Part 3

Many newspaper and magazine accounts of the Mesa Verde ruins appeared about the time Mr. Chapin's description was published, but the majority of these are somewhat distorted and more or less exaggerated, often too indefinite for scientific purposes. References to them, even if here quoted, could hardly be of great value to the reader, as in most cases it would be impossible for him to consult files of papers in which they occur even if the search were worth while. Much that they record is practically a compilation from previous descriptions.

The activity in photographing Cliff Palace has done much to make known its existence and structure. Many excellent photographs of the ruin have been taken, among which may be mentioned those of Chapin, Nordenskiöld, Vreeland, Nusbaum, and others. Oil paintings, some of which are copied from photographs, others made from the ruin itself, adorn the walls of some of our museums. Almost every visitor to the Mesa Verde carries with him a camera, and many good postal cards with views of the ruin are on the market. Negatives of Cliff Palace taken before its excavation and repair will become more valuable as time passes, because they can no longer be duplicated. From a study of a considerable number of these photographs it seems that very little change has taken place in the condition of the ruin between the time the first pictures were made and the repair work was begun.

SITE OF CLIFF PALACE

Cliff Palace is situated in a cave in Cliff-palace canyon, a branch of Cliff canyon, which is here about 200 feet deep. It occupies practically the whole of the cave, the roof of which overhangs about two-thirds of the ruin, projecting considerably beyond its middle. This cave is much more capacious than that in which Spruce-tree House is situated, as shown by comparing illustrations and descriptions of the latter in the former report. The configuration of Spruce-tree House cave and that of Cliff Palace, and the relation of its floor to the talus, also differ. The canyon in which Cliff Palace lies is thickly wooded, having many cedars and a few pines and scrub oaks; the almost total failure of water at certain seasons of the year at Cliff Palace renders floral life in the vicinity less exuberant than in Spruce-tree canyon, a branch of Navaho canyon (fig. 1). On the level plateau above the ruin there are many trees--pines and cedars--but even this area is not so thickly wooded as the summit of the mesa above Spruce-tree House.[15]

[Footnote 15: Clearings in the forest indicate the positions of the former farms of the inhabitants of Cliff Palace.]

The geological formation of the cave in which Cliff Palace is situated is similar to that at Spruce-tree House, consisting of alternating layers of hard and soft sandstone, shale, and even layers of coal. Both canyons and caves appear to have been formed by the same processes. In past ages the elements have eroded and undermined the soft layers of sandstone or shale to such an extent that great blocks of rock, being left without foundations, have broken away from above, falling down the precipice. Many of these great bowlders remained on the floor of a cave where it was broad enough to retain them. The surface of the roof arching over Cliff Palace cave is perhaps smoother than that of Spruce-tree House. The progress of cave erosion was greatly augmented by the flow of water from the mesa summit during heavy rains, as hereinafter described.

To understand the general plan of Cliff Palace it is necessary to take into consideration the method of formation and the configuration of the cave floor on which the ruin stands. This cave, as already stated, was formed by erosion or undercutting the softer rock at a lower level than the massive sandstone, leaving huge blocks of stone above the eroded cavities. Naturally these blocks, being without support, fell, and in falling were broken, the larger fragments remaining on the floor practically in the places where they fell, but many of the smaller stones were washed out of the cave entrance, forming a talus extending down the side of the cliff. The floor of the cave was thus strewn with stones, large and small, resting on the same general level which is that on which the foundations of the buildings were constructed. The level of the cave floor was interrupted by the huge blocks of stone forming its outer margin; and the buildings constructed on these fallen rocks were lofty, even imposing. The talus composed of fallen rock and débris, piled against the canyon side in front of these buildings and below these huge blocks of stone, extends many feet down the cliff in a gradual slope, covering the terraced buildings and burying their retaining walls from sight.[16] A great part of this talus is composed of fallen walls, but considerable earth and small stones are contained in it, probably precipitated over the rim of the cave roof by the torrents of water which sometimes fall during heavy rains. It is probable also that the foresting of the talus has been due more or less to bushes and small trees washed over the cliff from the mesa summit.

[Footnote 16: Access to Cliff Palace from the bottom of the canyon, although difficult, is possible, and a pathway might be constructed down its sides or along the top of the talus to several other cliff-dwellings. In the vicinity of Cliff Palace there are at least 20 ruins, large and small.]

