Part 7

VARIOUS OBJECTS FROM CLIFF PALACE

_a_ Pottery fragment with bird-claw decoration in relief

_b_, _d_ Food bowls

_c_ Incised stone

_e_ Decorated fragment of earthenware

_f_ Cover for vase]

KIVA C

This kiva is circular; it measures 13 feet in diameter, and 5 feet 6 inches from the floor to the top of the pilasters. The height of the banquette is 3 feet. The number of pilasters is 6; their average breadth is 2 feet.

The deflector is a stone wall laid in mortar; its width is 3 feet 6 inches; the thickness, 8 inches. From the flue to the deflector is 2 feet 4 inches, and from the same to the fire-hole, 8 inches. The diameter of the fire-hole is 2 feet, its depth 1 foot. The sipapû is 2 feet from the fire-hole; it is 6 inches deep and 4 inches in diameter.

The masonry of this kiva was in very poor condition, most of the upper part being wholly broken down. There are 4 niches in the walls. The surface is thickly plastered and shows a deposit of smoke. The pilasters are of uniform size. The deep banquette is situated above the flue back of the deflector.

KIVA D

Kiva D is square, with rounded corners; it is 13 feet in diameter; its walls are 10 feet high and measure 7 feet from the floor to the top of the pilasters. The height of the banquette is 4 feet. The number of pilasters is 6; their average distance apart is 4 feet 6 inches, and their width 2 feet. The eastern wall of this kiva is the side of the cave, and the whole was inclosed by high walls. On the southern side of the kiva is a passageway. The walls of the kiva and the cave roof above it are blackened with smoke. There are two deep banquettes.

The flue opens in the western wall of the kiva; its height is 2 feet, and its width at the top is 13 inches. The distance from the flue to the deflector is 2 feet 6 inches; from the deflector to the fire-hole, 13 inches. The diameter of the fire-hole is 2 feet and its depth 1 foot. The distance from the fire-hole to the sipapû is 2 feet 2 inches; the diameter of the latter is 3 inches. This kiva has 5 finely made rectangular niches in the walls. The walls are well plastered and were painted yellow. Wherever the masonry is visible it is found inferior to none except possibly that of kiva Q.[52]

[Footnote 52: This kiva, which is one of the best in Cliff Palace, is illustrated by Nordenskiöld.]

KIVA E

Kiva E is square, with rounded corners; it measures 11 feet 6 inches in diameter, and is 9 feet 10 inches high. The elevation of the banquette is 4 feet, and of the pilasters 7 feet. The number of pilasters is 6. The flue opens on the western side.

The deflector consists of a wall of stone, 2 feet high; its width is 3 feet 6 inches, the thickness 9 inches. The distance from the deflector to the flue is 1 foot 10 inches, and from the fire-hole 3 inches. There are 4 mural niches. As the projecting rock on the eastern side interfered with the symmetry of this kiva, when constructed it was necessary to peck the rock away 8 inches deep over an area 10 feet square, thus exhibiting, next to the floor of kiva V, the most extensive piece of kiva stone-cutting in Cliff Palace. Although this kiva was generally in a fair state of preservation, it was necessary to rebuild much of the eastern wall.

The fire-hole of this kiva is lined with a rude jar set with adobe mortar. No sipapû was discovered in the floor. Kiva E is one of the few kivas in Cliff Palace surrounded by the walls of rooms. As it is situated in the rear of the cave, projecting walls of the cliff were necessarily cut away to a considerable extent in order to obtain the form of room desired on the eastern side. This side of the kiva is blackened by smoke antedating the construction of the room. There is abundant evidence in this portion of the ruin of secondary construction of buildings on the same site. Several walls built upon others show that some rooms may have been abandoned and new ones added, an indication that this portion of the ruin is very old, perhaps having the oldest walls still standing.

KIVA F

Kiva F, situated on a lower terrace than the kivas already described, is square, with rounded corners, and is 9 feet high. The height of the pilasters is 6 feet 10 inches, and the top of the banquette is 4 feet 1 inch above the floor. The diameter of the kiva is 13 feet. There are 6 pilasters; the distance between them averages 5 feet; their average width is 2 feet 4 inches. The deflector, a wall of masonry, is 3 feet wide and averages 9 inches in thickness.

