Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology: to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891
History
Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology: to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891
Navajo Indians -- Rites and ceremonies; Pueblo Indians -- Antiquities; Pueblo architecture
This kiva is better plastered than the mungkiva and shows in places
evidences of many successive coats. The general rule of applying the
interior plastering of the kiva on a base of masonry has been violated
in this example. The north end and part of the adjoining sides have been
brought to an even face by filling in the inequalities of the excavation
with reeds which are applied in a vertical position and are held in
place by long, slender, horizontal rods, forming a rude matting or
wattling. The rods are fastened to the rocky wall at favorable points by
means of small prongs of some hard wood, and the whole of the primitive
lathing is then thickly plastered with adobe mud. Mr. Stephen found the
Ponobi kiva of Oraibi treated in the same manner. The walls are lined
with a reed lathing over which mud is plastered. The reed used is the
Bakabi (_Phragmites communis_) whose stalks vary from a quarter of an
inch to three-quarters of an inch in diameter. In this instance the
reeds are also laid vertically, but they are applied to the ordinary
mud-laid kiva wall and not directly to the sides of the natural
excavation. The vertical laths are bound in place by horizontal reeds
laid upon them 1 or 2 feet apart. The horizontal reeds are held in place
by pegs of greasewood driven into the wall at intervals of 1 or 2 feet
and are tied to the pegs with split yucca. These specimens are very
interesting examples of aboriginal lathing and plastering applied to
stone work.
[Illustration: Fig. 28. Interior view of a kiva hatchway in Tusayan.]
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