MAJOR ANTIQUITIES
Under this term are included those immovable
prehistoric remains which, taken together, constitute a cliff-dwelling.
The architectural features—walls of rooms and structures connected
with them, as beams, balconies, fireplaces—are embraced in the term
"major antiquities." None of these can be removed from their sites
without harm, so they must be protected in the place where they now
stand.
In a valuable article on the ruins in valley of the
San Juan and its tributaries, Dr. T. Mitchell Pruddenb recognizes in
this region what he designates a "unit type;" that is, a ruin
consisting of a kiva backed by a row of rooms generally situated on its
north side, with lateral extensions east and west, and a burial place on
the opposite, or south, side of the kiva. This form of "unit type," as
he points out, is more apparent in ruins situated in an open country
than in those built in cliffs. The same form may be recognized in
Spruce-tree House, which is composed of several "unit types" arranged
side by side. The simplicity of these "unit types" is somewhat modified,
however, in this as in all cliff-dwellings, by the form of the site. The
author would amend Prudden's definition of the "unit type" as applied to
cliff-houses by adding to the latter's description a bounding wall connecting
the two lateral extensions of the row of rooms, thus forming
the south side of the enclosure of the kiva. For obvious reasons, in
this amended description the burial place is absent, as it does not
occur in the position assigned to it in the original description.
bSee H. R. No. 3703, 58th Cong., 3d sess.,
1905—The Ruined Cliff Dwellings in Ruin and Navajo Canyons, In the
Mesa Verde, Colorado, by Coert Dubois.
PLAZAS AND COURTS
As before stated, the buildings of Spruce-tree House
are divided into a northern and a southern section by a street which
penetrates from plaza G to the rear of the cave. (Pl. 1.) The northern
section is not only the larger, but there is evidence that it is also
the older. It is bounded by some of the best-constructed buildings,
situated along the north side of the street. The rooms of the southern
section are less numerous, although in some respects more
instructive.
There are
practically the same number of plazas as of kivas in
this ruin. With the exception of C and D, each plaza
is occupied by a single kiva, the roof of which constitutes the central
part of the floor of the square enclosure (plaza). The plazas commonly
contain remnants of small shrines, fireplaces, and corn-grinding bins,
and are perforated by mysterious holes evidently used in ceremonies.
Their floors are hardened by the tramping of the many feet that passed
over them. The best preserved of all the plazas is that which contains
kiva G. It can hardly be supposed that the roof of kiva A served as a
dance place, which is the ordinary office of a plaza, but it may have
been used in ceremonies. The largest plaza of the series, in the rear of
which are rooms while the front is inclosed by the bounding wall, is
that containing kivas C and D. The appearance of this plaza before and
after clearing out and repairing is shown in plate 3; the view was taken
from the north end of the ruin.
From the number of fireplaces and similar evidences
it may be concluded that the street already mentioned as dividing the
village into two sections served many purposes. Most important of these
was its use as the open-air dwellings of the villagers. Its hardened
clay floor suggests the constant passage of many feet. Its surface
slopes gradually downward from the back of the cave, ending at a step
near the round room in the rear of kiva G. This step marks also the
eastern boundary of the plaza (G) which contains the best-preserved of
all the ceremonial rooms of Spruce-tree House.
The discovery by excavation of the wall that
originally formed the front of the village was important. In this way
was revealed a correct ground plan of the ruin (pl. 1) which had never
before been traced by archeologists. When the work began, this wall was
deeply buried under accumulated debris, its course not being visible to
any considerable extent. By removing the fallen stones composing the
debris the wall could be readily traced. In the repair work the original
stones were replaced in the structure. As in the first instance this
wall was probably about as high as the head, it may have been used for
protection. The only openings are small rectangular orifices, the
presence of one opposite the external opening of the air flue of each
kiva suggesting that formerly these flues opened outside the wall. Two
kivas, B and F, are situated west of this wall and therefore outside the
village. There are evidences of a walk on top of the talus along the
front of the pueblo outside the front wall, and of a retaining wall to
prevent the edge of the talus from wearing away. (Pls. 4, 5.)
CONSTRUCTION OF WALLS
The walls of Spruce-tree House were built of stones
generally laid in mortar but sometimes piled on one another, the joints
being pointed later. Sections of walls in which no mortar was used occur
on the tops of other walls. These dry walls served among other purposes to
shield the roofs of adjacent buildings from snow and rain. Whenever
mortar was used it appears that a larger quantity was employed than was
necessary, the effect being to weaken the wall since the pointing
washed out quickly, being less capable than stone of resisting
erosion. When the mortar wore away, the wall was left in danger of falling
of its own weight. The pointing was generally done with the hands, the
superficial impressions of which show in several places. Small flakes of
stone or fragments of pottery were sometimes inserted in the joints,
serving both as a decoration, and as a protection by preventing the
rapid wearing away of the mortar. Little pellets of clay were also used
in the joints for the same purpose.