Three terraces or tiers containing rooms, as shown in the accompanying ground plan, were revealed by excavations in this talus. At the western extension, where the second and third terraces cease, the tops of large rocks begin at the level of the fourth terrace, and on the southern end the first terrace is absent. At the western extremity, the large blocks of rock having dropped down entire from the side of the cliff, fill the interval elsewhere occupied by the lower terraces, and their tops now form a ledge upon which rest the foundations of rooms level with the plaza. It is thus evident that whereas the front wall of Spruce-tree House is simple, the level of the kiva roofs and floors of buildings above ground being continuous, the front of Cliff Palace is complicated, being at different levels, consisting of terraces in the talus. As one approached Cliff Palace, when inhabited, it must have presented, from below, an imposing structure, the lower terraces being occupied by many large kivas above which rose lofty buildings arranged in tiers, several being four stories high. Although the height was much increased by the presence of huge foundation blocks of sandstone, from the lowest terrace to the highest room there were seven floor levels, including those of the kivas in the terraces.

An examination of Cliff Palace cave shows that from the southern end to the section over the main entrance its roof arches upward and that the part over the rear of the ruin is lower than that over its front. Between the lower and upper roof levels there is a sharp break formed by a vertical cleavage plane. Where this plane joins the upper level there is a shelf forming a recess in which has been constructed a row of ledge rooms.[17]

[Footnote 17: One of these rooms had been chosen by eagles for their nests, but both nests and eggs were abandoned by the birds after the repair work was begun.]

The great rock roof arching over Cliff Palace is broken about midway between the vertical plane above mentioned and the rim by another and narrower vertical plane where no ledge exists. Here multitudes of swallows had made their home, and there are wasps' nests in several places.

PREHISTORIC TRAILS TO CLIFF PALACE

It is evident that the prehistoric farmers of Cliff Palace repeatedly visited their fields among the cedars on top of the mesa, and well-worn trails led from their habitation to these clearings. Several such trails have long been known, one of which was formerly exclusively used by white visitors and was facetiously called "Fat Man's Misery." To another ancient pathway, near which ladders were placed, the name "Ladder Trail" may be applied. The pathways now used by visitors follow approximately these old trails, which were simply series of shallow footholes cut in the cliff. Although the lapse of time since they were pecked in the rock has somewhat diminished their depth, they can still be used by an adventurous climber.

GENERAL FEATURES

Cliff Palace (pls. 1, 2), the most instructive cliff-house yet discovered in the Mesa Verde National Park, if not in the United States, is one of the most picturesque ruins in the Southwest. While its general contour follows that of the rear of the cave in which it is situated, its two extremities project beyond the cavern. The entire central part is protected by the cave roof; the ends are exposed.

The general orientation of Cliff Palace is north and south, the cave lying at the eastern end of the canyon of which it is an extension. The southern end is practically outside this cave, and the few rooms westward from kiva V are unprotected. An isolated kiva, W, with high surrounding walls, is situated some distance beyond the extreme western end of the ruin. Although not in the same cave as the main ruin, certain other rooms in the vicinity of Cliff Palace may have been ceremonially connected with it. They are built in shallow depressions in the cliffs and may have been shrines or rooms to which priests retreated for the purpose of performing their rites. In the category of dependent structures may also be mentioned numerous rings of stones on top of the mesa. The existence of calcined human bones in the soil over which these stones are heaped indicates the practice of cremation, of which there is also evidence in the ruin itself.

DESTRUCTION BY THE ELEMENTS

The constant beating of rain and snow, often accompanied in winter by freezing of water in the crevices of the masonry, has sadly dilapidated a large part of the front walls of Cliff Palace, especially those at the northern and southern ends (pl. 3) where they do not have the protection of the overhanging roof of the cave.

While the sections known as the old quarter, the plaza quarter, and much of the tower quarter are protected by the roof of the cave, even here there has been exposure and destruction from the same cause. Torrential rains on the mesa in the late summer form streams of water which, following depressions,[18] flow over the rim of the cave roof and are precipitated into the trees beyond the lowest terrace of the ruin. The destruction of walls from these flows is much less than that from smaller streams which, following the edge of the cave roof, run under the roof and drip on the walls, washing the mortar from between the component stones, and eventually undermining their foundation and leading to their fall. The former presence of these streams is indicated by the black discoloration of the cave roof shown in photographs.

[Footnote 18: In some of these waterways are found good examples of "potholes," some of considerable size, which often retain water for a long time. Their capacity was increased in prehistoric times by the construction of dams.]

