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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
BULLETIN 41
ANTIQUITIES OF THE MESA VERDE
NATIONAL PARK
SPRUCE-TREE HOUSE
BY
JESSE WALTER FEWKES
[Illustration]
WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1909
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY,
_Washington, D. C., January 4, 1909_.
SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith for publication, with your
approval, as Bulletin 41 of this Bureau, the report of Dr. Jesse
Walter Fewkes on the work of excavation and repair of Spruce-tree
cliff-ruin in the Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. This was
undertaken, pursuant to your instructions, under the direction of
the Secretary of the Interior, and a résumé of the general results
accomplished is published in the latter’s annual report for 1907-8.
The present paper is more detailed, and deals with the technical
archeological results.
It is gratifying to state that Doctor Fewkes was able to complete
the work assigned him, and that Spruce-tree House—the largest ruin
in Mesa Verde Park with the exception of the Cliff Palace—is now
accessible for the first time, in all its features, to those who
would view one of the great aboriginal monuments of our country.
This is the more important since Spruce-tree House fulfills the
requirements of a “type ruin,” and since, owing to its situation, it
is the cliff-dwelling from which most tourists obtain their first
impressions of structures of this character.
Respectfully, yours, W. H. HOLMES, _Chief_.
THE SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,
_Washington, D. C._
CONTENTS
Page
Site of the ruin 1
Recent history 2
General features 7
Major antiquities 8
Plazas and courts 8
Construction of walls 9
Secular rooms 10
Balconies 15
Fireplaces 16
Doors and windows 16
Floors and roofs 17
Kivas 17
Kiva A 20
Kiva B 21
Kivas C and D 21
Kiva E 22
Kiva F 22
Kiva G 23
Kiva H 23
Circular rooms other than kivas 23
Ceremonial room other than kiva 24
Mortuary room 24
Small ledge-houses 24
Stairways 25
Refuse-heaps 25
Minor antiquities 25
Pottery 28
Forms 29
Structure 30
Decoration 32
Ceramic areas 34
Hopi area 35
Little Colorado area 36
Mesa Verde area 37
Stone implements 38
Axes 38
Grinding stones 40
Pounding stones 41
Cylinder of polished hematite 41
Basketry 42
Wooden objects 42
Sticks tied together 42
Slabs 43
Spindles 43
Planting-sticks 44
Miscellaneous objects 44
Fabrics 44
Bone implements 48
Fetish 49
Lignite gorget 49
Corn, beans, and squash seeds 50
Hoop-and-pole game 50
Leather and skin objects 51
Absence of objects showing European culture 51
Pictographs 51
Conclusions 53
Index 55
ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE 1. Ground-plan of Spruce-tree House.
