A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola Part 9

It seems impossible to restore the entire outline of the portion of Halona that has served as a nucleus for modern Zui from such data as can be procured. At several points of the present village, however, vestiges of the old pueblo can be identified. Doubtless if access could be obtained to all the innermost rooms of the pueblo some of them would show traces of ancient methods of construction sufficient, at least, to admit of a restoration of the general form of the ancient pueblo. At the time the village was surveyed such examination was not practicable. The portion of the old pueblo serving as a nucleus for later construction would probably be found under houses Nos. 1 and 4, forming practically one ma.s.s of rooms. Strangers and outsiders are not admitted to these innermost rooms. Outcrops in the small cl.u.s.ter No. 2 indicate by their position a continuous wall of the old pueblo, probably the external one.

Portions of the ancient outer wall are probably incorporated into the west side of cl.u.s.ter No. 1. On the north side of cl.u.s.ter No. 2 (see Pl.

LXXVI) may be seen a b.u.t.tress-like projection whose construction of small tabular stones strongly contrasts with the character of the surrounding walls, and indicates that it is a fragment of the ancient pueblo. This projecting b.u.t.tress answers no purpose whatever in its present position.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XL. Oraibi house row, showing court side.]

The above suggestions are confirmed by another feature in the same house-cl.u.s.ter. On continuing the line of this b.u.t.tress through the governors house we find a projecting fragment of second story wall, the character and finish of which is clearly shown in Pl. LVIII. Its general similarity to ancient masonry and contrast with the present careless methods of construction are very noticeable. The height of this fragment above the ground suggests that the original pueblo was in a very good state of preservation when it was first utilized as a nucleus for later additions. That portion under house No. 1 is probably equally well preserved. The frequent renovation of rooms by the application of a mud coating renders the task of determining the ancient portions of the cl.u.s.ter by the character of the masonry a very difficult one. Ceilings would probably longest retain the original appearance of the ancient rooms as they are not subjected to such renovation.

Mr. Cus.h.i.+ng thought that the outer western wall of the ancient pueblo was curved in outline. It is more probable, however, that it regulated the lines of the present outer rooms, and is reflected in them, as the usual practice of these builders was to put one part.i.tion directly over another in adding to the height of a building. This would suggest a nearly rectangular form, perhaps with jogs and offsets, for the old builders could not incorporate a curved outer wall into a ma.s.s of rectangular cells, such as that seen in the present pueblo. On the other hand, the outer wall of the original pueblo may have been outside of rooms now occupied, for the village had been abandoned for some time before the colony returned to the site.

TAAIYALANA.

On the abandonment of the pueblos known as the Seven Cities of Cibola, supposed to have occurred at the time of the general uprising of the pueblos in 1680, the inhabitants of all the Cibolan villages sought refuge on the summit of Taaiyalana, an isolated mesa, 3 miles southeast from Zui, and there built a number of pueblo cl.u.s.ters.

This mesa, otherwise known as Thunder Mountain, rises to the height of 1,000 feet above the plain, and is almost inaccessible. There are two foot trails leading to the summit, each of which in places traverses abrupt slopes of sandstone where holes have been pecked into the rock to furnish foot and hand holds. From the northeast side the summit of the mesa can be reached by a rough and tortuous burro trail. All the rest of the mesa rim is too precipitous to be scaled. Its appearance as seen from Zui is shown in Pl. LIX.

On the southern portion of this impregnable site and grouped about a point where nearly the whole drainage of the mesa top collects, are found the village remains. The Zuis stated that the houses were distributed in six groups or cl.u.s.ters, each taking the place of one of the abandoned towns. Mr. Frank H. Cus.h.i.+ng [4] was also under the impression that these houses had been built as six distinct cl.u.s.ters of one village, and he has found that at the time of the Pueblo rebellion, but six of the Cibolan villages were occupied. An examination of the plan, however, will at once show that no such definite scheme of arrangement governed the builders. There are but three, or at most four groups that could be defined as distinct cl.u.s.ters, and even in the case of these the disposition is so irregular and their boundaries so ill defined, through the great number of outlying small groups scattered about, that they can hardly be considered distinct. There are really thirty-eight separate buildings (Pl. LX) ranging in size from one of two rooms, near the southern extremity to one of one hundred and three rooms, situated at the southwestern corner of the whole group and close to the western edge of the mesa where the foot trails reach the summit.

There is also great diversity in the arrangement of rooms. In some cases the cl.u.s.ters are quite compact, and in others the rooms are distributed in narrow rows. In the large cl.u.s.ter at the northwestern extremity the houses are arranged around a court; with this exception the cl.u.s.ters of rooms are scattered about in an irregular manner, regardless of any defensive arrangement of the buildings. The builders evidently placed the greatest reliance on their impregnable site, and freely adopted such arrangement as convenience dictated.

