Preliminary report on a visit to the Navaho National Monument, ArizonaFewkes, Jesse Walter
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Preliminary report on a visit to the Navaho National Monument, Arizona
Fewkes, Jesse Walter
Arizona -- Antiquities; Cliff-dwellings -- Arizona; Navajo National Monument (Ariz.)
The whole length of Betatakin is not far from 600 feet, following
the foundations from one end to the other. There are not far from
100 rooms visible, and evidences of others covered with débris. The
larger of the two rooms identified as ceremonial rooms on account of
their deflectors, measures 10 by 7 feet and is about 5 feet high; the
smaller is about 7 feet square. There are no vertical ventilators as in
circular kivas, the smoke evidently finding egress through a small hole
in the roof. The floor of one of these ceremonial rooms was cut in the
solid rock.
As above mentioned, there are no circular rooms or towers in Betatakin,
although one room has a rounded corner. Traces of the repair of doors
and windows are evident, but none of these apertures are T-shaped.
One of the interesting features in Betatakin and several other ruins in
this region consists in rows of eyelets cut in the rocky side of the
cliff evidently for the attachment of some long object.
A cluster of small rooms isolated from those above described are shown
in plate 9; these give a good idea of the general type of architecture
of these buildings and of the modifications or adaptations due to the
sites on which they are erected and the vertical cliffs against which
they are built. Three rooms set into the angle formed by two vertical
cliff faces at right angles to each other illustrate how the cliff
serves for rear walls and how the buildings are attached to it for
support. The roofs of these rooms are entire and their rafters project
beyond the upright walls. The doors and windows are, comparatively
speaking, small and rectangular in form. Fragments of walls projecting
out of the ground indicate the existence of many rooms covered with
débris. These are especially numerous at the end of the ruin to which
the trail leads, but as most of them are buried an adequate idea of
their arrangement can not be gained without systematic excavation.
KITSIEL (KEET SEEL)
This ruin, which lies about 10 miles from Marsh pass, is a most
interesting cliff-dwelling.[32] As this is the best preserved of all
the ruins thus far discovered in the Navaho National Monument, it
should be excavated and repaired for future visitors and students.
Kitsiel is a large ruin, its length (estimated at 300 feet) being
not less than that of the greatest cliff-dwelling of the Mesa Verde
National Park. Like other ruins in the vicinity, it is not so
picturesque as the structures of that region, lacking round towers and
other features so attractive in Cliff Palace.[33] The accompanying
illustration (pl. 13) presents the ground plan of this ruin, the
architectural features of which are similar to those of Betatakin.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 11
BETATAKIN—CENTRAL PART]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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