In the preceding pages the author has considered
several different types of buildings, which, notwithstanding their
variety in forms, have much in common and can be interpreted as
indicating an identical phase of pueblo development. A comparative
study of their distribution shows us that they occur in a well-defined
geographical area. In comparison with stone buildings in other parts of
the Southwestern States, this phase shows superior masonry. It is
considered as chronologically antedating the historic epoch and post
dating an earlier, and as yet not clearly defined, phase out of which it
sprung in the natural evolution from simple to complex forms.
These buildings express the communal thought of the
builders, since they were constructed by groups of people rather than by
individuals. Architecture representing the thoughts of many minds
is conservative, or less liable to innovation or
departure from prescribed forms and methods. These community houses
express the thought of men in groups at different times, and, so far as
archeology teaches, are the best exponents of what we call contemporary
social conditions, while pottery and other small portable objects, being
products of individual endeavor, furnish little on social organization,
or general cultural conditions of communities. Although determination of
cultural areas built on identity of pottery often coincides with those
determined by buildings, this is not always the case. Specialized
culture areas determined by highly conventionalized designs on ceramics
are localized, more numerous, and as a rule more modern. Hence a culture
area determined by architectural features may include several subareas
determined by pottery.
The author has thought it possible to differentiate
two distinct epochs or phases of house building in the upper part of the
San Juan drainage, viz, the early and the middle stages of development.
There are included in the early condition certain crude architectural
efforts similar to the non-Pueblos represented in regions adjoining the
Pueblo area. This early condition, though not clearly defined, is
beginning to be revealed by intensive studies of the so-called slab-house
dwellings and isolated brush houses. Evidences of this stage have been
found in several localities, as on McElmo Bluff, or combined with walls
of what may be called true pueblo buildings. The differences between
some of the buildings of the early stage and those of the aborigines in
southern California, or of the Utes and Shoshonean tribes, are slight;
resemblances which point to relations are not considered in detail.
From their advance in house building, it has been
commonly stated that the Pueblo people were either derived from Mexican
tribes or, as was customary in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
to suppose, their descendants had made their way south and developed
into the more advanced Mexican culture as the Aztecs.
These conclusions are not supported by comparison
with available architectural data observed among these two peoples. The
basal error is the mistake in considering the earth houses of the Gila
the same as pueblos. The habitations of the Gila compounds were
structurally different from pueblos, and their sanctuaries or ceremonial
rooms had not the same form or relation to the dwellings. The Gila
compounds are allied to Mexican buildings; but there is little in
common between them and pure pueblos. The same is true of the type of
stone dwellings on the Verde, Tonto, and Little Colorado. Certain
likenesses exist between the Casas Grandes of the Gila and those of
Mexico, although little relationship exists between the temples or
ceremonial buildings of the valley of Mexico and the Casas Grandes of
the Gila. The architecture of the Pueblos and the Aztecs is very
different; the habitations of Mexican
tribes resemble those of the Gila. The forms [1] of ceremonial
chambers differ, one being rectangular mounds or pyramids, the other
circular, generally subterranean.
1Temples of Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed serpent Sun God, are circular
buildings like towers.
Rather than seek the origin of the house builders of
the San Juan, or the parent Pueblos, from Mexican sources, the author
believes the custom of building stone houses in the pueblo region was
not derived from any locality not now included in the pueblo area, but
it developed as an autochthonous growth, the earliest stages as well as
the most complex forms being of local origin. Incoming Indians may have
introduced ideas of foreign birth but they did not bring in the mason's
craft. That Custom developed in the Southwest, where we find the whole
series from a single stone house or a cave with walls closing the
entrance to the most highly developed architectural production north of
Mexico. There are cliff-dwellings in many other localities in the world
but there are nowhere, except in the region here considered,
cliff-dwellings with circular kivas constructed on this unique plan. It
is generally supposed that a type of room called "small house" was the
predecessor of the multiple community dwelling throughout the
Southwest. This type, defined as a simple four-walled, one-story
building with a flat roof, is widely spread in New Mexico and Arizona.
The strongest arguments in favor of its greater antiquity are possibly
its simplicity of form and the character of accompanying
ceramics—corrugated, black and white, and red pottery.
