In the preceding pages have been described the major
antiquities, such as walls and those permanent objects which could not
be removed from the places where they were constructed without more or
less harm. There remain to be considered the minor antiquities, or the
smaller objects which are movable and of a more perishable nature,
especially if left in the places where they were found. It was mainly in
search of such objects that much of the mutilation of Cliff Palace was
done.
It was not expected that excavations would yield any
considerable number of specimens, since for years Cliff Palace had been
dug over in search of them, and many hundreds of objects had already
been found and carried away to be sold either to museums or to
individuals. Notwithstanding these unfavorable conditions, the collection
of objects, now deposited in the National Museum, is sufficient to
afford some idea of the culture of the Cliff Palace people.
Among the objects that may be mentioned in the
category of minor antiquities are pottery, basketry, implements of stone,
bone, and wood, fabrics of various kinds, ornaments, fetishes, and
the like—all those objects commonly called artifacts that make up
collections from cliff-dwellings generally.
The excavations at Cliff Palace have revealed no
specimens strikingly different from those already described as from
Spruce-tree House. We would expect some variation in the symbols on
pottery from the two ruins, but the differences are not conspicuous in
the few specimens that have been compared. Nor is there any peculiarity
in the form of the pottery, as the ceramic objects from Cliff Palace
practically duplicate those from Spruce-tree House, already described,
and probably are not much unlike those still buried in Long House,
Balcony House, and the House with the Square Tower.
As many ceremonial objects, being highly prized, may
have been removed from Cliff Palace when the place was deserted by its
inhabitants the few that remained present scant material from which to
add to our knowledge of the ceremonial life of the people. The existence
of so many kivas would point to many rites, although a large number of
sacred rooms does not necessarily indicate more complex or elaborate
rites than a smaller number; multiplicity of kivas does not necessarily
mean multiplicity of ceremonies, nor few kivas a limited ritual. In no
pueblo are there more complicated ceremonies than at Walpi, where there
are only five of these sacred rooms; but it must be remembered that many
of the religious rites of Walpi are performed in kihus, or secular
rooms. The same may have been true of Cliff Palace.
The writer's belief is that in historic times, by
which is meant since the advent of missionaries, altars have become more
elaborate and rites more complex at Walpi than in prehistoric times, and
that through the same influence the use of images or idols has also
increased. This increase in the complexity of rites may be traced to the
amalgamation of clans or to a substitution of the fraternities of
priesthoods for simple clan ancestor worship. The elaborate character
of ceremonial paraphernalia may likewise be due to
acculturation,a which increases in complication with the lapse of
time.
aFor instance, the complicated reredos of many
of the modern Hopi altars is made of flat wooden slabs, the manufacture
of which would be very difficult for a people ignorant of iron. These
probably replaced painted stone slabs of simpler character, examples of
which have been found in ruins and indeed still survive in some of the
oldest rites.
The stone implements from Cliff Palace consist of
axes, mauls, paint grinders, pecking stones, metates, balls, flakes,
spear and arrow points, and various other articles (pls. 20-22).
There is great uniformity in these implements, the axes, for instance,
being generally single edged, although a good specimen of double-edged
hatchet is in the collection. A fragment of the peculiar stone
implement called tcamahiab by the Hopi was found.
bThis object probably came from near Tokónabi,
the ancient home of the Snake people of Walpi, on San Juan river.
Fourteen of these tcamahias form part of the Antelope altar in
the Snake dance at Walpi.
While as a rule the hatchets are without handles, one
specimen (pl. 20) is exceptional in this particular. The handle of this
hatchet from Cliff Palace, like that from Spruce-tree House, elsewhere
described, is a stick bent in a loop around the stone head.
Plate 20. AX WITH ORIGINAL HANDLE
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Plate 21. STONE HATCHETS
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POUNDING STONES
Anyone who will examine the amount of stone-cutting
necessary to lower the floor of kiva V, for instance, to its present
depth, or to peck away the projecting rock in some of the other kivas,
will realize at once that the Cliff Palace people were industrious stone
workers. A number of the pounding stones (pl. 22, a) with which
this work was done have been found. These stones are cubical in form, or
rounded or pointed at one end or both ends, and provided with two or
more pits on the sides. They were evidently held directly in the hand
and used without handles. Although generally small, they sometimes are
of considerable size. The stone of which they are made is foreign to the
vicinity; it is hard, as would be absolutely necessary to be effectual
in the use to which they were put.
Plate 22. STONE OBJECTS (aPounding stone (top), bProjectile
point, cCover for vase, dFlat stone slab (bottom, left to right))
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GRINDING STONES
The most common variety of grinding stones is, of
course, the metate, or mill-stone, used in grinding corn. These
implements have a variety of forms. They may be flat above and rounded
below, or flat on both sides, triangular on each face, or simply convex
on each side. None of them have feet like the Mexican metates. The stone
with which the grinding was done, or the one held in the hand, also
varies in shape, size, and evidences of use.a Stones with a
depression in one face served as mortars. A stone in the form of a
pestle, flat on the end, served as a paint grinder. Several flat stones
with smooth surface, showing the effect of grinding, and others with
slight concavities, undoubtedly served the same purpose. Smooth stones
showing grinding on one or more faces were evidently the implements with
which the builders smoothed the walls of the houses after the masonry
had been laid; others were used in polishing pottery.
aAt several places on the surfaces of
projecting rocks forming the foundations of buildings may be noticed
grooves where metates were sharpened. One or more of these occur at the
entrance to the "street" in front of room 51. The foundation of a wall
in one room was built directly upon one of these grooves, part of the
groove being in sight, the rest covered with masonry. Near room 92 there
are many of these grooves as well as small pits.
MISCELLANEOUS STONES
Many stone balls, large or small, were found. Some of
these show chipping, others are ground smooth. Certain of these balls
were evidently used in a game popular at Cliff Palace, in which they
were rolled or dropped into deep pits and grooves. It appears that this
game was played by occupants of the sacred rooms, as the pits are common
in the kiva floors. Other stone balls were formerly tied to the end of a
handle with a thong of hide and used as a weapon.
A half oval stone, smooth and flat at one pole, is
supposed to have been an idol, possibly the earth goddess, who is
repeatedly represented by the Hopi in a similar way. It was left near
where it was found at the northwest corner of kiva H. Our masons used
rectangular slabs of soft stone, which were doubtless door-closes, as
mortar boards. They were held in place in the door opening by jambs made
of mortar laid on sticks, and by a horizontal rod which passed between
two osier eyelets set in the uprights of the door-frame and projecting
from it. These stone doors were sometimes held in place by a groove cut
in the threshold or by a ledge of adobe.
Two thin, flat, circular stone disks (pl. 22, c),
with smooth surfaces and square edges, accompanied the calcined human
bones in the inclosure at the northern end of the large refuse heap. It
is probable that some of these disks were used as covers for mortuary
vases. Irregularly shaped flat stones with pits and incised figures
pecked in their surface were used in a game, and a slab covered with
incised figures but without the pits (pl. 23, c) probably served a
similar purpose.
Several large stones, which the builders of Cliff
Palace had begun to dress and had later rejected, show the method
adopted by them in cutting stones the required size. When stones were
found to be too large to be laid, or had projections that interfered
with the required shape, a groove was pecked where the fracture was
desired and the stone broken along the groove.
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