2. The ruin, from the northwest and the west.
3. Plaza D.
4. The ruin, from the south end.
5. The ruin, from the south.
6. Rooms 11-24.
7. The ruin, from the north end.
8. North end of the ruin, showing masonry pillar.
9. A roof and a street.
10. The ruin from the south end, showing rooms and plaza.
11. Kiva D.
12. Kiva D, from the north.
13. Interiors of two kivas.
14. Central part of ruin, and kiva.
15. Diagrams of kiva, showing construction.
16. Decorated food-bowls.
17. Decorated food-bowls.
18. Decorated food-bowls.
19. Decorated vase and mugs.
20. Decorated bowl and canteen.
21. Stone implements.
Page
FIGURE 1. Lid of jar 29
2. Repaired pottery 29
3. Handle with attached cord 30
4. Ladle 30
5. Handle of mug 30
6. Fragment of pottery 32
7. Zigzag ornament 32
8. Sinistral and dextral stepped figures 32
9. Triangle ornament 32
10. Meander 33
11. Stone axes 39
12. Stone ax with handle 40
13. Stone pigment-grinder 41
14. Fragment of basket 42
15. Sticks tied together 42
16. Wooden slab 43
17. Spindle and whorl 43
18. Ceremonial sticks 44
19. Primitive fire-stick 44
20. Wooden needle 44
21. Belt 44
22. Headband 45
23. End of headband 45
24. Head ring 45
25. Yucca-fiber cloth with attached feathers 46
26. Woven cord 46
27. Agave fiber tied in loops 47
28. Woven moccasin 47
29. Fragment of sandal 47
30. Hair-brush 47
31. Bone implements 48
32. Dirk and cedar-bark sheath 48
33. Bone implement 49
34. Bone scraper 49
35. Bone scraper 49
36. Hoop used in hoop-and-pole game 50
37. Portion of leather moccasin 51
ANTIQUITIES OF THE MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK
SPRUCE-TREE HOUSE
By JESSE WALTER FEWKES
SITE OF THE RUIN
Spruce-tree House (pls. 1, 2)[1] is situated in the eastern side of
Spruce-tree canyon, a spur of Navaho canyon, which at the site of the
ruin is about 150 feet deep, with precipitous walls. The canyon ends
blindly at the northern extremity, where there is a spring of good
water; it is wooded with tall piñons, cedars, and stately spruces,
the tops of which in some cases reach from its bed to its rim. The
trees predominating on the rim of the canyon are cedars and pines.
The rock out of which the canyon is eroded is sandstone of varying
degrees of hardness alternating with layers of coal and shale. The
water percolating through this sandstone, on meeting the harder
shale, seeps out of the cliffs to the surface. As the water permeates
the rock it gradually undermines the harder layers of sandstone,
which fall in great blocks, often leaving arches of rock above deep
caves. One of these caves is situated at the end of the canyon where
the rim rock overhangs the spring, which is filled by water seeping
down from above the shale. Another of these caves is that in which
Spruce-tree House is situated. Several smaller caves, and ledges of
rock harder than that immediately above, serve as sites for small
buildings.
The wearing away of the fallen fragments of the cliffs is much
hastened by the waterfalls which in time of heavy rains fall over
the rim rock, their force being greatly augmented by the height from
which the water is precipitated. The fragments continually falling
from the roofs of the caves form a talus that extends from the floors
of the caves down the side of the cliff. The cliff-dwellings are
erected on the top of this talus.
RECENT HISTORY
Although there was once an old Spanish trail winding over the
mountains by way of Mancos and Dolores from what is now New Mexico to
Utah, the early visitors to this part of Colorado seem not to have
been impressed with the prehistoric cliff-houses in the Montezuma
valley and on the Mesa Verde; at least they left no accounts of them
in their writings. It appears that these early Spanish travelers
encountered the Ute, possibly the Navaho Indians, along this trail,
but the more peaceable people who built and occupied the villages
now ruins in the neighborhood of Mancos and Cortez had apparently
disappeared even at that early date. Indian legends regarding the
inhabitants of the cliff-dwellings of the Mesa Verde are very limited
and indistinct. The Ute designate them as the houses of the dead,
or _moki_, the name commonly applied to the Hopi of Arizona. One
of the Ute legends mentions the last battle between the ancient
house-builders of Montezuma valley and their ancestors, near Battle
Rock, in which it is said that the former were defeated and turned
into fishes.
The ruins in Mancos canyon were discovered and first explored in 1874
by a Government party under Mr. W. H. Jackson.[2] The walls of ruins
situated in the valley have been so long exposed to the weather that
they are very much broken down, being practically nothing more than
mounds. The few cliff-dwellings in Mancos canyon which were examined
by Jackson are for the most part small; these are found on the west
side. One of the largest is now known as Jackson ruin.
In the year 1875 Prof. W. H. Holmes, now Chief of the Bureau of
American Ethnology, made a trip through Mancos canyon and examined
several ruins. He described and figured several cliff-houses
overlooked by Jackson and drew attention to the remarkable stone
towers which are so characteristic of this region.[3] Professor
Holmes secured a small collection of earthenware vessels, generally
fragmentary, and also a few objects of shells, bone, and wood,
figures and descriptions of which accompany his report. Neither
Jackson nor Holmes, however, saw the most magnificent ruins of the
Mesa Verde. Had they followed up the side canyon of the Mancos
they would have discovered, as stated by Nordenskiöld, “ruins so
magnificent that they surpass anything of the kind known in the
United States.”
