MAJOR ANTIQUITIES

The first ruin of considerable size that was visited is situated to the left of and somewhat distant from the road, a few miles west and south of Marsh pass. As this ruin (pl.4)[21]stands on an elevation, it is visible for a considerable distance across the valley, especially to one approaching it from the southwest. The standing walls rise in places to a height of 10 feet, showing indications of two stories, some of the rafters in places still projecting beyond the face of the wall. The two walls highest and most prominent are parallel, inclosing a long room or court; in one place a break has been made through these walls, as appears in the illustration. The remnants or foundations of other walls back of these show that ruin A was formerly very much larger than the walls now standing would indicate.

The walls are composed of roughly laid masonry, bearing evidences on the inside of adobe plastering. An exceptional feature is the large number of the component stones decorated on their outer faces with deeply incised geometrical figures, apparently traced with some pointed implement.[22]

Comparison of the architecture of this ruin with that of the Black Falls ruin here figured (pl.3) shows a resemblance which is more than superficial, in the elevated site, character of the masonry, and general ground plan; and comparison of its walls with those of Old Walpi shows a similar likeness, which is instructive so far as it goes. This is the only large ruin visited that is characterized by high standing walls on top of an eminence, but Navaho guides said they were familiar with others in this neighborhood similar in structure and situation.

Immediately after leaving this ruin the attention is drawn to the first of the large cliff-dwellings, cliff-house B, situated near Marsh pass. The contrast in color of the Cretaceous rocks on the right and the Triassic formations on the left side of the pass is noticeable for some distance. The great cliff-dwellings are found high up in the red sandstone on the left.

This picturesque ruin occupies the whole floor of a narrow, low cave situated in an almost vertical cliff forming one side of a canyon which extends deep into the mountain; the entrance is between low hills on the left, where the road ascends to Marsh pass. Theruin can be seen for a long distance, but as one approaches the canyon in which it lies the site is hidden by foothills. The accompanying view (pl.5) was taken from the opposite side of the canyon, it being impossible to get an extended detailed view of the ruin from above or below. Beyond the ruin the canyon forms a narrowing fissure with precipitous sides; its bed is covered with bushes, stunted trees, and fallen rocks. No flowing water was found in this canyon, but in the ledges near its mouth, below the ruins, there are pockets and potholes which contained considerable water at the time of the writer’s visit.

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGYBULLETIN 50 PLATE 7

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

BULLETIN 50 PLATE 7

SWALLOWS NEST

This cliff-dwelling is difficult to enter, the walls of the canyon, both above and below and on the sides, being almost perpendicular. A pathway extending along the side of the cliff on the level of the cave approaches within 20 feet of the ruin; from its end to the first room of the ruin this trail is continued by a series of footholes pecked in the rock, making entrance hazardous at this point.[23]Although the walls of this cliff-dwelling are more or less destroyed and their foundations deeply buried, there still remains standing masonry of a square tower (?) reaching from the floor to the roof of the cave. One corner of this tower is completely broken out, but the remaining sides show that this building was three stories high, composed of rooms one above another.

Several other rooms lie concealed under fallen walls and débris. One of the most instructive of these is what may have been akiva, or ceremonial room,[24]the location of its walls being indicated by stakes projecting out of the ground. Lower down, where the wall was better preserved, sticks or wickerwork were found interwoven in the uprights, the whole being plastered with adobe, a form of wall construction common in prehistoric ruins of Arizona.

