Cavate lodges comprise a type of structures closely related to cliff
houses and cave dwellings. The term is a comparatively new one, and the
structures themselves are not widely known. They differ from the cliff
houses and cave dwellings principally in the fact that the rooms are
hollowed out of cliffs and hills by human agency, being cut out of soft
rock, while the former habitations are simple, ordinary structures built
for various reasons within a cove or on a bench in the cliffs or within
a cave. The difference is principally if not wholly the result of a
different physical environment, i.e., cavate lodges and cave dwellings
are only different phases of the same thing; but for the present at
least the name will be used and the cavate lodges will be treated as a
separate class.
There are but three regions in the United States in which cavate lodges
are known to occur in considerable numbers, viz, on San Juan river, near
its mouth; on the western side of the Rio Grande near the pueblo of
Santa Clara; and on the eastern slope of San Francisco mountain, near
Flagstaff, Arizona. To these may now be added the middle Verde region,
from the East Verde to a point north of Verde, Arizona.
Within the middle Verde region there are thousands of cavate lodges,
sometimes in clusters of two or three, oftener in small groups, and
sometimes in large groups comprising several hundred rooms. One of these
large groups, located some 8 miles south of Verde on the eastern side of
the river, has been selected for illustration.
The bottom lands of the Rio Verde in the vicinity of Verde have been
already described, and the cavate lodges in question occur just below
the southern end of this large area of tillable land, and some of them
overlook it. The river at this point flows southward, and extending
toward the east are two little canyons which meet on its bank. North and
south of the mouth of the canyons the bank of the river is formed by an
inaccessible bluff 180 or 200 feet high. These bluffs are washed by the
Verde during high water, though there is evidence that up to a recent
time there was a considerable area of bottom land between the river and
the foot of the bluff. Plate XXIV shows the northern end of the group
from a low mesa on the opposite side of the river; the eastern bank of
the river can be seen in the foreground, while the sandy area extending
to the foot of the bluff is the present high-water channel of the Verde.
The map (plate XXV) shows the distribution of the cavate lodges
composing the group, and plate XXVI shows the character of the site. The
cavate lodges occur on two distinct levels--the first, which comprises
nearly all the cavate lodges, is at the top of the slopes of talus and
about 75 feet above the river; the second is set back from 80 to 150
feet from the first tier horizontally and 30 or 40 feet above it. The
cavate lodges occur only in the face of the bluff along the river and in
the lower parts of the two little canyons before mentioned. These
canyons run back into the mesa seen in the illustration, which in turn
forms part of the foothills rising into the range of mountains hemming
in the Rio Verde on the east.
[Illustration: Figure 289.
Diagram showing strata of canyon wall.]
The walls of the canyon in the cavate-lodge area are composed of three
distinct strata, clearly defined and well marked. The relations of the
strata, at points on the northern and western sides of the north canyon,
are shown in figure 289 and plate XXVI. The lowest stratum shown in the
figure is that in which almost all the cavate lodges occur. It is about
8 feet thick and composed of a soft, very friable, purple-gray
sandstone. Above it lies a greenish-white bed a few inches thick,
followed by a stratum of a pronounced white, about 12 feet thick. This
heavy stratum is composed of calcareous clay, and the green bed of a
calcareous clay with a mixture of sand. The white stratum is divided at
two-thirds its height by a thin belt of greenish-white rock, and above
it there is another belt of purple-gray sandstone about 12 feet thick.
The top of this sandstone forms the ground surface south of the point
shown in the diagram, while on the north and east it forms the floor of
the upper tier of cavate lodges.
[Illustration: Plate XXVII.
RUIN ON NORTHERN POINT OF CAVATE LODGE CANYON.]
On the southern side of the canyon the lower purple stratum shows three
distinct substrata; the upper is reddish purple and about 3½ feet thick,
the middle is purple gray, about 7 feet thick, and apparently softer
than the upper and lower strata. The lodges occur in the middle purple
substratum, their floors composed of the upper surface of the lower
stratum and their roofs of the under surface of the upper stratum. Those
on the north side are similarly placed, their roofs being about 3 feet
below the white, except that in several instances the upper part of the
purple up to the white has fallen, making the cavity larger. This has
occurred, however, since the abandonment of the caves, and the debris,
still fresh looking, is in situ.
The formation in which the lodges occur is not of volcanic origin,
although the beds composing it were perhaps deposited by hot springs
during the period of great volcanic activity which produced San
Francisco mountain in central Arizona and the great lava flows south of
it. In view of the uncertainty on this point and the further fact that
almost all the cavate lodges heretofore found were excavated in tufa,
ash, or other soft volcanic deposits, the report of Mr. Joseph S.
