Turquoise Ear Pendants and other Objects

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGYBULLETIN 51PLATE 35PLATE 35BONE IMPLEMENTS

The single specimen of turquoise found at Cliff Palace was probably an ear pendant, and a black jet bead was apparently used for the same purpose. With the polished cylinder of hematite found one can still paint the face or body a reddish color, as the Hopi do with a similar object. From the sipapû of kiva D there was taken a small deerskin bag, tied with yucca fiber and containing a material resembling iron pyrites, evidently an offering of some kind to the gods of the underworld.

A button made of lignite, and beads of the same material, were found in the refuse heap in front of the ruin after a heavy rain. The former is broken, but it resembles that found at Spruce-tree House, although it is not so finely made, and also one from Homólobi, a ruin on the Little Colorado, near Winslow, Arizona.

The cobs and seeds of corn, squash and pumpkin seeds, beans, and fragments of gourds give some idea of the vegetable products known to the Cliff Palace people. Corn furnished the most important food of the people, and its dried leaves, stalks, and tassels were abundant in all parts of their refuse heaps. Naturally, in a cave where many small rodents have lived for years, it is rare to find seed corn above ground that has not been appropriated by these animals, and in thedry, alkaline bone-phosphate dust edible corn is not very common, although now and then occurs a cob; with attached seeds. The corn of Cliff Palace, already figured by Nordenskiöld, resembles that still cultivated by some of the Hopi.

Fig. 4.—Woven forehead band.Fig. 4.—Woven forehead band.

Fig. 4.—Woven forehead band.

The Cliff Palace people manufactured fairly good cloth, the component cords or strings being of two or three strands and well twisted. So finely made and durable are some of these cords that they might be mistaken for white men's work; some of them, however, are very coarse, and are tied in hanks. Among varieties of cords, may be mentioned those wound with feathers, from which textiles, ordinarily called "feather cloth," was made. Yucca and cotton were employed in the manufacture of almost all kinds of fabrics. A few fragments of netting were found.

The finest cloth was manufactured from cotton, a good specimen, of which, showing a pattern woven in different colors, is contained in the collection.

Several woven belts, and also a head-band similar to that figured in the report on Spruce-tree House, were uncovered by the excavations.

The largest fragment of cloth was taken out of the crematory, or inclosure containing the calcined human bones, at the northern end of the larger refuse heap. It appears to have been a portion of a bag, or possibly of a head covering, but it is so fragmentary that its true use is unknown. The pattern is woven in darker colored threads, with a selvage at two ends. The material out of which it was made has not been definitely determined, but it closely resembles that of the specimen figured by Nordenskiöld (plate L) from Mug House. Our excavations were rewarded with a fine woven head-band with loops at the ends (fig. 4), similar to that described and figured in the report on Spruce-tree House. Several small fragments of cloth were recovered from the refuse heap, but none of them was large enough to indicate the form of the garment to which they originally belonged.

In the group of fabrics may be included nets and cloth with feathers wound around warp and woof, similar to those figured from Spruce-tree House.

There were several specimens of yucca strings, tied in loops, generally six in number, which presumably were devoted to the same purpose as by the present Hopi, who attach to the string six ears of corn, representing the cardinal points on the six-directions altar, and hang them on the walls of a priest's house. If the cliff-dwellers used this string for a similar purpose, it would appear that they, like the Hopi, recognized six cardinal points—north, west, south, east, above, and below—and worshiped gods of these directions, to which they erected altars.[76]

As has been seen, there were two methods of disposing of the dead—by inhumation and by cremation. The former may have been either house burial or burial in the refuse heaps in the rear of the buildings. With both forms of disposing of the dead mortuary food offerings were found. Evidences of prehistoric burials and cremation were found both on the mesa above Cliff Palace and in the ruin.[77]

The practice of cremation among the cliff-dwellers has long been known. Nordenskiöld writes (p. 49):

That cremation, however, was sometimes practiced by the Cliff Dwellers seems probable from the fact that Richard Wetherill observed in the same ruin, when the above-mentioned burial chamber was found, bodies which had apparently been burnt, together with the pottery belonging to the dead.

The evidences of cremation found in the inclosure at the northern end of the refuse space of Cliff Palace is conclusive. The calcined bones uncovered here were also accompanied with mortuary pottery, cloth, and wooden objects.

