The Cliff Ruins of Canyon de Chelly, Arizona: Sixteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1894-95, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1897, pages 73-198Mindeleff, Cosmos
History
The Cliff Ruins of Canyon de Chelly, Arizona: Sixteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1894-95, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1897, pages 73-198
Mindeleff, Cosmos
Arizona -- Antiquities; Chelly, Canyon de (Ariz.); Cliff-dwellings -- Arizona; Pueblo Indians -- Antiquities
Figure 3 is a ground plan of a small and very compact village, situated
on the south side of the canyon at the point marked 28 on the detailed
map. It is located on a slightly raised part of the bottom, commanding
an outlook over a large area now under cultivation by the Navaho. The
wall lines are remarkably, although not perfectly, regular, and show at
least 25 rooms; there were probably others to the northward and
eastward. The rooms are now almost filled with debris, but two of them
are still intact, being kept in order by the Navaho and used for the
storage of corn. The roofs of both these rooms are now on the ground
level. The covered room nearest the cliff, shown on the plan, has been
divided into two small compartments by a wall through the middle; access
to each of these is obtained by a framed trapdoor in the roof about a
foot square. This dividing wall is probably of Navaho origin, as the
separate rooms formed by it are too small for habitation and the masonry
is very rough. A short distance to the north along the cliff there is a
Navaho house, roughly rectangular in plan, which was constructed of
stone obtained from this site. The masonry of the ruin presents a very
good face, not due to chinking, however, which was but slightly
practiced, but to the careful selection of material. Some of the stones
show surface pecking.
[Illustration: Plate XLV
General View of Ruin on Bottom Land, Canyon Del Muerto]
About 300 feet above or southeast of this ruin there are the remains of
two small rooms which were placed against the cliff. They are of the
same general character as those described, and doubtless formed part of
the same settlement. Between the two occurs a curious feature. A large
slab of rock, 280 feet long and not more than 12 feet thick at any
point, has split off from the cliff and dropped down to the ground,
where it remains on edge. This slab is triangular in elevation and about
50 feet high at the apex. Between it and the cliff, in the upper part,
there is a space from 2 to 21/2 feet wide. This is easily accessible from
the north, on the edge of the slab, and can be reached from the southern
end, but with much difficulty. Figure 4 shows this feature and its
relation to the ruin. There is no doubt that this was a granary or huge
storage bin, and probably the two rooms on the south were placed there
to guard that end; the northern end, of more easy access, being
protected by the village itself. It was well adapted to this purpose--a
fact that the Navaho have not been slow to appreciate. They have
constructed small bins near the northern end, shown on the plan, and
beyond this timbers have been wedged in so as to furnish a means of
closing the cleft. In the cleft itself cross walls have been
constructed, dividing it into several compartments. The interior forms a
convenient dry, airy space, and at the time it was visited the floor was
covered with a litter of cornhusks.
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