The following story of the discovery of the largest two of these
ruins, one of which is the subject of this article, is quoted from
Nordenskiöld:[4]
The honour of the discovery of these remarkable ruins belongs to
Richard and Alfred Wetherill of Mancos. The family own large herds
of cattle, which wander about on the Mesa Verde. The care of these
herds often calls for long rides on the mesa and in its labyrinth
of cañons. During these long excursions ruins, the one more
magnificent than the other, have been discovered. The two largest
were found by Richard Wetherill and Charley Mason one December day
in 1888, as they were riding together through the piñon wood on the
mesa, in search of a stray herd. They had penetrated through the
dense scrub to the edge of a deep cañon. In the opposite cliff,
sheltered by a huge, massive vault of rock, there lay before their
astonished eyes a whole town with towers and walls, rising out of
a heap of ruins. This grand monument of bygone ages seemed to them
well deserving of the name of the Cliff Palace. Not far from this
place, but in a different cañon, they discovered on the same day
another very large cliff-dwelling; to this they gave the name of
Sprucetree House, from a great spruce that jutted forth from the
ruins. During the course of years Richard and Alfred Wetherill have
explored the mesa and its cañons in all directions; they have thus
gained a more thorough knowledge of its ruins than anyone. Together
with their brothers John, Clayton, and Wynn, they have also carried
out excavations, during which a number of extremely interesting
finds have been made. A considerable collection of these objects,
comprising skulls, pottery, implements of stone, bone, and wood,
etc., has been sold to “The Historical Society of Colorado.” A
still larger collection is in the possession of the Wetherill
family. A brief catalogue of this collection forms the first
printed notice of the remarkable finds made during the excavations.
Mr. F. H. Chapin visited the Mesa Verde ruins in 1889 and published
illustrated accounts[5] of his visit containing much information
largely derived from the Wetherills and others. Dr. W. R. Birdsall
also published an account of these ruins,[6] illustrated by several
figures. Neither Chapin nor Birdsall gives special attention to the
ruin now called Spruce-tree House, and while their writings are
interesting and valuable in the general history of the archeology
of the Mesa Verde, they are of little aid in our studies of this
particular ruin. The same may be said of the short and incomplete
notices of the Mesa Verde ruins which have appeared in several
newspapers. The scientific descriptions of Spruce-tree House as well
as of other Mesa Verde ruins begin with the memoir of the talented
Swede, Baron Gustav Nordenskiöld, who, in his work, “The Cliff
Dwellers of the Mesa Verde”, gives the first comprehensive account
of the ruins of this mesa. It is not too much to say that he has
rendered to American archeology in this work a service which will be
more and more appreciated in the future development of that science.
In order to make more comprehensive the present author’s report on
Spruce-tree House, the following description of this ruin is quoted
from Nordenskiöld’s memoir (pp. 50-56):
A few hundred paces to the north along the cliff lead to a large
cave, in the shadow of which lie the ruins of a whole village,
_Sprucetree House_. This cave is 70 m. broad and 28 m. in depth.
The height is small in comparison with the depth, the interior
of the cave thus being rather dark. The ground is fairly even and
lies almost on a level, which has considerably facilitated the
building operations. A plan of the ruins is given in Pl. IX. A
great part of the house, or rather village, is in an excellent
state of preservation, both the walls, which at some places are
several stories high and rise to the roof of rock, and the floors
between the different stories still remaining. The architecture
is the same as that described in the ruins on Wetherill’s Mesa.
In some parts more care is perhaps displayed in the shape of
the blocks and in the joints between them. The walls, here as
in other cliff-dwellings, are about 0.3 m. thick, seldom more.