The flexed position of the bodies of the dead occurs constantly in the earth burials, which may be explained by the almost universalbelief among primitive people that when the body is returned to "mother earth" it should be placed in the posture it normally had before birth. In house burials at Spruce-tree House the bodies were sometimes extended at full length, which may be interpreted to mean that the dead were not returned to the earth mother. There was no uniformity of posture in the burials at Cliff Palace.

The work at Cliff Palace was undertaken at too late a day to recover any mummified human remains, all having been previously removed. Nordenskiöld's figures and descriptions of desiccated human bodies from other Mesa Verde cliff-dwellings would apply, in a measure, to those from Cliff Palace.

While the work of excavation and repair of Cliff Palace described in the preceding pages adds nothing distinctly new to existing knowledge of cliff-dweller culture, it renders a more comprehensive idea of the conditions of life in one of the largest of these interesting ancient settlements in our Southwest. Of all the questions that present themselves after a work of this kind, perhaps the most important, from a scientific point of view, is, What relation exists between the culture of Cliff Palace and that of the neighboring pueblos? Directly across the canyon, in full view of Cliff Palace, there is a typical pueblo ruin, almost identical in character with many others scattered throughout the Southwest, some of which are known to have been inhabited in historic times by ancestors of Pueblo peoples still living. The contribution here made to the knowledge of cliff-dwelling culture will, it is hoped, shed light on the question, In what way are the cliff-dwellers and the Pueblos related?

The relationship in culture of the former people of Cliff Palace to those of the large pueblo ruin on the mesa across the canyon is most instructive. How were the inhabitants of these two settlements related; and were the two sites inhabited simultaneously, or is the pueblo ruin older than Cliff Palace? So far as the culture of the inhabitants of the two is known (and knowledge of the pueblo is scant), the two settlements were synchronously inhabited, but nothing in them gives indication of the period of their occupancy. These questions can be settled only by the excavation of this pueblo or of some similar ruin on the plateau.[78]Nordenskiöld, with the datapossessed by him, did not hesitate to express decided views on this point:

We are forced to conclude that they [cliff-houses] were abandoned later than the villages on the mesa. Some features, for example, the superposition of walls constructed with the greatest proficiency on others built in a more primitive fashion (see platexiii) indicate that the cliff-dwellings have been inhabited at two different periods. They were first abandoned, and had partly fallen into ruin, but were subsequently repeopled, new walls being now erected on the ruins of the old. The best explanation hereof seems to be the following: On the plateaux and in the valleys the Pueblo tribes attained their widest distribution and their highest development. The numerous villages at no great distance from each other were strong enough to defy their hostile neighbors. But afterwards, from causes difficult of elucidation, a period of decay set in, the number and population of the villages gradually decreased, and the inhabitants were again compelled to take refuge in the remote fastnesses. Here the people of the Mesa Verde finally succumbed to their enemies. The memory of their last struggle is preserved by the numerous human bones found in many places, strewn among the ruined cliff-dwellings. These human remains occur in situations where it is impossible to assume that they have been interred.

Closely connected with the relative age and the identity of the Mesa Verde cliff-house and pueblo culture are the age and relationship of different cliff-houses of the same region, for example, Cliff Palace and Spruce-tree House. The relative number of kivas may shed light on this point.

The relative proportion of the number of kivas to secular houses varies in Cliff Palace and Spruce-tree House. In the former there are about 7 secular rooms to every kiva; in the latter about 15. Long House has a still more marked difference, there being here only a few secular houses and a maximum number of kivas. Whether this variation has any meaning it is impossible to say definitely; theoretically, as compared with modern pueblos, the proportionately larger number of kivas points to a sociological condition in Cliff Palace characteristic of more primitive times. The larger the number of kivas relatively to secular rooms the older the ruin. Long House would be regarded as older than Cliff Palace, and Cliff Palace older than Spruce-tree House, Balcony House being the most modern and the last of the four to be deserted. A cliff-dwelling with a kiva but without secular rooms is rare, and one with secular rooms but without kivas is likewise unusual. Where the latter exists it is so situated as to indicate that it was subordinated to neighboring large cliff-dwellings.

