A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola: Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 3-228Mindeleff, Cosmos
History
A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola: Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 3-228
Mindeleff, Cosmos
Pueblo Indians -- Antiquities; Pueblo architecture
This village is rather more irregular in its arrangement than any other
of the series. There are indications of a number of courts inclosed by
large and small clusters of rooms, very irregularly disposed, but with a
general trend towards the northeast, being roughly parallel with the
mesa edge. In plan this village approaches somewhat that of the
inhabited Tusayan villages. At the extreme southern extremity of the
mesa promontory is a small secondary bench, 20 feet lower than the site
of the main village. This bench has also been occupied by a number of
houses. On the east side the pueblo was built to the very edge of the
bluff, where small fragments of masonry are still standing. The whole
village seems so irregular and crowded in its arrangement that it
suggests a long period of occupancy and growth, much more than do the
other villages of this (Jeditoh) group.
The pueblo may have been abandoned or destroyed prior to the advent of
the Spaniards in this country, as claimed by the Indians, for no
traditional mention of it is made in connection with the later feuds and
wars that figure so prominently in the Tusayan oral history of the last
three centuries. The pueblo was undoubtedly built by some of the ancient
gentes of the Tusayan stock, as its plan, the character of the site
chosen, and, where traceable, the quality of workmanship link it with
the other villages of the Jeditoh group.
[Illustration: Fig. 4. Ruin near Moen-kopi, plan.]
MOEN-KOPI RUINS.
A very small group of rooms, even smaller than the neighboring farming
pueblo of Moen-kopi, is situated on the western edge of the mesa summit
about a quarter of a mile north of the modern village of Moen-kopi. As
the plan shows (Fig. 4), the rooms were distributed in three rows around
a small court. This ruin also follows the general northeastern trend
which has been noticed both in the ruined and in the occupied pueblos of
Tusayan. The rows here were only one room deep and not more than a
single story high at any point, as indicated by the very small amount of
débris. As the plate shows, nearly the entire plan is clearly defined by
fragments of standing walls. The walls are built of thin tablets of the
dark-colored sandstone which caps the mesa. Where the walls have fallen
the débris is comparatively free from earth, indicating that adobe has
been sparingly used. The walls, in places standing to a height of 2 or 3
feet, as may be seen in the illustration, Pl. X, show unusual precision
of workmanship and finish, resembling in this respect some of the
ancient pueblos farther north. This is to some extent due to the
exceptional suitability of the tabular stones of the mesa summit. The
almost entire absence of pottery fragments and other objects of art
which are such a constant accompaniment of the ruins throughout this
region strongly suggest that it was occupied for a very short time. In
Chapter III it will be shown that a similar order of occupation took
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