the floor of kiva V, for instance, to its present depth, or to peck away
the projecting rock in some of the other kivas, will realize at once
that the Cliff Palace people were industrious stone workers. A number of
the pounding stones (pl. 22, _a_) with which this work was done have been
found. These stones are cubical in form, or rounded or pointed at one
end or both ends, and provided with two or more pits on the sides. They
were evidently held directly in the hand and used without handles.
Although generally small, they sometimes are of considerable size. The
stone of which they are made is foreign to the vicinity; it is hard, as
would be absolutely necessary to be effectual in the use to which they
were put.
GRINDING STONES
The most common variety of grinding stones is, of course, the metate, or
mill-stone, used in grinding corn. These implements have a variety of
forms. They may be flat above and rounded below, or flat on both sides,
triangular on each face, or simply convex on each side. None of them
have feet like the Mexican metates. The stone with which the grinding
was done, or the one held in the hand, also varies in shape, size, and
evidences of use.[67] Stones with a depression in one face served as
mortars. A stone in the form of a pestle, flat on the end, served as a
paint grinder. Several flat stones with smooth surface, showing the
effect of grinding, and others with slight concavities, undoubtedly
served the same purpose. Smooth stones showing grinding on one or more
faces were evidently the implements with which the builders smoothed the
walls of the houses after the masonry had been laid; others were used in
polishing pottery.
[Footnote 67: At several places on the surfaces of projecting rocks
forming the foundations of buildings may be noticed grooves where
metates were sharpened. One or more of these occur at the entrance to
the "street" in front of room 51. The foundation of a wall in one room
was built directly upon one of these grooves, part of the groove being
in sight, the rest covered with masonry. Near room 92 there are many of
these grooves as well as small pits.]
MISCELLANEOUS STONES
Many stone balls, large or small, were found. Some of these show
chipping, others are ground smooth. Certain of these balls were
evidently used in a game popular at Cliff Palace, in which they were
rolled or dropped into deep pits and grooves. It appears that this game
was played by occupants of the sacred rooms, as the pits are common in
the kiva floors. Other stone balls were formerly tied to the end of a
handle with a thong of hide and used as a weapon.
[Illustration: PLATE 30
SANDALS]
[Illustration: PLATE 31
SANDALS]
[Illustration: PLATE 32
SANDALS]
A half oval stone, smooth and flat at one pole, is supposed to have been
an idol, possibly the earth goddess, who is repeatedly represented by
the Hopi in a similar way. It was left near where it was found at the
northwest corner of kiva H. Our masons used rectangular slabs of soft
stone, which were doubtless door-closes, as mortar boards. They were
held in place in the door opening by jambs made of mortar laid on
sticks, and by a horizontal rod which passed between two osier eyelets
set in the uprights of the door-frame and projecting from it. These
stone doors were sometimes held in place by a groove cut in the
threshold or by a ledge of adobe.
Two thin, flat, circular stone disks (pl. 22, _c_), with smooth surfaces
and square edges, accompanied the calcined human bones in the inclosure
at the northern end of the large refuse heap. It is probable that some
of these disks were used as covers for mortuary vases. Irregularly
shaped flat stones with pits and incised figures pecked in their surface
were used in a game, and a slab covered with incised figures but without
the pits (pl. 23, _c_) probably served a similar purpose.
Several large stones, which the builders of Cliff Palace had begun to
dress and had later rejected, show the method adopted by them in cutting
stones the required size. When stones were found to be too large to be
laid, or had projections that interfered with the required shape, a
groove was pecked where the fracture was desired and the stone broken
along the groove.
POTTERY
No ruin in the Mesa Verde National Park has yielded more specimens of
pottery than Cliff Palace, many pieces of which are preserved in various
museums in Colorado and elsewhere. The collection gathered by the writer
was small compared with some of these, and although only a few whole
pieces were found, by restoration from fragments a fair number of
specimens, ample perhaps for generalization, were procured. In the
following mention of the pottery obtained from the ruin a very
comprehensive idea of the perfection in the ceramic art attained in
Cliff Palace can hardly be hoped.
