or a file or both, are plainly visible on the surface of some of the objects. Nicks are also to be seen in some of the swords as though they had been struck with similar weapons and with the points of spears. All are crudely fashioned and show such work as you might expect to be produced by men in the desert country of Arizona, with few tools and no mechanical appliances. The engraving has been done by a sharp point with a straight stroke in some, while in others the smooth line has been cut and then the edges tooled by a diagonal stroke. In the double crosses, the inside of each half has been smoothed and the inscriptions cut in the plain surface. Then these surfaces were covered with a thin coating of wax, the two parts fitted to- gether and fastened with lead rivets which were headed down. The Latin is in the capital script that was in common use for records and religious inscriptions up to about the eighth century A. D. The words are separated by dots, and the construction follows that of the classic Latin of Caesar and Virgil. There are a few mistakes in spelling. Regem is used where you would expect regentem. The nominative is used in one instance where you would expect the accusative. The sentences are brief and aim to be mere records of facts. One would judge that they had been carved by one who had a limited knowledge of classic Latin and had woven expressions with which he was familiar into the record he desired to make. In the matter of proper names you find the Latin form in most instances; but with Gaul, the English spelling, in one instance; and Gaule, the early French, in two others. This, however, may show an acquaintance with some old records using the form Gaule and the e was omitted by accident in this one instance. The places mentioned are Britain, Gaul, Rome and Calalus. Calalus is always given this spelling whether used in the nominative or accusative case and is repeatedly designated a rerra incognita, an unknown land. The ex- pression Provehimuc pelago (we are carried over the sea) is used several times also, and indicates a journey by water to Calalus. The Hebrew inscriptions on the two serpent swords are words and expressions such as Jehovah, good peace, mighty empire, etc. For the in- terpretation of the Hebrew we are indebted to Dr. Davis and Dr. Bender of Princeton and Dr. Kraeling of Union Theological Seminary who were kind enough to examine the articles and give an opinion of the Hebrew words. The drawings and symbols show Jewish and Roman influence and are

44 IMPROVEMENT ERA rather ecclesiastical than military or political. The so-called "crown" is more like a patriarch's cap, and the patriarch's double cross appears twice. The angels with drawn swords and the serpents suggest the story of the fall of man, while seven candles harp back to the ancient temple of Jerusalem. The square and compass indicate a knowledge of masonry. The drawings of the temple and the suggestion of the fasces are Roman. Other symbols have no parallel as far as we know; but their origin may yet be traced. Thus we have manifest in the objects themselves, wide and varied in- fluences. On the face, these evidences would indicate the work of men who, slightly versed in classic Latin, Roman affairs and Jewish history, wished to record this evidence to astonish their contemporaries. But would any people, one or more centuries ago in this remote region, have had time or means or desire either to hoodwink other men by their show of learning or deceive posterity? The white men who lived in and traversed this region even fifty years ago, had very little time for fun or fiction of this elaborate character, if any possessed the ability to have manufactured or inscribed these articles. Life was too strenuous to have permitted such activity. The struggle for mere existence left no time for studying Latin or recording the history of the Israelites. Some have suggested that the Spanish padres may have had a station near here and left these records as evidence of their learning. But none of these objects show Spanish ideals or influence, a thing which surely would have been manifest had the zealous Jesuit fathers had anything to do with their manufacture or decoration. Besides, these fathers like other pioneers were too busy in marshalling the Indians to raise food and build churches to have resorted to the production of such records. Nothing like them has been found elsewhere in connection with the missions, and would it not be strange to find the padres indulging in such recreation in the arid country of southern Arizona? The conditions under which they have been found preclude the possi- bility of their having been left there within a century or two. It seems im- possible for the formation over-lying them to have assumed its present con- dition in less than several centuries. This evidence, together with the data found on the articles, indicate that they were left there at some time preceding the coming of the Spanish adventurers and padres into southern Arizona. The articles were commemorative of their leaders, symbols used in their re- ligion, and weapons for their defense against their enemies — such articles as a group of men driven to the last extremity would leave behind them. If this supposition be true, then the bones of these brave men, their camp site and further evidences of their character and customs must lie scattered beneath the caliche in that locality. To uncover these and solve this mystery is the task to which we are setting ourselves. Source Divine Beauty of sky-realm, Life in the sod, Truths found in science, All are from God. Molecules so tiny. Tempests rough-shod, Eyes lit with laughter, — These are from God. Atoms of mist — damps, Oceans so broad, Tridell, Utah. Mate-calls of bird-land, All are from God. Energies, hid in the Commonest clod, Spheres' sure gyrations, Measured by God. Yearnings unnoted Where your feet trod, Needs — erst unheeded — Heed thou, for God. Mrs. Alice Morrili