that these were threaded on a cord and worn as necklaces or armlets, as
Nordenskiöld suggests, they may have been tied side by side, forming a
kind of breastplate not unlike that used by the Plains tribes. In a room
of Spruce-tree House, according to Nordenskiöld, eight similar pieces of
bone were found strung on a fine thong of tide.
Among other bone objects there is one, of unknown use, about an inch
long and one-fourth of an inch in diameter, nearly cylindrical in shape.
A bone with a hole in one end, similar to those figured by Nordenskiöld,
forms part of the collection.
TURQUOISE EAR PENDANTS AND OTHER OBJECTS
The single specimen of turquoise found at Cliff Palace was probably an
ear pendant, and a black jet bead was apparently used for the same
purpose. With the polished cylinder of hematite found one can still
paint the face or body a reddish color, as the Hopi do with a similar
object. From the sipapû of kiva D there was taken a small deerskin bag,
tied with yucca fiber and containing a material resembling iron pyrites,
evidently an offering of some kind to the gods of the underworld.
A button made of lignite, and beads of the same material, were found in
the refuse heap in front of the ruin after a heavy rain. The former is
broken, but it resembles that found at Spruce-tree House, although it is
not so finely made, and also one from Homólobi, a ruin on the Little
Colorado, near Winslow, Arizona.
SEEDS
The cobs and seeds of corn, squash and pumpkin seeds, beans, and
fragments of gourds give some idea of the vegetable products known to
the Cliff Palace people. Corn furnished the most important food of the
people, and its dried leaves, stalks, and tassels were abundant in all
parts of their refuse heaps. Naturally, in a cave where many small
rodents have lived for years, it is rare to find seed corn above ground
that has not been appropriated by these animals, and in the dry,
alkaline bone-phosphate dust edible corn is not very common, although
now and then occurs a cob; with attached seeds. The corn of Cliff
Palace, already figured by Nordenskiöld, resembles that still cultivated
by some of the Hopi.
TEXTILES
The Cliff Palace people manufactured fairly good cloth, the component
cords or strings being of two or three strands and well twisted. So
finely made and durable are some of these cords that they might be
mistaken for white men's work; some of them, however, are very coarse,
and are tied in hanks. Among varieties of cords, may be mentioned those
wound with feathers, from which textiles, ordinarily called "feather
cloth," was made. Yucca and cotton were employed in the manufacture of
almost all kinds of fabrics. A few fragments of netting were found.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Woven forehead band.]
The finest cloth was manufactured from cotton, a good specimen, of
which, showing a pattern woven in different colors, is contained in the
collection.
Several woven belts, and also a head-band similar to that figured in the
report on Spruce-tree House, were uncovered by the excavations.
The largest fragment of cloth was taken out of the crematory, or
inclosure containing the calcined human bones, at the northern end of
the larger refuse heap. It appears to have been a portion of a bag, or
possibly of a head covering, but it is so fragmentary that its true use
is unknown. The pattern is woven in darker colored threads, with a
selvage at two ends. The material out of which it was made has not been
definitely determined, but it closely resembles that of the specimen
figured by Nordenskiöld (plate L) from Mug House. Our excavations were
rewarded with a fine woven head-band with loops at the ends (fig. 4),
similar to that described and figured in the report on Spruce-tree
House. Several small fragments of cloth were recovered from the refuse
heap, but none of them was large enough to indicate the form of the
garment to which they originally belonged.
[Illustration: PLATE 35
BONE IMPLEMENTS]
In the group of fabrics may be included nets and cloth with feathers
wound around warp and woof, similar to those figured from Spruce-tree
House.
There were several specimens of yucca strings, tied in loops, generally
six in number, which presumably were devoted to the same purpose as by
the present Hopi, who attach to the string six ears of corn,
representing the cardinal points on the six-directions altar, and hang
them on the walls of a priest's house. If the cliff-dwellers used this
string for a similar purpose, it would appear that they, like the Hopi,
recognized six cardinal points--north, west, south, east, above, and
below--and worshiped gods of these directions, to which they erected
altars.[76]
[Footnote 76: For a Hopi six-directions altar, see _Journal of American
Ethnology and Archæology_, Vol. II, 1892.]