The relative number of circular kivas in ruins and in modern inhabited pueblos where the circular form of room is found is larger in the ruins than in the inhabited pueblos. The proportionate number of circular rooms to secular rooms in cliff-dwellings of the Mesa Verde is also larger than in pueblo ruins like those of the Chaco. Apparently the older the pueblo the greater the relative number ofkivas. If, as is suspected, a larger number of kivas indicates relatively greater age, the explanation may be sought in the amalgamation of clans and the development of religious fraternities. Hypothetically, in early days each clan had its own men's room, or kiva, but when clans were united by marriage and secret ceremonies were no longer limited to individual clans, the participants belonging to several clans, a religious fraternity was developed and several clan kivas consolidated or were enlarged into fraternity kivas such as we find among the Hopi and other Pueblos.

From a study of kivas the conclusion is that Spruce-tree House is more modern than Cliff Palace. This conclusion is borne out also by the fact that the water supply at Spruce-tree House is more abundant than that at Cliff Palace.

In one or two architectural features Cliff Palace is unique, although sharing with other cliff-houses of the Mesa Verde National Park many minor characters. The first difference between Cliff Palace and Spruce-tree House, outside of the disparity in their size and the relatively large proportion of secular to ceremonial rooms in the latter, is the existence in the former of terraces and retaining walls. Spruce-tree House is built on one level, above which rise the secular houses while below are the ceremonial rooms or kivas. The contrast of this simple condition with that of Cliff Palace, with its three terraces and the complicated front wall at several levels thereby necessitated, is apparent.

There are several other ruins in the Mesa Verde Park in which the configuration of the rear of the cave led to the construction of the cliff-house in terrace form. This is well exemplified in the Spring House, where buildings on an upper level occupy much the same relation to those below as the ledge houses to the main ruin, and in ruins in the Canyon de Chelly, like those in Mummy Cave, where this relation of the buildings on the ledge to those on top of the talus is even more pronounced. Architectural features in cliff-houses are due to the geological structure of the cave in which they are situated rather than to cultural differences.

Nothing was found to indicate that Cliff Palace was inhabited during the historic period. The inhabitants were not acquainted with metals brought by white men to the Southwest. The absence of glass and of glazed pottery is also significant. No sheep, horses, or other beasts of burden paid them tribute. In fact, there is no evidence that they had ever heard of white men. These ruins belong to the stone age in America and show no evidence of white man's culture.

Except that it is prehistoric, the period at which Cliff Palace was inhabited is therefore largely a matter for archeological investigation to determine, and thus far no decisive evidence bearing on that point has been produced. It has been held that Cliff Palace is five hundredyears old, and some writers have added five centuries to this guess; but the nature of the evidence on which this extreme antiquity is ascribed to the ruin is not warranted by the evidence available.

No additional information was obtained bearing on current theories of the causes that led the ancient occupants of the Mesa Verde cliff-dwellings to adopt this inhospitable and inconvenient habitat. It is probable that one and the same cause led to the abandonment of Spruce-tree House, Cliff Palace, and other Mesa Verde cliff-houses. The inhabitants of these buildings struggled to gain a livelihood against their unfavorable environment until a too-exacting nature finally overcame them. There are no indications that the abandonment of Cliff Palace was cataclysmic in nature: it seems to have been a gradual desertion by one clan after another. One of the primary reasons was change of climate, which caused the water supply to diminish and the crops to fail; but long before its final desertion many clans abandoned the place, and drifting from point to point sought home-sites where water was more abundant. All available data lend weight to a belief that the cliff-houses of Mesa Verde were not abandoned simultaneously, but were deserted one by one. Possibly the inhabitants retired to the river valleys, where water was constant, and later gave up life on the mesa. But even then the culture was not allowed to continue unmodified by outside influences. Where the descendants of Cliff Palace now dwell, or whether they are now extinct, can be determined only by additional research.

Evidence is rapidly accumulating in support of the theory that the "cliff-dweller culture" of our Southwest was preceded by a "pit-house culture," the most prominent feature of which is the small circular or rectangular rooms, artificially excavated laterally in cliffs or vertical in the ground, which served this ancient people either as dwellings or for storage. The side walls of these rooms were supported in some instances by upright logs, and commonly clay was plastered directly on the walls of the excavations. The architectural survival of subterranean rooms exists among the cliff-dwellings in circular underground kivas, the variations of which are so well illustrated in Cliff Palace.

In connection with these "pit rooms," which are never large, may be mentioned the large subterranean artificial excavations found scattered over the Pueblo area of the Southwest. Such occur in the Gila valley, and have been reported from the San Juan drainage; they have been identified as reservoirs and also as kivas. Some of these subterranean rooms are rightly identified as kivas, but others have architectural features that render this interpretation improbable. What their function was and how they are connected with the peoplewho built the smaller subterranean rooms of the Southwest can be determined only by excavations and a study of the features of both types.