In comparison with the Mesa Verde ruins, the masonry of this ruin is poor, but the stones used in constructing the walls are large. The many fragments of pottery strewn over the surface of the floor of the cave resemble in symbolism pottery from Black Falls, the same colors, black and white, predominating.[25]

In descending the declivity of the cliff in the sides of which cliff-house B is situated, there comes to view a cluster of broken walls crowning a low elevation, which indicate a former house of some size. In their neighborhood are the foundations of other walls, and the ground in the vicinity is strewn with many fragments of pottery and much fallen masonry half buried in débris. Farther down the hill,on the level of the road and extending parallel with it, are low ridges or mounds covered with pottery, indicating the former presence of a pueblo of considerable size. No walls were traced in these mounds, which seem to indicate the existence of an ancient cemetery, as several rings of small stones, suggesting graves, were found. A short distance beyond this supposed cemetery is a little cave, situated a few hundred feet to the left of the road. In this cave are a few walls, but the cliff-dwelling is not of great size; beyond it the road rises steeply to Marsh pass. (Pl.6.)

Although some of the ruins in the Navaho Monument may be visited without the use of saddle horses, the largest can not now be approached with wagons. It would be possible at a small expense, however, so to improve the Indian trail up the canyon of Laguna creek that one could drive within a fraction of a mile of the great ruins, Betatakin and Kitsiel. At present, to reach these one must leave carriages at Marsh pass and descend with saddle horses to the bed of Laguna creek, which flows along the canyon, in the side branches of which are situated the greatest two cliff-dwellings of the region. One of these, Betatakin, is about six miles, the other, Kitsiel, about 10 miles, from Marsh pass.

Descending to Laguna creek and following the bottom of the canyon, crossing and recrossing the stream several times, the first cliff-dwelling is seen built in a niche in the cliffs high up on the right. This ruin seems to fill the bottom of a symmetrically vaulted, open cave, the high arched roof and sides of which are so eroded that from one point of view the shadow cast by the ruin at certain times outlines the profile of a head and part of a human body, as seen in plate7. Although a talus[26]extends from this ruin some distance down the cliff, rendering access difficult, the ruin was entered, but found to be in a poor state of preservation. Several of the walls, viewed from the road, appeared to be in good condition, and some of the rooms are more than one story high.

Following the canyon about five miles from Marsh pass, the writer’s party came to a fork in the canyon,[27]where a guide was found who led the way across the stream into a small side canyon, in the end of which lies Betatakin. This canyon is wooded and at the time of the writer’s visit contained plenty of water, a small streamissuing from almost under the walls and trickling down through the bushes over a mass of fallen rock which forms the talus. The climb to the ruin from the place where horses must be abandoned is not a hard one and a trail could easily be made; in fact a carriage road might be constructed at small expense from Marsh pass to within half a mile of this great ruin, one of the largest two and best preserved cliff-dwellings in the Navaho National Monument.

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGYBULLETIN 50 PLATE 8

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

BULLETIN 50 PLATE 8

BETATAKIN—GENERAL VIEW

A feature of this ruin (plates 8-11) which attracts attention on entering it is the fine echo, due to the shape of the open cave in which it lies. Were the name not preempted, it would seem that Echo House would be a much more appropriate designation for the ruin than Betatakin, “High-ledges House,” applied to it by the Navaho.

Certain differences in architectural features between cliff-houses in the Mesa Verde region and those here considered are apparent. The caves in which the cliff-dwellings of the Navaho Monument region are situated differ in geological formation from those of the Mesa Verde National Park. While in the former there are many instances of horizontal cleavage planes, as a rule the falling of blocks of stone has left vertical flat faces. On this account the caves are shallow and high-vaulted rather than extending deep into the cliff. The process of formation of these vertical planes of cleavage is shown by examining plate9; in this case a pinnacle of rock has begun to break away and is partially separated from the surface of the cliff. This pinnacle will ultimately topple over and fall as many have done before, leaving a broken stump at its former base. In this way, from time to time, in the past geological history of the cave, detached pinnacles and slabs of rock have broken away along these vertical planes of cleavage, leaving the tops of their broken bases later to become foundations for rooms. Similar flat vertical planes of cleavage are rare, almost unknown, in the Mesa Verde caves. Here the cleavage is horizontal, the caves extending deep into the cliffs.[28]

The modifications in architecture brought about by the difference in direction of these cleavage planes are apparent. The ancient builders in the Navaho Monument region utilized the vertical faces as supports for walls of rooms on one or more sides. In some cases the face of the cliff forms the rear walls; in others a side wall and the rear wall of a room are formed by vertical cleavage planes at right angles, as shown in plate9. It can be seen that adjacent houses built upon fallen rocks of different heights, the vertical faces being utilized as rear walls, would seem to stand one above another, or, in other words, they would present the well-known terrace form which exists in some modern pueblos.