HUMAN BURIALS
As has been seen, there were two methods of disposing of the dead--by
inhumation and by cremation. The former may have been either house
burial or burial in the refuse heaps in the rear of the buildings. With
both forms of disposing of the dead mortuary food offerings were found.
Evidences of prehistoric burials and cremation were found both on the
mesa above Cliff Palace and in the ruin.[77]
[Footnote 77: The house burials appear to have been mainly those of
priests or other important personages.]
The practice of cremation among the cliff-dwellers has long been known.
Nordenskiöld writes (p. 49):
That cremation, however, was sometimes practiced by the Cliff
Dwellers seems probable from the fact that Richard Wetherill
observed in the same ruin, when the above-mentioned burial
chamber was found, bodies which had apparently been burnt,
together with the pottery belonging to the dead.
The evidences of cremation found in the inclosure at the northern end of
the refuse space of Cliff Palace is conclusive. The calcined bones
uncovered here were also accompanied with mortuary pottery, cloth, and
wooden objects.
The flexed position of the bodies of the dead occurs constantly in the
earth burials, which may be explained by the almost universal belief
among primitive people that when the body is returned to "mother earth"
it should be placed in the posture it normally had before birth. In
house burials at Spruce-tree House the bodies were sometimes extended at
full length, which may be interpreted to mean that the dead were not
returned to the earth mother. There was no uniformity of posture in the
burials at Cliff Palace.
The work at Cliff Palace was undertaken at too late a day to recover any
mummified human remains, all having been previously removed.
Nordenskiöld's figures and descriptions of desiccated human bodies from
other Mesa Verde cliff-dwellings would apply, in a measure, to those
from Cliff Palace.
CONCLUSIONS
While the work of excavation and repair of Cliff Palace described in the
preceding pages adds nothing distinctly new to existing knowledge of
cliff-dweller culture, it renders a more comprehensive idea of the
conditions of life in one of the largest of these interesting ancient
settlements in our Southwest. Of all the questions that present
themselves after a work of this kind, perhaps the most important, from a
scientific point of view, is, What relation exists between the culture
of Cliff Palace and that of the neighboring pueblos? Directly across the
canyon, in full view of Cliff Palace, there is a typical pueblo ruin,
almost identical in character with many others scattered throughout the
Southwest, some of which are known to have been inhabited in historic
times by ancestors of Pueblo peoples still living. The contribution here
made to the knowledge of cliff-dwelling culture will, it is hoped, shed
light on the question, In what way are the cliff-dwellers and the
Pueblos related?
The relationship in culture of the former people of Cliff Palace to
those of the large pueblo ruin on the mesa across the canyon is most
instructive. How were the inhabitants of these two settlements related;
and were the two sites inhabited simultaneously, or is the pueblo ruin
older than Cliff Palace? So far as the culture of the inhabitants of the
two is known (and knowledge of the pueblo is scant), the two settlements
were synchronously inhabited, but nothing in them gives indication of
the period of their occupancy. These questions can be settled only by
the excavation of this pueblo or of some similar ruin on the
plateau.[78] Nordenskiöld, with the data possessed by him, did not
hesitate to express decided views on this point:
[Footnote 78: A true comparison of the mesa habitation and the
cliff-dwelling can be made only by renewed work on the former, which is
now little more than a huge pile of fallen walls. Present indications
show a greater antiquity of the mesa ruin, the site of which afforded
more adequate protection. On this supposition the mesa ruins would be
considered older than the cliff ruins, and those of the valley the most
ancient. If the ruins in Montezuma valley are the oldest, we can not
suppose that the culture originated in the cliffs and spread to the
valley. The circular subterranean kiva bears indication of having
originated in valleys rather than in caverns. Nordenskiöld does not
mention the large ruin on the bluff west of Cliff Palace.]
