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 57 is the plan of a small outlook which occurs at the point
marked 14 on the map. Opposite the mouth of Del Muerto there is an
elevated rocky area of considerable extent, perhaps 50 feet above the
bottom, but shelving off around the edges. Near the cliff this is
covered by sand dunes and piles of broken rock; farther out there is a
more level area covered thinly with sand and soil, and here there is a
large ruin of the old obliterated type already described (page 93).
[Illustration: Plate LIII
Cliff Outlook in Lower Canyon De Chelly]
Near the edges the rock becomes bare again, and is 20 to 30 feet high,
descending sheer or with an overhang to the bottoms or to the stream
bed. On the western side, facing north, the ruin illustrated occurs. It
is a mere cubby hole, and was evidently located for the area of
cultivable land which lies before it, and which it almost completely
commands. The cavity is about 12 feet above the ground and appears to
have been divided by cross walls into three rooms, two of which were
quite small. The back room was small, dark, and not large enough to
contain a human body unless it was carefully packed in, and at various
points along the back wall there are seeps of water. The interior of the
little room was very wet and moldy at the time when it was examined, in
winter, but in the summer time is probably dry enough.
[Illustration: Fig. 58--Ground plan of outlooks in a cleft.]
The masonry is fair and the surface is finished with plaster. The open
space in front of the small back room and the outer wall of the room
itself are much blackened by smoke, as though the inhabitant lived here
and used the small room only to store his utensils and implements. A
small room on the east must have been used for a similar purpose. Both
of these rooms were entered through narrow doorways opening on the
principal space. The site is an ideal one for a lookout, but not well
suited for a habitation. Plate LIV shows its character.
[Illustration: Fig. 59--Plan of a single-room outlook.]
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