A visitor to Cliff Palace in the dry season can hardly imagine the amount of rain that occasionally falls during the summer months, and it is difficult for him to appreciate the destructive force it exerts when precipitated over the cliff. When Cliff Palace was occupied, damage to walls could be immediately repaired by the inhabitants after every torrent, but as the ruin remained for centuries uninhabited and without repair, the extent of the destruction was great. The torrents falling over the ruin not only gain force from the distance of the fall, but sweep everything before them, bringing down earth, stones, small trees, and bushes. At such a time the bottom of the canyon is filled with a roaring torrent fed by waterfalls that can be seen at intervals far down the gorge. The observer standing in Cliff Palace during such a downpour can behold a sheet of water falling over the projecting cliff in front of him. These cataracts fortunately are never of long duration, but while they last their power is irresistible.[19]

[Footnote 19: While there has probably been considerable erosion in the bed of the canyon since Cliff Palace was constructed, this does not mean that "the action of the water carved out the valley, leaving at an inaccessible height buildings originally constructed on almost level land." See History N. Y. State Chapter, Colorado Cliff Dwellings Assoc., p. 11.]

VANDALISM

No ruin in the Mesa Verde Park had suffered more from the ravages of "pot hunters" than Cliff Palace; indeed it had been much more mutilated than the other ruins in the park (pls. 1, 4, 5). Parties of workmen had remained at the ruin all winter, and many specimens had been taken from it and sold. There was good evidence that the workmen had wrenched beams from the roofs and floors to use for firewood, so that not a single roof and but few rafters remained in place. However, no doubt many of the beams had been removed, possibly by cliff-dwellers, long before white men first visited the place.

Many of the walls had been broken down and their foundations undermined, leaving great rents through them to let in light or to allow passage from the débris thrown in the rooms as dumping places. Hardly a floor had not been dug into, and some of the finest walls had been demolished.[20] All this was done to obtain pottery and other minor antiquities that had a market value. The arrest of this vandalism is fortunate and shows an awakened public sentiment, but it can not repair the irreparable harm that has been done.

[Footnote 20: Some, possibly considerable, of this mutilation may be ascribed to the former occupants. The Ute Indians will not now enter cliff-dwellings and probably are not responsible for their destruction.]

REPAIR OF WALLS

The masonry work necessary to repair a ruin as large and as much demolished as Cliff Palace was very considerable. The greatest amount was expended on those walls in front of the cave floor hidden under the lower terraces, at the northern and southern extremities. The latter portion was so completely destroyed that it had to be rebuilt in some places, while at the southern end an equal amount of repair work was necessary. (Pls. 3, 6, 7, 9.) To permanently protect these sections of the ruin the tops of the walls and the plazas were liberally covered with Portland cement, and runways were constructed to carry off the surface water into gutters by which it was diverted over the retaining walls to fall on the rock foundations beyond. It would be impossible permanently to protect some of these exposed walls without constructing roofs above them; at present every heavy rain is bound to cover the floors of the kivas with water and thus eventually to undermine their foundations.

The preservation of walls deep in the cave under protection of the roof was not a difficult problem. The work in this part consisted chiefly in the repair of kiva walls, building them to their former height at the level of neighboring plazas.

MAJOR ANTIQUITIES

Under this term are embraced those immovable objects as walls of houses and their various structural parts--floors, roofs, and fireplaces. These features must of necessity be protected in place and left where they were constructed. Minor antiquities, as implements of various kinds, stone objects, pottery, textiles, and the like, can best be removed and preserved in a museum, where they can be seen to greater advantage and by a much larger number of people. The ideal way would be to preserve both major and minor antiquities together in the same neighborhood, or to install the latter in the places in which they were found. While at present such an arrangement at Spruce-tree House and Cliff Palace is not practicable, large specimens, as metates and those jars that are embedded in the walls, have, as a rule, been left as they were found.

As the repair work at Cliff Palace was limited to the protection of the major antiquities, the smaller objects for the greater part having been removed before our work began, this report deals more especially with the former, the whole ruin being regarded as a great specimen to be preserved in situ.

Very little attention was given to labeling rooms, kivas, and their different parts, the feeling being that this experiment has been sufficiently well carried out at Spruce-tree House, an examination of which would logically precede that of Cliff Palace. Spruce-tree House has been made a "type ruin" from which the tourist can gain his first impression of the major antiquities of the Mesa Verde National Park, and while it was well to indicate on its walls the different features characteristic of these buildings, it would be redundant to carry out the same plan in the other ruins.[21]

[Footnote 21: The author's hope is to excavate and repair in different sections of the Southwest a number of "type ruins," each of which will illustrate the major antiquities of the area in which it occurs. From an examination of these types the tourist and the student may obtain, at first hand, an accurate knowledge of the prehistoric architecture.]

