There are peculiar structures found in some of the ruins, whose use and
object are not clear. Reference has already been made to them in the
descriptions of several ruins, and for want of a better name they have
been designated chimney-like structures. At the time that they were
examined they were supposed to be new, and the first hypothesis formed
was that they were abortive chimneys, but further examination showed
that this idea was not tenable. Subsequently Nordenskioeld's book on the
Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde was published, and it appears therefrom
that this feature is very common in the region treated; so common as to
constitute the type.
[Illustration: Fig. 78--Plan of chimney-like structure in ruin
No. 15.]
Figure 78 is a plan of one of these structures which occurs in ruin No.
15 in Canyon de Chelly. This ruin has already been described in detail
(page 118). The chimney-like structure is attached to a rectangular room
with rounded corners, which is supposed to have been a kiva, and which
was two stories high. Excavation revealed the floor level about 71/2 feet
below where the roof was placed. In the center of the south wall there
is an opening 1.5 feet high and eighty-five one-hundredths of a foot
(10.2 inches) wide. The south wall is built over a large bowlder, and a
tunnel or opening passes under this to a rounded vertical shaft, about a
foot in diameter, which opens to the air. This perhaps is better shown
in the section (figure 79). At first sight this would appear to be a
chimney, but there are several objections to the idea. The interior of
the shaft is not blackened by smoke, and while the tunnel is somewhat
smoke-stained, the deposit is not so pronounced as on the walls of the
room. The front of the tunnel in the room has a lintel composed of a
single stick about an inch in diameter, as shown in the section. The
roof of the tunnel was the underside of the large bowlder mentioned, and
the stick lintel was of no use except to show that no fire could have
been built under it. The roof of the southern end of the tunnel, where
it opens into the shaft, is considerably lower than at the other end.
The floor of the tunnel and the sides were smoothly plastered, but the
plastering does not appear to have been subjected to the action of fire.
The interior of the room, like the circular kivas already described,
appears to have been plastered with a number of successive coats, all
except the last being heavily stained by smoke. If the structure were a
chimney, it was a dismal failure. The tunnel was made at the time the
wall was erected, and passes under the bowlder over which the wall was
built. A little east of the opening, inside the room, the bowlder shows
through the wall, projecting slightly beyond its face.
[Illustration: Fig. 79--Section of chimney-like structure in
ruin 15.]
Outside of the room the corner of the bowlder was chipped off, as shown
on the plan, to permit the rounding of the shaft, the east, west, and
south sides of which were built up with small pieces of stone, a kind of
lining of masonry. There was also an outside structure of masonry, but
how high above the ground it extended can not now be determined. A small
fragment of this masonry is still left on the upper surface of the
bowlder and is shown in the section.
Figure 80 is a plan of another example, which is attached to the
circular kiva in ruin No. 16. This ruin is described on page 129. The
kiva had an interior bench and the floor is 2 feet above its top. On the
south side nearest the cliff edge the bench is interrupted to give place
to a structure much like that described above. In this case, however,
there was no convenient bowlder, and the roof of the tunnel has broken
down so that the method of support can not be accurately determined.
Probably it consisted of slabs of rock, as the span is small, and a
number of large flat stones were removed from the tunnel in excavating.
The top of the tunnel is on the level of the top of the bench, as shown
in figure 81, which is a vertical section. An inspection of the plan
will show that the circular wall of the kiva is complete and that the
inclosing rectangular wall was added later. The shaft was built at a
still later period, and the line or junction marking its inner surface
shows plainly in the interior of the tunnel. The general view of the
ruin (plate LI) shows the exterior of the shaft, and the horizontal
timbers on which the masonry is supported are shown in plate LII.
In front of the tunnel a flat piece of stone was placed on the floor,
and in front of this again, about 2 feet from the mouth of the tunnel,
there was an upright mass of masonry composed of stone and mud, and
forming a curtain or screen before the opening. The original height of
this structure was the same as that of the interior bench.
