The kivas, or estufas as they formerly were called, are sacred chambers
in which the civil and religious affairs of the tribe are transacted,
and they also form a place of resort, or club, as it were, for the men.
Their functions are many and varied, but as this subject has already
been discussed at length[17] it need not be enlarged upon here. In
Tusayan the kivas are rectangular and separated from the houses; in Zuni
and in some other pueblos they are also rectangular, but are
incorporated in the house clusters--a feature doubtless brought about by
the repressive policy of the Spanish monks. In some of the pueblos, as
in Taos, they are circular, and in many of the older ruins the same form
is found. In the large ruins of Chaco canyon the kivas occur in groups
arranged along the inner side of the rooms; always, where the ground
plan is such as to permit it, arranged on the border of an inner court.
In Canyon de Chelly the kivas are always circular and are placed
generally on the outer edge of the settlement, which is usually the
front.
[Footnote 17: 8th Ann. Rept. Bur. Eth., "A study of Pueblo
architecture in Tusayan and Cibola," by Victor Mindeleff;
Washington, 1891.]
As the function of the kivas is principally a religious one, they are
found only in permanent villages where religious ceremonies were
performed. They are never found in subordinate settlements, or farming
villages, or outlooks, unless such settlements came to be inhabited all
the year--in other words, until they became permanent villages. The
habits and requirements of the Pueblo people make it essential that a
permanent village should have one or more kivas, and we have in the
presence of these structures a criterion by which the character of a
village or ruin may be determined. As the kivas in De Chelly are always
circular, they can generally be easily distinguished.
The circular kiva is unquestionably a survival in architecture--a relic
of the time when the Pueblo people dwelt in circular lodges or huts--and
its use in conjunction with a rectangular system entailed many
difficulties and some awkward expedients to overcome them. The main
problem, how to use the two systems together, was solved by inclosing
the circular chamber in a rectangular cell, and this expedient aided in
the solution of the hardly less important problem of roofing. The roof
of the kiva was the roof of the chamber that inclosed it.
It seems to have been a common requirement throughout the pueblo country
that the kiva should be wholly or partly underground. So strong was this
requirement in Tusayan that the occurrence of natural clefts and
fissures in the rock of the mesa top has dictated the location of the
kivas often at some distance from the houses. But in De Chelly there
were some sites where the requirement could not be filled without
extensive rock excavation wholly beyond the power of the builders. Here
then it seems that other requirements were strong enough to overcome the
ceremonial necessity for partly subterranean structures, for examples of
that kind are comparatively rare. In all of the ruins on the canyon
bottom the requirement could be filled, and as many of the villages on
defensive sites were constructed after the site itself had been partly
filled up with loose debris, it could also be filled in those cases.
There are also instances where the bottom of the kiva rests directly on
the rock, while outside the walls the site was covered deep with
artificial debris. But it would be difficult to determine what was the
surface of the ground when the kiva was in use.
The size and character of the kivas in De Chelly, and their relations to
the other rooms about them, are shown in the ground plans preceding.
Some have walls still standing to a height of 6 feet above the ground,
but this could not have been the total height. Dr H. C. Yarrow, U.S.A.,
in 1874 examined one of the five large circular kivas in Taos. He
states[18] that it was 25 or 30 feet in diameter, arched above, and 20
feet high. Around the wall, 2 feet from the ground, there was a hard
earthen bench, and in the center a fireplace about 2 by 3 feet.
[Illustration: Fig. 70--Part of a kiva in ruin No. 31.]
Entrance to the kivas is invariably from the roof by a ladder. This
appears to be a ceremonial requirement. Doorways at the ground level are
not only unknown, but also impracticable; but in De Chelly there are
some puzzling features which might easily be mistaken for such doorways.
The principal kiva in the ruin, which occurs at the point marked 10 on
the map, and described above (page 123, figure 24), is on the edge of
the ledge, and its outer wall is so close as to make a passage
difficult, although not impossible. At the point where the curved wall
comes nearest the cliff there is a narrow gap or opening, not more than
15 inches wide. In front of this there appears to be a little platform
on the sloping rock, 2 feet long, 10 inches wide, and now about a foot
high. At first sight this would be taken for a doorway so arranged that
access to the kiva could be obtained only from below; but a closer
examination shows that this was probably only what remains of a
chimney-like structure, such as those described later.
[Footnote 18: Wheeler Survey Reports, vol. VII, Archaeology,
p. 327.]