The character of masonry in different rooms varies considerably, in some
places showing good, in others poor, workmanship. As a rule the
construction of the corners is weak, the stones forming them being
rarely bonded or tied. Component stones of the walls seldom break
joints; thus a well-known device by means of which walls are
strengthened is lacking, and consequently cracks are numerous and the
work is unstable. Fully half the stones used in construction were
hammered or dressed into desirable shapes, the remainder being laid as
they were gathered, with their flat surfaces exposed when possible.
(Pls. 6, 7.)
Some of the walls were out of plumb when constructed and the faces of
many were never straight. The walls show evidences of having been
repeatedly repaired, as indicated by a difference in color of the mortar
used.
Plasters of different colors, as red, white, yellow, and brown, were
used. The lower half of the wall of a room was generally painted
brownish red, the upper half often white. There are evidences of several
coats of plastering, especially on the walls of the kivas, some of which
are much discolored with smoke.
The replastering of the walls of Hopi kivas is an incident of the
Powamu festival, or ceremonial purification of the fields
commonly called the "Bean planting," which occurs every February. On a
certain day of this festival girls thoroughly replaster the four walls
of the kivas and at the close of the work leave impressions of their
hands in white mud on the kiva beams.
The rooms of Spruce-tree House may be considered under two headings:
secular rooms, and ceremonial rooms, or kivas. The former are
rectangular, the latter circular, in form.
SECULAR ROOMS
The secular rooms are the more numerous in Spruce-tree House. In order
to designate them in future descriptions they were numbered from 1 to
71, in black paint, in conspicuous places on the walls,
(Pl. 1.) This enumeration begins at the north end
and passes thence to the south end of the ruin, but in one or two
instances this order is not followed. The author has given below a brief
reference to some of the important secular rooms in the series.
The foundations of room 1 were apparently built on a
fallen bowlder, the entrance being reached by means of a series of stone
steps built into the side hill. The floor of this room is on the level
of the second story of other rooms, being continuous with the top of
kiva A. It is probable that when this kiva was constructed it was found
impossible to make it subterranean on account of the solid rock. A
retaining wall was built outside the kiva and the intervening space was
filled with earth in order to impart to the room a subterranean
character.
Room 2 has three stories, or tiers, of rooms. The
floor of the second story, which is the roof of the first, is well
preserved, the sides of the hatchway, or means of passage from one room
to the one below it, being almost entire. This room possesses a feature
which is unique. The base of its south wall is supported by curved
timbers, whose ends rest on walls, while the middle is supported by a
pillar of masonry. (Pl. 8.) The T-shaped door in this wall faces south.
It is difficult to understand how the aperture could have been of any
use as a doorway unless there was a balcony below it, and no sign of
such structure is now visible. The west wall of rooms 2 and 3 was built
on top of a fallen rock from which it rises precipitously to a
considerable height. The floor of room 4, which lies in front of kiva A,
is on a level with the roof of the kiva, and somewhat higher than the
surface of the neighboring plaza but not higher than the roof of the
first story. As the floors of room 1 and room 4 are on the same level,
it would appear that both were considerably elevated or so constructed
otherwise that the kiva should be subterranean. This endeavor to render
the kiva subterranean by building up around it, when conditions made it
impossible to excavate in the solid rock, is paralleled in some other
Mesa Verde ruins.
The ventilator of kiva A, as will be seen later, does
not open through the front wall, as is usually the case, but on one
side. This is accounted for by the presence of a room on this side of
the kiva. Rooms 2, 3, 4 were constructed after the walls of kiva A were
built, hence several modifications were necessary in the prescribed plan
of building these rooms.
The foundation of the inclosure, 5, conforms on one
side to the outer wall of the village, and on the other to the curvature
of kiva B. As this inclosure does not seem ever to have been roofed, it
is probable that it was not a house. A fireplace at one end indicates
that cooking was formerly done here. It is instructive to note that the
front wall of the ruin begins at this place.