The inner surface of the rectangular inclosing wall is marked by a line
in the interior of the tunnel. Inside of this line, toward the center of
the kiva, the stones composing the wall are large; outside of it they
are small. The interior plastering of the kiva is not smoke-blackened,
but the coat next the surface is stained, as is also the third coat
underneath. The interior of the tunnel is not much smoke-blackened, but
it appears probable that part of its roof fell while the structure was
still in use, as there are a number of little cavities in the masonry
above its roof level filled with soot. A similar effect might result
from leaks or cavities between the flat roofing stones. In excavating
the tunnel a number of large lumps of clay were found in it, and there
is no doubt that they formed part of the roof. Some of these had
considerable quantities of grass mixed into them or stuck to the clay on
one side. Apparently dry grass was used in the construction. A large
fire could not have been built within the tunnel.
[Illustration: Fig. 80--Plan of chimney-like structure in ruin
No. 16.]
The principal kiva in Mummy Cave ruin has an elaborate structure of the
kind under discussion. Figure 82 shows a plan of this kiva, of which a
general view has already been given (figure 75). The bench extended only
partly around the interior, which had a continuous surface at the floor
level, except on the southwest. At this point it is interrupted to give
place to an elaborate chimney-like structure. Figure 83 is a general
view.
The wall surface on the southern side of the kiva has been extended
inward, as shown on the plan by a lighter shaded area. This was done at
some period subsequent to the completion of the kiva, but whether it had
any connection with the chimney-like structure could not be determined.
The curtain or screen before the opening, which seems to be an
invariable feature, is shown in both figures.
In this example the tunnel does not pass through the masonry as in those
previously described, but occurs in the form of a covered trough, shown
in the illustration with the covering removed. It occupies the middle
third of a large recess in the main wall of the kiva, and is connected
at its outer end with a vertical square shaft about a foot wide. This
shaft is separated from the recess above the bench level by a wall only
a few inches thick, composed of a single layer of stones. That portion
of it which is above the tunnel is supported by a single round stick of
wood, as shown in figure 83. The south or inner opening of the tunnel is
reduced to two-thirds, of the width elsewhere by a framing composed of
bundles of sticks bound together with withes and heavily coated with mud
mortar. This was not placed flush with the inner face, but a few inches
back, and the whole structure gives an effect of unusual neatness and
good workmanship.
[Illustration: Fig. 81--Section of chimney-like structure in ruin
No. 16]
At various other points in the canyons examples of chimney-like
structures occur, none, however, constructed on the elaborate plan of
that last described. Two examples were found in the large rooms west of
the tower in the central portion of Mummy Cave ruin, and these are
especially worthy of attention because they are attached to rectangular
rooms, which there is no reason to suppose were kivas. The first room
appears to have had a shaft only, without a niche or recess; the second
room west of the tower had a recess and a rounded shaft, while the
third-room had neither recess nor shaft.
The usual form of this feature is that shown in figures 80 and 81, and
consists only of a tunnel and shaft. There are not many examples in the
canyons: altogether there may be a dozen now visible, but excavations in
the village ruins would doubtless reveal others. Except the two in Mummy
Cave ruin last mentioned, and some doubtful examples to be described
later, they occur always as attachments to kivas, never to houses. Some
of them, like the Mummy Cave example, were certainly built at the same
time as the kivas, of which they formed a part; others were added to
kivas after those structures had been completed and used.
[Illustration: Fig. 82--Plan of the principal kiva in Mummy Cave
ruin.]
The kiva in Casa Blanca ruin (shown in figure 14) appears to have had an
appendage of this sort, not constructed after the usual manner, but
added outside the rectangular wall and composed of mud or adobe. At
three other places in the lower ruin these structures are found, all
constructed of mud or adobe and all attached to adobe walls. It is
doubtful whether these three examples should be classed with the
preceding, but as they may have been used in the same manner they should
be mentioned here. Another doubtful example occurs in the upper part of
the same ruin and has already been described (page 110). It was
constructed of stone at some time subsequent to the completion of the
wall against which it rests.
[Illustration: Fig. 83--Chimney-like structure in Mummy Cave ruin.]