[Footnote 4: See Millstone for April, 1884, Indianapolis, Indiana.]

The masonry of these villages was roughly constructed, the walls being often less than a foot thick. Very little adobe mortar seems to have been used; some of the thickest and best preserved walls have apparently been laid nearly dry (Pl. LXI). The few openings still preserved also show evidence of hasty and careless construction. Over most of the area the debris of the fallen walls is very clearly marked, and is but little enc.u.mbered with earth or drifted sand. This imparts an odd effect of newness to these ruins, as though the walls had recently fallen. The small amount of debris suggests that the majority of these buildings never were more than one story high, though in four of the broadest cl.u.s.ters (see plan, Pl. LX) a height of two, and possibly three, stories may have been attained. All the ruins are thickly covered by a very luxurious growth of braided cactus, but little of which is found elsewhere in the neighborhood. The extreme southeastern cl.u.s.ter, consisting of four large rooms, differs greatly in character from the rest of the ruins. Here the rooms or inclosures are defined only by a few stones on the surface of the ground and partly embedded in the soil.

There is no trace of the debris of fallen walls. These outlined inclosures appear never to have been walled to any considerable height.

Within one of the rooms is a slab of stone, about which a few ceremonial plume sticks have been set on end within recent times.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XLI. Back of Oraibi house row.]

The motive that led to the occupation of this mesa was defense; the cause that led to the selection of the particular site was facility for procuring a water supply. The trail on the west side pa.s.ses a spring half way down the mesa. There was another spring close to the foot trail on the south side; this, however, was lower, being almost at the foot of the talus.

In addition to these water sources, the builders collected and stored the drainage of the mesa summit near the southern gap or recess. At this point are still seen the remains of two reservoirs or dams built of heavy masonry. Only a few stones are now in place, but these indicate unusually ma.s.sive construction. Another reservoir occurs farther along the mesa rim to the southeast, beyond the limits of the plan as given.

As may be seen from the plan (Pl. LX) the two reservoirs at the gap are quite close together. These receptacles have been much filled up with sediment. Pl. LXII gives a view of the princ.i.p.al or westernmost reservoir as seen from the northeast. On the left are the large stones once incorporated in the masonry of the dam. This masonry appears to have originally extended around three-fourths of the circ.u.mference of the reservoir. As at Ketchipauan, previously described, the upper portion of the basins merged insensibly into the general drainage and had no definite limit.

The Zui claim to have here practiced a curious method of water storage.

They say that whenever there was snow on the ground the villagers would turn out in force and roll up huge s...o...b..a.l.l.s, which were finally collected into these basins, the gradually melting snow furnis.h.i.+ng a considerable quant.i.ty of water. The desert environment has taught these people to avail themselves of every expedient that could increase their supply of water.

It is proper to state that in the ill.u.s.trated plan of the Taaiyalana ruins the mesa margin was sketched in without the aid of instrumental sights, and hence is not so accurately recorded as the plans and relative positions of the houses. It was all that could be done at the time, and will sufficiently ill.u.s.trate the general relation of the buildings to the surrounding topography.

KIN-TIEL.

All the ruins above described bear close traditional and historic relations.h.i.+p to Zui. This is not the case with the splendidly preserved ancient pueblo of Kin-tiel, but the absence of such close historic connection is compensated for by its architectural interest. Differing radically in its general plan from the ruins already examined, it still suggests that some resemblance to the more ancient portions of Nutria and Pescado, as will be seen by comparing the ground plans (Pls. LXVII and LXIX). Its state of preservation is such that it throws light on details which have not survived the general destruction in the other pueblos. These features will be referred to in the discussion and comparison of these architectural groups by constructional details in Chapter IV.

This pueblo, located nearly midway between Cibola and Tusayan, is given on some of the maps as Pueblo Grande. It is situated on a small arm of the Pueblo Colorado wash, 22 or 23 miles north of Navajo Springs, and about the same distance south from Pueblo Colorado (Ganado post-office).

Geographically the ruins might belong to either Tusayan or Cibola, but Mr. Cus.h.i.+ng has collected traditional references among the Zui as to the occupation of this pueblo by related peoples at a time not far removed from the first Spanish visit to this region.