Characteristic small houses of the Mesa Verde and McElmo Canyon belong
to the same type of pueblo as the largest extensive villages which are
more complicated than the so-called small house. It is what the author
has called the pure type which is structurally different from the "small
house," the so-called archaic form of the mixed pueblos of the Rio
Grande. This unit type is likewise unlike the small house of the Little
Colorado, including those of the Zuni Valley and the Hopi Wash,
although the Hopi kivas show the influence of the Mesa Verde culture in
the persistence of the ceremonial opening in the floor called the
sipapu.
A cluster of small houses or the village such as we
find at Mummy Lake on the Mesa Verde is composed of several scattered
members, each containing for the religious and secular life the "pure
type" rooms constructed on the same plan. In a
village like the Aztec Spring House several unit buildings are united,
forming one community house larger than the rest, which was the
dominant one of the village, the remaining houses being smaller and
scattered. Aztec Spring, Mitchell Spring, and Mud Spring villages show a
similar consolidation of units with outlying smaller houses, and the
number of units in such a union is believed to be indicated by the
number of circular rooms, or kivas. Thus, four kivas
might be supposed to indicate four consolidated social units.
The complete concentration of several unit pueblos
into one or more large communal buildings [1] is also found in several
cases in the area we have studied, but we must look to the great ruin at
Aztec or those on the Chaco Canyon for examples of almost complete
amalgamation. Thus these large pueblos where an almost complete
consolidation has occurred have resulted from a fusion or condensation
of what might have formerly been a rambling village composed of several
separate units. This clustering of small separated houses in a village
is not peculiar to the San Juan but exists elsewhere in the Southwest,
as in the Rio Grande region, where, however, the structure of each
component small house is different. These separate mounds do not
indicate the unit type as defined, and the Rio Grande pueblo of modern
date has its kiva separated from the house masses, which have grouped
themselves in rectangular lines or rooms surrounding courts. There are,
perhaps, examples in this region where a circular kiva is found embedded
in house masses, but these are so few in number that they may possibly
be regarded as incorporate survivals due to acculturation.
1The likeness of the Mesa Verde cliff-houses to the
pueblos of Chaco Canyon was long ago suggested by Nordenskiöld. The
excavation of Far View House proved that suggestion to be true.
In the Gila Valley compounds, as Casa Grande, and on
the Little Colorado, the unit type is unknown. Several blocks of
buildings on the Gila are surrounded by a rectangular wall which is
wanting in ruins of the Little Colorado and its tributaries. Here one of
the units may be enlarged, following in some respects the conditions at
Aztec Spring Ruin. A surrounding wall also appears in some of the Pueblo
villages and pueblos, but when we compare one of the units of a Casa
Grande compound with that of a Montezuma Valley village, we find little
in common, the main difference, so far as form is concerned, being the
absence of a circular kiva. [3] There is nothing in a Gila
Valley compound we can structurally call a circular kiva, and no
morphological equivalent of the circular kiva in ruins on the
tributaries of the Salt and Gila. On the horizon of the Gila culture
area there are no circular kivas, due to acculturation. There are rooms
analogous to kivas used for ceremonials at Hopi and Zuni, but they are
not true kivas as we have interpreted them in the San Juan area. Both
Hopi and Zuni are composite people and have elements derived from Gila
and Pueblo influences, but neither belong to the pure type in the sense
the author defines it.
2This subject is treated at length in my report on
Casa Grande in the Twenty-eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology.
The author has attempted to show that the structure
of the houses whose clustering composes villages in the Montezuma
Valley is the same as that of Far View House of the
Mummy Lake village on top of Mesa Verde; and that these architectural
resemblances are close enough to indicate that the villages of the two
localities were inhabited by people of the same general culture. He has
proved that the pure type of such a village as shown in Far View House
was constructed on the same plan as a cliff-dwelling, notwithstanding
one is built in the open, the other in a cave. The geographic extension
of this type has been traced into Utah. Ruined pueblos on the Chaco
Canyon or at Aztec on the Animas, which is geographically nearer the
Mesa Verde, are more concentrated but indicate the same culture. Renewed
research is necessary to determine the southern and western extension
of the pure type; the northern and eastern horizon is fairly well
known.
Granting that the great ruins on the Chaco Canyon
belong to the same people as those on Mesa Verde, the question arises,
Which buildings are the most ancient, those on the Mesa Verde or those
on the Chaco? A correct answer to this question should reveal the
cradle of the culture indicated by the pure or prehistoric type of
pueblo. The author believes that the pure pueblo culture originated in
the northern part of the area and migrated southward to the Chaco Valley
in prehistoric times, ultimately affecting the people of the Rio Grande,
where sedentary people no doubt lived before written history of the area
began. The result was a mixture; the mixed population are the modern
Pueblos.