Over twenty ago Mr W. H. Holmes found a structure in Mancos canyon which
it now appears may be of this type. He illustrates it by a ground plan
and thus describes it:
The most striking feature of this structure [ruin] is the round
room, which occurs about the middle of the ruin and inside of a large
rectangular apartment.... Its walls are not high and not entirely
regular, and the inside is curiously fashioned with offsets and
box-like projections. It is plastered smoothly and bears considerable
evidence of having been used, although I observed no traces of tire.
The entrance to this chamber is rather extraordinary, and further
attests the peculiar importance attached to it by the builders and
their evident desire to secure it from all possibility of intrusion.
A walled and covered passageway of solid masonry, 10 feet of which
is still intact, leads from an outer chamber through the small
intervening apartments into the circular one. It is possible that
this originally extended to the outer wall and was entered from the
outside. If so, the person desiring to visit the estufa [kiva] would
have to enter an aperture about 22 inches high by 30 wide and crawl
in the most abject manner possible through a tube-like passageway
nearly 20 feet in length. My first impression was that this
peculiarly constructed doorway was a precaution against enemies and
that it was probably the only means of entrance to the interior of
the house, but I am now inclined to think this hardly probable, and
conclude that it was rather designed to render a sacred chamber as
free as possible from profane intrusion.[23]
[Footnote 23: 10th Ann. Rept. U.S. Geol. and Geog. Survey of the
Territories, F. V. Hayden in charge (Washington, 1878); report on
the "Ancient ruins of Southwestern Colorado," by W. H. Holmes;
p. 395, pl. xxxvii.]
In this example the tunnel was much larger than usual and the vertical
shaft, if there were one, has been so much broken down that it is no
longer distinguishable. Nordenskioeld mentions a considerable number of
kivas with this attachment, and one which is described and figured is
said to be a type of all the kivas in that region, but an inspection of
his ground plans shows more kivas without this feature than with it. In
his description of a small ruin in Cliff canyon he speaks of--
... a circular room still in a fair state of preservation. The wall
that lies nearest the precipice is for the most part in ruins; the
rest of the room is well preserved. After about half a meter of dust
and rubbish had been removed, we were able to ascertain that the
walls formed a cylinder 4.3 meters in diameter. The thickness of the
wall is throughout considerable, and varies, the spaces between the
points where the cylinder touches the walls of adjoining rooms[24]
having been filled up with masonry. The height of the room is 2
meters. The roof has long since fallen in, and only one or two beams
are left among the rubbish. To a height of 1.2 meters from the floor
the wall is perfectly even and has the form of a cylinder, or rather
of a truncate cone, as it leans slightly inward. The upper portion,
on the other hand, is divided by six deep niches into the same
number of pillars. The floor is of clay, hard, and perfectly even.
Near the center is a round depression or hole, five-tenths of a
meter deep and eight-tenths of a meter in diameter. This hole was
entirely full of white ashes. It was undoubtedly the hearth. Between
the hearth and the outer wall stands a narrow, curved wall,
eight-tenths of a meter high. Behind this wall, in the same plane as
the floor, a rectangular opening, 1 meter high and six-tenths of a
meter broad, has been constructed in the outer wall. This opening
forms the mouth of a narrow passage or tunnel of rectangular shape,
which runs 1.8 meters in a horizontal direction and then goes
straight upward, out into the open air. The tunnel lies under one of
the six niches, which is somewhat deeper than the others. The walls
are built of carefully hewn blocks of sandstone, the inner surface
being perfectly smooth and lined with a thin, yellowish plaster. On
closer examination of this plaster it is found to consist of several
thin layers, each of them black with soot. The plaster has evidently
been repeatedly restored as the walls became blackened with smoke.
A few smaller niches and holes in the walls, irregularly scattered
here and there, have presumably served as places of deposit for
different articles; a bundle of pieces of hide, tied with a string,
was found in one of them. The lower part of the wall, to a height of
four-tenths of a meter, is painted dark red around the whole room.
This red paint projects upward in triangular points, arranged in
threes, and above them is a row of small round dots of red....