Southwestern pottery may be divided into two types, so far as
superficial appearance goes: (1) coiled or indented undecorated ware;
(2) smooth polished ware. Of the latter there are two sub-types: (_a_)
pottery with a surface slip, generally white, on which designs are
painted, and (_b_) decorated pottery without a superficial slip, and
generally reddish in color. Cliff Palace pottery, when decorated,
belongs to the last two divisions, but some of the best made specimens
belong to the coiled or indented type. Although there are several
fragments of red pottery ornamented with designs painted in black, and
one or two specimens in which the basal color is orange, the majority of
the specimens belong to the so-called black-and-white ware, which may
therefore be called a type of this region.
The whole pieces of pottery collected were chiefly mortuary vessels, and
probably contained food offerings, indicating, like the sipapûs in the
kivas, that the cliff-dwellers had a distinct conception of a future
life. In addition to the limited number of pieces of unbroken pottery,
many of the fragments were decorated with novel patterns. Fragments of
corrugated and indented ware are by far the most numerous, but although
many of these were obtained, not a whole piece was found, with the
exception of a single specimen plastered in a fire-hole and three others
similarly fixed in the banquettes of kivas. These were left as they were
found.
The same forms of pottery, as dippers, ladles, vases, canteens, jars,
and similar objects, occur at Cliff Palace as at Spruce-tree House (pl.
23-27). All varieties were repeatedly found, some with old cracks that
had been mended, and one is still tied with the yucca cord with which it
had been repaired. It is evident from the frequency with which the Cliff
Palace people mended their old pottery that they prized the old vessels
and were very careful to preserve them, being loth to abandon even a
cracked jar (pl. 23, _d_). None of the Cliff Palace pottery is
glazed.[68] Some specimens of smooth pottery are coarse in texture and
without decoration; others have elaborate geometrical figures; but
animate objects are confined almost entirely to a few pictures of birds
or other animals and rudely drawn human figures. The pictography of the
pottery affords scant data bearing on the interpretation of the ancient
symbolism of the inhabitants, as compared with that of Sikyatki, for
example, in the Hopi country.
[Footnote 68: The first description of "glazed" pottery in the Pueblo
region is given by Castañeda (1540), who says: "Throughout this province
[Tiguex] are found glazed pottery and vessels truly remarkable both in
shape and execution." This has sometimes been interpreted to mean the
glossy but unglazed pottery of Santa Clara. Glazed pottery was found by
the writer in 1896 in ruins on the Little Colorado. It appears to be
intrusive in the Arizona ruins.]
_Food bowls._--In form the food bowls[69] from Cliff Palace (pls. 23-25)
are the same as those from other prehistoric sites of the Southwest, but
as a rule the Cliff Palace bowls are smaller than those of Sikyatki and
the ruins on the Little Colorado. They have, as a rule, a thicker lip,
which is square across instead of tapering to a thin edge or flaring, as
is sometimes the case elsewhere. The surface, inside and out, is
commonly very smooth, even glossy. The pottery was built up by coiling
the clay, and the colors were made permanent by the firing.
[Footnote 69: Food bowls with handles, so common to the ruins of
northern Arizona, were not found at Cliff Palace.]
The basis of the study of symbolism was of course the pottery
decoration. As a rule the center of the inside of the food bowls is
plain, but several have this portion ornamented with squares, triangles,
and other figures. The outside of several bowls from Cliff Palace and
Spruce-tree House is decorated, notwithstanding Nordenskiöld speaks of
exterior decoration as rare in his collections from the Mesa Verde. The
geometric ornaments consist of rectangular figures.[70]
[Footnote 70: No curved lines are present in the many examples of
decoration on the outside of food bowls from Sikyatki.]
_Mugs._--Some authors have questioned whether the prehistoric people of
the Southwest were familiar with this form of pottery. The collections
from Cliff Palace (pl. 24-26) and Spruce-tree House set at rest any
reasonable doubt on this point. There are, however, peculiarities in the
form of mugs from Mesa Verde. The diameter of the base is generally
larger, tapering gently toward the mouth, and one end of the handle is
rarely affixed to the rim. The inside of the mug is not usually
decorated, but the exterior bears geometrical designs in which terraces,
triangles, and parallel lines predominate. Curved lines are rare, and
spirals are absent. Mugs with two handles are unrepresented. There are
no ladles in the collection, but several broken handles of ladles were
found in the refuse. One of these is decorated with a series of
parallel, longitudinal, and transverse lines, a design as widely spread
as Pueblo pottery, extending across the boundary into Mexico.
