The ruins in De Chelly are so much broken down that few examples of
openings now remain; still fewer are yet intact; but there is no doubt
that they are of the regular pueblo types. Most of the openings in the
De Chelly ruins are rectangular, of medium size, neither very large nor
very small, with unfinished jambs and sills, and with a lintel such as
that shown in plate LVIII, composed of one or two series of light
sticks, sometimes surmounted by a flat stone slab. This example occurs
at the point marked 3 on the map, in what was formerly an extensive
village. The wall on the left, now covered by loosely piled rocks, was
pierced by a narrow notched doorway. The opening shown in the
illustration, which is in the northern wall, is 2 feet high and 14
inches wide; its sill is about 18 inches from the ground. The lintel is
composed of six small sticks, about an inch in diameter, surmounted by a
flat slab of stone, very roughly shaped, and separated from the sticks
by 2 inches of mud mortar.
[Illustration: Fig. 67--Notched doorway in Canyon de Chelly.]
Plate LVII shows an opening which occurs in ruin No. 16. The building
consisted of two rooms, between which there was no communication. The
eastern room was entered by the doorway shown in the illustration, which
is 2 feet above the ground and 2 feet high. To facilitate ingress a
notch was dug in the wall about 8 inches from the ground. The western
room was entered through a large doorway, shown in plate LI. The sill is
about 8 inches above the ground; the opening is 3 feet high and 14
inches wide. The lintel is composed of small sticks, with a slab of
stone above them, and the top of the opening and perhaps the sides were
plastered.
[Illustration: Plate LIX
A Partly Plastered Wall]
The notched or T-shape doorway, which is quite common in the Mesa Verde
ruins and in Tusayan, is not abundant in De Chelly, but some examples
can be seen there. One is shown in figure 67, which illustrates the
type. There is no doubt that doorways of this kind developed at a time
when no means existed for closing the opening, except blankets or skins,
and when loads were carried on the backs of men. It often happened that
doorways originally constructed of this style were afterward changed by
partial filling to square or rectangular openings. The principal doorway
in the front wall of the White House proper was originally of T-shape;
at some later period, but before the white coating was applied, the
left-hand wing and the standard below it were filled in, leaving an
almost square opening. This later filling is not uncommon in De Chelly,
and is often found in Tusayan, where openings are sometimes reduced for
the winter season and enlarged again in the summer. Many openings are
completely closed, either by filling in with masonry or by a stone slab,
and examples of both of these methods are found in De Chelly. In the
third wall from the east, in the upper part of Casa Blanca ruin, there
is a well-finished doorway sealed by a thin slab of stone set in mud. On
the right side of the opening, about the middle, a loop or staple of
wood has been built into the wall, and in the corresponding place on the
left side a stick about half an inch in diameter projects. An opening
into the small room west of the White House proper has a similar
contrivance, and another example occurs in the front wall of the small
single room in the eastern end of the ruin. Oddly enough the three
examples that occur in this ruin are all found in adobe walls.
This feature appears to have been a contrivance for temporarily closing
openings which were provided with stone slabs, and the latter were
sealed in place with mud mortar when it was desired to close the room
permanently. Examples, identical even in details, have been found in the
Mancos canyon, and one is described and illustrated by Chapin,[15] who
states that the slab was 141/2 inches wide at one end, 151/2 at the other,
and 25 inches high, with an average thickness of an inch. He mentions
staples on both sides. Nordenskioeld[16] illustrates another or possibly
the same example. He notes, however, an inner frame composed of small
sticks and mud against which the slab rested. He thinks the notched
doorways belonged to rooms most frequented in daily life, while the
others belonged in general to storerooms or other chambers requiring a
door to close them.
[Footnote 15: Land of the Cliff Dwellers, pp. 149-150, pl. opp.
p. 155.]
[Footnote 16: Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde, pp. 52-53, fig. 28.]
Taken as a whole, the settlements in De Chelly appear to have been well
provided with doorways and other openings, and there is no perceptible
difference in this respect between the various classes of ruins.
Openings were freely left in the walls, wherever convenience dictated,
and without regard to the defensive motive, which, in the large valley
pueblos, brought about the requirement that all the first-story rooms
should be entered from the roof, a requirement which has only recently
given way to the greater convenience of an entrance on the ground level.