with soot, showing that formerly there were many fires in the courts
and other open places of the village. In almost every corner of the
buildings in which a fire could be made the effect of smoke on the
adjoining walls is discernible, while ashes are found in a depression
in the floor. These fireplaces are very simple, consisting simply
of square box-like structures bounded by a few flat stones set on
edge. In other instances a depression in the floor bordered with
a low ridge of adobe served as a fireplace. There remains nothing
to indicate that the inhabitants were familiar with chimneys or
firehoods as is the case among the modern pueblos. Certain small
rooms suggest cook-houses, or places where _piki_, or paper bread,
was fried by the women on slabs of stone over a fire, but none of
these slabs were found in place. The fireplaces of the kivas are
considered specially in an account of the structure of those rooms
(see p. 18).
No evidence that Spruce-tree House people burnt coal was observed,
although they were familiar with lignite and seams of coal underlie
their mesa.
DOORS AND WINDOWS
There are both doors and windows in the secular houses of Spruce-tree
House, although the two rarely exist together. The windows, most of
which are small square peep-holes or round orifices, look obliquely
downward, as if their purpose was rather for outlook than for air,
the latter being admitted as a rule through the doorway. (Pls. 10,
11.)
The two types of doorways differ more in shape than in any other
feature. These types may be called the rectangular and the =T=-shaped
form. Both are found at a high level, but it can not be discovered
how they could have been entered without ladders or notched logs.
Although these modes of entrance were apparently often used it is
remarkable that no traces of the logs have yet been found in the
extensive excavations at Spruce-tree House. The =T=-shaped doorways
are often filled in at the lower or narrow part, sometimes with
stones rudely placed, oftentimes with good masonry, by which a
=T=-shaped door is converted into one of square type. Doorways
of both types are often completely filled in, leaving only their
outlines on the sides of the wall.
FLOORS AND ROOFS
The floors of the rooms are all smoothly plastered and, although
purposely broken through in places by those in search of specimens,
are otherwise in fairly good condition. In one of the rooms at the
left of the main court is a small round hole at the bottom of a
concave depression like a fireplace, the use of which is not known.
Many of the floors sound hollow when struck, but this fact is not
an indication of the presence of cavities below. In tiers of rooms
that rise above the first story the roof of one room forms the floor
of the room above it. Wherever roofs still remain they are found to
be well constructed (pl. 9) and to resemble those of the old Hopi
houses. In Spruce-tree House the roofs are supported by timbers laid
from one wall to another; these in turn support crossbeams on which
were placed layers of cedar bark covered with a thick coating of mud.
In several roofs hatchways are still to be seen, but in most cases
entrances are at the sides. One second-story room has a fireplace
constructed like those on the ground floor or on the roof. Several
fireplaces were found on the roofs of buildings one story high.
The largest slabs of stone used in the construction of the rooms of
Spruce-tree House were generally made into lintels and thresholds.
The latter surfaces were often worn smooth by those crawling through
the opening and in some cases they show grooves for the insertion
of the door slabs. Although the sides of the door are often upright
slabs of stone these may be replaced by boards set in adobe plaster.
Similar split boards often form lintels.
The door was apparently a flat stone set in an adobe casing on the
inside of the frame where it was held in position by a stick. Each
end of this stick was inserted into an eyelet made of bent osiers
firmly set in the wall. Many of these broken eyelets can still be
seen in the doorways and one or two are still entire. A slab of stone
closing one of the doorways is still in place.
KIVAS
There are eight circular subterranean rooms identified as ceremonial
rooms, or _kivas_, in Spruce-tree House (pls. 12, 13). Beginning on
the north these kivas are designated by letters A-H. When excavation
began small depressions full of fallen stones, with here and there
a stone buttress projecting out of the débris, were the only
indications of the sites of these important chambers. The walls of
kiva H were the most dilapidated and the most obscured of all, the
central portion of the front wall of rooms 62 and 63 having fallen
into this chamber; added to the débris were the high walls of the
round room, no. 69. Kiva G is the best-preserved kiva and kiva A the
most exceptional in construction. Kiva B, never seen by previous
investigators, was in poor condition, its walls being almost
completely broken down. Part of the wall of kiva A is double (pl.