The writer approached this ruin by following the fallen débris at the end, where the rooms, being without covering and exposed to the elements, are most dilapidated. Over this fallen mass one makes his way with difficulty and is often in danger of falling from the cliff. On account of the perpendicular face of the cliff below the foundations of the other end of the ruin, it is impossible to climb into it, except from this side. On approaching the ruin there is to be seen on the vertical face of the cliff a pictograph (pl.12) worthy of special mention, or rather two pictographs which are doubtless connected in meaning. The larger of these is a circle, painted white, resembling a shield (a common object in pictographic representation), the other a horned animal, perhaps a mountain sheep.[29]The figure on the shield, which bears evidence of former coloration, represents a human being with outstretched arms, the hands being raised to the level of the head. On each side of the body are represented two designs—a circle of yellow and a crescent in which are parallel bands of red, yellow, and probably green.

The rooms in this cliff-house are rectangular, cubical, or box-like structures built against the face of the cliff, which serves as their rear wall. There are no towers or round rooms such as those that lend picturesqueness to several of the Mesa Verde cliff-dwellings. Few of the rooms are more than two stories high, the appearance of terraced rooms being given by the varying heights of their foundations. The masonry is crude, the lines are irregular, and the external faces of the walls vertical. The interior wall was probably plastered, and some walls afford good evidence that their exterior was formerly covered with mud.

A marked feature of ruins in this region is the adobe walls supported by rows of stakes with interwoven sticks. No adobe bricks were seen in the walls examined.[30]

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGYBULLETIN 50 PLATE 9

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

BULLETIN 50 PLATE 9

BETATAKIN—WESTERN END

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGYBULLETIN 50 PLATE 10

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

BULLETIN 50 PLATE 10

GROUND PLANOF THEBETATA KINNAVAHO IND·RES·ARIZ·BYW·B·DOUGLASSU·S·EXAMINER OF SURVEYS·GENERAL LAND OFF·

One of the largest clusters of rooms in this cliff-house (Betatakin) stands on a huge rock foundation, the vertical face of which is continuous with the wall of masonry of the front building of the cluster. (Pl.11.) The rear wall of the front room is formed by the vertical face of the cliff. About half of the roof of this room has gone, but several patches still remain even in the broken section. The rooms of the higher tier are set against an upright wall. The doorway is on one side. The shelf of rock on which this room stands is level withthe roof of the first room and the cave wall forms its rear. This room was probably a ceremonial chamber, having a fire-hole in the floor, between which and the doorway is a low wall of masonry corresponding to the deflector, or altar, in Mesa Verde ruins.[31]The part of the floor on which one steps in entering this room is raised slightly above the remainder, serving to connect the base of the deflector with the doorsill. The deflector and fire-hole are practically duplicates of features common to several Cliff Palace kivas. At Betatakin, however, the ceremonial room is above ground, not subterranean, and is entered from the side instead of from the top.

A two-story room stands on the rock one tier higher than the ceremonial room just mentioned, its foundation being at the level of the roof of the ceremonial room, as shown in the illustration. The front wall of this room is more or less broken down, but on one side, where projecting rafters are found in place, the masonry, otherwise unbroken, is pierced by a small window. This room has also a door on the side. Several well-preserved rooms extend along a ledge of rock on the same level as the roofs of these buildings, forming another tier above the ceremonial room. One of these has a fine roof; ends of rafters extend from the walls.

Beyond the ceremonial room, on the side where the ruin is most dilapidated, may be noted the same arrangement of the rooms in tiers or terraces, brought about by the varying height of their foundations. Several walls in these rooms are in good condition, but the fronts of many are broken down. Here are found rows of sticks or supports projecting from the débris. The walls are almost invariably of stone; those supported by sticks are usually connecting walls. The roofs of some of these rooms are entire, but many are broken, although their rafters still remain in place.

The whole length of Betatakin is not far from 600 feet, following the foundations from one end to the other. There are not far from 100 rooms visible, and evidences of others covered with débris. The larger of the two rooms identified as ceremonial rooms on account of their deflectors, measures 10 by 7 feet and is about 5 feet high; the smaller is about 7 feet square. There are no vertical ventilators as in circular kivas, the smoke evidently finding egress through a small hole in the roof. The floor of one of these ceremonial rooms was cut in the solid rock.

As above mentioned, there are no circular rooms or towers in Betatakin, although one room has a rounded corner. Traces of the repair of doors and windows are evident, but none of these apertures are T-shaped.

One of the interesting features in Betatakin and several other ruins in this region consists in rows of eyelets cut in the rocky side of the cliff evidently for the attachment of some long object.

A cluster of small rooms isolated from those above described are shown in plate9; these give a good idea of the general type of architecture of these buildings and of the modifications or adaptations due to the sites on which they are erected and the vertical cliffs against which they are built. Three rooms set into the angle formed by two vertical cliff faces at right angles to each other illustrate how the cliff serves for rear walls and how the buildings are attached to it for support. The roofs of these rooms are entire and their rafters project beyond the upright walls. The doors and windows are, comparatively speaking, small and rectangular in form. Fragments of walls projecting out of the ground indicate the existence of many rooms covered with débris. These are especially numerous at the end of the ruin to which the trail leads, but as most of them are buried an adequate idea of their arrangement can not be gained without systematic excavation.

This ruin, which lies about 10 miles from Marsh pass, is a most interesting cliff-dwelling.[32]As this is the best preserved of all the ruins thus far discovered in the Navaho National Monument, it should be excavated and repaired for future visitors and students. Kitsiel is a large ruin, its length (estimated at 300 feet) being not less than that of the greatest cliff-dwelling of the Mesa Verde National Park. Like other ruins in the vicinity, it is not so picturesque as the structures of that region, lacking round towers and other features so attractive in Cliff Palace.[33]The accompanying illustration (pl.13) presents the ground plan of this ruin, the architectural features of which are similar to those of Betatakin.

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGYBULLETIN 50 PLATE 11

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

BULLETIN 50 PLATE 11

BETATAKIN—CENTRAL PART

One of the most striking features of Kitsiel is the great log, 35 feet long, under which the visitor passes to inspect the interior of the ruin. West of this log, which evidently once supported a retaining wall, the rooms are well preserved; east of it this wall in places has slippeddown the cliff and its component stones are to be found in the talus below.

It is difficult to discover how many rooms this great cliff-house formerly had, but there is little doubt that they numbered more than 150, besides the kivas. This ruin is believed to be one of the largest known cliff-dwellings of the Southwest, ranking in size the Cliff Palace in the Mesa Verde, which it does not rival, however, in variety of architectural features. The masonry in Kitsiel is inferior to that in the Spruce-tree House and the Balcony House, the walls of which show the highest aboriginal achievement in stonework north of Mexico.[34]

The walled inclosures of Kitsiel are reducible to a few types of which the following may be distinguished:

(1) Kivas, or circular subterranean rooms with a large banquette on one side, the walls being generally broken down and without pilasters or roof-supports.

(2) Kihus, or rectangular rooms with doors on one side, each having a low bank, or “deflector,” rising from the floor between the doorway and the fire-hole. Instead of this bank being free from the wall, as at Betatakin, it is generally joined to it on one side, the floor at the point of junction being raised slightly above the remaining level. Smoke-holes are sometimes, but not always, present in the roof. These rooms, like the circular rooms, are ceremonial in character. The only opening in their floors that can be compared with the ceremonial aperture, orsipapû, is a shallow depression a few inches deep. The diameters of these openings are greater than in the case of the sipapû in Cliff Palace kivas.

(3) Rectangular rooms, some of which have benches and show evidence of having been living rooms.

(4) Large rooms each with a fireplace in the middle of the floor.

(5) Rooms with metates set in bins made of stone slabs (milling rooms).

(6) Courts and streets. The longest street extends from the middle of the ruin to the western end and is lined on both sides by rooms many of the roofs of which are still intact.

An instructive architectural feature of some of the rooms of this ruin is the use of upright logs in supporting corners. Part of the roof of one of these rooms situated deep in the cave is formed by the natural rock and the remainder by an artificial covering supported by upright logs forked at the end to receive the rafters.

This ruin, about 2 miles from the place where two large canyons open into Laguna creek, lies in a cavern worn in the side of a large butte on the left of the stream. It is appropriately called Scaffold House from a finely made wooden scaffold (fig. 1) which the ancients constructed in a vertical cleft in the cliff about 50 feet above the east end of the ruin. Although this scaffold is now inaccessible from the walls of the room below, all the beams and much of the earthen floor still remain.

Fig. 1.Scaffold of Scaffold House.

The construction of the scaffold is as follows: The crevice in which it lies is rectangular, with the longest axis vertical. Several large logs placed horizontally, their ends fitted into holes pecked in the sides of the crevice, support smaller beams laid across them at right angles. These latter in turn are covered with small sticks on which are laid bark and clay, leaving a hatchway at a point about midway. The construction of this scaffold, probably as daring a piece of aerial building as can be found anywhere among cliff-dwellings, is so well preserved that it shows no sign of deterioration. We can only conjecture what its use may have been, but the plausible suggestion has been made that it was an outlook or place of defense.

Scaffold House is about 300 feet long. The rooms, which are in fine condition, extend along the side of the cliff, those situated midway of the length of the ruin being fairly well preserved. There are not far from 56 rooms still to be traced, and at least two circular kivas, the walls of one of which are still in fair condition. The larger kiva measures about 15 feet in diameter; it is subterranean, with a deep bench or banquette on one side. There is no trace of the pilastersso conspicuous in the circular kivas of the Mesa Verde. The inner walls are smoothly plastered.

Enough of the roof of this kiva remains to show the method of construction, and as this is the first example of such a roof the writer has ever examined a brief description of it may prove to be instructive. (See pl.14.) The supports or rafters are three in number, consisting of a large middle log laid across the center of the kiva halfway between the banquette and the opposite side, and of two smaller logs, parallel with it, resting on the top of the kiva wall, one across the banquette, and the other at about an equal distance on the opposite side. A number of smaller transverse beams, parallel with one another, are supported by the three logs already mentioned, and upon these lie the layers of sticks, bark, and adobe which cover the roof. No hatchway or place for a vertical opening was to be seen, but as the covering of the banquette is missing it is quite possible that the entrance to the kiva may have had some connection with this feature.

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGYBULLETIN 50 PLATE 12

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

BULLETIN 50 PLATE 12

PICTOGRAPHS AT BETATAKIN

The top of a vertical stone slab, comparable in shape and position with a deflector, was seen projecting out of the débris that fills the lower part of the kiva, and rods in the wall near the roof represent pegs found at the tops of the pilasters in Mesa Verde kivas. There is a niche at one side for small objects, a constant feature in all kivas, circular and rectangular. The fire-hole was covered with débris.