Rooms 6, 7, 8, which lie side by side, closely
resemble one another, having much in common. They were evidently
dwellings, and may have been sleeping-places for families. Rooms 7 and 8
were two stories high, the floor of no. 8 being on a level with the
adjoining plaza. Room 9 is so unusual in its construction that it can
not be regarded as a living room. It was used as a mortuary chamber,
evidences being strong that it was opened from time to time for new
interments. Room 12 also was a ceremonial chamber, and, like the
preceding, will be considered later at greater length. The walls of the
two rooms, 10 and 11, are low, projecting into plaza C, of whose border
they form a part. Near them, or in one corner of the same plaza, is a
bin, the sides of which are formed of stone slabs set on edge. The use
of this bin is problematical.
The front wall of room 15 had been almost wholly
destroyed before the repair work began, and was so unstable that it was
necessary to erect a buttress to support it. This room, which is one
story high, is irregular in shape; its doorways open into rooms 14 and
16. The walls of rooms 16 and 18 extend to the roof of the cave,
shutting out the light on one side from the great refuse-place in the
rear of the cliff-dwellings. The openings through the walls of these
rooms into this darkened area have been much broken by vandals, and the
walls greatly damaged. Room 17, like 16 and 18, is somewhat larger than
most of the apartments in Spruce-tree House.
Theoretically it may be supposed that when
Spruce-tree House was first settled it had one clan occupying a cluster
of rooms, 1-11, and one ceremonial room, kiva A. As the place grew
three other "unit types" centering about kivas C-H were added, and
still later each of these units was enlarged and new kivas were built in
each section. Thus A was enlarged by addition of B; C by addition of D;
E by addition of F; and G was subordinated to H. In this way the rooms
near the kivas grew in numbers. The block of rooms designated 50-53
is not accounted for, however, in this theory.
Rooms numbered 19-22 are instructive. Their
walls are well preserved and form the east side of plaza C. These walls
extend from the level of the plaza to the top of the cavern, and in
places show some of the best masonry in Spruce-tree House. Just in front
of room 19, situated on the left-hand side as one enters the doorway, is
a covered recess, where probably ceremonial bread was baked or otherwise
cooked. This place bears a strong resemblance to recesses found in Hopi
villages, especially as in its floor is set a cooking-pot made of
earthenware. Rooms 19-21 are two stories high; there are fireplaces
in the corners and doorways on the front sides. The upper stories were
approached and entered by balconies. The holes in which formerly rested
the beams that supported these balconies can be clearly seen.
Rooms 21 and 22 are three stories high, the entrances
to the three tiers being seen in the accompanying view (pl. 6). The
beams that once supported the balcony of the third story resemble those
of the first story; they project from the wall that forms the front of
room 29.
The external entrance to room 24 opens directly on
the plaza. Some of the rafters of this room still remain, and near the
rear door is a projecting wall, in the corner of which is a fireplace.
Although room 25 is three stories high, it does not reach to the cave
top. None of the roofs of the rooms one over another are intact, and the
west side of the second and third stories is very much broken. The
plaster of the second-story walls is decorated with mural paintings that
wi]l be considered more fully under Pictographs. It is not evident how
entrance through the doorway of the second story was made unless we
suppose that there was a notched log, or ladder, for that purpose
resting on the ground. In order to strengthen the north wall of room 25
it was braced against the walls of outer rooms by constructing masonry
above the doorway that leads from plaza D to room 26. This tied all
three walls together and imparted corresponding strength to the
whole.
The lower-story walls of room 26 are in fairly good
condition, having needed but little repair. There is a good fireplace
in the floor at the northeast corner. Excavations revealed a passageway
from kiva D into room 26, the opening into the upper room being situated
near its north wall. The west wall of room 26 is curved. The walls of
rooms 27 and 28 are much dilapidated, the portion of the western section
that remains being continuous with the front wall of the pueblo. A small
mural fragment ending blindly arises from the outside of the west wall
of room 27. This is believed to have been part of a small enclosure used
for cooking purposes. Much repairing was necessary in the walls of rooms
27 and 28, since they were situated almost directly in the way of
torrents of water which in time of rains fall over the rim of the
canyon.
The block of rooms numbered 30-44, situated east
of kiva E, have the most substantial masonry and are the best
constructed of any in Spruce-tree House. (Pl. 9.) As room 45 is only a
dark passageway it should be considered more a street than a dwelling.
Rooms 30-36 are one story each in height, rectangular
in shape, roofless, and of about the same dimensions; of these room 35
is perhaps the best preserved, having well-constructed fireplaces in one
corner. Rooms 37, 38, 39 are built deep in the cavern; their walls,
especially those of 38, are very much broken down. There would seem to be
hardly a possibility that these rooms were inhabited, especially after
the construction of the rooms in front of the cave which shut off all
light. But they may easily have served as storage places. Their walls
were constructed of well-dressed stones and afford an
example of good masonry work.