Diller, petrographer of the U.S. Geological Survey, will be of interest.
It is as follows:
The coarse-grained specimen is sandstone, that of medium grain is
argillaceous sandstone, and the fine-grained one is calcareous clay.
The coarse-grained friable sandstone, in which the lodges have been
excavated, consists chiefly of subangular and rounded grains of
quartz and feldspar with a small proportion of black particles. Many
of the latter are magnetite, while the others are hornblende and
various ferromagnesian silicates. I did not detect any fragments of
volcanic origin.
The specimen of argillaceous sandstone is made up of thin layers of
fine-grained sand of the same sort as the first, alternating with
others containing considerable clay. In the clay layers, a trace of
carbonate of lime was found here and there, forming a transition of
the calcareous clay.
The calcareous clay when placed in acid effervesces vigorously, but
when allowed to stand the effervescence ceases in a few minutes and
the insoluble white clay remains.
All the strata composing this formation are very soft; the purple-gray
material of the middle layer is so soft that its surface can be rubbed
off with the hand. They are also minutely stratified or laminated, and
the laminæ are not well cemented together, so that a blow on the roof of
a cavity with a stone or other implement will bring off slabs varying
from half an inch to an inch and a half in thickness. These thin strata
or laminæ are of unequal hardness, weathering in places several inches
into the face of the rock in thin streaks of a few inches or less. The
middle purple stratum exhibits this quality somewhat more decidedly than
the others, and this fact has doubtless determined the selection of this
stratum for the location of the lodges, as a room can be excavated in it
more easily than a room of a similar size could be built up with loose
rock.
The almost absolute dependence of the native builder on nature as he
found it is well illustrated by these cavate lodges. At a point in the
northern wall of the northernmost canyon, shown in the diagram (figure
289) and in plate XXVI, there is a small fault with a throw of about 2½
feet, and the floors of the lodges west of the fault are just that much
lower than the floors east of it. Furthermore, where the purple-gray
stratum in which the lodges occur is covered up by the rising ground
surface, the cavate lodges abruptly cease. In the northern and southern
ends of the group the talus encroaches on and partly covers the
purple-gray stratum, and in these places the talus has been removed from
the face of the rock to permit the excavation of lodges. In short, the
occurrence of the cavate lodges in this locality is determined
absolutely by the occurrence of one particular stratum, and when that
stratum disappears the lodges disappear. So far as can be ascertained
without actually excavating a room there is no apparent difference
between the stratum in which the lodges occur and the other purple
strata above and below it. That there is some difference is indicated by
the confinement of the lodges to that particular level, but that the
difference is very slight is shown by the occurrence in two places of
lodges just above the principal tier, a kind of second-story lodge, as
it were. It is such differences in environment as these, however, often
so slight as to be readily overlooked, which determine some of the
largest operations carried on by the native builders, even to the
building of some of the great many-storied pueblos, and, stranger still,
sometimes leading to their complete abandonment.
In the region under discussion cavate lodges usually occur in connection
with and subordinate to village ruins, and range in number from two or
three rooms to clusters of considerable size. Here, however, the cavate
lodge is the feature which has been most developed, and it is noteworthy
that the village ruins that occur in connection with them are small and
unimportant and occupy a subordinate position.
There are remains of two villages connected with the cavate lodges just
described, perched on the points of the promontories which form the
mouths of the two canyons before mentioned. The location of these ruins
is shown in plate XXV. The one on the southern promontory is of greater
extent than that on the northern point, and both are now much broken
down, no standing wall remaining. A general view of the ruin on the
northern promontory is given in plate XXVII, and the same illustration
shows the remains of the other village on the flat top of the promontory
in the farther part of the foreground.
[Illustration: Plate XXVIII.
CAVATE LODGE WITH WALLED FRONT.]
The cavate lodges are generally rudely circular in shape, sometimes
oblong, but never rectangular. The largest are 25 and even 30 feet in
diameter, and from this size range down to 5 or 6 feet and thence down
to little cubby-holes or storage cists. Owing to their similarity,
particularly in point of size, it is difficult to draw a line between
small rooms and large storage cists, but including the latter there are
two hundred rooms on the main level, divided into seventy-four distinct
and separate sets. These sets comprise from one to fourteen rooms each.
On the upper level there are fifty-six rooms, divided into twenty-four
sets, making a total of two hundred and fifty-six rooms. As nearly as
can be determined by the extent of these ruins the population of the
settlement was probably between one hundred and fifty and two hundred
persons.
