Aboriginal Remains In Verde Valley, Arizona Part 7

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XLV.

MASONRY OF RUIN NEAR LIMESTONE CREEK.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 303.

Framed doorway, cavate lodges.]

In the cavate lodges window openings are not found; there is but one opening, the doorway, and this is of a p.r.o.nounced and peculiar type. As a rule these doorways are wider at the top than at the bottom and there are no corners, the opening roughly approximating the shape of a pear with the smaller end downward. The upper part of the opening consists always of the naked rock, but the lower part is generally framed with slabs of sandstone. Plate XLIX shows an example that occurs in the upper tier of lodges at its eastern end. The floor of this lodge is about 2 feet above the bench from which it was entered, and this specimen fails to show a feature which is very common in this group--a line of water-worn bowlders extending from the exterior to the interior of the lodges through the doorway and arranged like stepping stones. This feature is shown in figure 302, which represents the doorway of group _E_, shown on the general map (plate XXV) and on the detailed plan, figure 297. Figure 303 shows a type in which the framing is extended up on one side nearly to the top, while on the other side it extends only to half the height of the opening, which above the framing is hollowed out to increase its width. This example occurs near that shown in plate XLIX, and the floor of the chamber is raised about 2 feet above the bench from which it is entered. The ill.u.s.tration gives a view from the interior, looking out, and the large opening on the right was caused by the comparatively recent breaking out of the wall. Figure 303 shows the doorway to the group of chambers marked _E_ on the general map, an interior view of which is shown in figure 302. In this example the obvious object of the framing was to reduce the size of the opening, and to accomplish this the slabs were set out 10 or 12 inches from the rock forming the sides of the opening, and the intervening s.p.a.ce was filled in with rubble. Plate x.x.xII, which shows the interior of the main room in group _D_, shows also the large doorway on the north.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 304.

Notched doorway in Canyon de Ch.e.l.ly.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XLVI.

MASONRY OF RUIN OPPOSITE VERDE.]

It will be noticed that these doorways all conform to one general plan and that this plan required an opening considerably larger in its upper third than in the lower two-thirds of its height. This requirement seems to be the counterpart or a.n.a.logue of the notched doorway, which is the standard type in the cliff ruins of Canyon de Ch.e.l.ly and other regions, and still very common in Tusayan (Moki). Figure 304 shows a notched doorway in Canyon de Ch.e.l.ly and figure 305 gives an example of the same type of opening in Tusayan. The object of this peculiar shape in the regions mentioned has been well established,[9] and there is no reason to suppose that similar conditions and a similar object would not produce a similar result here. This type of opening had its origin in the time when the pueblo builders had no means, other than blankets, of temporarily closing door openings and when all the supplies of the village were brought in on the backs of the inhabitants. In order to secure protection against cold and storm the opening was made of the smallest possible size consistent with its use, and the upper part of the opening was made larger in order to permit the introduction of back loads of f.a.ggots and other necessaries. This purpose would be almost as well served by the openings of the cavate lodges as by the notched doorway, and at the same time the smallest possible opening was exposed to the weather. The two types of openings seem simply to be two different methods of accomplis.h.i.+ng the same purpose--one in solid rock, the other in masonry. That it was considered desirable to reduce the openings as much as possible is evident from the employment of framing slabs in the lower portions, reducing the width of that part generally to less than a foot, while the upper portions are usually 3 feet and more in width, and the absence of framing slabs in the upper part of the openings was probably due to their use as suggested; no slabs could be attached with sufficient firmness to resist the drag of a back load of wood, for example, forced between them. The strict confinement of door openings to one type suggests a short, rather than a long, occupancy of the site under discussion, a suggestion which is borne out by other details; and this unity of design renders it difficult to form a conclusion as to the relative age of the two types of openings under discussion. So far as the evidence goes, however, it supports the conclusion that the doorways of the cavate lodges were derived from a type previously developed, and that the idea has been modified and to some extent adapted to a different environment; for if the idea had been developed in the cavate lodges there would be a much greater number of variations than we find in fact. There can be no doubt, however, that the cavate lodge doorways represent an earlier type in development, if not in time, than the notched doorways of Tusayan.

[Footnote 9: A Study of Pueblo Architecture, by Victor Mindeleff: 8th. Ann. Rep. Bur. Eth. for 1886-1887; Was.h.i.+ngton, 1891, pp. 1-228.]

[Transcriber's Note: This article is available from Project Gutenberg as e-text #19856.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 305.

Notched doorway in Tusayan.]

CHIMNEYS AND FIREPLACES.

Nowhere in the village ruins or in the cavate lodges of the lower Verde were any traces of chimneys or other artificial smoke exits found. The village ruins are too much broken down to permit definite statement of the means employed for smoke exits, but had the inhabitants employed such exits as are in use in the pueblos today some evidence of them would remain. Probably there was no other exit than the door, and perhaps trapdoors or small openings in the roofs, such as were formerly employed in the inhabited pueblos, according to their traditions. In the cavate lodges no exit other than the door was possible, and many of them are found with their walls much blackened by smoke.

