ber, the Curator has spent a large part of his time in Washington, D. C., serving the National Research Council. Assistant Curator Spinden gave the latter half of the year to special service in Cuba for the Department of State, while other members of the staff have been away on extensive field trips. The chief responsibility for the work of the Department has therefore fallen to Dr. Goddard, Curator of Ethnology. Further, the resignations of Dr. Leslie Spier and Mr. B. T. B. Hyde, the only assistants upon our staff, render it increasingly difficult to keep our exhibits in order and to care for incoming collections. It is therefore apparent that the greatest present need of the Department, as a whole, is provision for the training of new assistants.

Survey

During the year, the work of the Archer M. Huntington Survey was confined to three enterprises; the continuation of excavations at Aztec, the discovery and prelimiThe Archer M. nary exploration of a new site on the Navajo Huntington Reservation, and the further application of the tree-ring method to the dating of ruins. Several important developments are to be reported in the work on the ruin at the town of Aztec. Early in the year, the original owner of the ruin, Mr. H. D. Abrams, gave a deed by which full title to the property passed to the Museum. In due time, this property with the ruin, as uncovered and partially restored by us, will be presented to the United States to become a National Monument and to be administered as a National Park. Thus we shall have provided for the future care and preservation of this remarkable ruin and realized the hopes of its former owner and our generous donor. Returning to the excavations in the ruin, we are happy to report that the rooms opened this year were rich in material, particularly in burials, one room containing seventeen in all. But by far the most distinctive discovery yet made was the uncovering of a decorated room. The room was deeply buried in a mass of débris and its presence was entirely unsuspected, but what in one case seemed to be a rounded heap of earth and stones, such as mark the sites of completely collapsed walls and ceilings, proved to be a buried room in perfect condition. The ceiling

was unbroken and the walls were plastered white with a wainscoting of dull red. It is by far the most beautiful room so far opened. That it was used as a sanctuary is evident from the presence of an altar. Another curious feature is that the entrance to the room had been closed, or sealed, before the ruin became uninhabited. Steps have been taken to protect this room, and later a reproduction of it will be erected in the Museum.

During the summer a number of new sites were located on the Navajo Reservation and preliminary explorations begun under a special permit. The sites of some twenty small buildings were located and several adjoining cemeteries. Excavations to date have revealed a great wealth of pottery and other objects. So far as the data go, this site appears to belong to a culture antecedent to that of the great community dwellings like the one at Aztec, and thus represents a stage in the development of Pueblo culture.

The tree-ring investigations of Professor A. E. Douglass, mentioned in earlier reports, while still in the preliminary stage, have proven so promising as a means of estimating the relative ages of ruins, that a special extension of this research is contemplated.

Polynesian
Research

Early in the year an arrangement was entered into with the Bishop Museum in Honolulu for a joint investigation of racial problems in Hawaii. Assistant Curator Sullivan went to Honolulu last April, where he was joined by the Curator in July and August. Attention was first given to the Hawaiian problem. To date, all parts of the Islands have been visited and studies made of the most available types. Measurements, photographs, and plaster casts have been collected for exhibition use and the data organized to present and adequately describe the somatic types encountered. The question of race mixture was also considered, particularly as shown among children in the public schools.

While in Honolulu the Curator and Mr. Sullivan participated in the Pan-Pacific Scientific Congress as representatives of the Museum. At this conference plans for future exploration were proposed in which this Department hopes to participate. The

Curator was appointed Consulting Ethnologist in the Bishop Museum, Honolulu, to assist in the organization and conduct of future Polynesian exploration.

The
Grand Gulch
Expedition

A special expedition to Southern Utah was made possible by gift from Mrs. L. P. Cartier. Assistant Curator Nelson, accompanied by Mr. B. T. B. Hyde, conducted Mr. and Mrs. Cartier through the Grand Gulch Canyon, where the first discoveries of CliffDweller culture were made by the Wetherill brothers, thirty or more years ago, and from which the first collections were taken, one of which Mr. Hyde presented to the Museum in 1895. The Canyon was carefully surveyed and many interesting sites located. In some cases, it was possible to identify the particular cliff-houses from which the Museum's collection was taken. Following the Grand Gulch trip, Assistant Curator Nelson visited the Mimbres region of southern New Mexico to examine the ruins from which came the recently acquired Mimbres collection purchased from a local collector. By the results of this journey, definite data are now available as to the sources and setting of this collection.

Museum
Studies

Research in the Museum, in the main, has been directed to the completion of past exploration projects. In view of the contemplated changes in the staff, Curators Lowie and Spinden have given most of their time to the completion of reports in form for immediate publication. Associate Curator Lowie has under way a final paper on his long and intensive field-work among the Indians of the Plains and the Great Basin. Assistant Curator Spinden is similarly engaged with his data from Central and South America. Dr. Goddard, Curator of Ethnology, is completing some important linguistic studies. With the close of the year, the special arrangement for the services of Mr. B. T. B. Hyde terminates. Mr. Hyde gave his time to the uncompleted work of the Hyde Expeditions of earlier years. Largely through his efforts, the results of excavations in the Chaco Canyon have been advanced to