We are forced to conclude that they [cliff-houses] were
abandoned later than the villages on the mesa. Some features,
for example, the superposition of walls constructed with the
greatest proficiency on others built in a more primitive
fashion (see plate XIII) indicate that the cliff-dwellings have
been inhabited at two different periods. They were first
abandoned, and had partly fallen into ruin, but were
subsequently repeopled, new walls being now erected on the
ruins of the old. The best explanation hereof seems to be the
following: On the plateaux and in the valleys the Pueblo tribes
attained their widest distribution and their highest
development. The numerous villages at no great distance from
each other were strong enough to defy their hostile neighbors.
But afterwards, from causes difficult of elucidation, a period
of decay set in, the number and population of the villages
gradually decreased, and the inhabitants were again compelled
to take refuge in the remote fastnesses. Here the people of the
Mesa Verde finally succumbed to their enemies. The memory of
their last struggle is preserved by the numerous human bones
found in many places, strewn among the ruined cliff-dwellings.
These human remains occur in situations where it is impossible
to assume that they have been interred.
Closely connected with the relative age and the identity of the Mesa
Verde cliff-house and pueblo culture are the age and relationship of
different cliff-houses of the same region, for example, Cliff Palace and
Spruce-tree House. The relative number of kivas may shed light on this
point.
The relative proportion of the number of kivas to secular houses varies
in Cliff Palace and Spruce-tree House. In the former there are about 7
secular rooms to every kiva; in the latter about 15. Long House has a
still more marked difference, there being here only a few secular houses
and a maximum number of kivas. Whether this variation has any meaning it
is impossible to say definitely; theoretically, as compared with modern
pueblos, the proportionately larger number of kivas points to a
sociological condition in Cliff Palace characteristic of more primitive
times. The larger the number of kivas relatively to secular rooms the
older the ruin. Long House would be regarded as older than Cliff Palace,
and Cliff Palace older than Spruce-tree House, Balcony House being the
most modern and the last of the four to be deserted. A cliff-dwelling
with a kiva but without secular rooms is rare, and one with secular
rooms but without kivas is likewise unusual. Where the latter exists it
is so situated as to indicate that it was subordinated to neighboring
large cliff-dwellings.
The relative number of circular kivas in ruins and in modern inhabited
pueblos where the circular form of room is found is larger in the ruins
than in the inhabited pueblos. The proportionate number of circular
rooms to secular rooms in cliff-dwellings of the Mesa Verde is also
larger than in pueblo ruins like those of the Chaco. Apparently the
older the pueblo the greater the relative number of kivas. If, as is
suspected, a larger number of kivas indicates relatively greater age,
the explanation may be sought in the amalgamation of clans and the
development of religious fraternities. Hypothetically, in early days
each clan had its own men's room, or kiva, but when clans were united by
marriage and secret ceremonies were no longer limited to individual
clans, the participants belonging to several clans, a religious
fraternity was developed and several clan kivas consolidated or were
enlarged into fraternity kivas such as we find among the Hopi and other
Pueblos.
From a study of kivas the conclusion is that Spruce-tree House is more
modern than Cliff Palace. This conclusion is borne out also by the fact
that the water supply at Spruce-tree House is more abundant than that at
Cliff Palace.
In one or two architectural features Cliff Palace is unique, although
sharing with other cliff-houses of the Mesa Verde National Park many
minor characters. The first difference between Cliff Palace and
Spruce-tree House, outside of the disparity in their size and the
relatively large proportion of secular to ceremonial rooms in the
latter, is the existence in the former of terraces and retaining walls.
Spruce-tree House is built on one level, above which rise the secular
houses while below are the ceremonial rooms or kivas. The contrast of
this simple condition with that of Cliff Palace, with its three terraces
and the complicated front wall at several levels thereby necessitated,
is apparent.
There are several other ruins in the Mesa Verde Park in which the
configuration of the rear of the cave led to the construction of the
cliff-house in terrace form. This is well exemplified in the Spring
House, where buildings on an upper level occupy much the same relation
to those below as the ledge houses to the main ruin, and in ruins in the
Canyon de Chelly, like those in Mummy Cave, where this relation of the
buildings on the ledge to those on top of the talus is even more
pronounced. Architectural features in cliff-houses are due to the
geological structure of the cave in which they are situated rather than
to cultural differences.