No attempt was made to restore the roof of any of the Cliff Palace kivas for the reason that one can gain a good idea of how the roof of a circular kiva is constructed from its restoration in Kiva C of Spruce-tree House, and an effort to roof a kiva of Cliff Palace would merely duplicate what has already been accomplished without adding essentially to our knowledge.

GENERAL PLAN OF CLIFF PALACE

The ground plans of Cliff Palace which have been published were made from surface indications before excavations were undertaken and necessarily do not represent all the rooms. Nordenskiöld's map outlines 17 kivas and 102 rooms, indicating several kivas by dotted lines. The Morley-Kidder map, which represents positions of 18 or 19 kivas, notes 105 secular rooms.[22] Although this ground plan is an improvement on that of Nordenskiöld, it also was based on surface indications and naturally fails to indicate those kivas that were buried under the fallen walls of the terraces. Strangely enough, in Nordenskiöld's ground plan Kiva K is omitted, notwithstanding the tops of one or two pilasters were readily seen before any excavation was made. Neither of these plans distinguishes those buildings that have more than a single story, although they show the parts of walls that extend to the roof. Neither Chapin nor Birdsall published maps of Cliff Palace. (See pl. 8.)

[Footnote 22: In "Report, House of Representatives, No. 3703, 58th Congress," Mr. Coert Dubois ascribes to Cliff House (Cliff Palace) 146 rooms and 5 estufas (kivas). Unfortunately the error in the count of kivas has been given wide circulation. As stated in the present article, there are at least 23 rooms in Cliff Palace that may be called kivas.]

TERRACES AND RETAINING WALLS

The terraces in front of the rooms occupying the floor of the cave are characteristic features of Cliff Palace (pls. 9, 10). The excavations revealed three of these terraces, of which the floor of the cave is the fourth. This fourth terrace, or cave floor, is in the main horizontal, but on account of the accumulated talus the slope from the southern end of the portion in front of kiva G was gradual and continued at about this level to the northern end of the ruin. This slope brought it about that kivas in the terraces are at different levels. The floors of kivas H and I lie on about the level of the first terrace, that of G on the terrace above, and F lies on the third terrace; the remaining kivas are all excavated in the cave floor, or fourth terrace. From the main entrance to the ruin, extending northward, there are representations of the second and third terraces, both of which extend to the cliff in front of kiva U. It is probable from the general appearance of the ruin that when all the terraces and walls were intact Cliff Palace was also terraced with houses along the front, which recalls architectural features in certain cliff-dwellings in Canyon de Chelly.

TOWER QUARTER

For convenience of description Cliff Palace is arbitrarily divided into four quarters, known as tower quarter, plaza quarter, old quarter, and northern quarter. The tower quarter (pls. 10-14) occupies the whole southern portion of the ruin and extends to the extreme southern end from a line drawn perpendicular to the cliff through the round tower. It includes 8 kivas, A to G, and J, 6 of which, A, B, C, D, E, and J, are situated on the fourth terrace, the level of the kiva floor being that of the third terrace. Kiva F lies in the third, and G in the second terrace. It will be seen from an inspection of the ground plan that there are in all 29 rooms in this quarter, besides the 8 kivas, an instructive fact when compared with Spruce-tree House with its 8 kivas and 114 rooms. It must be remembered that several of the rooms in this quarter are of two stories, one is of three stories, and one of four stories, thus adding from 15 to 20 rooms to the 8 enumerated as occupying the ground floor. The proportion of ceremonial rooms to kivas in this quarter would be a little more than 2 to 1.

PLAZA QUARTER

The plaza quarter, as its name indicates, is a large open space, the floor of which is formed mainly by the contiguous roofs of the several kivas (K to O) that are sunk below it. The main entrance to the village opens into this plaza at its northwestern corner, and on the northern side it is continued into a court which connects with the main street or alley of the cliff village. From its position, relations, and other considerations, it is supposed that this quarter was an important section of Cliff Palace and that here were held some of the large open-air gatherings of the inhabitants of the place; here also no doubt were celebrated the sacred dances which we have every reason to believe were at times performed by the former inhabitants. The roof levels of kivas H and I did not contribute to the size of the main plaza, but show good evidence of later construction. Judging from the number of fireplaces in this quarter there is reason to believe that much cooking was done in this open space, in addition to its use for ceremonial or other gatherings of the inhabitants.

OLD QUARTER