The second circular kiva, which belongs to the same subtype, is situated not far from the one described, but is much more dilapidated, about half its walls having fallen. The roof of this kiva appears to have been supported in part by upright logs isolated from the walls, inside the chamber, three of which still stand in their original positions. This feature reminds one of kivas of the Rio Grande region as described by Castañeda, the historian of the Coronado expedition in 1540-42. In addition to the two circular kivas Scaffold House contains another room that may have been ceremonial in character, having all the essentials of the Betatakin rooms herein referred to as kivas. It lies near the western end of the ruin, its northwestern wall being bound by the vertical cliff. This room is rectangular, with a lateral entrance opposite which is a low bank, or deflector; the floor between the latter and the doorway is raised slightly above the general level. The fire-hole occupies a position on the other side, as in rooms of this kind in Betatakin. It was noticed that the sides of the doorway are considerably worn and that its lintel is made of split sticks.

In addition to the two circular subterranean kivas at Scaffold House there is at least one kihu in this ruin. This is situated near the western end, being built against the upright or rear wall of the cavern to which the two side walls are joined. The doorway is like those of thekihus in Betatakin and is situated opposite the cliff-wall. The roof has fallen in, but the beams and wattling remain in place as they fell. There is a fire-hole in the middle of the floor, and between it and the doorway is a deflector made of upright staves between which is adobe work; the whole is plastered with adobe. The threshold of the low doorway is slightly elevated above the floor, and between it and the base of the deflector is a raised platform. The lintels are made of sticks split with wedges, possibly of stone, as shown by their fibrous surfaces.

There are many pictographs on the cliff at Scaffold House, the most conspicuous of which represent human hands, snakes (one of them is 15 feet long), mountain sheep or other horned mammals, and nondescript figures representing tailed human beings.

The ruins at Bubbling Spring, a short distance from Scaffold House, are inconspicuous.

This large ruin,[35]so named from the finding of the cradle described and illustrated herein, is situated in the side of a bluff rising above East canyon. It contains about 50 rooms and at least 3 circular kivas without pilasters, the front walls of which are considerably broken down.

The rooms of Cradle House as a rule extend along the rear of the cave, their back walls generally being formed by the vertical wall of the cliff, there being no recess behind them. The majority of the rooms lie about midway in the length of the ruin, the kivas being situated in front of the cluster. In two or three places rooms are found on levels below or above that of the main cluster, but only rarely are there rooms in front of others on the same level. On the upper ledge near the western end a small bin is found at the base of which is a considerable depression, probably artificial.

The more or less dilapidated walls of this ruin are to be seen from the left bank of East canyon, a few miles farther upstream. The position is indicated by an enormous butte which projects into the canyon and diverts the stream at that point. One side of this butte is eroded in such a way as to resemble in outline an elephant’s trunk, this erosion marking the initial process in the formation of a “natural bridge.” On the opposite side of this butte there is another large cliff-dwelling, which was not visited.

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGYBULLETIN 50 PLATE 13

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

BULLETIN 50 PLATE 13

GROUND PLANOF THEKEET SEEL RUINNAVAHO IND·RES·ARIZBYW·B·DOUGLASSU·S·EXAMINER OF SURVEYSGENERAL LAND OFFICE

The fine growth of trees at the base of a large cliff-house about 2 miles beyond Cradle House has suggested the name Forest-glen House. Some of the walls are in the form of concentric semicircles with the conspicuous representation of a head attached to one side. Many rocks have fallen on this ruin from the cave roof, especially at one end, but the rooms at the western end are still well preserved.

About 8 miles up East canyon there is a large, almost inaccessible, ruin, which lies a short distance from the main canyon. A striking feature of this ruin is its division into three parts, of which the central section is somewhat lower than the one on each side. A large pine on the edge of the cliff above has suggested the name Pine-tree House. Deep below this ruin is a large basin, in which grow many trees and bushes; among these are a good spring and a small rivulet. This ruin has two very large circular kivas, without pedestals, 20 to 30 feet in diameter. A deep banquette is present on one side. This ruin exhibits no evidence of having been dug.