Here and there are indications of other rooms in the
darker parts of the cave. In some instances their walls extended to the
roof of the cave where their former position is indicated by light bands
on the sooty surface.
Rooms 40-47 are among the finest chambers in
Spruce-tree House. Rooms 48 and 49 are very much damaged, the walls
having fallen, leaving only the foundations above the ground level.
Several rooms in this part of the ruin, especially rooms 43 (pl. 9) and
44, still have roofs and floors as well preserved as when they were
built, and although dark, owing to lack of windows, they have fireplaces
in the corners, the smoke escaping apparently through the diminutive
door openings. The thresholds of some of the doorways are too high above
the main court to be entered without ladders or notched poles, but
projecting stones or depressions for the feet, still visible,
apparently assisted the inhabitants, as they do modern visitors, to enter
rooms 41 and 42.
Each of the small block of rooms 50-53 is one story
and without a roof, but possessing well-preserved ground floors. In room
53 there is a depression in the floor at the bottom of which is a small
hole.a
aIn Hopi dwellings the author has often seen a provisional sipapu
used in household ceremonies.
In the preceding pages there have been considered the
rooms of the north section of Spruce-tree House, embracing dwellings,
ceremonial rooms, and other enclosures north of the main court, and the
space in the rear called the refuse-heap—in all, six circular
ceremonial rooms and a large majority of the living and storage rooms.
From all the available facts at the author's disposal it is supposed
that this portion is older than the south section, which contains but
two ceremonial rooms and not more than a third the number of secular
dwellings.b
bThe proportion of kivas to dwellings in any village is not always the
same in prehistoric pueblos, nor is there a fixed ratio in modern
pueblos, it would appear that there is some relation between the number
of kivas and the number of inhabitants, but what that relation is,
numerically, has never been discovered.
The cluster of rooms connected with kivas G and H
shows signs of having been built by a clan which may have joined
Spruce-tree House subsequent to the construction of the north section of
the village. The ceremonial rooms in this section differ in form from
the others. Here occur two round rooms or towers, duplicates of which
have not been found in the north section.
Room 61 in the south section of Spruce-tree House has
a closet made of flat stones set on edge and covered with a perforated
stone slab slightly inclined from the horizontal.
The inclosures at the extreme south end, which follow
a narrow ledge, appear to have been unroofed passages rather than rooms.
On ledges somewhat higher there are small granaries each
with a hole in the side, probably for the storage of corn.
It will be noticed that the terraced form of
buildings, almost universal in modern three-story pueblos and common in
pictures of ruins south of the San Juan, does not exist in Spruce-tree
House. The front of the three tiers of rooms 22, 23, as shown in plate
3, is vertical, not terraced from foundation to top. Whether the walls
of rooms now in ruins were terraced or not can not be determined, for
these have been washed out and have fallen to so great an extent that it
is almost impossible to tell their original form. Rooms 25-28, for
instance, might have been terraced on the front side, but it is more
reasonable to suppose they were not;a from the arrangement of doors it
would seem that there was a lateral entrance on the ground floor rather
than through roofs.
aNordenskiöld on the contrary seems to make the
terraced rooms one of the points of resemblance between the
cliff-dwellings and the great ruins of the Chaco. He writes:
"On comparison of the ruins in Chaco Cañon with the
cliff-dwellings of Mancos, we find several points of resemblance. In
both localities the villages are fortified against attack, in the tract
of Mancos by their site in inaccessible precipices, in Chaco
Cañon by a high outer wall in which no doorways were constructed
to afford entrance to an enemy. Behind this outer wall the rooms
descended in terraces towards the inner court. One side of this court
was protected by a lower semicircular wall. In the details of the
buildings we can find several features common to both. The roofs between
the stories were constructed in the same way. The doorways were built of
about the same dimensions. The rafters were often allowed to project
beyond the outer wall as a foundation for a sort of balcony (Balcony
House, the Pueblo Chettro Kettle). The estufa at Hungo Pavie with its
six quadrangular pillars of stone is exactly similar to a Mesa Verde
estufa (see p. 16). The pottery strewn in fragments everywhere in Chaco
Canon resembles that found on the Mesa Verde. We are thus not without
grounds for assuming that it was the same people, at different stages of
its development, that inhabitated these two regions."—The Cliff
Dwellers of the Mesa Verde, p. 127.
