Antiquities of the Mesa Verde National Park: Cliff PalaceFewkes, Jesse Walter
History
Antiquities of the Mesa Verde National Park: Cliff Palace
Fewkes, Jesse Walter
Colorado -- Antiquities; Mesa Verde National Park (Colo.)
The main difference in construction between the two types of kivas is
the absence of pilasters, which implies the absence of a roof in the
second type. The suggestion that a kiva of the second type is simply an
unfinished form of the first type has little to support it, but whether
the architectural difference in the two types has any functional
importance or meaning is unknown. It has been suggested that one type
was used by the Winter, the other by the Summer people.[64]
[Footnote 64: Nordenskiöld's description of this kiva has been quoted
earlier in this paper. In the description of a ceremonial room of a
somewhat similar or of the same type in Spruce-tree House the term
"warrior room" is used; there is nothing to warrant this designation,
however, and it would be better to consider it simply as a kiva of the
second type.]
[Illustration: PLATE 28
RESTS FOR JARS]
KIVA O
Kiva O is rounded below and square above, with a north-south diameter of
11 feet 10 inches, and an east-west diameter of 10 feet 6 inches. The
ventilator opens in the western wall. There are 2 mural niches.
Both the plastered floor and the deflector are lacking, and there is no
fire-hole nor sipapû. No roof or pilasters to support it were detected.
It is difficult to measure the surrounding wall on account of its
varying height. The masonry is good, but there are no signs on the walls
that a fire had ever burned within the chamber. It would appear that
this kiva was roofless, and that it had broad banquettes at the northern
and southern sides.
KIVA R
In shape this kiva is oval below and square above, without pilasters or
other evidences of a roof. There are no signs of a floor, a deflector,
or a fire-hole. The surrounding wall of the kiva is high; apparently
there was an entrance at the eastern side. Banquettes are present on the
northern and southern ends, and a narrow ledge skirts the other two
sides.
There are 4 mural niches: (1) south by east, measuring 15 by 11 by 13
inches; (1) north by east, measuring 11½ by 8 by 15 inches; (2) in the
north wall, measuring 13 by 8 by 12 inches, and 12 by 8 by 13 inches;
the latter three being placed in a row and separated by slabs of stone.
In the south wall there is a tunnel terminating bluntly and bifurcated
at the end.
Although kiva R was regarded by Nordenskiöld as furnishing evidence of a
transition form connecting circular and rectangular kivas, it seems to
the author a new type rather than a modification of the circular or the
rectangular kivas.
KIVA W
Kiva W is not generally included among the Cliff Palace ceremonial rooms
on account of its isolation from the houses, but there is no doubt that
it should be so enumerated. It lies about 50 feet west of the end of the
last room in the cliff-dwelling, and is not accompanied with secular
rooms. Although situated on the same level as the houses, its walls rise
two tiers high, but no part of the inclosure is subterranean.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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