PEABODY MUSEUM PLANS NEW WORK

Three exploration trips to the south western section of the United States have been planned by the staff of the Peabody Museum for the coming summer. These research journeys will be undertaken in continuance of the field explorations of the remains of early Indian civilization in that part of the country, started by the Museum authorities several years ago.

Mr. C. B. Cosgrove, associate in anthropology, and Mrs. Cosgrove will travel to southwestern New Mexico where they will carry on their work in the gila National Forest. There they will make a careful reconnaissance of the existing remains of the Basket Makers.

The Basket Makers are the earliest inhabitants of the Southwest of whom archeologists have any exact knowledge. They date back from 3,000 to 10,000 years. Their material culture differed considerably from that of later Indians. The chief interest of these Basket Makers for modern science lies in the fact that they were probably the first people in the United States to practice systematized agriculture. They cultivated a very primitive variety of corn from which it is believed maize is derived.

S. J. Guernsey, assistant director of the Peabody Museum, will go to northeastern Arizona to obtain data for a model of a cliffdwelling. The particular dwelling which will be copied is in the Segi Canyon situated over 200 miles from the nearest railroad. The model will be made and colored insofar as possible in the vicinity of the original.

The third Peabody Museum expedition will be under the direction of Noel Morss '26. The object of the expedition will be the investigation of certain sites in southern Utah, which are in a region so rarely visited that native wild sheep are found in considerable numbers. The section is regarded as the least known archeaeologically in the whole Southwest and it is one which is at present unrepresented in the Peabody Museum