A point which immediately strikes the eye in Pl. IX, is that no
premeditated design has been followed in the erection of the
buildings. It seems as if only a few rooms had first been built,
additions having subsequently been made to meet the requirements
of the increasing population. This circumstance, which I have
already touched upon when describing other ruins, may be observed
in most of the cliff-dwellings. There is further evidence to
show that the whole village was not erected at the same time. At
several places it may be seen that new walls have been added to
the old, though the stones of both walls do not fit into each
other, as is the case when two adjacent walls have been constructed
simultaneously. The arrangement of the rooms has been determined
by the surrounding cliff, the walls being generally built either
at right angles or parallel to it. At some places the walls
of several adjoining apartments of about equal size have been
consistently erected in the same direction, some blocks of rooms
thus possessing a regularity which is wanting in the cliff-village
as a whole. This is perhaps the first stage in the development of
the cliff-dwellings to the villages whose ruins are common in the
valleys and on the mesa, and which are constructed according to a
fixed design.
In the plan (Pl. IX) it may be seen that the cave contains two
distinct groups of rooms. At about the middle of the cliff-village
a kind of passage (23), uninterrupted by any wall, runs through
the whole ruin. We found the remains, however, of a cross wall
projecting from an elliptical room (14 in the plan) in the south
part of the village. Each of these two divisions of the ruin
contains an open space (16 and 28) at the back of the cave, the
ground in both these places being covered with bird droppings. It
is probable that this was the place where tame turkeys were kept,
though it can not have been a very pleasant abode for them, for
at least in the north of the ruin this part of the cave is almost
pitch dark, the walls of the inner court (28), rising up to the
roof of rock. In each of the two divisions of the cliff-village a
number of estufas were built, in the north at least five, in the
south at least two; while several more are, no doubt, buried in
the heaps of ruins. These estufas preserve to the least detail
the ordinary type (diam. 4-5 metres) fully described above. They
are generally situated in front of the other rooms, with their
foundations sunk deeper in the ground, and have never had an
upper story. Even their site suggests that they were used for
some special purpose, probably as assembly-rooms at religious
festivities held by those members of the tribe who lived in the
adjacent rooms. In all the estufas without exception the roof has
fallen in. It is probable, as I have mentioned before, that the
entrance of these rooms, as is still the case among the Pueblo
Indians, was constructed in the roof. The other rooms were entered
by narrow doorways (breadth 40-55 cm., height 65-80 cm.). These
doorways are generally rectangular, often somewhat narrower at the
top; the sill consists, as already described, of a long stone slab,
the lintel of a few sticks a couple of centimetres in thickness,
laid across the opening to support the wall above them. The arch
was unknown to the builders of these villages, even in the form
common among the ruins of Central America, and constructed by
carrying the walls on both sides of the doorway nearer to each
other as each course of stones was laid, until they could be
joined by a stone slab placed across them. Along both sides of the
doorway and under the lintel a narrow frame of thin sticks covered
with plaster was built (see fig. 28 to the left). This frame,
which leant inwards, served to support the door, a thin, flat,
rectangular stone slab of suitable size. Through two loops on the
outside of the wall, made of osiers inserted in the chinks between
the stones, and placed one on each side of the doorway, a thin
stick was passed, thus forming a kind of bolt. Besides this type of
door most cliff-villages contain examples of another. Some doorways
present the appearance shown in fig. 28 to the right (height 90
cm., breadth at the top, 45 cm., at the bottom 30 cm.) They were
not closed with a stone slab. They probably belonged to the rooms
most frequented in daily life, and were therefore fashioned so as
to admit of more convenient ingress and egress. The other doorways,
through which it is by no means easy to enter, probably belonged in
general to storerooms or other chambers not so often visited and
requiring for some reason or other a door to close them. It should
be mentioned that the large, =T=-shaped doors described above are
rare in the ruins on Wetherill’s Mesa which both in architecture
and in other respects bear traces of less care and skill on the
part of the builders, and are also in a more advanced stage of
decay, thus giving the impression of greater age than the ruins
treated of in the present chapter, though without showing any
essential differences.
