Nowhere in the village ruins or in the cavate lodges of the lower Verde
were any traces of chimneys or other artificial smoke exits found. The
village ruins are too much broken down to permit definite statement of
the means employed for smoke exits, but had the inhabitants employed
such exits as are in use in the pueblos today some evidence of them
would remain. Probably there was no other exit than the door, and
perhaps trapdoors or small openings in the roofs, such as were formerly
employed in the inhabited pueblos, according to their traditions. In the
cavate lodges no exit other than the door was possible, and many of them
are found with their walls much blackened by smoke.
The fireplaces or fire holes of the cavate lodges have already been
alluded to, and one of the best examples found is illustrated in plate
XXXII, and the location of a number of others is shown on the general
plan. These fireplaces are located not in the center of the chamber, but
near the principal doorway, and doubtless the object of this location
was to facilitate the escape of the smoke. Fire holes were never located
in interior rooms. The fireplace illustrated in plate XXXII has been
already described (p. 227); it was excavated in the solid rock of the
floor and was lined with fragments of pottery laid in mud mortar as
closely as their shape would permit. A part of this pottery lining can
be seen in the illustration. When the room was cleared out the fire hole
was found to be about half full of fine ashes.
[Illustration: Plate XLVII.
STANDING WALLS OPPOSITE VERDE.]