[Illustration: Figure 290.
Walled storage cist.]
There is great variety in the rooms, both in size and arrangement. As a
rule each set or cluster of rooms consists of a large apartment, entered
by a narrow passageway from the face of the bluff, and a number of
smaller rooms connected with it by narrow doorways or short passages and
having no outlet except through the large apartment. As a rule two or
more of these smaller back rooms are attached to the main apartment, and
sometimes the back rooms have still smaller rooms attached to them. In
several cases there are three rooms in a series or row extending back
into the rock, and in one instance (at the point marked _E_ on the map,
plate XXV) there are four such rooms, all of good size.
Attached to the main apartment, and sometimes also to the back rooms,
there are usually a number of storage cists, differing from the smaller
rooms of the cluster only in size. These cists or cubby-holes range in
size from a foot to 5 feet in diameter, and are nearly always on a level
of the floor, although in some instances they extend below it. Storage
cists are also sometimes excavated in the exterior walls of the cliffs,
and occasionally they are partly excavated and partly inclosed by a
rough, semicircular wall. An example of the latter type is shown in
figure 290.
As a rule the cavate lodges are set back slightly from the face of the
bluff and connected with it by a narrow passageway. Another type,
however, and one not uncommon, has no connecting passageway, but instead
opens out to the air by a cove or nook in the bluff. This cove was used
as the main room and the back rooms opened into it in the usual way by
passageways. A number of lodges of this type can be seen in the eastern
side of the northern promontory or bluff. Possibly lodges of this type
were walled in front, although walled fronts are here exceptional, and
some of them at least have been produced by the falling off of the rock
above the doorway. The expedient of walling up the front of a shallow
cavity, commonly practiced in the San Juan region, while comparatively
rare in this vicinity, was known to the dwellers in these cavate lodges.
At several points remains of front walls can be seen, and in two
instances front walls remain in place. The masonry, however, is in all
cases very rough, of the same type as that shown in plate XXVIII.
In this connection a comparison with the cavate ledges found in other
regions will be of interest. In 1875 Mr. W. H. Holmes, then connected
with the Hayden survey, visited a number of cavate lodges on the Rio San
Juan and some of its tributaries. Several groups are illustrated in his
report.[5] Two of his illustrations, showing, respectively, the open
front and walled front lodges, are reproduced in plates XXIX and XXX.
The open front lodges are thus described:
I observed, in approaching from above, that a ruined tower stood
near the brink of the cliff, at a point where it curves outward
toward the river, and in studying it with my glass detected a number
of cave-like openings in the cliff face about halfway up. On
examination, I found them to have been shaped by the hand of man,
but so weathered out and changed by the slow process of atmospheric
erosion that the evidences of art were almost obliterated.
The openings are arched irregularly above, and generally quite
shallow, being governed very much in contour and depth by the
quality of the rock. The work of excavation has not been an
extremely great one, even with the imperfect implements that must
have been used, as the shale is for the most part soft and friable.
A hard stratum served as a floor, and projecting in many places made
a narrow platform by which the inhabitants were enabled to pass
along from one house to another.
Small fragments of mortar still adhered to the firmer parts of the
walls, from which it is inferred that they were at one time
plastered. It is also extremely probable that they were walled up in
front and furnished with doors and windows, yet no fragment of wall
has been preserved. Indeed, so great has been the erosion that many
of the caves have been almost obliterated, and are now not deep
enough to give shelter to a bird or bat.
[Footnote 5: Tenth Ann Rep. U.S. Geol. Survey, 1876, pp. 288-391.]
[Illustration: Plate XXIX.
OPEN FRONT CAVATE LODGES ON THE RIO SAN JUAN.]
Walled fronts, the author states, were observed frequently on the Rio
Mancos, where there are many well-preserved specimens. He described a
large group situated on that stream, about 10 miles above its mouth,
as follows:
The walls were in many places quite well preserved and new looking,
while all about, high and low, were others in all stages of decay.
In one place in particular, a picturesque outstanding promontory has
been full of dwellings, literally honeycombed by this
earth-burrowing race, and as one from below views the ragged,
window-pierced crags [see plate XXX] he is unconsciously led to
wonder if they are not the ruins of some ancient castle, behind
whose moldering walls are hidden the dread secrets of a
long-forgotten people; but a nearer approach quickly dispels such
fancies, for the windows prove to be only the doorways to shallow
and irregular apartments, hardly sufficiently commodious for a race
of pigmies. Neither the outer openings nor the apertures that
communicate between the caves are large enough to allow a person of
large stature to pass, and one is led to suspect that these nests
were not the dwellings proper of these people, but occasional
resorts for women and children, and that the somewhat extensive
ruins in the valley below were their ordinary dwelling places.