The rooms, with the exception of the estufas, are nearly always
rectangular, the sides measuring seldom more than two or three
metres. North of the passage (23) which divides the ruin into two
parts, a whole series of rooms (26, 29-33) still extends outwards
from the back of the cave, their walls reaching up to the roof of
rock, and the floors between the upper and lower stories being in
a perfect state of preservation. The lower rooms are generally
entered by small doors opening directly on the “street.” In the
interior the darkness is almost complete, especially in room 34,
which has no direct communication with the passage. It must be
approached either through 35, which is a narrow room with the short
side towards the “street” entirely open, or through 33. We used 34
as a dark room for photographic purposes.
The walls and roof of some rooms are thick with soot. The
inhabitants must have had no great pretensions as regards light
and air. The doorways served also as windows, though at one or two
places small, quadrangular loop-holes have been constructed in
the walls for the passage of light. Entrance to the upper story
is generally gained by a small quadrangular hole in the roof at a
corner of the lower room, a foothold being afforded merely by some
stones projecting from the walls. This hole was probably covered
with a stone slab like the doors. Thick beams of cedar or piñon
and across them thin poles, laid close together, form the floors
between the stories. In some cases long sticks were laid in pairs
across the cedar beams at a distance of some decimeters between the
pairs, a layer of twigs and cedar bast was placed over the sticks,
and the whole was covered with clay, which was smoothed and dried.
In several other parts of the ruin besides this the walls still
reach the roof of the cave. These walls are marked in the plan.
In all the estufas and in some of the other rooms, perhaps the
apartments of chiefs or families of rank, the walls are covered
with a thin coat of yellow plaster. In one instance they are
even decorated with a painting, representing two birds, which is
reproduced in one of the following chapters. Pl. X: 2 shows a part
of the ruin, situated in the north of the cave. The spot from which
the photograph was taken, as well as the approximate angle of view,
is marked in the plan. The left half of the photograph is occupied
by a wall with doorways, rising to a height of three stories and
up to the roof of the cave; within the wall lies a series of five
rooms on the ground floor; behind these rooms the large open space
mentioned above (28) occupies the depths of the cavern. Here the
beams are all that remains of the floors of the upper stories,
their ends projecting a foot or two beyond the wall between the
second and third stories, where support was probably afforded in
this manner to a balcony, as an easier means of communication
between the rooms of the upper stories. In front of this part of
the building, but not visible in the photograph, lie two estufas
and outside the latter is a long wall. To judge by the ruins, the
roofs of these estufas once lay on a level with the floors of the
adjoining rooms, so that over the estufas, which were sunk in the
ground, only the roofs being left visible, the inhabitants had an
open space, bounded on the outside by the said long wall, which
formed a rampart at the edge of the talus. The same method of
construction is employed by the Moki Indians in their estufas; but
these rooms are rectangular in form.—Farther north lies another
estufa. Its site, nearest to the cliff wall, would seem to indicate
that it is the oldest. The walls in the north of the ruin still
rise to a height of 6 metres.
The south part of the ruin is similar in all respects to the north.
Its only singularity is a room of elliptical shape (axes 3.6 and
2.9 m.); from this room a wall runs south, enclosing a small open
space (16) where, as at the corresponding place in the north of the
ruin, the ground is covered with bird droppings mixed with dust and
refuse. At one end there are two semicircular enclosures (17, 18)
of loose stones forming low walls. In a pentagonal room (8) south
of this open space one corner contains a kind of closet (height 1.2
m., length and breadth O.9 m.) composed of two large upright slabs
of stone, with a third slab laid across them in a sloping position
and cemented fast (see fig. 29). Of the use to which this “closet”
was put, I am ignorant. Farther south some of the rooms are
situated on a narrow ledge, along which a wall has been erected,
probably for purposes of defense.
Plate X: 1 is a photograph of Sprucetree House from the opposite
side of the cañon. The illustrations give a better idea of the
ruin’s appearance than any description could do.
Our excavations in Sprucetree House lasted only a few days. This
ruin will certainly prove a rich field for future researches.[7]
Some handsome baskets and pieces of pottery were the best finds
made during the short period of our excavations. In a room (69)
belonging to the north part of the ruin we found the skeletons of
three children who had been buried there.