The plan (Pl. LXIII) shows a marked contrast to the irregularity seen in the ruins previously described. The pueblo was clearly defined by a continuous and unbroken outer wall, which probably extended to the full height of the highest stories (Pl. LXIV). This symmetrical form is all the more remarkable in a pueblo of such large dimensions, as, with the exception of Pueblo Bonito of the Chaco group, it is the largest ancient pueblo examined by this Bureau. This village seems to belong to the same type as the Chaco examples, representing the highest development attained in building a large defensive pueblo practically as a single house. All the terraces faced upon one or more inclosed courts, through which access was gained to the rooms. The openings in this outer wall, especially near the ground, were few in number and very small in size, as shown in Pl. CIV. The pueblo was built in two wings of nearly equal size on the opposite slopes of a large sandy wash, traversing its center from east to west. This wash doubtless at one time furnished peculiar facilities for storage of water within or near the village, and this must have been one of the inducements for the selection of the site.

At the time of our survey, however, not a drop of water was to be found about the ruin, nor could vestiges of any construction for gathering or storing water be traced. Such vestiges would not be likely to remain, as they must have been washed away by the violent summer torrents or buried under the acc.u.mulating sands. Two seasons subsequent to our work at this point it was learned that an American, digging in some rooms on the arroyo margin, discovered the remains of a well or reservoir, which he cleared of sand and debris and found to be in good condition, furnis.h.i.+ng so steady a water supply that the discoverer settled on the spot. This was not seen by the writer. There is a small spring, perhaps a mile from the pueblo in a northeasterly direction, but this source would have been wholly insufficient for the needs of so large a village. It may have furnished a much more abundant supply, however, when it was in constant use, for at the time of our visit it seemed to be choked up. About a mile and a half west quite a lagoon forms from the collected drainage of several broad valleys, and contains water for a long time after the cessation of the rains. About 6 miles to the north, in a depression of a broad valley, an extensive lake is situated, and its supply seems to be constant throughout the year, except, perhaps, during an unusually dry season. These various bodies of water were undoubtedly utilized in the horticulture of the occupants of Kin-tiel; in fact, near the borders of the larger lake referred to is a small house of two rooms; much similar in workmans.h.i.+p to the main pueblo, evidently designed as an outlook over fields. This building is ill.u.s.trated in Pl. LXVI.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XLII. The site of Moen-kopi.]

The arrangement of the inner houses differs in the two halves of the ruin. It will be seen that in the north half the general arrangement is roughly parallel with the outer walls, with the exception of a small group near the east end of the arroyo. In the south half, on the other hand, the inner rows are nearly at right angles to the outer room cl.u.s.ters. An examination of the contours of the site will reveal the cause of this difference in the different configuration of the slopes in the two cases. In the south half the rows of rooms have been built on two long projecting ridges, and the diverging small cl.u.s.ter in the north half owes its direction to a similar cause. The line of outer wall being once fixed as a defensive bulwark, there seems to have been but little restriction in the adjustment of the inner buildings to conform to the irregularities of the site. (Pl. LXIII.)

Only three clearly defined means of access to the interior of the pueblo could be found in the outer walls, and of these only two were suitable for general use. One was at a reentering angle of the outer wall, just south of the east end of the arroyo, where the north wall, continued across the arroyo, overlaps the outer wall of the south half, and the other one was near the rounded northeastern corner of the pueblo. The third opening was a doorway of ordinary size in the thick north wall. It seems probable that other gateways once existed, especially in the south half. From its larger size and more compact arrangement this south half would seem to have greatly needed such facilities, but the preserved walls show no trace of them.

The ground plan furnishes indications, mostly in the north half, of several large rooms of circular form, but broken down remains of square rooms are so much like those of round ones in appearance, owing to the greater amount of dbris that collects at the corners, that it could not be definitely determined that the ceremonial rooms here were of the circular form so common in the ancient pueblos. While only circular kivas have been found a.s.sociated with ancient pueblos of this type, the kivas of all the Cibola ruins above described are said by the Zuis to have been rectangular. The question can be decided for this pueblo only by excavation on a larger scale than the party was prepared to undertake. Slight excavation at a point where a round room was indicated on the surface, revealed portions of straight walls only.

The large size of the refuse heap on the south side of the village indicates that the site had been occupied for many generations.

Notwithstanding this long period of occupation, no important structure of the village seems to have extended beyond the plan. On the north side, outside the main wall, are seen several rectangles faintly outlined by stones, but these do not appear to have been rooms. They resemble similar inclosures seen in connection with ruined pueblos farther south, which proved on excavation to contain graves.

The positions of the few excavations made are indicated on the plan (Pl.

LXIII). Our facilities for such work were most meager, and whatever results were secured were reached at no great distance from the surface.

One of these excavations, ill.u.s.trated in Pl. C, will be described at greater length in Chapter IV.

PLANS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF INHABITED VILLAGES.

NUTRIA.

Nutria is the smallest of the three farming pueblos of Zui, and is located about 23 miles by trail northeast from Zui at the head of Nutria valley. The water supply at this point is abundant, and furnishes a running stream largely utilized in irrigating fields in the vicinity.