In ruin 31 there is another example. The kiva here was about 20 feet in
diameter, with rather thin walls smoothly plastered inside. On the inner
side the walls are from 3 to 5 feet high; outside they are generally
flush with the ground. The kiva is not a true circle, but is slightly
elongated north and south. On the south side, nearest the edge of the
ledge, there is an opening, shown in figure 70. The opening is 6 feet 3
inches wide, and the ends of the curved walls terminate in smoothly
finished surfaces. In front of it there are remains of two walls, about
a foot apart, and so arranged as to form an apparent passageway into the
interior of the kiva. These seem to be a kind of platform, like that
just described, but close inspection shows the walls, which can be
traced to within 6 inches of the inner wall of the kiva. This also may
be the remains of a chimney-like structure. There are other points in
the canyon where the same feature occurs, but in none of them is the
evidence of an opening or doorway more definite than in the examples
described.
[Illustration: Fig. 71--Plan of part of a kiva in ruin No. 10.]
The masonry of the kivas is always as good as that of any other
structure on the site, and generally much better. The walls are usually
massive; sometimes they are 3 feet thick in the upper part and 4 feet in
the lower portion, where the bench occurs. In a few cases the kiva has
an upper or second story, but when this occurs no attempt is made to
preserve the circular form, and the upper rooms are really rectangular
with much rounded corners. Plate XLIX shows a second-story kiva wall in
Mummy Cave ruin, and plate LXIII one in ruin No. 10 in De Chelly. The
latter occurs over the principal kiva, and the walls which are still
standing on the north and west sides are approximately straight, but the
corners are much rounded. Figure 71 is a detailed plan of part of the
kiva, showing the arrangement of the upper walls. The kiva walls are
about 18 inches thick. On the north side the upper wall is supported by
a heavy beam, part of which is still in place. Under the north-east
corner of the upper room there is a little triangular space formed by a
short connecting wall, shown on the plan. This is really a flying wall,
covering only the upper portion of the space, and its purpose is not
clear, as the opening left is not large enough to permit the passage of
a person, and was available only from the second story.
Apparently the greatest care was bestowed on the construction and finish
of the kivas. The exterior of the circular wall is often rough and
unfinished, but this is probably because the whole structure was
generally inclosed within rectangular walls. The interior was plastered,
often with a number of coats. The southern kiva in ruin No. 10 shows a
number of these on its interior surface, applied one after another, and
now forming a plastering nearly three-quarters of an inch thick. In its
section 18 distinct coats can be counted, separated one from the other
by a thin film of smoke-blackened surface. The kiva in ruin No. 16 has 4
or 5 coats, that in ruin No. 31 shows at least 8. In the last example
the last coat was not decorated, but some of the underlying ones were.
Kivas are used, principally in the autumn and winter, when the farming
season is over and the ceremonies and dances take place. It is probable,
therefore, that each coat of plaster means at least a year in the
history of the kiva, which would indicate that some of the sites were
occupied about twenty years. But Mr Frank H. Cushing has observed in
Zuni a ceremony, part of which is the refinishing of the kiva interior,
and this occurs only once in four years. This would give a maximum
occupancy of about eighty years to some of the kivas; the ruins as a
whole would hardly justify an hypothesis of a longer occupancy than
this. In Tusayan the interior of the kiva is plastered by the women once
every year at the feast of Powamu (the fructifying moon).
[Illustration: Fig. 72--Kiva decoration in white.]
The kivas are seldom true circles, being usually elongated one way or
another. Some instances occur which are rectangular, such as the room
shown in figure 19, which was apparently a kiva. Nordenskioeld[19]
illustrates an example which appears to have been oval by design,
differing in this respect from anything found in De Chelly. Most of the
kivas have an interior bench, about a foot wide and 2 feet above the
floor. This bench is sometimes continuous around the whole interior,
sometimes extends only partly around. Wherever the chimney-like
structure is attached to a kiva the bench is omitted or broken at that
point. The kiva wall on the floor level is always continuous except
before the chimney-like feature. The most elaborate system of benches
and buttresses seen in the canyon occurs in the principal kiva of the
Mummy Cave ruin. This is shown in the ground plan, figure 16, and also
in figures 82 and 83. In the ruins of the Mancos, Nordenskioeld found
kivas in which this feature is carried much further. He illustrates[20]
an example with a complete bench regularly divided into six equal parts
by an equal number of buttresses or pillars (properly pilasters)
extending out flush with the front of the bench. This is said to be a
typical example, to which practically all the kivas conform. It has also
the chimney-like structure, to be described later. Like the rectangular
kivas of Tusayan the circular structures of De Chelly have little niches
in the walls. Probably these were places of deposit for certain
paraphernalia used in the ceremonies.
