FOOTNOTES:

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGYBULLETIN 50 PLATE 15

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

BULLETIN 50 PLATE 15

a.FOOD BOWLCat. No. 257781. Diameter, 4½ inches.

a.FOOD BOWL

Cat. No. 257781. Diameter, 4½ inches.

b.CLAY DISK WITH PERFORATED BORDERCat. No. 258330. Diameter, 5¼ inches.

b.CLAY DISK WITH PERFORATED BORDER

Cat. No. 258330. Diameter, 5¼ inches.

c.DIPPERCat. No. 257779. Height, 4½ inches.

c.DIPPER

Cat. No. 257779. Height, 4½ inches.

d.FOOD-BOWL WITH HANDLECat. No. 257780. Diameter, 6 inches.

d.FOOD-BOWL WITH HANDLE

Cat. No. 257780. Diameter, 6 inches.

POTTERY FROM NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT

The sunken or subterranean situation of the ceremonial assembly room, or kiva, of the Pueblo region is an architectural survival of a people whose secular and ceremonial rooms were subterranean. This feature may not be autochthonous in this area, or limited to it geographically, having probably been derived from people of kindred culture of the West coast, as pointed out by Mr. Ernest Sarfert’s argument on this point, which would seem to be conclusive if subterranean kivas could be found in the Gila and Little Colorado regions.[42]

The forms of pueblo kivas, circular or rectangular, are not derived one from the other, but suggest different geographical origins. The circular form, confined to the eastern Pueblo area, bears evidence of having been derived from the culture of a people inhabiting a forested region; while the rectangular form strongly suggests a people with a treeless habitat. Both circular and rectangular subterranean assembly rooms existed in aboriginal California in historic and prehistoric times. The archaic or prehistoric culture of the Pueblo region is closely related to that of the West coast in other particulars also, that do not concern the subject of this article.

When the Snake clans lived at Tokónabi, and later at Wukóki (on the Little Colorado), so far as known they had no subterranean rooms isolated from the others for ceremonial purposes, but used rooms so closely resembling other apartments that they may be called “living rooms.” Even when they came to the Hopi mesas they may not have had at first a specialized ceremonial chamber. A study of Arizona ruins reveals no rooms identified as ceremonial that are isolated from the house masses. This is true of cliff-dwellings and pueblos, and it is probable that the differentiation and separation of kivas from secular houses, found in modern Hopi pueblos, are an introduced feature of comparatively late date. At Zuñi a rectangular room, not separated from the house mass, serves as a kiva, the custom in this respect approaching more closely that found among their kindred, the ancient people of the Little Colorado river, than among the more modified Hopi of the present time.

While some of the rooms identified as ceremonial in preceding pages are rectangular in shape and not isolated from secular rooms, the circular type seems also to have been found in Utah, and at Kitsiel and ruins near it. South of Marsh pass circular kivas are less abundant, and it appears that somewhere in this region is a line of demarcation between ruins with circular kivas and those with rectangular kivas. In prehistoric ruins from Marsh pass southward[43]to the Gila valley no rooms have ever been identified as kivas, although in the cavate ruins called Old Caves, near Flagstaff, are subterranean rooms entered from the floor of a room above, which may have served for the performance of religious rites.[44]

From a comparison of some features of the kivas in the cliff-dwellings of the San Juan and its tributaries with those of the Navaho Monument it would appear that while the ceremonial rooms of the latter in certain details are like those of the former, in some cases their form and position are different. So far as this resemblance goes, it may be reasoned that the San Juan ancients influenced by their culture the northern Arizona cliff-dwellers, but there is scant evidence of the reverse, that is, that the San Juan pueblos borrowed from the culture of the northern Arizonians any architectural features, especially in the form and construction of their kivas. The theory would be logical that the prehistoric migration of culture was down rather than up the river, and the symbolism of the pottery contributes interesting data supporting this conclusion.

