Aztec Ruins National Monument, New MexicoCorbett, John M. (John Maxwell)
History
Aztec Ruins National Monument, New Mexico
Corbett, John M. (John Maxwell)
Aztec Ruins National Monument (N.M.)
In addition to doorways, many rooms, especially toward the back or sides
of the pueblo and in the lower tiers, had one or two openings about a
foot square, high in the back wall. These are above the height of an
average man even today, and could not have served as view holes or
windows for the Indians. They must have been put there for ventilation.
[Illustration: ]
[Illustration: Cross section and photograph of an over-under corner
doorway.]
There are a few other openings in some walls which are not as large as
the average doorway or as small as the ventilators. Usually these are
placed at a medium height in the room and could well have served as
windows to allow a view from one room to another. None of these
so-called windows, however, opens to the rear or sides of the pueblo,
nor is any known that opens onto the plaza in front.
Not counting the Great Kiva, which bulks so large in the plaza,
excavations have revealed at least 29 other kivas or ceremonial
chambers. Several, especially in the southeast corner, underlie the main
structure and may represent kivas from the earlier or Developmental
Pueblo Period. Besides the cluster of small kivas around the
southeastern corner, there is a second grouping of larger kivas among
the rooms in the northeast corner and out into the northeastern part of
the plaza, where a rather large Chaco-type kiva is located. A third
cluster, composed of smaller Mesa Verde-type keyhole kivas, is located
near the southwestern corner of the pueblo, and Morris found scattered
remains of one or two other kivas toward the front of the southwestern
part.
The Great Kiva, or House of the Great Kiva as Morris called it, is
centrally located in the south side of the plaza. It is essentially
circular in form and has two distinct parts. The inner part—the kiva
proper—has a floor about 8 feet below the surface. At ground level, and
surrounding this inner section, is an outer circle of 14 arc-shaped
rooms. Twelve of these are essentially similar, but the other two are
markedly different. One is merely an open passage about 3½ feet wide
which leads directly from the plaza to the head of the south stairway.
The other is a large rectangular alcovelike structure on the north side
of the kiva proper, with a stairway leading up into it from the kiva
floor. On the north and west sides of this alcove, there is a low
benchlike structure around the inner wall, and on the south side are
what appear to be a piece of a wall and two rectangular masonry blocks.
Toward the center back portion of the alcove is another low square
masonry structure which may have been an altar. When excavated, this
latter structure had burned poles embedded in the north side as though
it once had a small roof or some kind of entablature over it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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