The deflector is 2 feet from the flue and 18 inches from the fire-hole, which is 2 feet in diameter and the same in depth. The distance from the fire-hole to the sipapû is 2 feet 4 inches. The diameter of the sipapû is 2½ inches, and its depth 5 inches.

There are 3 mural niches, similar to those previously described. The roof of this kiva was of the same level as the floors of rooms 16 and 24, the roofs of which overlooked the kiva situated in the terrace below.

The walls of this kiva are black with smoke. The room is surrounded by a second wall, the interval between which and that of the kiva is filled with rubble.

KIVA G

This kiva may be called "heartshaped." Its height from the floor to the top of the roof is 9 feet, and it measures 6 feet from the floor to the top of the pilasters. The banquette is 4 feet high, and the interior diameter of the kiva is 12 feet. The numbers of pilasters is 6; their average breadth is a little more than 2 feet, and the intervals between them averages 3 feet 6 inches.

The deflector is a stone slab 3 feet wide and 2 feet high. The distance from the flue to the deflector is 2 feet; from the deflector to the fire-hole 11 inches. The diameter of the fire-hole is 2 feet, its depth 18 inches. The sipapû is 2 feet 8 inches from the fire-hole; its diameter is 2 inches, and its depth 4 inches. There are 4 mural niches.

This kiva is situated in the terrace below that last mentioned, that is, in the second terrace, and was wholly buried when excavations began. The roofs of rooms 30 and 31 overlooked this kiva, their floors being on the same level as the kiva roof.

KIVA H

Kiva H (pl. 18) measures 8 feet from the floor to the top of the wall, and 6 feet from the floor to the top of the pilasters. The height of the banquette is 4 feet 6 inches. The diameter of the kiva is 11 feet 6 inches.

The deflector is a curved stone wall joining the kiva wall on each side of the flue.[53] It is built of stone, 7 feet 6 inches high, 10 inches wide, and 20 inches high. The deflector is 1 foot 6 inches from the flue and 15 inches from the fire-hole. The diameter of the fire-hole is 2 feet and its depth 1 foot.

[Footnote 53: A similar deflector is recorded by Mr. Morley as existing in the Cannonball ruin, and is figured by Nordenskiöld from the Mesa Verde.]

The sipapû is situated 2 feet from the fire-hole; it is 3 inches in diameter and 4 inches deep.

There are 2 mural niches. Exceptional features of this kiva are the curved deflector and the opening into a small room at the northwestern corner. Instead of extending straight from the kiva to the vertical ventilator, the flue turns at a right angle midway in its course. The ventilator is built at one corner of the kiva wall. As this kiva lies deep below the base of the round tower, a fine view of these several characteristics may be obtained from that point.

KIVA I

When work began there was no indication of the walls of this kiva, except a fragment of one which at first was supposed to belong to a small secular room. The kiva had been filled with débris by those who had dug into the upper rooms, and a large hole[54] was broken through the high western wall of kiva L, through which to throw débris. The removal of this accumulation was a work of considerable magnitude, and the repair of the kiva wall was very difficult, as it was necessary to reconstruct the foundations that had been blasted away to make the opening above mentioned.

[Footnote 54: This entrance in the wall appears in all photographs of this portion of Cliff Palace.]

When this débris was removed and the floor of the kiva was reached, it was found that its walls were much disintegrated, the component stones having practically turned into sand, necessitating the construction of buttresses to support them. The dimensions of kiva I are as follows: The height of the top of the wall from the floor is 8 feet, and that of the pilasters 6 feet 8 inches. The banquette rises 3 feet 8 inches above the floor. The interior diameter of the kiva is 10 feet 10 inches. The number of pedestals is 4, averaging 4 feet in height.

The flue is situated at the southwestern side. The distance from the flue to the deflector is 21 inches; from the deflector to the fire-hole, 2 inches. There are two mural niches, one at the northeast measuring 13 by 11 by 8 inches, and one at the southeast measuring 13 by 11 by 7 inches. A dado, painted red, surrounded the kiva, the color being most conspicuous, because best protected, in the mural niches, half of which are above, half below the upper margin of the dado. On this margin are traceable triangular figures like those on the painted wall of room 11.