It will be noticed that in both these cases there are associated ruins
on the mesa top above, and in both instances these associated ruins are
subordinate to the cavate lodges, in this respect resembling the lodges
on the Verde already described. This condition, however, is not the
usual one; in the great majority of cases the cavate lodges are
subordinate to the associated ruins, standing to them in the relation of
outlying agricultural shelters. Unless this fact is constantly borne in
mind it is easy to exaggerate the importance of the cavate lodges as
compared with the village ruins with which they are connected.
The cavate lodges near San Francisco mountain in Arizona were visited in
1883 by Col. James Stevenson, of the Bureau of Ethnology, and in 1885 by
Maj. J. W. Powell. Major Powell[6] describes a number of groups in the
vicinity of Flagstaff. Of one group, situated on a cinder cone about 12
miles east of San Francisco peak, he says:
Here the cinders are soft and friable, and the cone is a prettily
shaped dome. On the southern slope there are excavations into the
indurated and coherent cinder mass, constituting chambers, often 10
or 12 feet in diameter and 6 to 10 feet in height. The chambers are
of irregular shape, and occasionally a larger central chamber forms
a kind of vestibule to several smaller ones gathered about it. The
smaller chambers are sometimes at the same altitude as the central
or principal one, and sometimes at a lower altitude. About one
hundred and fifty of these chambers have been excavated. Most of
them are now partly filled by the caving in of the walls and
ceilings, but some of them are yet in a good state of preservation.
In these chambers, and about them on the summit and sides of the
cinder cone, many stone implements were found, especially metates.
Some bone implements also were discovered. At the very summit of the
little cone there is a plaza, inclosed by a rude wall made of
volcanic cinders, the floor of which was carefully leveled. The
plaza is about 45 by 75 feet in area. Here the people lived in
underground houses--chambers hewn from the friable volcanic cinders.
Before them, to the south, west, and north, stretched beautiful
valleys, beyond which volcanic cones are seen rising amid pine
forests. The people probably cultivated patches of ground in the low
valleys.
About 18 miles still farther to the east of San Francisco mountain,
another ruined village was discovered, built about the crater of a
volcanic cone. This volcanic peak is of much greater magnitude. The
crater opens to the eastward. On the south many stone dwellings have
been built of the basaltic and cinder-like rooks. Between the ridge
on the south and another on the northwest there is a low saddle in
which other buildings have been erected, and in which a great plaza
was found, much like the one previously described. But the most
interesting part of this village was on the cliff which rose on the
northwest side of the crater. In this cliff are many natural caves,
and the caves themselves were utilized as dwellings by inclosing
them in front with walls made of volcanic rocks and cinders. These
cliff dwellings are placed tier above tier, in a very irregular way.
In many cases natural caves were thus utilized; in other cases
cavate chambers were made; that is, chambers have been excavated in
the friable cinders. On the very summit of the ridge stone buildings
were erected, so that this village was in part a cliff village,
in part cavate, and in part the ordinary stone pueblo. The valley
below, especially to the southward, was probably occupied by their
gardens. In the chambers among the overhanging cliffs a great many
interesting relics were found, of stone, bone, and wood, and many
potsherds.
[Footnote 6: Seventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Eth., 1891, p. xix.]
It will be seen that the first group described bears a remarkably close
resemblance to the cavate lodges on the Rio Verde. The lodges themselves
are smaller, but the arrangement of main apartment and attached back
rooms is quite similar. It will be noticed also that in the second group
described village ruins are again associated on the summit of the cliff
or ridge. Major Powell ascertained that these cavate lodges were
occupied by the Havasupai Indians now living in Cataract canyon, who are
closely related to the Walapai, and who, it is said, were driven from
this region by the Spaniards.
