Aboriginal Remains in Verde Valley, Arizona: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1891-92, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 179-262Mindeleff, Cosmos
History
Aboriginal Remains in Verde Valley, Arizona: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1891-92, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 179-262
Mindeleff, Cosmos
Pueblo Indians -- Antiquities; Verde River Valley (Ariz.) -- Antiquities
Owing to its situation this room was one of the most desirable in the
whole group. The prevailing south wind blows through it at all times,
and this is doubtless the reason that it was so much filled up with
sand. In the center of the room the roof has fallen at a comparatively
recent date from an area about 10 by 7 feet, in slabs about an inch
thick, for the fragments were within 6 inches of the top of the debris.
The walls are smoke-blackened to a very slight extent compared with the
large room south of it.
At the northeastern and southwestern corners there are two small
pockets, opening on the floor level but sunk below it, which seem to
have been designed to contain water. That in the southwest corner is the
larger; it is illustrated in the section, figure 293. As shown in the
section and on the plan (figure 291), a low wall composed of adobe
mortar and broken rock was built across the opening on the edge of the
floor, perhaps to increase its capacity. This cavity would hold 15 to 20
gallons of water, a sufficient amount to supply the needs of an ordinary
Indian family for three weeks or a mouth. The pocket in the northeastern
corner of the room is not quite so large as the one described, and its
front is not walled.
[Illustration: Plate XXXIII.
BOWLDER-MARKED SITE.]
West of the main room there is a storage room, nearly circular in shape,
with a diameter of about 6 feet and with a floor raised about 2 feet
above that of the main room. Its roof is but 3 feet above the floor, and
across its western end is a low bench a couple of inches above the
floor. In the northeastern corner there is a shallow cove, also raised
slightly above the main floor and connecting by a narrow opening with
the outer vestibule-like rooms on the north. These northern rooms of the
lodge seem to be simply enlargements of the passageway. The northern
opening is a window rather than a door as it is about 10 feet above the
ground and therefore could be entered only by a ladder. The opening is
cut in the back of a cove in the cliff, and is 6 feet from the northern
end of the main room. At half its length it has been enlarged on both
sides by the excavation of niches or coves about 4 feet deep but only 2½
feet high. These coves could be used only for storage on a small scale.
[Illustration: Figure 294.
Plan of cavate lodges, group _A_.]
In the southeastern corner of the main room there is another opening
leading into a low-roofed storage cist, approximating 4 feet in
diameter, and this cist was in turn connected with the middle one of the
three rooms first described. This opening, at the time the room was
examined, was so carefully sealed and plastered that it was scarcely
perceptible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account