Circular rooms, built and arranged on exactly the same plan as that
described above, reappear with exceedingly slight variations in size
and structure in every cliff dwelling except the very smallest
ones.... The number of estufas [kivas] varies in proportion to the
size of the buildings and the number of rooms, ... [The ruin
described contained two kivas.] ... The description of the first
estufa applies in every respect to the second, with the single
exception that the whole wall is coated with yellow plaster without
any red painting. The wall between the hearth and the singular
passage or tunnel described above is replaced by a large slab of
stone set on end. It is difficult to say for what purpose this
tunnel has been constructed and the slab of stone or the wall
erected in front of it. As I have mentioned above, this arrangement
is found in all the estufas.[25]
[Footnote 24: In the ground plan given there is no point shown
where the walls of the kiva touch adjoining rooms.]
[Footnote 25: Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde, pp. 15-17, figs. 6
and 7.]
The general similarity between the kivas of De Chelly and those of the
Mesa Verde region will be apparent from the above description. It should
be added that in the section which accompanies it the roof of the tunnel
appears to be supported by a series of small cross sticks, although no
information on this point is afforded by the test. The examples which
occur in De Chelly are apparently much ruder and more primitive than
those of the Mancos, and only one of them approaches the latter in
finish and elaboration.
In another place[26] Nordenskioeld mentions an example in which two small
sticks were incorporated in the masonry of the upper part of the tunnel
in a diagonal position. From this he rejects Holmes' explanation that
the passageway was used as an entrance to the kiva, nor does he find the
chimney hypothesis satisfactory. He states, further, that the use of
this feature as a ventilator seems highly improbable. In one place he
found the curtain or screen constructed not of masonry, but--
... of thick stakes, driven into the ground close to each other, and
fastened together at the top with osiers. On the side nearest to the
hearth this wooden screen was covered with a thick layer of mortar,
probably to protect the timber from the heat.[27]
[Footnote 26: Loc. cit., p. 32.]
[Footnote 27: Loc. cit., p. 70.]
As stated elsewhere, the first hypothesis formed in the field as to the
purpose of these chimney-like structures was that they were abortive
chimneys, but this was found untenable. The next hypothesis, formed also
in the field, was that they were ceremonial in origin and use, but why
they should connect with the open air is not clear. If we could assume
that they were ventilators, the problem would be solved, but it is a far
cry from pueblo architecture to ventilation; a stride, as it were, over
many centuries. Ventilation according to this method--the introduction
of fresh air on a low level, striking on a screen a little distance from
the inlet and being thereby evenly distributed over the whole
chamber--is a development in house architecture reached only by our own
civilization within the last few decades.
If the shaft and tunnel were in place, however, the screen might follow
as a matter of necessity. Entrance to the kivas is always through the
roof, a ceremonial requirement quite as rigidly adhered to today among
the Pueblos as it was formerly among their ancestors. The same opening
which gives access also provides an exit to the smoke from the fire,
which is invariably placed in the center of the kiva below it. This fire
is a ceremonial rather than a necessary feature, for in the coldest
weather the presence of a dozen men in a small chamber, air-tight except
for a small opening in the roof, very soon raises the temperature to an
uncomfortable degree, and the air becomes so fetid that a white man, not
accustomed to it, is nauseated in half an hour or less. Such are the
conditions in the modern kivas of Tusayan. In the smaller structures of
De Chelly they must have been worse. The fire is, therefore, made very
small and always of very dry wood, so as to diminish as far as possible
the output of smoke. Frank H. Cushing states that in certain ceremonials
which occur in the kivas it is considered very necessary that the fire
should burn brightly and that the flame should rise straight from it. If
this requirement prevailed in De Chelly, a screen of some sort would
surely follow the construction of a shaft and tunnel.
More or less smoke is generally present in the kivas when a fire is
burning, notwithstanding the care taken to prevent it. That a similar
condition prevailed in the kivas of De Chelly is shown by the
smoke-blackened plaster of the interiors. In some cases there was a room
over the kivas which must have increased the difficulty very much. There
can be little doubt that the chimney-like structures were not chimneys,
and no doubt at all that they did provide an efficient means of
ventilation, no matter what the intention of the builders may have been.
When we know more of the ceremonials of the Pueblo Indians, and when
extensive excavations have developed the various types and varieties of
these structures in the ruins, we may be able to determine their object
and use.