Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico — John Shaqi
Bandelier National Monument, New MexicoWing, Kittridge A.
History
Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico
Wing, Kittridge A.
Bandelier National Monument (N.M.)
The age of the Tyuonyi construction has been fairly well established by
the tree-ring method of dating, so widely and successfully used by
archeologists in the Southwest. Ceiling-beam fragments recovered from
various rooms give dates between A. D. 1383 and 1466. This general
period seems to have been a time of much building in Frijoles Canyon; a
score of tree-ring dates from Rainbow House ruin, which is down the
canyon a half mile, fall in the early and middle 1400’s. Perhaps the
last construction anywhere in Frijoles Canyon occurred close to A. D.
1500, with a peak of population reached near that time or shortly
thereafter.
TALUS HOUSE. On the talus directly above Tyuonyi to the north, at the
foot of the prominent cliff, there once stood a cluster of houses. The
group here had as its nucleus 12 or 15 cave rooms which were
supplemented by at least as many masonry rooms at the front. Excavation
of these rooms was completed in 1909 and the name Sun House was given to
the building, because of a prominent Sun-symbol petroglyph carved on the
cliff above. A part of this house group has been restored on the old
foundations, with its new ceiling beams placed in the ancient holes in
the cliff. This restoration work, done by the Museum of New Mexico in
1920, serves to show faithfully the original appearance of this typical
specimen of a talus house. Here again the rooms are small (by modern
standards) with doors only large enough to squeeze through, and no
windows. During the 1400’s, it is probable that several such dwellings
were occupied along a 2-mile stretch of this cliff.
[Illustration: _A restored talus house._]
LONG HOUSE. About one-fourth of a mile up the canyon from Tyuonyi,
also against the northern and sun-warmed cliff, is the ruin of one of
the largest combination cave-and-masonry dwellings to be found anywhere
on the plateau. This great ruin is known as Long House for an obvious
reason—it stretches almost 800 feet in a continuous block of rooms. For
all of this distance, the masonry walls are backed by a sheer and
largely smooth wall of tuff some 150 feet high. Into this cliff are dug
many cave rooms, several kivas, and a variety of storage niches, all of
which were incorporated into a single dwelling of over 300 rooms, rising
3 stories high. At Long House the rows of viga (roof-beam) holes in the
cliff are particularly conspicuous, defining the onetime roof levels for
hundreds of feet at a stretch. The site of Long House is especially
pleasing, having an elevation of 40 or 50 feet above the canyon bottom,
but close enough to the creek so that the sound of running water may be
heard, and near enough to the huge stream-bordering cottonwoods to
partake of the coolness of their foliage. If it is conceivable to envy
any of the people of prehistoric times, surely we should envy the
dwellers of Long House.
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