The cavate lodges on the Rio Grande, in New Mexico, in the vicinity of
the modern pueblo of Santa Clara, were also visited in 1885 by Major
Powell and are thus described by him:[7]
The cliffs themselves are built of volcanic sands and ashes, and
many of the strata are exceedingly light and friable. The specific
gravity of some of these rocks is so low that they will float on
water. Into the faces of these cliffs, in the friable and easily
worked rock, many chambers have been excavated; for mile after mile
the cliffs are studded with them, so that altogether there are many
thousands. Sometimes a chamber or series of chambers is entered from
a terrace, but usually they were excavated many feet above any
landing or terrace below, so that they could be reached only by
ladders. In other places artificial terraces were built by
constructing retaining walls and filling the interior next to the
cliffs with loose rock and sand. Very often steps were cut into the
face of a cliff and a rude stairway formed by which chambers could
be reached. The chambers were very irregularly arranged and very
irregular in size and structure. In many cases there is a central
chamber, which seems to have been a general living room for the
people, back of which two, three, or more chambers somewhat smaller
are found. The chambers occupied by one family are sometimes
connected with those occupied by another family, so that two or
three or four sets of chambers have interior communication. Usually,
however, the communication from one system of chambers to another
was by the outside. Many of the chambers had evidently been occupied
as dwellings. They still contained fireplaces and evidences of fire;
there were little caverns or shelves in which various vessels were
placed, and many evidences of the handicraft of the people were left
in stone, bone, horn, and wood, and in the chambers and about the
sides of the cliffs potsherds are abundant. On more careful survey
it was found that many chambers had been used as stables for asses,
goats, and sheep. Sometimes they had been filled a few inches, or
even 2 or 3 feet, with the excrement of these animals. Ears of corn
and corncobs were also found in many places. Some of the chambers
were evidently constructed to be used as storehouses or caches for
grain. Altogether it is very evident that the cliff houses have been
used in comparatively modern times; at any rate, since the people
owned asses, goats, and sheep. The rock is of such a friable nature
that it will not stand atmospheric degradation very long, and there
is abundant evidence of this character testifying to the recent
occupancy of these cavate dwellings.
[Illustration: Plate XXX.
WALLED FRONT CAVATE LODGES ON THE RIO SAN JUAN.]
[Illustration: Plate XXXI.
CAVATE LODGES ON THE RIO GRANDE.]
Above the cliffs, on the mesas, which have already been described,
evidences of more ancient ruins were found. These were pueblos built
of cut stone rudely dressed. Every mesa had at least one ancient
pueblo up off it, evidently far more ancient than the cavate
dwellings found in the face of the cliffs. It is, then, very plain
that the cavate dwellings are not of great age; that they have been
occupied since the advent of the white man, and that on the summit
of the cliffs there are ruins of more ancient pueblos.
[Footnote 7: Seventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Eth., op. cit., p. XXII.]
Major Powell obtained a tradition of the Santa Clara Indians, reciting
three successive periods of occupancy of the cavate lodges by them, the
last occurring after the Spanish conquest of New Mexico in the
seventeenth century.
It will be noticed that here again the cavate lodges and village ruins
are associated, although in this case the village ruins on the mesas
above are said to be more ancient than the cavate lodges. A general view
of a small section of cliff containing lodges is given in plate XXXI for
comparison with those on the Verde. The lodges on the Rio Grande seem to
have been more elaborate than those on the Verde, perhaps owing to
longer occupancy; but the same arrangement of a main front room and
attached back rooms, as in the cavate lodges on the Verde, was found.
As the cavate lodges of the San Francisco mountain region have been
assigned to the Havasupai Indians of the Yuman stock, and those of the
Rio Grande to the Santa Clara pueblo Indians of the Tanoan stock, it may
be of interest to state that there is a vague tradition extant among the
modern settlers of the Verde region that the cavate lodges of that
region were occupied within the last three generations. This tradition
was derived from an old Walapai Indian whose grandfather was alive when
the cavate lodges were occupied. It was impossible to follow this
tradition to its source, and it is introduced only as a suggestion.
Attention is called, however, to the tradition given in the introduction
to this paper with which it may be connected.
[Illustration: Figure 291.
Plan of cavate lodges, group _D_.]
[Illustration: Plate XXXII.
INTERIOR VIEW OF CAVATE LODGE, GROUP D.]
Aside from the actual labor of excavation, there was but little work
expended on the Verde cavate lodges. The interiors were never plastered,
so far as the writer could determine. Figure 291 shows the plan of one
of the principal sets of rooms, which occurs at the point marked _D_ on
the map, plate XXV; and plate XXXII is an interior view of the principal
room, drawn from a flashlight photograph. This set of rooms was
excavated in a point of the cliff and extends completely through it as
shown on the general plan, plate XXV. The entrance was from the west by
a short passageway opening into a cove extending back some 10 feet from
the face of the cliff. The first room entered measures 16 feet in length
by 10 feet in width. On the floor of this room a structure resembling
the piki or paper bread oven of the Tusayan Indians, was found
constructed partly of fragments of old and broken metates. At the
southern end of the room there is a cubby-hole about a foot in diameter,
excavated at the floor level. At the eastern end of the room there is a
passageway about 2½ feet long leading into a smaller roughly circular
room, measuring 7½ feet in its longest diameter, and this in turn is
connected with another almost circular room of the same size. The floors
of all three of these rooms are on the same level, but the roofs of the
two smaller rooms are a foot lower than that of the entrance room. At
the northern end of the entrance room there is a passageway 3 feet long
and 2½ feet wide leading into the principal room of the set. This
passageway at its southern end has a framed doorway of the type
illustrated later.
