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 63 is the plan of a type of ruin which is rather anomalous in the
canyon. It occurs at the point marked 45 on the map, and occupies a
small flat area almost on top of the talus 300 feet or more above the
stream bed. It is just below the ruin described and illustrated on page
144 (figure 48), and hardly 20 feet distant from it, and yet it does not
appear to have been connected with it. It consists of a single large
room, 20 feet long by 111/2 feet wide outside, and the site commands an
extensive prospect over bottom lands on both sides of the canyon, and
above, but the only opening in the wall on that side is a little
peephole 6 inches square and 2 feet from the ground. This is sufficient,
however, to command nearly the whole outlook. There is a doorway on the
eastern side, one side of which, fairly well finished, remains. There
was apparently no other opening, unless one existed on the western side,
where, in the center, the wall is broken down to within 2 feet of the
ground. Along the western side of the room, at the present ground
surface, there are remains of a bench about a foot wide; the eastern
side is covered above this level.
[Illustration: Fig. 64--Rectangular single room.]
The masonry is very rough and chinked only with large stones. The
interior is roughly plastered in places, and small pieces of stone are
stuck on flat. The corners are rounded. Externally the masonry has the
appearance of stones laid without mortar, like a Navaho stone corral,
and were it not for the occurrence of other similar remains, it might be
regarded as of Navaho or white man's construction, as the size, site,
plan, and masonry are all anomalous. Figure 64 shows an example,
however, closely resembling the one described in these features, and
figure 65 shows another. Altogether there are four or five examples,
distributed over a considerable area.
Somewhat similar wall remains are seen in places on the canyon bottom,
where they are always of modern Navaho origin, and it is quite possible
that the ruins above mentioned should be placed in the same category. It
will be noticed that in the plan the doorway or entrance opening is on
the eastern side--an invariable requirement of Navaho house
constructions; but it is only within recent times that the Navaho have
constructed permanent, rectangular abodes, and even now such houses are
rarely built. It is difficult to understand, moreover, why recourse
should be had to such inconvenient sites, if the structures are of
Navaho origin, as these Indians always locate their hogans on the bottom
lands, or on some slight rise overlooking them.
[Illustration: Fig. 65--Single-room remains.]
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