_Globular Vessels._--The globular form of pottery was used for carrying
water and seems to have been common at Cliff Palace. One of these
vessels (pl. 25, _b_) has a small neck, and attached to it are two
eyelets for insertion of the thong by which it was carried. Some of the
globular vessels (pl. 25, _a_) have the neck small, the orifice wide,
and the lip perforated with holes for strings. Double-lipped globular
vessels, having a groove like that of a teapot, have been found in Cliff
Palace as well as in other ruins of Mesa Verde and Montezuma canyon. The
rims of these are generally perforated, as if for the insertion of
thongs to facilitate carrying. The bottoms of these vessels are rarely
concave. They are sometimes decorated on the outside, but never on the
interior.
_Vases._--Small vases with contracted neck and lip slightly curved, and
larger vases with the same characters, occur sparingly. These (pls. 26,
27, _b_) are decorated on the exterior in geometrical designs; the
interior is plain. The bases are rounded, sometimes flat, and in rare
instances concave.
_Disks._--Among pottery objects should be mentioned certain disks, some
large, others small, some perforated in the middle, others imperforate.
Several are decorated. These disks served as covers for bowls, and
similar disks were employed as counters in games or as spindle whorls.
None of the clay disks from Cliff Palace has a central knob or handle
like those from Spruce-tree House.
RELATIONS AS DETERMINED BY POTTERY
In the report on Spruce-tree House, using pottery as a basis, the
prehistoric culture of the Southwest, including the Gila-Salt area,
which can not strictly be designated Pueblo, has been provisionally
divided into several subcultural areas. Among these are the Hopi, a
specialized modification of the Little Colorado, the Little Colorado
proper, the San Juan, and the Gila-Salt areas.
Cliff Palace pottery symbols are not closely related to those on old
Hopi ware, as typified by the collections from Sikyatki.[71] Neither
Cliff Palace nor Spruce-tree House pottery is closely allied to that of
the Little Colorado, as exemplified by Homolobi ware, but both have a
closer likeness to that from Wukóki, a settlement ascribed to the Snake
clans, situated near Black Falls, not far from Flagstaff, Arizona. As a
rule the symbolism on pottery from the Little Colorado, which includes
that of its upper tributaries, as the Zuñi, Puerco, Leroux, and
Cottonwood washes, is a mixture of all types. This river valley has
exerted a distributing influence in Pueblo migrations, and in its ruins
are found symbols characteristic of many clans, some of which, following
up the tributaries of the Salt and the Gila, have brought Casas Grandes
decorative elements; others, with sources in the northeast, have
contributed designs from an opposite direction. The predominating
directions of ceramic culture migration in this valley have been from
south to north and from west to east.[72]
[Footnote 71: Sikyatki ware is more closely related to that of the
ancient Jemez and Pajarito subarea than to that made by the Snake clans
when they lived at Tokónabi, their old home, or at Black Falls shortly
before they arrived at Walpi. Careful study of ancient Walpi pottery
made by the Bear clan before the arrival of the Snake clans shows great
similarity to Sikyatki pottery, and the same holds regarding the ware
from old Shongopovi.]
[Footnote 72: In the ruins found on the banks of the Little Colorado at
Black Falls, the predominating influence, as shown by pottery symbols,
has been from the north. It is known from legends that Wukóki was
settled by clans from the north, the close likeness to the symbols of
the San Juan valley supporting traditions still current at Walpi.]
The relation of Cliff Palace pottery designs to the symbolism or
decorative motives characteristic of the Gila valley ruins is remote.
Several geometrical patterns are common to all areas of the Southwest,
but specialized features characterize each of these areas. The pottery
from Cliff Palace finds its nearest relation throughout the upper San
Juan region; the most distant to that of ruins in northern Arizona near
Colorado Grande.[73]
[Footnote 73: A thorough comparative study of Pueblo pottery symbolism
is much restricted on account of lack of material from all ceramic
culture areas of the Southwest. It is likewise made difficult by a
mixture of types produced by the migration of clans from one area to
another. The subject is capable of scientific treatment, but at present
is most difficult of analysis.]
