[Illustration: FIG. 256--Structure of house wall of Awatobi]
On the western, northern, and eastern sides the slope is more gradual,
and while there are many obscurely marked house plans visible over the
surface, even quite near the top of the elevation, they are doubtless
the remains of single-story structures. This leads me to suspect that
when Awatobi was built it was reared on a mound of soil or sand, and
not on the solid rock surface of the mesa. The configuration, then,
shows that the pueblo sloped by easy decline to the plain to the
north, but rose more abruptly from the south and west. There are low
extramural mounds to the north, showing that on this side the
dwellings were composed of straggling chambers. The general character
of the rooms on the level slope at the western side of old Awatobi is
shown in the accompanying illustration (plate CX). The peculiarity of
these rooms appears by a comparison with the many-story chambers of
the southern declivity of the ruin. Extending the excavations four
feet below the surface we encountered a floor which rested on solid
earth, and there were no signs of walls beneath it. This was without
doubt a single-story house, the roof of which had disappeared. The
surrounding surface of the ground is level, but the tops of adjoining
walls of rooms may readily be traced near by.
The room was rectangular, twice as long as wide, and without
passageways into adjoining chambers. The northern, eastern, and
western walls were unbroken, and there was nothing peculiar in the
floor of these sections; but we found a well-preserved, elevated
settle at the southern side, extending two-thirds of the length of the
main wall to a small side wall, inclosing a square recess, the object
of which is unknown to me.
All walls were smoothly plastered, and the floor was paved with flat
stones set in adobe. The singular inclosure at the southern corner
could not be regarded as a fireplace, for there was no trace of soot
upon its walls. I incline to the belief that it may have served as a
closet, or possibly as a granary. Its arrangement is not unlike that
in certain modern rooms at Walpi.
An examination of the masonry of the rooms of the western mounds of
Awatobi shows that the component stones were in a measure dressed into
shape, which was, as a rule, cubical. In this respect they differ from
the larger stones of which the mission walls were built, for in this
masonry the natural cleavage is utilized for the face of the wall.
The differences between the masonry of the mission and that of the
room in which we found a chief buried were very marked. In the former,
elongated slabs of stone, without pecking or dressing, were universal,
while in the latter the squared stones were laid in courses and neatly
fitted together. The partitions likewise are narrower, being not more
than 6 inches thick.
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY