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
The southern end of the lower ledge merges into the head of the talus,
the northern part drops down by a sharply sloping and in places an
almost vertical wall of about 30 feet; thence it descends to the bottom
by a long slope of bare rock, generally passable on foot. The lower
ledge is about 50 feet above the upper. Upon it are scattered the
remains of a few rooms of the same general character as those above, but
smaller. Many of these have been utilized for modern Navaho burials, and
perhaps some of them were constructed for that purpose. If these rooms
were used as habitations, it must have been under very peculiar
circumstances; moreover, the site is hardly suited for such a purpose,
having the sunshine less than half of the day. In this respect it is
anomalous.
At the southern end of the ledge there is a large angular bowlder, one
edge of which rests against the cliff wall and is free from the ground.
Under this the walls of a small room can be seen. The cliff formed one
side of the room and the bowlder acted as a roof. On the extreme
northern end of the ledge, 200 feet distant from the nearest room, there
are remains of a structure standing alone. The masonry is much rougher
than that of the other rooms, and, although the walls are now about
6 feet high, there is no evidence of any doorway or opening into the
room.
On the surface of the sloping rock, at this point nearly flat, there are
traces of a circular kiva 18 or 20 feet in diameter. These traces occur
at a point about midway between the southern and northern ends of the
lower ledge and some 30 feet below it. The cliff walls, both of the
lower and upper ledges, are covered with pictographs in white, red, and
yellow.
[Illustration: Fig. 30--Ruin on an almost inaccessible site.]
The location and character of this site and the character of the remains
suggest that most if not all of the rooms which can now be traced were
used for storage only. For this purpose the site is well adapted. But
the remains of the circular kiva at the foot of the lower ledge show
plainly that there were at one time some habitations here. Doubtless
these were located on the smooth rock at the foot of the cliff, and the
disappearance of all traces of walls may be due to the subsequent use of
the material by the Navaho for the construction of burial cists, in
which the site abounds. There still remains on the ground a fair amount
of broken stone, suitable for building, but no lines of wall are now
traceable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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 — John Shaqi
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