Most of the village is compactly arranged, as may be seen from the plan (Pl. LXVII and Fig. 17), but a few small cl.u.s.ters, of late construction, containing two or three rooms each, are situated toward the east at quite a distance from the princ.i.p.al group. It is now occupied solely as a farming pueblo during the planting and harvesting season.

The outline of this small pueblo differs greatly from those of most of the Cibolan villages. The village (Pl. LXVIII), particularly in its northernmost cl.u.s.ter, somewhat approximates the form of the ancient pueblo of Kin-tiel (Pl. LXIII), and has apparently been built on the remains of an older village of somewhat corresponding form, as indicated by its curved outer wall. Fragments of carefully constructed masonry of the ancient type, contrasting noticeably with the surrounding modern construction, afford additional evidence of this. The ancient village must have been provided originally with ceremonial rooms or kivas, but no traces of such rooms are now to be found.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 17. Nutria, plan; small diagram, old wall.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XLIII. Plan of Moen-kopi.]

At the close of the harvest, when the season of feasts and ceremonials begins, lasting through most of the winter, the occupants of these farming villages close up their houses and move back to the main pueblo leaving them untenanted until the succeeding spring.

The great number of abandoned and ruined rooms is very noticeable in the farming pueblos ill.u.s.trated in this and two of the succeeding plans (Pls. LXIX and LXXIII). The families that farm in their vicinity seem to occupy scarcely more than half of the available rooms.

PESCADO.

This village, also a Zui farming pueblo, is situated in a large valley about 12 miles northeast from Zui. Although it is much larger than Nutria it is wholly comprised within the compact group ill.u.s.trated. The tendency to build small detached houses noticed at Nutria and at Ojo Caliente has not manifested itself here. The prevalence of abandoned and roofless houses is also noticeable.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 18. Pescado, plan, old wall diagram.]

The outlines of the original court inclosing pueblo (Pl. LXX) are very clearly marked, as the farming Zuis in their use of this site have scarcely gone outside of the original limits of the ancient pueblo. The plan, Pl. LXIX and Fig. 18, shows a small irregular row built in the large inclosed court; this row, with the inclosures and corrals that surround it, probably formed no part of the original plan. The full curved outline is broken only at the west end of the village by small additions to the outer wall, and the north and east walls also closely follow the boundary of the original pueblo. In fact, at two points along the north wall fragments of carefully executed masonry, probably forming part of the external wall of the ancient pueblo, are still preserved (Pl. LXXII). This outer wall was probably once continuous to the full height of the pueblo, but the partial restorations of the buildings by the Zui farmers resemble more closely the modern arrangement. Small rooms have been added to the outside of the cl.u.s.ter and in some cases the terraces are reached by external stone steps, in contrast with the defensive arrangement prevailing generally in pueblos of this form.

A number of dome-shaped ovens have been built outside the walls.

The principle of pueblo plan embodied in Kin-tiel, before referred to, is traceable in this village with particular clearness, distinguis.h.i.+ng it from most of the Cibolan pueblos. No traces of kivas were met with in this village.

OJO CALIENTE.

The farming village of Ojo Caliente is located near the dry wash of the Zui River, and is about 15 miles distant from Zui, in a southerly direction. It is about midway between Hawikuh and Ketchipauan, two of the seven cities of Cibola above described. Though situated in fertile and well watered country and close to the remains of the ancient villages, it bears indications of having been built in comparatively recent times. There are no such evidences of connection with an older village as were found at Nutria and Pescado. The irregular and small cl.u.s.ters that form this village are widely scattered over a rather rough and broken site, as shown on the plan (Pl. LXXIII). Here again a large portion of the village is untenanted. The large cl.u.s.ter toward the eastern extremity of the group, and the adjoining houses situated on the low, level ground, compose the present inhabited village. The houses occupying the elevated rocky sites to the west (Pl. LXXIV) are in an advanced stage of decay, and have been for a long time abandoned.

This southern portion of the Cibola district seems to have been much exposed to the inroads of the Apache. One of the effects of this has already been noticed in the defensive arrangement in the Ketchipauan church. On account of such danger, the Zui were likely to have built the first house-cl.u.s.ters here on the highest points of the rocky promontory, notwithstanding the comparative inconvenience of such sites.

Later, as the farmers gained confidence or as times became safer, they built houses down on the flat now occupied; but this apparently was not done all at once. The distribution of the houses over sites of varying degrees of inaccessibility, suggests a succession of approaches to the occupation of the open and unprotected valley.

Some of the masonry of this village is carelessly constructed, and, as in the other farming pueblos, there is much less adobe plastering and smoothing of outer walls than in the home pueblo.