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
There is a very noticeable scarcity of roof-holes, aside from those of
the first terrace. As a rule the first terrace has no external openings
on the ground and is entered from its roof through large trap-doors, as
shown on the plans. The lower rooms within this first terrace are not
inhabited, but are used as storerooms.
At several points ruined walls are seen, remains of abandoned rooms that
have fallen into decay. Occasionally a rough, buttress-like projection
from a wall is the only vestige of a room or a cluster of rooms, all
traces on the ground having been obliterated.
The mesa summit, that forms the site of this village, is nearly level,
with very little earth on its surface. A thin accumulation of soil and
rubbish lightly covers the inner court, but outside, along the face of
the long row, the bare rock is exposed continuously. Where the rooms
have been abandoned and the walls have fallen, the stones have all been
utilized in later constructions, leaving no vestige of the former wall
on the rocky site, as the stones of the masonry have always been set
upon the surface of the rock, with no excavation or preparation of
footings of any kind.
SICHUMOVI.
According to traditional accounts this village was founded at a more
recent date than Walpi. It has, however, undergone many changes since
its first establishment.
The principal building is a long irregular row, similar to that of Hano
(Pl. XVIII). A portion of an L-shaped cluster west of this row, and a
small row near it parallel to the main building, form a rude
approximation to the inclosed court arrangement. The terracing here,
however, is not always on the court side, whereas in ancient examples
such arrangement was an essential defensive feature, as the court
furnished the only approach to upper terraces. In all of these villages
there is a noticeable tendency to face the rows eastward instead of
toward the court. The motive of such uniformity of direction in the
houses must have been strong, to counteract the tendency to adhere to
the ancient arrangement. The two kivas of the village are built side by
side, in contact, probably on account of the presence at this point of a
favorable fissure or depression in the mesa surface.
On the south side of the village are the remains of two small clusters
of rooms that apparently have been abandoned a long time. A portion of a
room still bounded by standing walls has been utilized as a corral for
burros (PL. XIX).
[Illustration: Plate XXVI. Mashongnavi, plan.]
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