In the great cliff-houses of the Mesa Verde and the
extensive pueblos of the McElmo we find towers combined with pure types
of pueblos, either simple or complex. In the Chaco ruins these towers
are not found in this combination. To this may be added the great-house
type of the McElmo, also absent in the Chaco. Here there appears to be
an essential difference on which the author ventures a suggestion, but
which future research must elucidate.
If this pure type originated in the southern
tributaries of the San Juan as the Chaco and migrated to the northern we
would expect in the latter more distinctly southern objects, as shell
ornaments, turquoise mosaics, and a great variety of pottery of a
southern type.
The pure or unit type is believed to be autochthonous
in the San Juan Basin and characteristic of a middle phase of
architectural development, the highest north of Mexico. It is
self-centered and has preserved its characteristics over an extensive
area, influencing regions far beyond.
The evolution of this type took place in the region
mentioned before the fifteenth century of the. Christian era. Traces of
its influence have persisted into the country of mixed pueblos down to
the present time, but the architectural skill has deteriorated and
shows evidence of acculturation [1] from sources outside the
San Juan area where it originated.
1These acculturation modifications due to Hispanic
influences in modern pueblos are too well marked to need more than a
mention.
One word in regard to the adjectives, prehistoric and
historic, applied to southwestern ruins. They are relative ones and
obtained from data somewhat diverse in character. Casa Grande on the
Gila was called a ruin when first seen by the European. It was inhabited
in prehistoric times. From documentary evidence the historian learns
that certain other buildings were not inhabited at the advent of the
Spaniards, and if their statements are trustworthy these also are
prehistoric. Legends of modern Pueblos claim that certain other ruins
were inhabited houses of their ancestors before the coming of the white
man. The author sees no good reason to throw this evidence out of court
without investigation because some of the incidents in it betray late
introduction. Many other ruins are classified as prehistoric from the
purely negative, but not decisive, evidence that no objects of European
make have been found in them. The ruin Sun Temple, on the Mesa Verde, is
considered prehistoric from the fact that a tree with over 360 annual
rings of growth was found growing on top of its highest wall. We are
justified in calling this a prehistoric ruin.
The evidences that villages, cliff-dwellings, castles
and towers, and other types considered in this article antedate the
advent of the white man are as follows: No historian has recorded an
inhabited building of this form in this or other regions; no objects of
European manufacture have been found in them, and the buildings and
pottery which characterize them are different from those of any
inhabited when the Spanish entered the Southwest.
The complex, which is thought to be the highest form
of pueblo architecture, is composed of the following elements united:
(1) Several "pure types" [2] representing a religio-sociological
complexion of the inhabitants; (2) towers of various forms—round,
D-shaped, and rectangular; (3) the great houses; (4) unit type in cave.
In Cliff Palace these four types occur united in a pueblo built in a
natural cave; in Mud Spring Ruin two and possibly three of these types
are found in one open-air village, more spread out as
site permits. In Aztec Spring and Mitchell Spring pueblos the
arrangement is more defined. In the cluster at the head of South Fork of
Square Tower Canyon we have all the elements united in Hovenweep House
and Hovenweep Castle. Unit-type House shows the single-unit type with
tower near by; in Twin Towers we have the great house with cave pueblo
and towers separated. Several other towers isolated from other types
also occur.
2 The author uses the words "pure type"
instead of "unit type" as a general term to denote "one-unit
types, "two-unit types," "three-unit types," etc.
The Holly Canyon group shows the types separated. The
great house is represented by Holly Castle; the towers are situated on
huge bowlders. The unit type of this group is represented by Holly
House, the foundation of part of which has fallen, covering the ruins of
another pueblo of the unit type formerly in the cave below.
The Hackberry group is also composed of three
elemental types separated; the great house is represented by Hackberry
House, the unit type by the cliff-dwelling below and by the pueblo on
the opposite side of the gulch, and the towers by isolated towers.
A similar analysis may be made of other ruins.
Sometimes the component types are united; often one type only occurs,
the others being absent. The union of all is best marked in the northern
tributaries of the San Juan, as at Aztec, and in the southern
tributaries, as at Chaco Canyon and Chelly Canyon. These pueblos,
whether in the open or in caves, belong to the pure or concentrated
multiple unit type.