The most important step that remains to be taken in the scientific study of the ruins of the Mesa Verde National Park is to discover the relation of the culture of Cliff Palace to that of the neighboring pueblo. This will necessitate the scientific excavation and repair of the latter ruin and a comparison of its major and minor antiquities with those of Cliff Palace. The age of cliff-dwellings in different parts of the Southwest undoubtedly varies. Certain Pueblo ruins are older than some cliff-dwellings, and there are cliff-houses more ancient than Pueblo ruins. Continued research in the Mesa Verde region will doubtless shed light on the relative age of Cliff Palace and the great pueblo ruin opposite it.

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[1]In his Annual Report for 1908. See alsoBulletin 41 of the Bureau of American Ethnology.

[2]A few holes that have been dug here and there in these mounds have brought to light sections of walls with good masonry, but no excavations that could be called extensive or scientific have yet been attempted on this site. The excavation of these mounds might reveal a pueblo like Walpi, and a comparison of objects from them with those from Cliff Palace would be important in tracing the relationship of cliff-dwellings and pueblos.

[3]Bulletin 41 of the Bureau of American Ethnology.

[4]All potable water for camp had to be brought from Spruce-tree House, about 2 miles away.

[5]It is generally stated by stockmen and others who claim to have seen Cliff Palace "years ago," that the walls of the buildings were much higher in the early eighties than they are at present.

[6]Appalachia,vi, 28-30, May, 1890, Boston, 1892.

[7]Jour. Amer. Geog. Soc.,xxiii, no. 4, 598, New York, 1891.

[8]In The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde (a translation in English from the Swedish edition, Stockholm, 1893), (pp. 59-66), unfortunately not accessible to most readers on account of the limited edition and the cost. For this reason the description is here reproduced in extenso. (The references to illustrations and the footnotes in this excerpt follow Nordenskiöld.)

[9]The room marked 48 in the plan is visible in Pl. XIII. Almost in the center of the plate, but a little to the right, two small loopholes may be seen, and to their right a doorway, all of which belong to room 48; the walls of 49 and 50 are much lower than those of 48. Behind 48 the high walls of 43 may be distinguished.

[10]They are shown in the plate just to the left of the fold at its middle, rather low down.

[11]A part of this wall may be seen to the extreme right of Pl. XIII, and also in Fig. 34 behind and to the right of the tower.

[12]The illustrations referred to in this paragraph are in Nordenskiöld's work.

[13]As stated in a note (Peet, p. 133) Chapter VII is a reprint of Doctor Birdsall's article in theJournal of the American Geographical Society, op. cit.

[14]In Les Communautés Anciennes dans le Désert Américain. In this work may be found a ground plan of Cliff Palace by Morley and Kidder, the interior of kiva Q (pl.viii,e), and a large view of the ruin taken from the north (pl.i,b). (Plate and figure designations from Hewett.)

[15]Clearings in the forest indicate the positions of the former farms of the inhabitants of Cliff Palace.

[16]Access to Cliff Palace from the bottom of the canyon, although difficult, is possible, and a pathway might be constructed down its sides or along the top of the talus to several other cliff-dwellings. In the vicinity of Cliff Palace there are at least 20 ruins, large and small.

[17]One of these rooms had been chosen by eagles for their nests, but both nests and eggs were abandoned by the birds after the repair work was begun.

[18]In some of these waterways are found good examples of "potholes," some of considerable size, which often retain water for a long time. Their capacity was increased in prehistoric times by the construction of dams.

[19]While there has probably been considerable erosion in the bed of the canyon since Cliff Palace was constructed, this does not mean that "the action of the water carved out the valley, leaving at an inaccessible height buildings originally constructed on almost level land." See History N. Y. State Chapter, Colorado Cliff Dwellings Assoc., p. 11.

[20]Some, possibly considerable, of this mutilation may be ascribed to the former occupants. The Ute Indians will not now enter cliff-dwellings and probably are not responsible for their destruction.

[21]The author's hope is to excavate and repair in different sections of the Southwest a number of "type ruins," each of which will illustrate the major antiquities of the area in which it occurs. From an examination of these types the tourist and the student may obtain, at first hand, an accurate knowledge of the prehistoric architecture.

