RUIN A
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)a 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.
aThis ruin may be that called Tecolote, which appears on
many old maps.
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.b
bAmong other names cut on the walls of this ruin is that of
Lieutenant Bell, 1859.
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.
Plate 7. SWALLOWS NEST
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CLIFF-HOUSE B
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. The
ruin 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.
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.a 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.
aA few broken-down walls of rooms stand at the side of the
trail just before one reaches the dangerous part.
Several other rooms lie concealed under fallen walls
and debris. One of the most instructive of these is what may have been a
kiva, or ceremonial room,b 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.
bNo 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.
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.c
cMr. Black informs me that it was in this ruin that he found
the beautiful woven belt now at El Tovar Hotel, Grand Canyon.
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 debris. 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.
SWALLOWS NEST
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 plate 7. Although a talusa 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.
aRooms are concealed by this talus, the walls of which
project in places out of the ground.
BETATAKIN
Following the canyon about five miles from Marsh
pass, the writer's party came to a fork in the canyon,b 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 stream
issuing 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.
bLaguna 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.
Plate 8. BETATAKIN—GENERAL VIEW
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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
plate 9; 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.a
aAnother 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.
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 plate 9. 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 debris 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.a 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.
aAccording to Hopi legends, the Horn clans (animals with
horns) are kin to the Snake, and formerly lived with the Snake clans at
Tokonabi. 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.
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.b
b"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.
Plate 9. BETATAKIN—WESTERN END
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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 with the 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.a
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.
aAlthough 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
posses 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.
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, 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 debris. 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.
Plate 10. GROUND PLAN OF THE BETATAKIN (click
on image for an enlargement in a new window)
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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 debris.
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 plate 9; 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 debris. 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 with out systematic
excavation.
KITSIEL (KEET SEEL)
This ruin, which lies about 10 miles from Marsh pass,
is a most interesting cliff-dwelling.a 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.b The accompanying
illustration (pl. 13) presents the ground plan of this ruin, the
architectural features of which are similar to those of Betatakin.
aFor 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.
bThe 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.
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 slipped down the cliff and its component stones are to be
found in the talus below.
Plate 11. BETATAKIN—CENTRAL PART
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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.a
aThe 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.
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, or sipapu, is a shallow depression a few
inches deep. The diameters of these openings are greater than in the
case of the sipapus 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.
Plate 12. PICTOGRAPHS AT BETATAKIN
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SCAFFOLD HOUSE
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.
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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
pilasters so 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.
The top of a vertical stone slab, comparable in shape
and position with a deflector, was seen projecting out of the debris
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 debris.
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 the kihus 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.
CRADLE HOUSE
This large ruin,a 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.
aLike all ruins in East Canyon, Cradle House is situated in
a small side canyon on the left bank.
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.
LADDER HOUSE
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.
Plate 13. GROUND PLAN OF THE KEET SEEL RUIN
(click on image for an enlargement in a new window)
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FOREST-GLEN HOUSE
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.
PINE-TREE HOUSE
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.
TRICKLING-SPRING HOUSE
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.
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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 metate set in position in one of the
smaller rooms indicates that this particular inclosure served as a
milling room.
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.a
aTrickling-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.
Plate 14. DIAGRAM SHOWING KIVA ROOF
CONSTRUCTION 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] (left);
b Scaffold House [A, large banquette; C, adobe roof
covering; D, deflector, S, stick construction supporting
roof] (right). (click on image for an enlargement in a new window))
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CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF RUINS
The existence of recesses and of refuse heaps back of
the buildings in eaves 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 debris.
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.a
aOf 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.
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,b 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, Chaco canyon, 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.
bBoth kinds of circular kivas are found in the cliff-ruins
at Casa Blanca and in Mummy cave in the Canyon de Chelly.
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.a 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 Tokonabi, 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.
aThese 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 Tokonabi in subterranean
rooms (kivas), the present form of which is rectangular instead of
circular, as at Tokonabi.
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.
Plate 15. POTTERY FROM NAVAHO NATIONAL MONUMENT
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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 Tokonabi or in the Navaho Monument
region may have resembled those of the Black Falls cluster of
ruins.a Their subterranean position and separation from other
rooms may be regarded as modifications due to foreign influences after
the clan arrived at Walpi.b
aIt 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 Wuk´ki the former do not exist,
but two of the latter can be recognized, one of which has a construction
like a ventilator.
bNone of the five Walpi kivas is older than 1680, and one or
two are of later construction.
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.c
cHaus und Dorf bei den Eingeborenen Nordamerikas, in
Arch. für Anthr., N. F., Bd. VII, Heft 2 and 3, 1908.
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 Tokonabi, and later at
Wuk´ki (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 southwarda 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.b
aThe circular kivas of Kükütcomo, the twin ruins
on the mesa shove 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.
bThere 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.
Plate 16. POTTERY FROM NAVAHO NATIONAL
MONUMENT (a rough vase of corrugated ware [Cat. No. 257777,
hieght 7 inches] (top); b vase with constricted neck [Cat. No.
257778, height 8 inches] (bottom))
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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.
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