[Illustration: Figure 292.
Sections of cavate lodges, group _D_.]
The main room is roughly circular in form, measuring 16 feet in its
north and south diameter and 15 feet from east to west. The roof is
about 7 feet above the floor. Figure 292 shows a section from northwest
to southwest (_a_, _b_, figure 291) through the small connected room
adjoining on the south, and also an east arid west section (_c_, _d_,
figure 291). The floor is plastered with clay wherever it was necessary
in order to bring it to a level, and the coating is consequently not of
uniform thickness. It is divided into sections by low ridges of clay as
shown in the plan and sections; the northern section is a few inches
higher than the other. Extending through the clay finish of the floor
and into the rock beneath there are four pits, indicated on the plan by
round spots. The largest of these, situated opposite the northern door,
was a fire hole or pit about 18 inches in diameter at the floor level,
of an inverted conical shape, about 10 inches in depth, and plastered
inside with clay inlaid with fragments of pottery placed as closely
together as their shape would permit. The other pits are smaller; one
located near the southeastern corner of the room is about 6 inches in
diameter and the same in depth, while the others are mere depressions in
the floor, in shape like the small paint mortars used by the Pueblos.
[Illustration: Figure 293.
Section of water pocket.]
The room, when opened, contained a deposit of bat dung and sand about
3 feet thick in the center and averaging about 2 feet thick throughout
the room. This deposit exhibited a series of well-defined strata,
varying from three-fourths to an inch and a half thick, caused by the
respective predominance of dung or sand. No evidence of disturbance of
these strata was found although careful examination was made. This
deposit was cleared out and a number of small articles were found, all
resting, however, directly on the floor. The articles consisted of
fragments of basketry, bundles of fibers and pieces of fabrics, pieces
of arrowshafts, fragments of grinding stones, three sandals of woven
yucca fiber, two of them new and nearly perfect, and a number of pieces
of cotton cloth, the latter scattered over the room and in several
instances gummed to the floor. Only a few fragments of pottery were
found in the main room, but outside in the northern passageway were the
fragments of two large pieces, one an olla, the other a bowl, both
buried in 3 or 4 inches of debris under a large slab fallen from the
roof.
Owing to its situation this room was one of the most desirable in the
whole group. The prevailing south wind blows through it at all times,
and this is doubtless the reason that it was so much filled up with
sand. In the center of the room the roof has fallen at a comparatively
recent date from an area about 10 by 7 feet, in slabs about an inch
thick, for the fragments were within 6 inches of the top of the debris.
The walls are smoke-blackened to a very slight extent compared with the
large room south of it.
At the northeastern and southwestern corners there are two small
pockets, opening on the floor level but sunk below it, which seem to
have been designed to contain water. That in the southwest corner is the
larger; it is illustrated in the section, figure 293. As shown in the
section and on the plan (figure 291), a low wall composed of adobe
mortar and broken rock was built across the opening on the edge of the
floor, perhaps to increase its capacity. This cavity would hold 15 to 20
gallons of water, a sufficient amount to supply the needs of an ordinary
Indian family for three weeks or a mouth. The pocket in the northeastern
corner of the room is not quite so large as the one described, and its
front is not walled.
[Illustration: Plate XXXIII.
BOWLDER-MARKED SITE.]
West of the main room there is a storage room, nearly circular in shape,
with a diameter of about 6 feet and with a floor raised about 2 feet
above that of the main room. Its roof is but 3 feet above the floor, and
across its western end is a low bench a couple of inches above the
floor. In the northeastern corner there is a shallow cove, also raised
slightly above the main floor and connecting by a narrow opening with
the outer vestibule-like rooms on the north. These northern rooms of the
lodge seem to be simply enlargements of the passageway. The northern
opening is a window rather than a door as it is about 10 feet above the
ground and therefore could be entered only by a ladder. The opening is
cut in the back of a cove in the cliff, and is 6 feet from the northern
end of the main room. At half its length it has been enlarged on both
sides by the excavation of niches or coves about 4 feet deep but only 2½
feet high. These coves could be used only for storage on a small scale.