[22]In "Report, House of Representatives, No. 3703, 58th Congress," Mr. Coert Dubois ascribes to Cliff House (Cliff Palace) 146 rooms and 5 estufas (kivas). Unfortunately the error in the count of kivas has been given wide circulation. As stated in the present article, there are at least 23 rooms in Cliff Palace that may be called kivas.

[23]Fragments of mortar from the walls and floors, ground to powder, were used in the repair work.

[24]SeeBulletin 50, Bureau of American Ethnology.

[25]In at least one of the Oraibi kivas the plastering of the wall is laid on sticks that form a kind of lathing. Whether this is a survival of an older method of construction or is traceable to European influence has not been determined, but it is believed to be a survival of prehistoric wall construction.

[26]The red color is derived from the red soil common everywhere on the mesa. Yellow was obtained from disintegrated rock, and white is a marl which is found at various places. The mortar used by the ancient masons became harder, almost cement, when made of marl mixed with adobe.

[27]This figure resembles closely that on the outside walls of the third story of room 11 of Spruce-tree House. (See pls. 4, 5, 6,Bulletin 41, Bureau of American Ethnology.)

[28]Isolated cliff-dwellings are scattered throughout the Southwest, but there are several areas, as the Mesa Verde, in which they are concentrated. Among these clusters may be mentioned the Canyon de Chelly, the Navaho National Monument, the Red Rocks area, and that of the upper Gila. One characteristic feature in which the cliff-dwellings of the Mesa Verde differ from some others is the independence of all of the upright walls from support of the sides of the cliffs. In the cliff-houses of the Navaho Monument a large majority of the houses have the rear wall of the cave as a wall of the building; a few of the houses in Cliff Palace have the same, but the largest number are entirely free from the cliff. This separation on all sides is due largely to the geological structure of the rear of the cavern in which the cliff-house stands.

[29]Workmen could operate in these parts only by tying sponges over their nostrils, so difficult was it to breathe on account of the fine dust.

[30]Possibly some of these may have been used sometimes for ceremonial purposes, or rather for the less important rites.

[31]Probably both men and women of one clan worked together in the construction of houses, the men being the masons, the women the plasterers. Each clan built its own rooms, and there were no differentiated groups of mechanics in the community.

[32]Some of the doorways were filled with rude masonry; evidently the rooms were thus closed in some instances before the buildings were deserted.

[33]The placing of the sill at a level with the floor is a modern innovation at Walpi. The oldest houses still have it elevated, as in Cliff Palace. In some of the cliff-houses of the Navaho Monument sills and floor levels are continuous.

[34]Smoke on the walls of certain second and third stories shows that fireplaces were not restricted to the ground floor.

[35]Among the Hopi the oldest woman, as a clan representative, owns the living rooms, but kivas are the property of the men, the kiva chief of certain fraternities being the direct descendant of the clan chief of the ceremony when limited to his clan.

[36]Genetically the room for storage of property was of earliest construction. This custom, which was necessary among agriculturists whose food supply was bulky, may have led to the choice of caves, natural or artificial, for habitation.

[37]See Property Rights in Eagles,American Anthropologist, vol.ii, pp. 690-707, 1907.

[38]While only one place where bodies were burned was found in Cliff Palace, several such places were found on top of the mesa. Evidences of similar inclosures occur at Spruce-tree House and at Step House.

[39]This type of building is believed to be the oldest in those sections of the Southwest where cliff habitations occur.

[40]The Mongkiva at Walpi has such a chamber which is closed by a door and is opened only when paraphernalia for certain ceremonies are desired. In the Warrior House at Walpi there is a similar chamber, ordinarily closely sealed, in which the fetishes of the Warrior Society are kept. Masked dancers among the Pueblos are called Katcinas, and the masks they wear would naturally be kept in a house (kihu) called "Katcinakihu."

[41]A passage or inclosure surrounded by high walls is called kisombi by the Hopi.

[42]On the top of the rock that forms the foundation of the walls of these rooms, and south of them, are hollows or grooves where the metates were ground, and shallow pits used in some prehistoric game. There are similar pits in some of the kiva floors.