BALCONIES
Balconies attached to the walls of buildings below
rows of doors occurred at several places. On no other hypothesis than
the presence of these structures can be explained the elevated situation
of entrances opening into the rooms immediately above rooms 20, 21, 22.
In fact, there appear to have been two balconies at this place, one
above the other, but all now left of them is the projecting floor-beams,
and a fragment of a floor on the projections at the north end of the
lower one, in front of room 20. These balconies (pl. 3) were apparently
constructed in the same way as the structure that gives the name to the
ruin called Balcony House; they seem to have been used by the
inhabitants as a means of communication between neighboring rooms.
Nordenskiöld writes:b
The second story is furnished along the wall just
mentioned, with a balcony; the joists between the two stories project a
couple of feet, long poles lie across them parallel to the walls, the
poles are covered with a layer of cedar bast, and, finally with dried
clay.
bIbid., p. 87.
FIREPLACES
There are many fireplaces in Spruce-tree House, in
rooms, plazas, and courts. From their number it is evident that most of
the cooking must have been done by the ancients in the courts and
plazas, rather than in the houses. The rooms are so small and so poorly
ventilated that it would not be possible for any one to remain in them
when fires are burning.
The top of the cave in which Spruce-tree House is
built is covered with soot, showing that formerly there were many fires
in the courts and other open places of the village. In almost every
corner of the buildings in which a fire could be made the effect of
smoke on the adjoining walls is discernible, while ashes are found in a
depression in the floor. These fireplaces are very simple, consisting
simply of square box-like structures bounded by a few flat stones set on
edge. In other instances a depression in the floor bordered with a low
ridge of adobe served as a fireplace. There remains nothing to indicate
that the inhabitants were familiar with chimneys or firehoods as is the
case among the modern pueblos. Certain small rooms suggest cook-houses,
or places where piki, or paper bread, was fried by the women on
slabs of stone over a fire, but none of these slabs were found in place.
The fireplaces of the kivas are considered specially in an account of
the structure of those rooms (see p. 18).
No evidence that Spruce-tree House people burnt coal
was observed, although they were familiar with lignite and seams of coal
underlie their messa.
DOORS AND WINDOWS
There are both doors and windows in the secular
houses of Spruce-tree House, although the two rarely exist together. The
windows, most of which are small square peep-holes or round orifices,
look obliquely downward, as if their purpose was rather for outlook than
for air, the latter being admitted as a rule through the doorway. (Pls.
10, 11.)
The two types of doorways differ more in shape than
in any other feature. These types may be called the rectangular and the
T-shaped form. Both are found at a high level, but it can not be
discovered how they could have been entered without ladders or notched
logs. Although these modes of entrance were apparently often used it is
remarkable that no traces of the logs have yet been found in the extensive
excavations at Spruce-tree House. The T-shaped doorways are
often filled in at the lower or narrow part, sometimes with stones
rudely placed, oftentimes with good masonry, by which a T-shaped door is
converted into one of square type. Doorways of both types are often
completely filled in, leaving only their outlines on the sides of the
wall.
FLOORS AND ROOFS
The floors of the rooms are all smoothly plastered
and, although purposely broken through in places by those in search of
specimens, are otherwise in fairly good condition. In one of the rooms
at the left of the main court is a small round hole at the bottom of a
concave depression like a fireplace, the use of which is not known.
Many of the floors sound hollow when struck, but this fact is not an
indication of the presence of cavities below. In tiers of rooms that
rise above the first story the roof of one room forms the floor of the
room above it. Wherever roofs still remain they are found to be
well-constructed (pl. 9) and to resemble those of the old Hopi houses.
In Spruce-tree House the roofs are supported by timbers laid from one
wall to another; these in turn support crossbeams on which were placed
layers of cedar bark covered with a thick coating of mud: In several
roofs hatchways are still to be seen, but in most cases entrances are
at the sides. One second-story room has a fireplace constructed like
those on the ground floor or on the roof. Several fire places were found
on the roofs of buildings one story high.
The largest slabs of stone used in the construction
of the rooms of Spruce-tree House were generally made into lintels and
thresholds. The latter surfaces were often worn smooth by those crawling
through the opening and in some cases they show grooves for the
insertion of the door slabs. Although the sides of the door are often
upright slabs of stone these may be replaced by boards, set in adobe
plaster. Similar split boards often form lintels.
The door was apparently a flat stone set in an adobe
casing on the inside of the frame where it was held in position by a
stick. Each end of this stick was inserted into an eyelet made of bent
osiers firmly set in the wall. Many of these broken eyelets can still be
seen in the doorways and one or two are still entire. A slab of stone
closing one of the doorways is still in place.
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