On the level of what was formerly the roof of this kiva was set into the roof a vase covered with a flat stone and containing desiccated bodies of lizards.[55]

[Footnote 55: For a note on a similar vase and its use, see remarks on kiva S. It is probable that these dried lizards were regarded by the Cliff Palace priests as very potent "medicine."]

KIVA J

Kiva J is round; it is 14 feet in diameter and measures 8 feet 4 inches from the floor to the top of the wall. The height from the floor to the top of one of the pilasters is 5 feet 10 inches. The banquette is 3 feet 2 inches high. The deep banquette, as is usually the case, is above the flue, which opens in the southwestern wall. The number of pedestals is 6; their average breadth is 2 feet. The deflector consists of a stone wall rising 20 inches above the kiva floor. There are 7 mural niches. The kiva walls were thickly plastered with adobe, and show the action of smoke.[56]

[Footnote 56: From all appearances the kivas were plastered from time to time after the walls had become blackened.]

The open space east of the kiva, formerly continuous with its roof, is somewhat larger than is usually the case, making this the largest plaza in Cliff Palace, except that of the plaza quarter. There are remnants of rooms southwest of the kiva.

KIVA K

Kiva K[57] is round in form, and its height from the floor to the roof is 7 feet. The height of the pilasters is 5 feet, and that of the banquette 3 feet. The diameter of the kiva is 9 feet 6 inches. The pilasters are 5 in number, and average about 20 inches in width. The deflector of this kiva is exceptional, being the only known instance where this structure is constructed of upright stakes bound with twigs or cedar bark and plastered with adobe.[58] The distance from the flue to the deflector is 18 inches, and from the deflector to the fire-hole, 8 inches. The diameter of the fire-hole is 20 inches, the depth 8 inches. The walls of this smallest of the kivas are formed partly of masonry, but in places the chamber is excavated out of solid rock, the ancient builders having pecked away projections in order to produce the desired form.

[Footnote 57: This kiva, one of the finest and in some features the most exceptional in Cliff Palace, is not indicated in Nordenskiöld's plan.]

[Footnote 58: Nordenskiöld describes a ventilator constructed in the same way.]

The marks of smoke are clearly visible, especially on the flue; and on the surface of the eastern side are scratched several figures representing birds and other animals. Eyelets of osiers set in the wall are also exceptional, and their use is problematical.

KIVA L

The height of kiva L is 7 feet 5 inches, that of the pilasters 5 feet 4 inches, and of the banquette 3 feet 3 inches. The diameter is 12 feet 2 inches. Number of pilasters 6. The flue opens on the western side; its height is 2 feet. Only a single mural niche was recognizable.

The walls of this kiva were very badly damaged, the whole of its front having fallen inward, covering the floor. The construction of the room demanded considerable rock cutting, especially on the eastern side, to secure the requisite depth. Whatever masonry remained in position was, as a rule, good. Probably no kiva in Cliff Palace was more dilapidated when work began. It had been used as a dump by those who had mutilated the ruins, and a great opening had been torn in its western wall. Excavations showed that the floor had been wholly destroyed.

KIVA N

The height of kiva N is 7 feet 4 inches, and that of the pilasters 5 feet 4 inches. The banquette is 3 feet high. The diameter of the kiva is 11 feet. There are 6 pilasters and 5 mural niches.

This kiva was in bad condition when the work began, but it is now in good repair and exhibits interesting features. The deflector was wholly destroyed, and it was impossible to find the sipapû. There are evidences of considerable rock cutting on the northern side, and of a little on the eastern and southwestern sides. The kiva walls are blackened by smoke.

KIVA P

The height of kiva P is 8 feet, its diameter 11 feet 3 inches. The height from the floor to the top of a pilaster is 5 feet 10 inches, and to the top of the banquette 3 feet 4 inches. The number of pilasters is 6, and their average breadth about 20 inches.

From the flue to the deflector the distance is 2 feet 8 inches, and the deflector is situated 6 inches from the fire-hole. There are 5 mural niches.

