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 39 shows a ruin where the site was not so restricted. One
well-defined room and two kivas still remain, and there are traces of
other chambers. The main kiva formed part of a compact little group of
rooms, of which it occupied the front, and appears to have been inclosed
by a curved wall of rough construction. A curved inclosing wall is an
anomalous feature, and it is not at all certain that it occurs here, as
the wall is so much broken down that its lines can not now be clearly
made out. Excavation would doubtless determine this, as the whole site
has been much filled up with sand and loose earth.
The second kiva, which was about the same size as the first, was
situated some little distance from the other, and on the outer edge of
the little platform or bench on which the settlement was located. It
still shows about half of its wall. The rectangular room near the main
kiva still stands to a height of 3 and 4 feet. The wall nearest the kiva
is pierced by a number of small openings, and by a neatly finished
double-notched doorway, which is illustrated in another place (figure
67).
The whole front of the site has been filled up to a probable depth of
several feet, and a number of Navaho burials have been made on it. These
are shown on the plan by shaded spots. Owing to the soft ground
underneath, it was easier to excavate a hole and wall it up than to
construct the regular surface cist, and the former plan was followed.
Although many of the sites are covered with bowlders and blocks of stone
fallen from above, which often occur among and even over walls, close
inspection generally shows that the walls were constructed after the
rocks fell. There are two instances, however, which are doubtful, and in
one (shown in figure 40) it appears that large blocks of rock have
fallen since the walls were constructed. Such falls of rock are not
uncommon now in the fall and winter months, when frost and seepage from
the melting snow sometimes split off huge fragments.
[Illustration: Fig. 39--Ground plan of a ruin in Canyon de Chelly.]
The site mentioned occurs at the point marked 47 on the map. It is in a
cove under a mass of rock which juts out from the cliff, and is about 30
feet above the bottom, on the edge of a slope of loose rock which
extends some distance above it. At the top of the talus, over 200 feet
above, there is another ruin, which was probably only an outlook, as no
trace of a kiva can be found, and it is possible that the lower site was
connected with and formed part of the upper one. The lower site
contained a circular kiva, only a small portion of which now remains,
and the ground is covered with blocks of rock which must have fallen
since the walls were built. They appear to have fallen quite recently.
It can still be seen that the kiva had an interior bench, and that there
was a room, or perhaps rooms, between it and the back of the cove; but
beyond this nothing can now be made out.
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