After descending to Laguna creek from Marsh pass, crossing the stream, and following the bank about 2 miles, one comes to a ridge of copper-bearing rocks, beyond which the road crosses a deep ravine. On following the right bank this ravine is found to extend into the cliffs as a canyon. A few miles after entering the canyon a stream is encountered emerging from a spring and trickling over a cliff. High above this cliff, in a canyon 60 or 80 feet in size, the entrance to which is surrounded and more or less concealed by stately pines, spruces, and cedars, stands a cliff-ruin, possibly never before visited by white men, for which the name Trickling-spring House is suggested. Although this ruin is small, it is in several respects unique. The main architectural feature is a diminutive court or plaza, into which open a number of small rooms, having well-plastered walls and low entrances. In this, as in most of the other ruins in the Navaho National Monument, some of the house-walls are constructed of stone; but many are made of clay, plastered on sticks or wickerwork supported by upright logs. The masonry when present is poor as a rule, the component stones rarely being dressed into shape, but the surface plastering, especially on the kiva walls, is good. Many walls stand on rocks that have evidently fallen from the roof of the cave. A metateset in position in one of the smaller rooms indicates that this particular inclosure served as a milling room.

Fig. 2.Ground plan of Trickling-spring House.A,B,C, rooms;D,D, deflectors;E, doorway;H,H, hatchways;M, metate;P, plaza;R,R, rock fragments.

Two squarish rooms, with lateral doorways and a deflector or wall before them, are identified as kihus. One of these has a platform or floor connecting the base of the ventilator and the doorway. The deflector is free from the kihu walls at both ends. The walls of a room with a deflector which opens into the plaza are very much blackened with smoke. No circular subterranean room was observed. There are several well-preserved hatchways in the roofs, showing that entrances of this kind were common in addition to lateral entrances with well-preserved sills and lintels. One or two of the small windows in the outer walls have a downward slant, as if to afford a better view of visitors approaching from below. One of these old doorways was closed with masonry, constructed possibly when the room was deserted. There are no signs of vandalism in this ruin.[36]

The existence of recesses and of refuse heaps back of the buildings in caves is characteristic of Mesa Verde cliff-dwellings. In the cliff-houses of the Canyon de Chelly and Marsh Pass regions they rarely exist, the house walls being built against the rear wall of the cave,leaving very little space behind them for refuse or fallen débris. This latter feature, due to the geological character of the caves, is also prominent in the cliff-dwellings of the Red Rock country, at the headwaters of the Verde and its tributaries, and is likewise found in a few cliff-houses of the Gila visited by the writer. From one point of view the use of the wall or walls of the cave as house-walls marks a typical form of cliff-dwelling, or a dependent village, distinguished from a cliff-dwelling like Cliff Palace, the walls of which are independent or free on all sides from the cliffs.[37]

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGYBULLETIN 50 PLATE 14

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

BULLETIN 50 PLATE 14

a.RELATION IN PARTS OF CIRCULAR AND RECTANGULAR KIVAS1, 2, 3, 4, 5, banquettes with pilasters thereon;C. O.ceremonial opening;F, fire-hole;S, sipapû (symbolic opening into underworld);V, ventilator.

a.RELATION IN PARTS OF CIRCULAR AND RECTANGULAR KIVAS

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, banquettes with pilasters thereon;C. O.ceremonial opening;F, fire-hole;S, sipapû (symbolic opening into underworld);V, ventilator.

b.SCAFFOLD HOUSEA, large banquette;C, adobe roof covering;D, deflector;S, stick construction supporting roof.

b.SCAFFOLD HOUSE

A, large banquette;C, adobe roof covering;D, deflector;S, stick construction supporting roof.