13), indicating a circular room built inside another room the shape
of which inclines to oval, the former utilizing a portion of the wall
of the latter. This kiva is also exceptional in being surrounded on
three sides by rooms, the fourth side being the wall of the cavern.
From several considerations the author regards this as the oldest
kiva in Spruce-tree House.
The typical structure of a Spruce-tree House kiva is as follows: Its
form is circular or oval; the site is subterranean, the roof being
level with the floor of the surrounding plaza. (Pls. 13-15.) Two
walls, an outer and an inner, inclose the room, the latter forming
the lower part. Upon the top of this lower wall rest six pedestals,
which support the roof beams; the outer wall braces these pedestals
on one side. The spaces between these pedestals form recesses in
which the floors extend a few feet above the floor of the room.
The floor of the kiva is generally plastered, but in some cases is
solid rock. The fireplace is a circular depression in the floor, its
purpose being indicated by the wood ashes found therein. Its lining
is ordinarily made of clay, which in some instances is replaced by
stones set on edge.
The other important opening in the floor is one called _sipapû_, or
symbolic opening into the underworld. This is generally situated near
the center of the room, opposite the fireplace. This opening into the
underworld is barely large enough to admit the human hand and extends
only about a foot below the floor surface. It is commonly single, but
in one kiva two of these orifices were detected. A similar symbolic
opening occurs in modern Hopi kivas, as has been repeatedly described
in the author’s accounts of pueblo ceremonials. An important
structure of a Spruce-tree House kiva is an upright slab of rock, or
a narrow thin wall of masonry, placed between the fireplace and the
wall of the kiva. This object, sometimes called an altar, serves as
a deflector, its function being to distribute the air which enters
the kiva at the floor level through a vertical shaft, or ventilator.
Every kiva has at least one such deflector, a single fireplace, and
the sipapû, or ceremonial opening mentioned above.
Several small cubby-holes, or receptacles for paint or small
ceremonial objects, generally occur in the lower walls of the kiva.
In addition to these there exist openings ample in size to admit
the human body, which serve different purposes. The first kind
communicate directly with passageways through which one can pass from
the kiva into a neighboring room or plaza. Such a passageway in kiva
E has steps near the opening in the floor of room 35. This entrance
is not believed, however, to be the only way by which one could enter
or leave this room, but was a private passage, the main entrance
being through the roof. Another lateral passageway is found in kiva
D, where there is an opening in the south wall communicating with
the open air by means of an exit in the floor of room 26; another
opening is found in the wall on the east side. Kiva C has a lateral
opening communicating with a vertical passageway which opens in the
middle of the neighboring plaza. In addition to lateral openings all
kivas without exception have others that serve as ventilators, as
before mentioned, by which air is introduced on the floor level of
the kivas. The opening of this kind communicates through a horizontal
passage with a vertical flue which finds its way outside the room
on a level with the roof. In cases where the kiva is situated near
the front wall these ventilators open through this wall by means of
square apertures. All ventilator openings are in the west wall except
that of kiva A, which is the only one that has rooms on that side.
The construction of kiva roofs must have been a difficult problem
(pls. 14, 15). The beams (L-1 to L-4) are supported by the six
pedestals (C) which stand upon the banquettes (A), and in turn are
supported by the outer wall (B) of the kiva. On top of each of these
pedestals is inserted a short stick (H) that served as a peg on
which the inmates hung their ceremonial paraphernalia. The supports
of the roof were cedar logs cut in suitable lengths by stone axes.
Three logs were laid, connecting adjacent pedestals upon which they
rested. These logs, which were large enough to support considerable
weight, had been stripped of their bark. Upon these six beams were
laid an equal number of beams, spanning the intervals between those
first placed, as shown in the illustration (pl. 15). Upon the
last-mentioned beams were still other logs extending across the kiva,
as also shown in the plate.