SYMBOLS ON POTTERY
The symbols on the Cliff Palace pottery are reducible to rectangular
geometrical figures; life forms, with the rare exceptions noted above,
are not represented, and the exceptional examples are crude. Contrast
this condition with the pottery from Sikyatki, where three-fourths of
the decorations are life designs, as figures of men or animals, many of
which are highly symbolic. The "sky band" with hanging bird design,
peculiar to old Hopi ware, was unknown to Cliff Palace potters.
Encircling lines are unbroken, no specimen being found with the break so
common to the pottery from the Hopi, Little Colorado, Gila, and Jemez
subareas. The designs on food bowls are often accompanied with marginal
dots. No example of the conventionalized "breath-feather" so common in
Sikyatki pottery decoration occurs. Spattering with color was not
practiced.
An analysis of the pottery decorations shows that the dominant forms may
be reduced to a few types, of which the terrace, the spiral, the
triangle, and the cross in its various forms are the most common.
Various forms and sizes of triangles, singly or in combination,
constitute one of the most constant devices used by the cliff-dwellers
of the Mesa Verde in the decoration of their pottery. It is common to
find two series of triangles arranged on parallel lines. When the
component triangles are right-angled they sometimes alternate with each
other, forming a zigzag which may be sinistral or dextral. This design
may be called an alternate right-angular figure.
If instead of two parallel series of right-angle triangles there are
isosceles triangles, they may be known as alternate isosceles triangles.
These triangles, when opposite, form a series of hour-glass figures or
squares. This form is commonly accompanied by a row of dots, affixed to
top and base, known as the dotted square or hour-glass figure.
Hour-glass designs are commonly represented upright, but the angles of
the triangles may be so placed that the series is horizontal, forming a
continuous chain. Often the bases of these serially arrayed hour-glass
figures are separated by rows of dots or by blank spaces.
A row of triangles, each so placed that the angles touch the middles of
the sides of others in the same series, form an arc called linear
triangles. The St. Andrews cross, which occurs sparingly on Mesa Verde
pottery, is formed by joining the vertical angles of four isosceles
triangles.
The cross and the various forms of the familiar swastika also occur on
Cliff Palace pottery. The star symbol, made up of four squares so
arranged as to leave a space in the middle, is yet to be found in Mesa
Verde. Parallel curved lines, crooked at the end or combined with
triangles and squares, occur commonly in the pottery decoration of
Cliff Palace. S-shaped figures are known. Rectangles or triangles with
dots, or even a line of dots alone, are not rare in the decoration. No
designs representing leaves or flowers occur on pottery from Cliff
Palace, nor has the spider-web pattern been found. The most common
geometrical decorations are the stepped or terraced figures, generally
called rain-clouds.
POTTERY RESTS
Among the objects found in the refuse heaps of Cliff Palace are rings,
about 6 inches in diameter, woven of corn husks or cedar bark bound
together with fiber of yucca or other plants. These rings (pl. 28) were
evidently used as supports for earthenware vases, the bases of which are
generally rounded, so that otherwise they would not stand upright.
Similar rings may have been used by the women in carrying jars of water
on their heads,[74] as among the Zuñi of to-day. Some of these rings may
have been used in what is called the "ring and dart" game, which is
often ceremonial in nature. The best made of all these objects, found by
Mr. Fuller on his visit to a neighboring canyon, is shown in the
accompanying illustration (pl. 28, _b_). The specimen is made of tightly
woven corn husks, around which the fiber is gathered so as to form an
equatorial ridge rarely present in these objects.
[Footnote 74: The Hopi use large clay canteens for this purpose, no
vessels resembling which, whole or in fragments, have been found at
Cliff Palace.]
BASKETRY
A few instructive specimens of basketry or wicker ware were exhumed at
Cliff Palace. One of the most interesting of these is the unfinished
plaque shown in the accompanying figure 2.
One specimen of basketry (pl. 29) has the form of a hopper; its whole
central part was purposely omitted, but the basket is finished on the
inner and outer margins. It recalls a basket used by the Ute and other
Shoshonean Indians, but it is different in form from any figured in
Nordenskiöld's work, and, so far as the author is acquainted with other
specimens of basketry from Mesa Verde ruins, is unique. It is supposed
that when used this hopper was placed on a flat or rounded stone and
that corn or other seeds to be pounded were placed in it, the stone thus
forming the surface upon which the seeds were treated, and the sides of
the basket serving to retain the meal.