FOOTNOTES:[21]This ruin may be that called Tecolote, which appears on many old maps.[22]Among other names cut on the walls of this ruin is that of Lieutenant Bell, 1859.[23]A few broken-down walls of rooms stand at the side of the trail just before one reaches the dangerous part.[24]No other rooms that could be called ceremonial were recognized in cliff-house B, but the writer’s examination of the ruin was not very thorough and their existence may have escaped him.[25]Mr. Black informs me that it was in this ruin that he found the beautiful woven belt now at El Tovar Hotel, Grand Canyon.[26]Rooms are concealed by this talus, the walls of which project in places out of the ground.[27]Laguna creek is entered at this point on the right by a stream bifurcating into the Cataract and East tributaries, which flow through canyons of the same names. In or near East canyon are four large ruins: Ladder House, Cradle House, Forest-glen House, and Pine-tree House. The largest ruin in Cataract canyon is Kitsiel. The Navaho sometimes speak of the East canyon as the Salt, or Alkaline,bokho.[28]Another geological feature of the sites of the large cliff-dwellings of the Navaho Monument is the almost constant presence of a vertical cliff-wall below the cave floor, the talus rarely extending to the base of the lowest rooms.[29]According to Hopi legends, the Horn clans (animals with horns) are kin to the Snake, and formerly lived with the Snake clans at Tokónabi. Later they united with the Flute clans at Lengyanobi, and still later joined the Snake clans at Walpi. Lengyanobi (“Pueblo of the Flute”) is a large ruin north of the Hopi mesas.[30]“Adobe bricks” with straw, according to Mr. W. B. Douglass, are found at Inscription House near the end of the White mesa. The writer has found adobe cubes in some of the walls of Cliff Palace, but these contain no straw.[31]Although circular kivas are found in several ruins in the Navaho National Monument, as Kitsiel, Inscription House, Scaffold House, and others, they were not seen in Betatakin, which has the rectangular ceremonial room with side entrance above mentioned. Although such rooms possess some of the features of kivas, it is perhaps better to restrict that term to the circular chambers and adopt the word kihu to designate the rectangular rooms above ground. The ceremonial chambers of Betatakin suggest the Flute room at Walpi. This fact and the discovery of a flute in one of the rooms make it appear that Betatakin was inhabited by Flute clans, which, according to Hopi legends, lived in this region.[32]For the accompanying view of the ruin (pl.1), from photographs taken by Mr. William B. Douglass, the writer is indebted to the General Land Office.[33]The kivas appear to be circular; one of them has the large banquette, like kiva M in Cliff Palace. No pilasters for supporting roofs have yet been reported.[34]The two ruins Kitsiel and Betatakin are those about which extravagant statements as to size and character were made about two years ago by newspapers and otherwise reliable magazines.[35]Like all ruins in East canyon, Cradle House is situated in a small side canyon on the left bank.[36]Trickling-spring House is not located on the accompanying map and, so far as could be ascertained, had not been visited by archeologists previously to the writer’s visit. A young Navaho guided the writer to it a short time before he left the region.[37]Of course some of the rooms in Cliff Palace, especially those at the western extension of the northern end, are dependent, the cliff forming their rear walls.[38]Both kinds of circular kivas are found in the cliff-ruins at Casa Blanca and in Mummy cave in the Canyon de Chelly.[39]These rites in all the Hopi pueblos are performed, as in ancient times, in rectangular rooms not called kivas. The Snake rites are performed now, as when the clan lived at Tokónabi in subterranean rooms (kivas), the present form of which is rectangular instead of circular, as at Tokónabi.[40]It appears that in some of the ruins of the Navaho National Monument there were both circular subterranean kivas and rectangular rooms used for ceremonial purposes. At Wukóki the former do not exist, but two of the latter can be recognized, one of which has a construction like a ventilator.[41]None of the five Walpi kivas is older than 1680, and one or two are of later construction.[42]Haus und Dorf bei den Eingeborenen Nordamerikas, inArch. für Anthr.,N. F., Bd.VII, Heft 2 and 3, 1908.[43]The circular kivas of Kükütcomo, the twin ruins on the mesa above Sikyatki, near Walpi, are the only ceremonial rooms of this form known from the Hopi mesas. These were the work of the Coyote clan and are of Eastern origin.[44]There are two types of cavate ruins, or rooms artificially excavated in the tops or faces of cliffs, near Flagstaff. In one type, Old Caves, the entrance to the subterranean rooms is vertical; in the other, New Caves, it is from the side. In one type the walls of masonry are built above the caves; in the other in front of them. The common feature is the existence of chambers artificially excavated in the cliff. Both types differ essentially from pueblos built in the open or in natural caverns, although some of the kivas of the latter are excavated in the solid rock.

[21]This ruin may be that called Tecolote, which appears on many old maps.

[22]Among other names cut on the walls of this ruin is that of Lieutenant Bell, 1859.

[23]A few broken-down walls of rooms stand at the side of the trail just before one reaches the dangerous part.