DIAGRAM SHOWING KIVA ROOF CONSTRUCTION

The masonry of the Navaho Monument ruins is crude as compared with that found in the ruins of the Mesa Verde National Park, and walls made of adobe supported by upright sticks are more numerous. The character of the masonry may be due in part to the slab-like character of the building stones, and possibly to their greater hardness. The relative predominance of adobe walls supported by upright sticks was fostered by the ease with which they could be constructed and the quantity of clay available for building purposes. Comparison of the masonry of ruins in the Navaho Monument with that of the Black Falls region shows a resemblance much greater than that existing between either group and the cliff-houses of the Mesa Verde region.

There is no architectural feature in Southwestern ruins more distinctive than the ceremonial rooms, or kivas, but as these have never been recognized throughout a large area of Arizona, it is important to determine the character of the ceremonial rooms of the Navaho Monument ruins and to compare them with kivas at present used by the Hopi.

While as a rule there is great similarity in secular rooms in different culture areas of the Southwest, the more archaic ceremonial rooms of these regions vary considerably. The rooms ordinarily called kivas are of two distinct types, circular and rectangular. There are two kinds of circular kivas,[38]one having pilasters and banquettes to support the roof, the other without pilasters, apparently roofless, but surrounded by high walls as if for the purpose of obscuring the view from neighboring plazas. The circular kivas commonly do not form a part of the house mass, being separated some distance from the secular rooms. From all that can be learned it appears that the round kiva is an ancient type, its position in the rear of the cave in such cliff-dwellings as Spruce-tree House and Cliff Palace indicating that this form is as old as the building itself. The circular type, with pilasters, is confined wholly to the eastern region, having been reported from the Mesa Verde, the San Juan and many of its tributaries, Chacocanyon, and certain ruins west of the Rio Grande. Circular kivas somewhat modified are found also in many of the Rio Grande pueblos, where they are still in use. A subtype of circular kivas without pilasters but provided each with one large banquette is the common form of circular ceremonial room in the Navaho National Monument and the Canyon de Chelly. The modern representative of this subtype is the Snake kiva of the Hopi, which has become rectangular, the large banquette (tuwibi, pl.14) being modified into the “spectators,” or elevated surface of the floor.

The corresponding ceremonial rooms at Zuñi and in the prehistoric Hopi pueblos are rectangular in form and of simpler architecture. Similarly shaped ceremonial rooms, not subterranean, are still in use in modern Hopi pueblos. As a good example of this archaic form of ceremonial room at Walpi may be mentioned that in which the Flute altar is erected and in which the Flute secret rites are performed.[39]This ancestral room of the clan is a rectangular chamber forming part of the second floor, and is entered from one side. The Flute clans came from a pueblo, now a ruin, in the north, but after union with the Ala, who lived at Tokónabi, they settled at the Snake pueblo, Walpi. So it may be supposed that their ancestors also had no special kiva, but celebrated their secret rites in an ordinary house.

The fraternity of Sun priests likewise erect their altar and perform their secret ceremonies in a room, not in a kiva; so do the Kalektaka, or warriors. None of these rooms is commonly regarded or enumerated as a kiva, but such chambers are believed to be the direct representatives of the ceremonial rooms built above ground as a part of the house, in the manner more characteristic of ceremonial rooms in Arizona ruins.

The ruins in the Navaho Monument have ceremonial rooms allied on one side to the kivas of the San Juan region, and on the other to rooms in the Little Colorado ruins that may have been built for ceremonial use. The latter are constructed above ground, inclosed by other houses, and are rectangular in shape, with lateral doorways. Some of these rooms, as at Betatakin, contain each a fire screen and a fire-hole, as in a circular kiva, the ventilator being replaced by a lateral doorway. It is possible that when the Snake people inhabited their northern homes, before they came to Walpi, their ceremonial rooms were not built, as at present, partly underground, and placed at a distance from the secular houses. The ceremonial rooms of this clan and of immediate relatives when living at Tokónabi or in the Navaho Monument region may have resembled those of the Black Fallscluster of ruins.[40]Their subterranean position and separation from other rooms may be regarded as modifications due to foreign influences after the clan arrived at Walpi.[41]

Back to Index Next