In 1919, C. Burton and Hattie S. Cosgrove bought land in Grant Country, New Mexico, and began excavating ruins containing Classic Mimbres (ca. A.D. 1000-1150) ceramics. The self-trained archaeologists took great care in uncovering and recording their findings. They so impressed A.V. Kidder of the Peabody Museum when he visited the site he invited them to manage a museum expedition to the Swarts Ruin.

Long out of print, this classic volume is the Cosgrove's report of their Mimbres Valley Expedition seasons of 1924 to 1927. The excavation recorded nearly 10,000 artifacts, including an extraordinary assemblage of Mimbres ceramics. Hattie Cosgrove's meticulous line drawings of over 700 individual Swarts Ruin pots have long been an invaluable design catalog for contemporary Native American artists and serve as a rich resource for designers seeking Southwest inspiration in their work.

This clothbound facsimile edition of the original 1932 publication will be an essential to the libraries of all scholars, artists, and admirers of Native American art and archaeology.

Harriet S. Cosgrove, now deceased, was a self-trained archaeologist who, as a Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology employee, was an important early excavator in the American Southwest.

C. Burton Cosgrove, now deceased, was a self-trained archaeologist who, as a Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology employee, was an important early excavator in the American Southwest.

A. V. Kidder was a leading American archaeologist who led expeditions for Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and the Carnegie Institution.

William White Howells is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Anthropology, Harvard University.

Read More by William White Howells:

• Who's Who in Skulls: Ethnic Identification of Crania from Measurements
• Skull Shapes and the Map: Craniometric Analyses in the Dispersion of Modern Homo