[24]No other rooms that could be called ceremonial were recognized in cliff-house B, but the writer’s examination of the ruin was not very thorough and their existence may have escaped him.

[25]Mr. Black informs me that it was in this ruin that he found the beautiful woven belt now at El Tovar Hotel, Grand Canyon.

[26]Rooms are concealed by this talus, the walls of which project in places out of the ground.

[27]Laguna creek is entered at this point on the right by a stream bifurcating into the Cataract and East tributaries, which flow through canyons of the same names. In or near East canyon are four large ruins: Ladder House, Cradle House, Forest-glen House, and Pine-tree House. The largest ruin in Cataract canyon is Kitsiel. The Navaho sometimes speak of the East canyon as the Salt, or Alkaline,bokho.

[28]Another geological feature of the sites of the large cliff-dwellings of the Navaho Monument is the almost constant presence of a vertical cliff-wall below the cave floor, the talus rarely extending to the base of the lowest rooms.

[29]According to Hopi legends, the Horn clans (animals with horns) are kin to the Snake, and formerly lived with the Snake clans at Tokónabi. Later they united with the Flute clans at Lengyanobi, and still later joined the Snake clans at Walpi. Lengyanobi (“Pueblo of the Flute”) is a large ruin north of the Hopi mesas.

[30]“Adobe bricks” with straw, according to Mr. W. B. Douglass, are found at Inscription House near the end of the White mesa. The writer has found adobe cubes in some of the walls of Cliff Palace, but these contain no straw.

[31]Although circular kivas are found in several ruins in the Navaho National Monument, as Kitsiel, Inscription House, Scaffold House, and others, they were not seen in Betatakin, which has the rectangular ceremonial room with side entrance above mentioned. Although such rooms possess some of the features of kivas, it is perhaps better to restrict that term to the circular chambers and adopt the word kihu to designate the rectangular rooms above ground. The ceremonial chambers of Betatakin suggest the Flute room at Walpi. This fact and the discovery of a flute in one of the rooms make it appear that Betatakin was inhabited by Flute clans, which, according to Hopi legends, lived in this region.

[32]For the accompanying view of the ruin (pl.1), from photographs taken by Mr. William B. Douglass, the writer is indebted to the General Land Office.

[33]The kivas appear to be circular; one of them has the large banquette, like kiva M in Cliff Palace. No pilasters for supporting roofs have yet been reported.

[34]The two ruins Kitsiel and Betatakin are those about which extravagant statements as to size and character were made about two years ago by newspapers and otherwise reliable magazines.

[35]Like all ruins in East canyon, Cradle House is situated in a small side canyon on the left bank.

[36]Trickling-spring House is not located on the accompanying map and, so far as could be ascertained, had not been visited by archeologists previously to the writer’s visit. A young Navaho guided the writer to it a short time before he left the region.

[37]Of course some of the rooms in Cliff Palace, especially those at the western extension of the northern end, are dependent, the cliff forming their rear walls.

[38]Both kinds of circular kivas are found in the cliff-ruins at Casa Blanca and in Mummy cave in the Canyon de Chelly.

[39]These rites in all the Hopi pueblos are performed, as in ancient times, in rectangular rooms not called kivas. The Snake rites are performed now, as when the clan lived at Tokónabi in subterranean rooms (kivas), the present form of which is rectangular instead of circular, as at Tokónabi.

[40]It appears that in some of the ruins of the Navaho National Monument there were both circular subterranean kivas and rectangular rooms used for ceremonial purposes. At Wukóki the former do not exist, but two of the latter can be recognized, one of which has a construction like a ventilator.

[41]None of the five Walpi kivas is older than 1680, and one or two are of later construction.

[42]Haus und Dorf bei den Eingeborenen Nordamerikas, inArch. für Anthr.,N. F., Bd.VII, Heft 2 and 3, 1908.

[43]The circular kivas of Kükütcomo, the twin ruins on the mesa above Sikyatki, near Walpi, are the only ceremonial rooms of this form known from the Hopi mesas. These were the work of the Coyote clan and are of Eastern origin.

[44]There are two types of cavate ruins, or rooms artificially excavated in the tops or faces of cliffs, near Flagstaff. In one type, Old Caves, the entrance to the subterranean rooms is vertical; in the other, New Caves, it is from the side. In one type the walls of masonry are built above the caves; in the other in front of them. The common feature is the existence of chambers artificially excavated in the cliff. Both types differ essentially from pueblos built in the open or in natural caverns, although some of the kivas of the latter are excavated in the solid rock.

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