The walls of this kiva are much blackened by smoke. The masonry is fair, but much broken on the northern and western sides. There is evidence that a considerable amount of rock has been pecked away on the northern side to the floor level. The kiva occupies almost the whole open space in which it is constructed, and the walls of neighboring buildings surround it on all sides, rising from the edge of the kiva. In order to secure a level foundation, parallel beams to support the floor were laid from a projecting rock to a masonry wall. The ends of these logs project above the path that leads to the main entrance.

KIVA Q

This kiva (pl. 19) is round in shape and measures 8 feet 6 inches from the floor to the top of the wall. There were formerly eight pilasters, which averaged 18 inches in breadth. The height of the pilasters is 6 feet, and of the top of the banquette 3 feet 3 inches. The diameter of the kiva is 13 feet 8 inches.

The fire-hole is 22 inches from the deflector; the thickness of the latter is 10 inches, and its width 3 feet 3 inches. There are four mural niches, all in fine condition. Although the masonry of this kiva is the finest in Cliff Palace, its whole western end is destroyed. The floor west of the deflector has a slightly convex surface.[59]

[Footnote 59: In ceremonial rooms of ruins in the Navaho National Monument this curve is represented by a raised step.]

No ceremonial opening, or sipapû, such as occurs in several other Cliff Palace kivas, was found in kiva Q. At the place where this feature usually appears the floor was broken, but as several of the Cliff Palace kivas have no specialized sipapûs it is possible that this device may be looked for in another opening in the floor. There are no sipapûs in the Hano kivas of the East Mesa of the Hopi, and the priests of that pueblo assert that the Tewa have no special hole in the kiva floor to represent this ceremonial opening. Apparently the Pueblos of the Rio Grande are like the Tewa of Hano in this respect. All the kivas of Spruce-tree House and a number of those in Cliff Palace have this ceremonial opening, thus following the Hopi rather than the Tewa custom. Whether the fireplace was used by those who performed rites in kiva Q as a symbolic opening into or from the "underworld" is unknown, to the writer. The subterranean passage in kiva V leading to the fire-hole, but not entering it, is interesting in this particular. Kiva V, however, as pointed out, has in addition to the fire-hole a fine pottery-lined sipapû corresponding to the sipapûs in Hopi kivas, but made in the solid rock floor.

KIVA S

This kiva is square, with rounded corners. Its height is 8 feet, and the height of one of the pilasters above the floor 5 feet 10 inches. The banquettes are 3 feet 3 inches above the floor. The diameter of the kiva is 10 feet 4 inches.

The number of pilasters is 6; their average breadth is 20 inches. The distance from flue to deflector, which is a slab of stone, is 3 feet 2 inches; the height of the deflector is 1 foot 7 inches and its width 3 feet.

From the deflector to the fire-hole the distance is 7 inches. The diameter of the fire-hole is 2 feet, its depth 9 inches. There are 2 mural niches. The large banquette is 3 feet 6 inches broad. The shaft of the flue, after passing 18 inches under the kiva wall, turns southeastward 4 feet 4 inches and then takes a vertical course. The masonry of kiva S is fairly good. A jar is set into one of the banquettes, and was perhaps formerly used for containing sacred meal.[60] This receptacle was left as found, and a slab of stone placed slantingly above it to shield it from falling stones. Under the huge rock above it there are light masonry walls outlining diminutive rooms used possibly for storage but not for habitation.

[Footnote 60: Among the Hopi at the present day certain fetishes, as the effigies of the Great Plumed Serpent, are regarded as so sacred that when not in use they are kept in jars set in a banquette, the surface of which is level with the neck of the jar. These receptacles are closely sealed with a stone slab when the images are deposited in them. Possibly the jars set in the kiva banquettes of Cliff Palace may have been used for a similar purpose: i. e., were receptacles for fetishes held in such veneration that, as is the case with the Great Serpent effigies of the Hopi, one even touching them may, in the belief of the people, be afflicted with direful disorders.]

KIVA T

This kiva stands on an elevated rock, and has double walls, the intervals between the wall of the kiva and the outside walls being filled with rubble.

