(Dimensions in feet and inches)]
The shape of room _b_ is more irregular. It is 8 feet 1 inch long by 4
feet 5 inches wide, and the floor is 5 feet 2 inches below the
surface. In one corner there is a raised triangular platform 2 feet 7
inches above the floor. A large cooking pot, blackened with soot, was
found in one corner of this room, and near it was a circular
depression in the floor 17 inches in diameter, evidently a fireplace.
Room _c_ is smaller than either of the preceding, and is the only one
with two passageways into adjoining chambers. Remains of wooden beams
in a fair state of preservation were found on the floors of rooms _c_
and _b_, but they were not charred, as is so often the case, nor were
there any ashes except in the supposed fireplace.
Room _d_ is larger than those already mentioned, being 7 feet 8 inches
by 5 feet, and connects with room _c_ by means of a passageway. Rooms
_e_ and _f_ communicate with each other by an opening 16 inches wide.
We found the floors of these rooms 4 feet below the surface. The
length of room _e_ is 8 feet.
Room _f_ is 6 feet 8 inches long and of the same width as _e_. The
three chambers _g_, _h_, and _i_ are each 6 feet 9 inches wide, but of
varying width. Room _g_ is 5 feet 2 inches, _h_ is 8 feet 6 inches,
and _i_, the smallest of all, only a foot wide. These three rooms have
no intercommunication.
The evidence of former fires in some of these rooms, afforded by soot
on the walls and ashes in the depressions identified as old
fireplaces, is most important. In one or two places I broke off a
fragment of the plastering and found it to be composed of many strata
of alternating black and adobe color, indicating successive
plasterings of the room. Apparently when the surface wall became
blackened by smoke it was renewed by a fresh layer or wash of adobe in
the manner followed in renovating the kiva walls today.[108]
An examination of the dimensions of the rooms of the acropolis will
show that, while small, they are about the average size of the
chambers in most other southwestern ruins. They are, however, much
smaller than the rooms of the modern pueblo of Walpi or those of the
cliff ruins in the Red-rock region, elsewhere described. Evidently the
roof was 2 or 3 feet higher than the top of the present walls, and the
absence of external passageways would seem to indicate that entrance
was through the roof. The narrow chamber, _i_, is no smaller than some
of those which were excavated at Awatobi, but unless it was a storage
bin or dark closet for ceremonial paraphernalia its function is not
known to me. The mural plastering was especially well done in rooms
_g_ and _h_, a section thereof showing many successive thin strata of
soot and clay, implying long occupancy. No chimneys were found, the
smoke, as is the case with that from kiva fires today, doubtless
finding an exit through the hatchway in the roof.