The main weight of the roof was supported by two large logs which
extended diametrically across the kiva from one wall to the wall
opposite; they were placed a short distance apart, parallel with
each other. The distance between these logs determines the width of
the doorway, two sides of which they form. The other two sides are
formed by two beams (L-4) of moderate size, laid across these logs,
the space between them and the two beams being filled in with other
logs, forming a compact framework. No nails are necessary in a roof
constructed in this way.
The smaller interstices between the logs were filled in with small
sticks and twigs, thus preventing soil from dropping into the room.
Over the supports of the roof was spread a layer of cedar bark (M)
covered with mud (N), laid deep enough to bring the top of the roof
to the level of the plaza in which the kiva is situated.
No kiva was found in which the plastering of the walls was supported
by sticks, as sometimes occurs here, according to Nordenskiöld, and
in one or more of the Hopi kivas. The plastering of the walls was
placed directly on the masonry.
It is probable that the kiva walls were painted with various devices
before their roofs fell in and other mutilation of the walls took
place. Among these designs parallel lines in white were common.
Similar lines are still made with meal on kiva walls in Hopi
ceremonies, as the author has often described. One of the pedestals
of kiva A is decorated with a triangular figure on the margin of the
dado, to which reference will be made later.
The author has found no conclusive answer to the question why
the kivas are built under ground and are circular in form. He
believes both conditions to be survivals of ancient “pit-houses,”
or subterranean dwellings of an antecedent people. In this
explanation the kiva is regarded as the oldest form of building in
the cliff-dwellings. We have the authority of observation bearing
on this point. Pit-dwellings are recorded from several ruins. In a
recent work Dr. Walter Hough figures and describes certain dwellings
of subterranean character that are sometimes found in clusters,[15]
while the present author has observed subterranean rooms so situated
as to leave no doubt of their great antiquity.[16]
The form of the kiva is characteristic and may be used as a basis of
classification of pueblo culture. The people whose kivas are circular
inhabited villages now ruins in the valley of the San Juan and its
tributaries, in Chelly canyon, Chaco canyon, and on the western
plateau of the Rio Grande.
The rectangular kiva is a structure altogether different from a
round kiva, morphologically, genetically, and geographically. It
is peculiar to the southern and western pueblo area, and while
of later growth, should not be regarded as an evolution from the
circular kiva. Several authors have found in circular kivas survivals
of nomadic architectural conditions, while the position of these
rooms, in nearly every instance in front of the other rooms of
the cliff-dwelling, has led others to accept the theory that they
were later additions to the village, which should be ascribed to a
different race. It would seem that this hypothesis hardly conforms
to facts, as some kivas have secular rooms in front of them which
show evidences of later construction. The strongest objection to the
theory that kivas are modified houses of nomads is the style of roof
construction.
KIVA A
This room (pl. 13), which is the most northerly of all of the
ceremonial rooms of Spruce-tree House, is, the author believes, the
oldest. In construction this is a remarkable chamber. It is built
directly under the cliff, which forms part of its walls. In addition
to its site the remarkable features are its double walls, and its
floor on the level of the roofs of the other kivas. Although this
kiva is not naturally subterranean, the earth and walls built up
around it make it to all intents below the surface of the ground.
It appears from the arrangement of walls and banquettes that there is
here presented an example of one room constructed inside of another,
the inner room utilizing for its wall a portion of the outer. The
inner room is more nearly circular than the outer in which it was
subsequently built. In this inner room as in other kivas there are
six banquettes, and the same number of pedestals to support the roof.
Three of these pedestals are common to both rooms. The floor of this
room shows nothing peculiar. It has a fire hole, a sipapû, and a
deflector, or low wall between the fire hole and the entrance into
the horizontal passageway of the ventilator. The ventilator itself
opens just outside the west wall through a passageway, the walls
of which stand on the wall of a neighboring room. No plaza of any
considerable size surrounded the top of this kiva.
In order to get an idea as to how many rectangular rooms naturally
accompany a single kiva, the author examined the ground plans of
such cliff-dwellings as are known to have but one circular kiva,
the majority of these being in the Chelly canyon. While it was not
possible to determine the point satisfactorily, it was found that in
several instances the circular kiva lies in the middle of several
rooms, a fact which would seem to indicate that it was built first
and that the square rooms were added later. Several clusters of
rooms, each cluster having one kiva, closely resemble kiva A and its
surroundings, in both form and structure.
KIVA B
The walls of this subterranean room had escaped all previous
observers. They are very much dilapidated, being wholly concealed
when work of excavation began. A large old cedar tree growing in
the middle of this room led the author to abandon its complete
excavation, which promised little return either in enlarging our
knowledge of the ground plan of Spruce-tree House or in shedding
additional light on the culture of its prehistoric inhabitants.
KIVAS C AND D
The two kivas, C and D, the roofs of which form the greater part of
plaza C, logically belong together in our consideration. One of these
rooms, C, was roofed over by the author, who followed as a model the
roofs of the two kivas of the House with the Square Tower (Peabody
House); the other shows a few log supports of an original roof—the
only Spruce-tree House kiva of which this is true.
Not only was the roof of the kiva restored but its walls were well
repaired, so that it now presents all the essential features of
an ancient kiva. On one of the banquettes of this room the author
found a vase which was evidently a receptacle for pigments or other
ceremonial paraphernalia.
Kiva D has a passageway leading into room 26 and a second opening in
the west wall on the floor level, besides a ventilator of the type
common to all kivas. The top of the opening in the west wall appears
covered with a flat stone in one of the photographic views (plate 11).
The wall in front of the village in the neighborhood of kivas C and
D was wholly concealed by débris when work was begun on this part of
the ruin. Excavation of this débris showed that opposite each kiva
there was an opening with which the ventilator is believed formerly
to have been connected. There seems to have been a low-storied house,
possibly a cooking-place, provided with a roof, in an interval
between kivas C and D; in the floor of the plaza at this point a
well-made fire hole was uncovered.
KIVA E
Kiva E is one of the finest which was excavated, showing all the
typical structures of these characteristic rooms; it almost fills
the plaza in which it is situated. The exceptional feature of this
room is a passageway through the west wall. Room 35 may have been the
house of a chief or of a priest who kept in it his masks or other
ceremonial paraphernalia. A similar opening in the wall of one of the
Hopi kivas communicates with a dark room in which are kept altars and
other ceremonial objects. When such a passageway into a dark chamber
is not in use it is closed by a slab of stone.
KIVA F
Kiva F might be designated the Spruce-tree kiva from the large
spruce tree that formerly grew near its outer wall. Its stump is now
visible, but the tree lies extended in the canyon.
The walls of this kiva were poorly preserved, and only two of the
pedestals were in place. The walls were repaired and the roof
restored. This room is situated outside the walls, and in that
respect recalls kiva B, described above. The ventilator opening of
this kiva is situated on the south instead of on the west side of
the room, as is the rule in other kivas. The large size of this room
would indicate that it was of great importance in the religious
ceremonials of the prehistoric inhabitants of Spruce-tree House, but
all indications point to its late construction.[17]
KIVA G
Kiva G was so well preserved that its walls were thoroughly restored;
it now stands as typical of one of these rooms in which the several
characteristic features may be seen. For the guidance of visitors,
letters or numbers accompanied by explanatory labels were painted by
the author on the walls of the kiva.
Kiva G lies just below and in front of the round tower of Spruce-tree
House, which is situated in the neighborhood of the main court, and
may therefore be looked on as one of the most important kivas in the
cliff-dwelling.[18] The solid stone floor of this room had been cut
down about 8 inches.