A circumstance which deserves mention, and which was undoubtedly
of great importance to the inhabitants of Sprucetree House, is the
presence at the bottom of the cañon, a few hundred paces from the
ruin, of a fairly good spring.
Near Sprucetree House there are a number of very small, isolated
rooms, situated on ledges most difficult of access. One of these
tiny cliff-dwellings may be seen to the left in fig. 27. It is
improbable that these cells, which are sometimes so small that one
can hardly turn in them, were really dwelling places; their object
is unknown to me, unless it was one of defense, archers being
posted there when danger threatened, so that the enemy might have
to face a volley of arrows from several points at once. In such a
position a few men could defend themselves, even against an enemy
of superior force, for an assailant could reach the ledge only by
climbing with hands and feet. Another explanation, perhaps better,
was suggested to me by Mr. Fewkes. He thinks that these small
rooms were shrines where offerings to the gods were deposited. No
object has, however, been found to confirm this suggestion.
To the right of fig. 27 a huge spruce may be seen. Its roots lie
within the ruins of Sprucetree House, the trunk projecting from the
wall of an estufa. In Pl. X: 1 the tree is wanting. I had it cut
down in order to ascertain its age. We counted the rings, which
were very distinct, twice over, the results being respectively 167
and 169. I had supposed from the thickness of the tree that the
number of the rings was much greater.
GENERAL FEATURES
Like the majority of cliff-dwellings in the Mesa Verde National
Park, Spruce-tree House stands in a recess protected above by an
overhanging cliff. Its form is crescentic, following that of the cave
and extending approximately north and south.
The author has given the number of rooms and their dimensions in his
report to the Secretary of the Interior (published in the latter’s
report for 1907-8) from which he makes the following quotation:
The total length of Spruce-tree House was found to be 216 feet,
its width at the widest part 89 feet. There were counted in the
Spruce-tree House 114 rooms, the majority of which were secular,
and 8 ceremonial chambers or kivas. Nordenskiöld numbered 80 of
the former and 7 of the latter, but in this count he apparently
did not differentiate in the former those of the first, second and
third stories. Spruce-tree House was in places 3 stories high;
the third-story rooms had no artificial roof, but the wall of the
cave served that purpose. Several rooms, the walls of which are
now two stories high, formerly had a third story above the second,
but their walls have now fallen, leaving as the only indication of
their former union with the cave lines destitute of smoke on the
top of the cavern. Of the 114 rooms, at least 14 were uninhabited,
being used as storage and mortuary chambers. If we eliminate these
from the total number of rooms we have 100 enclosures which might
have been dwellings. Allowing 4 inhabitants for each of these 100
rooms would give about 400 persons as an aboriginal population of
Spruce-tree House. But it is probable that this estimate should
be reduced, as not all the 100 rooms were inhabited at the same
time, there being evidence that several of them had occupants long
after others were deserted. Approximately, Spruce-tree House had a
population not far from 350 people, or about 100 more than that of
Walpi, one of the best-known Hopi pueblos.[8]
In the rear of the houses are two large recesses used for
refuse-heaps or for burial of the dead. From the abundance of guano
and turkey bones it is supposed that turkeys were kept in these
places for ceremonial or other purposes. Here have been found several
desiccated human bodies commonly called mummies.
The ruin is divided by a street into two sections, the northern and
the southern, the former being the more extensive. Light is prevented
from entering the larger of these recesses by rooms which reach the
roof of the cave. In front of these rooms are circular subterranean
rooms called _kivas_, which are sunken below the surrounding level
places, or plazas, the roofs of these kivas having been formerly
level with the plazas.
The front boundary of these plazas is a wall[9] which when the
excavations were begun was buried under débris of fallen walls, but
which formerly stood several feet above the level of the plazas.
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 Prudden[10] 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.
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 débris, its course not being visible to
any considerable extent. By removing the fallen stones composing
the débris 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
_Powamû_ 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 will
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.[11]
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.[12]
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;[13] from the arrangement of
doors it would seem that there was a lateral entrance on the ground
floor rather than through roofs.
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:[14]
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.
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.