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
There were two circular kivas in the village, one of which was unusually
small, being only about 10 feet in diameter north and south; the
east-and-west diameter is a trifle smaller. There was apparently no
bench in the interior, but on the western or northwestern side there
is a bench-like recess of about a foot which occupies 7 feet of the
circumference. The whole interior was covered with a number of washes
of clay, applied one over another, forming a coating now nearly
three-quarters of an inch thick. This is cracked and peeled off
in places, and in the section eighteen coats, generally about one
thirty-second of an inch thick, may be counted. Each coat or plastering
is defined by a film of smoke-blackened surface.
[Illustration: Fig. 24--Ground plan of ruin No. 10.]
On a level about 2 feet above the bench and about 5 feet above the
present ground surface, there seems to have been some kind of roof. The
stones here project into the interior slightly beyond the wall surface,
and the plaster seems to curve inward. This point or level is from 6 to
18 inches below the top of the wall, and here there are remains of
occasional small sticks, about an inch in diameter, which projected into
the kiva. They are irregularly disposed and probably had no connection
with the roof, but there are no traces of heavier timbers above them. In
the interior a white band with points completely encircled the kiva. The
top of this band is about a foot above the present ground surface and
about 18 inches below the bench on the western side. It is illustrated
in figure 72.
The exterior wall of the kiva was very roughly laid up, and some of the
lower stones were set on edge, which is rather an anomalous feature.
There is no evidence that the structure was ever inclosed in rectangular
walls, as was the usual custom; in fact, the occurrence of other walls
near it would apparently preclude such an arrangement. The wall which
runs north or northwest from the kiva, joining it to the cliff wall
behind, is pierced by a doorway some feet above the ground, and in front
of or below this doorway there is a buttress or step of solid masonry,
shown on the plan. There was apparently an open space between this
doorway and the next wall to the north. The room entered through the
doorway was very small, and its roof, formed by the overhanging cliff,
is much blackened by smoke.
The main or north kiva was 15 feet in diameter on the floor, with a
bench a foot wide extending around it. The external diameter is over 20
feet. The interior was decorated by bands and dots in white, which are
described at length in another place (page 178). The roof was 51/2 feet
above the bench, and there is a suggestion that it rested on a series of
beams extending north and south, but this is not certain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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