Nothing was found to indicate that Cliff Palace was inhabited during the
historic period. The inhabitants were not acquainted with metals brought
by white men to the Southwest. The absence of glass and of glazed
pottery is also significant. No sheep, horses, or other beasts of burden
paid them tribute. In fact, there is no evidence that they had ever
heard of white men. These ruins belong to the stone age in America and
show no evidence of white man's culture.
Except that it is prehistoric, the period at which Cliff Palace was
inhabited is therefore largely a matter for archeological investigation
to determine, and thus far no decisive evidence bearing on that point
has been produced. It has been held that Cliff Palace is five hundred
years old, and some writers have added five centuries to this guess; but
the nature of the evidence on which this extreme antiquity is ascribed
to the ruin is not warranted by the evidence available.
No additional information was obtained bearing on current theories of
the causes that led the ancient occupants of the Mesa Verde
cliff-dwellings to adopt this inhospitable and inconvenient habitat. It
is probable that one and the same cause led to the abandonment of
Spruce-tree House, Cliff Palace, and other Mesa Verde cliff-houses. The
inhabitants of these buildings struggled to gain a livelihood against
their unfavorable environment until a too-exacting nature finally
overcame them. There are no indications that the abandonment of Cliff
Palace was cataclysmic in nature: it seems to have been a gradual
desertion by one clan after another. One of the primary reasons was
change of climate, which caused the water supply to diminish and the
crops to fail; but long before its final desertion many clans abandoned
the place, and drifting from point to point sought home-sites where
water was more abundant. All available data lend weight to a belief that
the cliff-houses of Mesa Verde were not abandoned simultaneously, but
were deserted one by one. Possibly the inhabitants retired to the river
valleys, where water was constant, and later gave up life on the mesa.
But even then the culture was not allowed to continue unmodified by
outside influences. Where the descendants of Cliff Palace now dwell, or
whether they are now extinct, can be determined only by additional
research.
Evidence is rapidly accumulating in support of the theory that the
"cliff-dweller culture" of our Southwest was preceded by a "pit-house
culture," the most prominent feature of which is the small circular or
rectangular rooms, artificially excavated laterally in cliffs or
vertical in the ground, which served this ancient people either as
dwellings or for storage. The side walls of these rooms were supported
in some instances by upright logs, and commonly clay was plastered
directly on the walls of the excavations. The architectural survival of
subterranean rooms exists among the cliff-dwellings in circular
underground kivas, the variations of which are so well illustrated in
Cliff Palace.
In connection with these "pit rooms," which are never large, may be
mentioned the large subterranean artificial excavations found scattered
over the Pueblo area of the Southwest. Such occur in the Gila valley,
and have been reported from the San Juan drainage; they have been
identified as reservoirs and also as kivas. Some of these subterranean
rooms are rightly identified as kivas, but others have architectural
features that render this interpretation improbable. What their function
was and how they are connected with the people who built the smaller
subterranean rooms of the Southwest can be determined only by
excavations and a study of the features of both types.
The most important step that remains to be taken in the scientific study
of the ruins of the Mesa Verde National Park is to discover the relation
of the culture of Cliff Palace to that of the neighboring pueblo. This
will necessitate the scientific excavation and repair of the latter ruin
and a comparison of its major and minor antiquities with those of Cliff
Palace. The age of cliff-dwellings in different parts of the Southwest
undoubtedly varies. Certain Pueblo ruins are older than some
cliff-dwellings, and there are cliff-houses more ancient than Pueblo
ruins. Continued research in the Mesa Verde region will doubtless shed
light on the relative age of Cliff Palace and the great pueblo ruin
opposite it.
[Illustration]
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious minor typographical errors have been corrected
silently.
Footnotes and illustrations have been moved to the end of
paragraphs so as to not disrupt the flow of the text.
Variations in hyphenation, word spacing and spelling left as
printed.
Changes made are denoted by [square brackets]:
Pg. 19: "d'un point plus elévé[élevé]"
" " "d'ou[d'où] l'on contemple les ruines"
" " "de grands progrés[progrès] dans l'art"
" " "Les murs sont faits de grés[grès] gris,"