[Illustration: Figure 294.
Plan of cavate lodges, group _A_.]
In the southeastern corner of the main room there is another opening
leading into a low-roofed storage cist, approximating 4 feet in
diameter, and this cist was in turn connected with the middle one of the
three rooms first described. This opening, at the time the room was
examined, was so carefully sealed and plastered that it was scarcely
perceptible.
A different arrangement of rooms is shown in plan in figure 294 and in
section in figure 295. This group occurs at the point marked A on the
map. The entrance to the main room was through a narrow passage, 3 feet
long, leading into the chamber from the face of the bluff, which at this
point is vertical. The main room is oblong, measuring 17 feet one way
and 10 the other. At the southern end there is a small cist and on the
western side near the entrance there is another hardly a foot in
diameter. North of the main room there is a small, roughly circular room
with a diameter of about 6 feet. It is connected with the main room by a
passage about 2 feet long. On the floor of the main room there are two
low ridges of clay, similar to those already described, which divide it
into three sections of nearly equal size.
[Illustration: Figure 295.
Sections of cavate lodges, group _A_.]
East of the main room there is another of considerable size in the form
of a bay or cove. It measures 13 feet by 6 feet, and its floor is 20
inches higher than that of the main room, as shown in the section
(figure 295). Attached to this bay, at its northern end, is a small cist
about 3 feet in diameter, and with its floor sunk to the level of the
floor of the main room. East of the cove there is another cist about 4½
feet in diameter and with its floor on the level of the cove. Adjoining
it on the south and leading out from the southeastern corner of the cove
or bay, there is a long passage leading into an almost circular room
9 feet in diameter. The back wall of this room is 33 feet from the face
of the cliff. The passage leading into it is 6 feet long, 2½ feet wide
at the doorways, bulging slightly in the center, and its floor is on the
same level as the rooms it connects; its eastern end is defined by a
ridge of clay about 6 inches high.
[Illustration: Plate XXXIV.
IRRIGATING DITCH ON THE LOWER VERDE.]
In the eastern side of the circular room last described there is a
storage cist about 3 feet wide and 2 feet deep. No fire-pit was seen in
this cluster, although if the principal apartment were carefully cleaned
out it is not improbable that one might be found.
A cluster of rooms somewhat resembling the last described is shown in
plan in figure 296. This cluster occurs at the point marked _B_ on the
map. The main room is set back 5½ feet from the face of the bluff, which
is vertical at this point, and is oblong in shape, measuring 19½ by 11½
feet. Its roof is 7½ feet above the floor in the center of the room.
Attached to its southern end by a passage only a foot in length is a
small room or storage cist about 5 feet in diameter. At its northeastern
corner there is another room or cist similar in shape, about 7 feet in
diameter, and reached by a passage 2 feet long. This small room is also
connected with a long room east of the main apartment by a passage, the
southern end of which was carefully sealed up and plastered, making a
kind of niche of the northern end. At the southeastern corner of the
room there is a small niche about 2 feet in diameter on the level of the
floor.
[Illustration: Figure 296.
Plan of cavate lodges, group _B_.]
The eastern side of the main room is not closed, but opens directly into
an oblong chamber of irregular size with the roof nearly 2 feet lower
and the floor a foot higher than the main room. This step in the floor
is shown by the line between the rooms on the ground plan. The second
room is about 6 feet wide and 20 feet long, its southern end rounding
out slightly so as to form an almost circular chamber. Near the center
of its eastern side there is a passageway 2½ feet long leading into a
circular chamber 10½ feet in diameter and with its floor on the same
level as the room to which it is attached. The back wall of this room is
35½ feet from the face of the cliff.
A group occurring at the point marked _E_ on the map (plate XXV) is
shown in plan in figure 297. It is located in a projecting corner of the
bluff and marks the eastern limit of the cavate lodges at this end of
the canyon. The group consists of five rooms, and has the distinction of
extending four rooms deep into the rock. The main room is set back about
13 feet from the face of the bluff, about 7 feet of this distance being
occupied by a narrow passageway and the remainder by a cove. The depth
from the face of the bluff to the back of the innermost chamber is 47
feet. The main room measures 16 feet in length and 11 feet in width, and
its roof is less than 7 feet high in the center. Near its center and
opposite the long passageway mentioned there is a fire-pit nearly 3 feet
in diameter.
[Illustration: Figure 297.
Plan of cavate lodges, group _E_.]