[Footnote 19: Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde, p. 63, fig. 36.]
[Footnote 20: Loc. cit., figs. 6 and 7, pp. 15-16.]
Some of the kivas have an interior decoration consisting of a band with
points. Figure 72 shows an example that occurs in ruin No. 10 in De
Chelly, in the north kiva. The band, done in white, is about 18 inches
below the bench, and its top is broken at intervals into groups of
points rising from it, four points in each group. In the north kiva the
interior wall is decorated by a series of vertical bands in white. One
series occurs on the vertical face of the bench; the bands are 2 inches
wide and 8 inches apart. Another series occurs on the wall, and consists
of bands 21/2 to 3 inches wide, about 2 feet high and 12 to 14 inches
apart. The bands were observed only on the southern and western sides of
the kiva, but originally there may have been others on the north and
east.
[Illustration: Fig. 73--Pictograph in white.]
[Illustration: Fig. 74--Markings on cliff wall, ruin No. 37.]
[Illustration: Fig. 75--Decorative band in kiva in Mummy Cave ruin.]
In ruin No. 4 there is a similar series of bars, but in this instance
they occur on the cliff wall back of the rooms. They are shown in figure
73. There are four bars or upright bands, done in white paint, and
surmounted by four round dots or spots. To the left of the four bars,
level with their tops, there is a small triangle, also in white. The
bars are 30 inches long and 4 inches wide. The upper dots are nearly
2 feet above, the tops of the bars. It is evident that this figure was
designed to be seen from a distance. Figure 74 shows some markings on
the cliff wall back of ruin No. 37.
[Illustration: Fig. 76--Design employed in decorative band.]
Examples almost identical with those shown here are abundant in the
Mancos ruins. It was probable they are of ceremonial rather than of
decorative origin, and in this connection it may be stated that Mr Frank
H. Cushing has observed in Zuni the ceremony of marking the sides of a
kiva hatchway with white bars closely resembling those shown in figure
73. This ceremony occurs once in four years, and the purpose of the
marks is said to be to indicate the cardinal directions. In the
ceremonials of the Pueblo Indians it is necessary to know where the
cardinal points are; a prayer, for instance, is often addressed to the
north, west, south, and east, and when such ceremonials were performed
in a circular chamber some means by which the direction could be
determined was essential.
[Illustration: Fig. 77--Pictographs in Canyon de Chelly.]
In the principal kiva in Mummy Cave ruin, however, there is a painted
band on the front of the bench which appears to be really an attempt at
decoration. Over the white there is a band 4 or 5 inches wide,
consisting of a meander done in red. This is shown in figure 75, and in
detail in figure 76. The design is similar to that used today. Its
importance arises not so much from this as from the fact that it is
difficult to regard this as other than ornamentation, and the Pueblo
architect had not yet reached the stage of ornamented construction. The
ruins in the Mancos canyon and the Mesa Verde country obviously
represent a later stage in development than those in De Chelly, yet
nowhere in that region do we find the counterpart of the decoration in
Mummy Cave kiva. Bands with points occur, sometimes on walls of
rectangular rooms. One such is illustrated by Chapin,[21] who also shows
a variety of the meander, treated, however, as a pictograph and without
reference to its decorative value. Similar bands are shown also by
Nordenskioeld,[22] but always with three points, instead of four, which
were done in red. Figure 77 shows some pictographs somewhat resembling
the Mancos examples. These occur at the point marked 1 on the map, in
connection with a small storage cist already described.
[Footnote 21: Land of the Cliff Dwellers, illustration, pp. 143,
152.]
[Footnote 22: Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde, figs. 6, 7, 76,
77, and 78.]
No kiva has been found in De Chelly with a roof in place. Nearly all of
them are inclosed in rectangular chambers, and it seems more than
probable that the roofing of the kiva was simply the roofing of the
inclosing chamber. As a rule the inclosing rectangular walls were
erected at the same time as the kiva proper, and the outside of the
inner circular wall was not finished at all. In a few instances the
space between the outer rectangular and inner circular wall was filled
in solid, or perhaps was so constructed, but usually the walls are
separate and distinct.