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
This ruin is especially interesting on account of the site it occupies.
The walls were placed on sharply sloping rock and in some cases on
loose debris, and numerous expedients were resorted to to prevent them
from slipping down the slope. The fact that these expedients were not
successful makes them more interesting. Upright logs were inclosed in
the walls and anchored in holes drilled in the rock below; horizontal
logs were built into the masonry as ties and placed below it, and heavy
retaining walls were erected. These constructive expedients will later
be discussed at greater length.
The whole slope is more or less covered with debris, and there is no
doubt that this was at one time a considerable settlement. The cliff
walls near the east end show traces of two stories, and in one place of
three stories, which formerly rested against them. Moreover, the number
of successive coats of plaster in the kiva shows an extended occupancy,
an inference which is further supported by the variety of expedients
which were adopted to hold the walls in place.
The marked irregularity of the five eastern rooms as compared with the
regular series west of them will be noticed on the plan. These eastern
rooms must have been added at a period subsequent to the completion of
the others. The marks of a second and third story occur on the cliff
back of this cluster, and there is no doubt that it was an important
part of the settlement. West of the area shown on the plan traces of
walls occur on the slope and among the debris for a distance of over 100
feet.
Parts of three kivas can now be seen on the ground, and this was
probably the total number in the settlement. The fronts of all of them
have fallen out, notwithstanding various expedients that were employed
to hold them in place. The western wall of the western kiva is part of
the rectangular system and was apparently in place before the kiva was
built. A triangular block which formed the junction in front of this
kiva and the central one has slipped down and new walls were afterward
built to restore the kivas to their original shape. The central kiva has
an interior bench, which was, however, added after the structure was
completed, and in fact after the front had been replaced. The second
falling off of the front has left a fine section of the wall, and the
changes which have taken place are plainly shown in it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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