At the northeastern corner of the main room there is a wide opening
leading into a room measuring 8 by 7 feet, with a floor raised 2 feet
above that of the principal apartment. The roof of this chamber is but
4½ feet above the floor. Almost the whole eastern side of this room is
occupied by a wide opening leading into another room of approximately
the same size and shape. The roof of this room is only 3 feet 10 inches
above the floor, and the floor is raised 6 inches above that on the
west. In the northeastern corner there is a short narrow passageway
leading into a small circular room, the fourth of the series, having a
diameter of 4 feet. The roof of this apartment is only 3 feet above the
floor.
[Illustration: Plate XXXV.
OLD IRRIGATING DITCH, SHOWING CUT THROUGH LOW RIDGE.]
In the southeastern corner of the main room there is a narrow passageway
leading into a circular chamber about 8 feet in diameter. This chamber
is connected with the second room of the series described by a
passageway about 2 feet long, which opens into the southeastern corner
of that room. This passageway, at its northern end, is 1½ feet below the
room into which it opens. One of the most noticeable features about this
group of rooms is the entire absence of the little nooks and pockets in
the wall which are characteristic of these lodges, and which are very
numerous in all the principal groups, noticeably in the group next
described.
[Illustration: Figure 298.
Plan of cavate lodges, group _C_.]
At the point marked _C_ on the map there is an elaborate group of
chambers, consisting of two groups joined together and comprising
altogether eight rooms. This is shown in plan in figure 298. The rock
composing the front of the main room of the southern group has recently
fallen, making a pile of debris about 4 feet high. The room originally
measured about 12 by 22 feet. Its eastern side is occupied by a
passageway leading into an adjoining chamber and by two shallow, roughly
semicircular coves, apparently the remains of former small rooms. Along
the northern wall of the room there are two little nooks at the floor
level, and along the southern wall there are four, one of them (shown on
the plan) being dug out like a pit. The roof of the room was about
6 feet above the floor.
The passageway near the eastern side is 4½ feet long, and is 3½ feet
wide--an unusual width. It opens into a roughly circular room, 8 feet in
diameter, but with a roof only 3½ feet above the floor. Along the
northeastern side of this room, there are three small pockets opening on
the floor level. On the southern side of the room there is a wide
opening into a small attached room, roughly oblong in shape and
measuring about 6½ by 4½ feet. Along the southern wall of this little
room there are two small pockets, and at the southwestern corner the
rock has been cleared out to form a low cavity in the shape of a half
dome. In the northwestern corner of the room there is another wide
passage to a small room attached to the main room. This passage is now
carefully sealed on its southern side with a slab of stone, plastered
neatly so as to be hardly perceptible from the southern side. The room
into which this passage opens on the north is attached to the
northeastern corner of the main apartment by a narrow passage, 1½ feet
wide and a foot long. It is roughly circular in shape, about 6 feet in
diameter, and is the only chamber in the southern group which has no
pockets or cubby-holes. Of these pockets there are no fewer than twelve
in the southern group. Near the northern corner of the main room there
is a doorway leading into a cove, which in turn opens into the main room
of the northern group.
The main room of the northern group is setback about 9 feet from the
face of the bluff, but is entered by a passageway about 3 feet long, the
remainder of the distance consisting of a cove in the cliff. The room is
22 feet long and 13 feet wide and its roof is 6½ feet above the floor.
In the southwestern corner there is a small pocket in the wall, and in
the northwestern corner two others, all on the floor level. In the
eastern side, however, there is a cubby-hole nearly 2 feet in diameter
and about 2 feet above the floor. This is a rare feature. The southern
end of the room opens into a kind of cove, raised 2 feet above the floor
of the main room, and opening at its southern end into the main room of
the southern group. In the floor of this cove there is a circular pit
about 18 inches in diameter (marked in the plan, figure 298). Although
resembling the fire holes already described, the position of the pit
under consideration precludes use for that purpose; it was probably
designed to contain water. At the northeastern corner of the principal
apartment there is an oblong chamber or storage cist, measuring 6 feet
by 7 feet.
[Illustration: Plate XXXVI.
OLD DITCH NEAR VERDE, LOOKING WESTWARD.]
Connected with the main room by a passageway 2 feet long cut in its
eastern wall, there is an almost circular chamber 7 feet in diameter,
and this in turn connects with another chamber beyond it by a passageway
2½ feet long and less than 2 feet wide. The roofs of the two chambers
last mentioned are but 4½ and 4 feet, respectively, above the floor, and
in none of the rooms of this group, except the main apartment, are
pockets or niches found. The whole group extends back about 45 feet into
the bluff.