SANDALS
The sandals found at Cliff Palace (pls. 30-32) are practically the same
in form, material, and weave as those recorded from Spruce-tree House.
The shape of these, however, is particularly instructive, as it appears
to shed light on the meaning of certain flat stones, rare in
cliff-dwellings, called "sandal lasts." These stones, one of which is
figured in the report on Spruce-tree House, are rectangular, flat, thin,
smooth, with rounded corners, and sometimes have a notch in the rim at
one end. The exceptionally formed sandal from Cliff Palace (pl. 32) is
similar in shape and has a notch identical with that of the
problematical stone objects, supporting the theory that the latter were
used as sandal lasts, as interpreted by several authors.
[Illustration: PLATE 33
_a_ Billet
_b_ Objects used in game
_c_ Billet
WOODEN OBJECTS]
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Coil of basket plaque.]
The sandals are ordinarily made of plaited yucca leaves, their upper
side being sometimes covered with corn leaves for protection of the
feet. The thongs that passed between the toes are made either of yucca
or other vegetable fiber, or of hide.
WOODEN OBJECTS
There are several objects made of wood in the collection from Cliff
Palace, some of the least problematical of which are long, pointed rods
(fig. 3) with which the ancients probably made the holes in which they
planted corn, in much the same way as the Hopi plant at the present day.
These implements are commonly pointed at the end, but one or two are
broadened and flattened. No example of the spatular variety of dibble
found by others, and none showing the point of attachment of a flat
stone blade, occurs in the collection. One or two short broken sticks,
having a knob cut on the unbroken end, are interpreted as handles of
weapons--a use that is not definitely proven. There are several sticks
that evidently were used for barring windows or for holding stone
door-closes in place.
Among problematical wooden objects may be mentioned billets (pl. 33),
flattened on one side and rounded at each end. Two of these were found,
with calcined human bones, in the inclosure used for cremation of the
dead, situated at the northern end of the large refuse heap. These, like
the bowls with which they were associated, were coated with a white
salt-like deposit. None of the many wooden objects figured by
Nordenskiöld are exactly the same as those above mentioned, although the
one shown in his plate XLIII, figure 17, is very close in form and size.
Several bent twigs or loops of flexible wood from the refuse heaps were
found; these are supposed to have been inserted in the masonry, one on
each side of door and window openings, to hold in place the stick which
served as a bolt for fastening the door or window stone in position.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Planting sticks.]
Bent sticks, of dumb-bell shape, having a knob at each end (pl. 33,
_b_), are believed to have been used in games. A similar object from the
Mancos region is figured by Mr. Stewart Culin in his account of the
games of the cliff-dwellers.[75] The ancient people of the semi-deserts
of Atacama, in South America, employed a similar but larger stick, to
which cords were attached for strapping bundles on their beasts of
burden.
[Footnote 75: _Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology._]
DRILLS
A small pointed stone attached with fiber to the end of a stick, similar
to those found by Nordenskiöld in ruin 9 and at Long House, was found.
The Cliff Palace people kindled fire by means of the fire-drill and
fire-stick (hearth), a specimen of which, similar to one collected at
Spruce-tree House, is contained in the collection. Both of these
fire-making implements were broken when found, apparently thrown away on
that account either by the original people or by subsequent visitors.
BONE IMPLEMENTS
Many bone implements (pl. 34, 35) were found during the excavation of
Cliff Palace. They are of the bones of birds and small mammals, or, now
and then, of those of antelope or bear, the latter furnishing the best
material for large scrapers. These implements were evidently sharpened
by rubbing on the stones of walls or on the face of the cliff, as
grooves, apparently made in this way, are there visible in several
places. Scratches made in shaping or sharpening bones, repeatedly found
on the masonry of Cliff Palace, are not peculiar, resembling those
referred to in the report on Spruce-tree House. A small tube with a hole
midway of its length doubtless served as a whistle, similar instruments
being still often used in Hopi ceremonies to imitate the calls of birds.
[Illustration: PLATE 34
BONE IMPLEMENTS]