Some light may be shed on the probable process of
consolidation of the individual units of a community house by a
comparative study of the pueblos on the East Mesa of the Hopi. Hano, for
instance, was settled by a group of Tanoan clans about 1710 A. D. The
list of Hano clans that originally came to the East Mesa is known from
legends and the present localization of their survivors has been
indicated in the author's article on "The Sun's Influence on the Form of
Hopi Pueblos." [1] In 1890 Hano was composed of four blocks of rooms, each
housing one or more clans. Earlier there were six one of which had
fallen into disuse, a few less than the traditional number of clans.
When the colonists arrived, they settled near Coyote Spring, the houses
of which are now covered with drifted sand, but when they constructed
their village on the mesa at the head of the trail each house of a
cluster housed a clan. Increase in population, both internal and
external, led to the union and enlargement of these houses so that they
inclosed a central plaza. A similar growth has taken place in Sichomovi,
the pueblo hallway between Walpi and Hano; first single houses, then
rows of houses with terraces on the south and east sides. Some of the
original houses have been deserted and rebuilt nearer the others. Thus
at Hano the Katcina clan house was north and east of the chief kiva but
is now in the east row.
1Amer. Anthrop., n. s. vol. viii, no. 1, 1906.
In the same way we may suppose that in a
consolidation of a community dwelling several units may have drawn
together and united. There is evidence of a union of this kind in many
ruins in the Southwest.
The data here published should not be interpreted to
mean that the author regards the builders of the towers and great houses
here described as evidences of a race other than the Indians. Indeed he
believes that in both blood and culture they have left survivals
among the modern Pueblos. He also does not hold that
as a whole they necessarily belonged to a radically different phase of
culture, notwithstanding the buildings they constructed show a greater
variety of form and masonry superior to that of their descendants.
The evidences are cumulative that there existed and
disappeared in a wide geographical area of the Southwest a people whose
buildings differed so much from those of any other area in North
America that the area in which they occur may be designated as a
characteristic one.
The variety and type of buildings have a bearing on
social organization. A large building composed of many units is
probably but not necessarily later in time than a single house; an
isolated single house would probably be of earlier construction than a
collection of several single houses of the same character compactly
arranged in a village; a complete consolidation of several houses of
such a village into a community house would naturally be more modern
than a group of isolated single houses.
City blocks postdate hamlets. Between a stage
indicated by single houses and one characterized by consolidated
building, there is a phase in which the buildings are grouped in
clusters and are not united. We may theoretically suppose that the
single house was inhabited by one social unit as a clan or family. As
the food quest became more intensified and defense more urgent, social
units, as indicated by single houses, would be brought together, and as
the population increased the amalgamation would be more complete. This
social organization, in the beginning loose, in the course of time would
become more homogeneous, and as it did so the union of these separate
social units would have been closer; and if we combine with that
tendency the powerful stimulus of protection, we can readily see how a
compact form of architecture characteristic of the buildings here
described was brought about. The element of defense in the villages with
scattered houses does not appear to have been very important, but might
be adduced to explain the consolidation of these into large community
houses.
If the growth of the large pueblos has followed the
lines above indicated, and if each unit type indicates a social unit as
well, we necessarily have in this growth of the community house the
story of the social evolution of the Pueblo people. Clans or social
units at first isolated later joined each other, intermarriage always
tending to make the population more homogeneous. The social result of
the amalgamation of clans seeking common defense would in time be
marked. The inevitable outcome would be a breaking down of clan
priesthoods or clan religions and the formation of fraternities of
priesthoods recruited from several clans. This in turn would lead to a
corresponding reduction and enlargement of ceremonial rooms
remaining. Two kivas suffice for the ceremonies of
the majority of the Rio Grande pueblos; but Cliff Palace with a
population of the same size had 23 and Spruce-tree House, a much smaller
cliff pueblo, had 8.
One can not fail to notice a similarity in sites of
some of the great houses of the McElmo to neighboring cliff habitations
and a like relation of Sun Temple to the cliff-dwellings in Fewkes
Canyon in the Mesa Verde. Possibly the purpose of these great houses and
Sun Temple was identical. Some of the great houses were probably
granaries and Sun Temple may have been intended partly for a like use.
No indications of remains of stored corn have been observed in any of
these buildings, but Castañeda [1] speaks of a village of subterranean
granaries ("silos") in the Rio Grande country, which is instructive in
this connection.
1Fourteenth Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., pt. 1, p. 523. This village is
spoken of as "lately destroyed; " in other words it was a ruin in
1540.
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