[43]The wordkiva, now universally employed in place of the Spanish designation "estufa" to designate a ceremonial room of the Pueblos, is derived from the Hopi language. The designation is archaic, the element ki being both Pima and Hopi for "house." It has been sought to connect this word with a part of the human body, and esoterically the kiva represents one of the underworlds or womb of the earth from which the races of man were born. It is highly appropriate that ancient ceremonies should take place in a kiva, the symbolic representation of an underworld, for many of the ceremonies are said to have been practiced while man still lived within the Earth Mother. The wordkivais restricted to subterranean chambers, rectangular or circular, in which secret ceremonies are or were held, and the termkihuis suggested for ceremonial rooms above ground. The five kivas at Walpi are examples of the true kiva, while the Flute chamber may be called akihu.

[44]The so-called "warrior room" in Spruce-tree House belongs to the second type.

[45]In certain ceremonies of Hopi women's societies the kiva has also come to be a meeting place for these sororities and where they erect their altars.

[46]These small holes, generally square, are usually found in the wall below the banquette.

[47]The fire in these rooms was more for light than for heat, for when roofed a large fire would have produced so much smoke and heat that the occupants would be driven out. The character of the ashes indicates that logs were not used as firewood, but that the prescribed kiva fuel was, as at Walpi, small twigs or brush. No evidence of lamps has been found in cliff-dwellings, the lamp-shaped pottery objects having been used for purposes other than illumination.

[48]Cosmos Mindeleff quotes from Nordenskiöld a description of a Mesa Verde kiva, the deflector of which was made in the same way.

[49]On this supposition the large banquette may have been the forerunner of the spectator's section in the modern rectangular Hopi kivas, of which it is a modification.

[50]The measurements of the kivas here given were determined by Mr. R. G. Fuller, who served as voluntary assistant during the summer.

[51]With the exception of that in kiva Q there has not been found in any deflector a large stone ("fire stone") forming the cap or top. In deflectors formed of a slab of stone such a "fire stone" on top would be impossible.

[52]This kiva, which is one of the best in Cliff Palace, is illustrated by Nordenskiöld.

[53]A similar deflector is recorded by Mr. Morley as existing in the Cannonball ruin, and is figured by Nordenskiöld from the Mesa Verde.

[54]This entrance in the wall appears in all photographs of this portion of Cliff Palace.

[55]For a note on a similar vase and its use, see remarks on kiva S. It is probable that these dried lizards were regarded by the Cliff Palace priests as very potent "medicine."

[56]From all appearances the kivas were plastered from time to time after the walls had become blackened.

[57]This kiva, one of the finest and in some features the most exceptional in Cliff Palace, is not indicated in Nordenskiöld's plan.

[58]Nordenskiöld describes a ventilator constructed in the same way.

[59]In ceremonial rooms of ruins in the Navaho National Monument this curve is represented by a raised step.

[60]Among the Hopi at the present day certain fetishes, as the effigies of the Great Plumed Serpent, are regarded as so sacred that when not in use they are kept in jars set in a banquette, the surface of which is level with the neck of the jar. These receptacles are closely sealed with a stone slab when the images are deposited in them. Possibly the jars set in the kiva banquettes of Cliff Palace may have been used for a similar purpose: i. e., were receptacles for fetishes held in such veneration that, as is the case with the Great Serpent effigies of the Hopi, one even touching them may, in the belief of the people, be afflicted with direful disorders.

[61]SeeBulletin 50, Bureau of American Ethnology.

[62]The two circular kivas of Kukuchomo, near Sikyatki, have this large banquette and in other respects resemble the ruins of Canyon de Chelly. Kukuchomo marks the site of a settlement, of the Coyote clan of the Hopi in prehistoric times.

[63]As a huge rock had fallen from the roof of the cave in which this kiva lies, since it was first occupied, it would appear that the place was abandoned on that account.

[64]Nordenskiöld's description of this kiva has been quoted earlier in this paper. In the description of a ceremonial room of a somewhat similar or of the same type in Spruce-tree House the term "warrior room" is used; there is nothing to warrant this designation, however, and it would be better to consider it simply as a kiva of the second type.

[65]For instance, the complicated reredos of many of the modern Hopi altars is made of flat wooden slabs, the manufacture of which would be very difficult for a people ignorant of iron. These probably replaced painted stone slabs of simpler character, examples of which have been found in ruins and indeed still survive in some of the oldest rites.

[66]This object probably came from near Tokónabi, the ancient home of the Snake people of Walpi, on San Juan river. Fourteen of these tcamahias form part of the Antelope altar in the Snake Dance at Walpi.

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