KIVA H
Kiva H, the largest in Spruce-tree House, contained some of the best
specimens excavated by the author. Its shape is oval rather than
circular, and it fills the whole space inclosed by walls of rooms
on three sides. In the neighborhood of kiva H is a comparatively
spacious plaza which is bounded on the front by a low wall, now
repaired, and on the other sides are high rooms. The plaza containing
this kiva was ample for ceremonial dances which undoubtedly formerly
occurred in it. The walls of kiva H formerly had a marked pinkish
color, showing no sign of blackening by smoke except in places.
Charred roof beams were excavated at one place, however, and charcoal
occurred deep under the débris that filled this room.
CIRCULAR ROOMS OTHER THAN KIVAS
There are two rooms (nos. 54, 69) of circular shape in Spruce-tree
House, one of which resembles the “tower” in the Cliff Palace. This
room (no. 54) is situated to the right hand of the main court above
referred to, into which it projects without attachment except on one
side. Its walls have two small windows or openings which have been
called doorways, and are of a single story in height. This tower was
apparently ceremonial in character.
It is instructive to mention that remains of a fire hole containing
wood ashes occur in the floor on one side of this room, and that the
walls are pierced with several small holes opening at an angle. Only
foundations remain of the other circular room. It was situated on the
south side of the open space containing kiva H and formed a bastion
at the north end of the front wall. The floor of this room was wholly
covered with fallen débris and its ground plan was wholly concealed
when the excavations began; it was only with considerable difficulty
that the foundation walls could be traced.
CEREMONIAL ROOM OTHER THAN KIVA
While the circular subterranean rooms above mentioned are believed
to be the most common ceremonial chambers, there are others in the
cliff-dwellings which were undoubtedly used for similar purposes.
One of these, designated room 12, adjoins the mortuary room (11) and
opens on the plaza C, D. In some respects the form of this room is
similar to an “estufa of singular construction” described and figured
in Nordenskiöld’s account of Cliff Palace. Certain distinctive
characters of this room separate it on one side from a kiva and on
the other from a dwelling. In the first place, it lacks the circular
form and subterranean site. The six pedestals which universally
support the roofs are likewise absent. In fact they are not needed
because in this room the top of the cave serves as the roof. A
bank extends around three sides of the room, the fourth side being
the perpendicular wall of the cliff. In the southeast corner is an
opening, which recalls that in the “estufa of singular construction”
described by Nordenskiöld.[19]
MORTUARY ROOM
Room 9 may be designated a mortuary room from the fact that at least
four human skeletons and accompanying offerings have been found in
its floor. Three of those, excavated several years ago, were said
to have been infants; the skull of one of these was figured and
described by Prof. G. Retzius, in Nordenskiöld’s memoir. The skeleton
found by the author was that of an adult and was accompanied by
mortuary offerings. The skull and some of the larger bones were well
preserved.[20] Evidently the doorway of this room had been walled up
and there are indications that the burials took place at intervals,
the last occurring before the desertion of the village.
The presence of burials in the floors of rooms in Spruce-tree House
was to be expected, as the practice of thus disposing of the dead
was known from other ruins of the Park, but it has not been pointed
out that we have in this region good evidence of several successive
interments in the same room. The existence of this intramural burial
room in the south end of the ruin is one of the facts that can be
adduced pointing to the conclusion that this part of the ruin is very
old.
SMALL LEDGE-HOUSES
Not far from the Spruce-tree House, situated in the same canyon,
there are small one-room houses perched on narrow ledges situated
generally a little higher than the cave containing the main ruin.
Although it is difficult to enter some of these houses, members of
the author’s party visited all of them, and two of the workmen slept
in a small ledge-house on the west side of the canyon. Except in rare
cases these smaller houses can not be considered dwellings; they may
have been used for storage, although it is more than likely that they
were resorted to by priests when they wished to pray for rain or to
perform certain ceremonies. The ledge-houses form a distinct type
of ruin; they are rarely multiple-chambered and therefore are not
capacious enough for more than one family.
STAIRWAYS