The height of kiva T is 7 feet 6 inches, that of one of the pilasters 6 feet 6 inches. The banquette is 3 feet 9 inches above the floor. The diameter of the kiva is 10 feet 5 inches. There were probably 6 pilasters and 2 mural niches. Although the greater part of the walls of this kiva was destroyed, a deep banquette still remains above the air shaft. The floor has the same level as the second terrace, or one story above kiva S, the roof of which is consequently at the level of the floor of kiva T.

Kiva T was in bad condition when work began, as part of its front wall had fallen and only the tops of the others were visible above the débris. Even the floor level was difficult to determine.

KIVA U

The form of kiva U is round, and its height is 7 feet 6 inches. The height of one of the pilasters is 4 feet 11 inches, and that of the banquette 3 feet 4 inches. The diameter of the kiva is 12 feet. There are 5 pilasters. The fire-hole is 4 inches from the flue; the diameter of the fire-hole is 20 inches, its depth 6 inches. There are 6 mural niches, so arranged that two large niches are situated above two small ones. The presence of but 5 pedestals is accounted for by the joining of 2 above the flue. Much rock-cutting was necessary in constructing this kiva, especially on the northern and southwestern sides. As the front wall of the kiva had fallen, it had to be practically rebuilt. The foundations were unstable, apparently having been constructed on loose stones carelessly laid.

KIVA V

This kiva is round and measures 5 feet 6 inches from the floor to the top of one of the pilasters. The top of the banquette is 3 feet 4 inches above the floor. The diameter of the kiva is 12 feet 8 inches. The number of pilasters is 6 and their average breadth 20 inches.

The distance from the deflector to the line of the wall is 23 inches; the height, of the deflector is 22 inches, the thickness 9 inches, and the width 3 feet 2 inches. The fire-hole is 18 inches from the sipapû; the latter is 10 inches deep and 3 inches in diameter, and is lined with a pottery tube cemented in place. There are three mural niches.

Kiva V is exceptional in the amount of rock-cutting that was necessary for lowering the floor to the desired level. Probably the greatest amount of stone-cutting was done in this kiva.

There remains to be mentioned a unique tunnel which may eventually throw some light on ceremonial openings in the kivas of cliff-dwellings. Just beneath the adobe floor, extending from a vertical flue outside the kiva to the fire-hole, which it does not, however, enter, there is a passage through which a small person may crawl. Exteriorly this opens into a vertical flue which was broken down; inside it ends bluntly at the fire-hole. About midway of its length there extends from it a lateral passageway, slightly curved, forming a well-worn doorway. This curved passage opens through the kiva floor by a manhole. The walls of these passages are constructed of good masonry. Their function is unknown, but as most structures connected with kivas are ceremonial, this may provisionally be called a ceremonial opening.

It is evident that this ceremonial passage had nothing to do or at least had no connection with the ventilator and deflector of the kiva. The opening is situated under the floor, passing in its course beneath the deflector, and its external opening is by a vertical passage outside the ventilator. It also differs from the ventilator in having a lateral branch likewise situated under the floor. Passing to kivas outside the Mesa Verde region, we find homologous passages recorded as present under the floor in Pueblo Bonito, a ruin on the Chaco, and in the kiva of a ruin not far from Chama, where the passage under the floor is excavated in solid rock. Evidently we have in this structure a ceremonial opening the true significance of which is yet to be determined. Is it connected with the Tewa concept that the fire-hole is a sipapû, or was it used in fire rites that were performed about the fireplace? These and other questions that might be proposed must remain unanswered until more is known of similar passages in other cliff-dwelling kivas.

A SUBTYPE OF KIVA (KIVA M)

The method of roof construction, which is the main difference that distinguishes a kiva of the subtype from one of the first type, is due to the absence of pilasters. Kiva M of Cliff Palace may be assigned to this subtype, although many examples of it occur in ruins farther down the San Juan, as well as in the Navaho National Monument and in Canyon de Chelly. Kivas of the subtype are similar to those of the second type in that pilasters are absent, but they differ from them in the presence of a large banquette and in the subterranean position, which features also characterize the first type. The only circular kivas known to the ruins near the East Mesa of the Hopi of Arizona belong to the first type, two of which are found at Kukuchomo, the two ruins on the summit of the mesa above Sikyatki.