The fireplaces or fire holes of the cavate lodges have already been alluded to, and one of the best examples found is ill.u.s.trated in plate x.x.xII, and the location of a number of others is shown on the general plan. These fireplaces are located not in the center of the chamber, but near the princ.i.p.al doorway, and doubtless the object of this location was to facilitate the escape of the smoke. Fire holes were never located in interior rooms. The fireplace ill.u.s.trated in plate x.x.xII has been already described (p. 227); it was excavated in the solid rock of the floor and was lined with fragments of pottery laid in mud mortar as closely as their shape would permit. A part of this pottery lining can be seen in the ill.u.s.tration. When the room was cleared out the fire hole was found to be about half full of fine ashes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XLVII.

STANDING WALLS OPPOSITE VERDE.]

CONCLUSIONS.

The ruins of the lower Verde valley represent a comparatively late period in the history of the Pueblo tribes. The period of occupancy was not a long one and the population was never large, probably not exceeding at any time 800 or 1,000 souls, possibly less than 700; nor were the dwellings in that region all occupied at the same time.

There is no essential difference, other than those due to immediate environment, between the architecture of the lower Verde region and that of the more primitive types found in other regions, Tusayan for example.

The Verde architecture is, however, of a more purely aboriginal type than that of any modern pueblo, and the absence of introduced or foreign ideas is its chief characteristic. There are no chimneys, no adobe walls, no constructive expedients other than aboriginal and rather primitive ones. The absence of circular kivas[10] or sacred council chambers is noteworthy.

[Footnote 10: As this term has been already defined, it is here used without further explanation. For a full discussion of these structures, see "A Study of Pueblo Architecture," by Victor Mindeleff, in 8th. Ann. Rep. Bur. Eth., 1886-87, Was.h.i.+ngton, 1891.]

The circular kiva is a survival of an ancient type--a survival supported by all the power of religious feeling and the conservatism in religious matters characteristic of savage and barbarous life; and while most of the modern pueblos have at the present time rectangular kivas, such, for example, as those at Tusayan, at Zuni, and at Acoma, there is no doubt that the circular form is the more primitive and was formerly used by some tribes which now have only the rectangular form. Still the abandonment of the circular and the adoption of the rectangular form, due to expediency and the breaking down of old traditions, was a very gradual process and proceeded at a different rate in different parts of the country. At the time of the Spanish conquest the prevailing form in the old province of Cibola was rectangular, although the circular kiva was not entirely absent; while, on the other hand, in the cliff ruins of Canyon de Ch.e.l.ly, whose date is partly subsequent to the sixteenth century, the circular kiva is the prevailing, if not the exclusive form.

But notwithstanding this the Hopi Indians of Tusayan, to whom many of the Canyon de Ch.e.l.ly ruins are to be attributed, today have not a single circular kiva. The reason for this radical departure from the old type is a simple one, and to be found in the single term environment. The savage is truly a child of nature and almost completely under its sway.

A slight difference in the geologic formations of two regions will produce a difference in the arts of the inhabitants of those regions, provided the occupancy be a long one. In the case of the Tusayan kivas the rectangular form was imposed on the builders by the character of the sites they occupied. The requirement that the kiva should be under ground, or partly under ground, was a more stringent one than that it should be circular, and with the rude appliances at their command the Tusayan builders could accomplish practically nothing unless they utilized natural cracks and fissures in the rocks. Hence the abandonment of the circular form and also of the more essential requirement, that the kiva should be inclosed within the walls of the village or within a court; the Tusayan kivas are located indiscriminately in the courts and on the outskirts of the village, wherever a suitable site was found, some of them being placed at a considerable distance from the nearest house.

It will be seen, therefore, that it is impossible to base any chronologic conclusions on the presence or absence of this feature, notwithstanding the undoubted priority of the circular form, except in so far as these conclusions are limited to some certain region or known tribal stock. If it be a.s.sumed that the Verde ruins belong to the Tusayan, and all the evidence in hand favors that a.s.sumption, the conclusion follows that they should be a.s.signed to a comparatively late period in the history of that tribe.

That the period of occupancy of the lower Verde valley was not a long one is proved by the character of the remains and by what we know of the history of the pueblo-building tribes. There are no very large areas of tillable land on the lower Verde and not a large number of small ones, and aside from these areas the country is arid and forbidding in the extreme. Such a country would be occupied only as a last resort, or temporarily during the course of a migration. The term migration, however, must not be taken in the sense in which it has been applied to European stocks, a movement of people en ma.s.se or in several large groups. Migration as used here, and as it generally applies to the Pueblo Indians, means a slow gradual movement, generally without any definite and ultimate end in view. A small section of a village, generally a gens or a subgens, moves away from the parent village, perhaps only a few miles. At another time another section moves to another site, at still another time another section moves, and so on.

These movements are not possible where outside hostile pressure is strong, and if such pressure is long continued it results in a reaggregation of the various scattered settlements into one large village. Such in brief is the process which is termed migration, and which has covered the southwest with thousands of village ruins. Of course larger movements have occurred and whole villages have been abandoned in a day, but as a rule the abandonment of villages was a gradual process often consuming years.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XLVIII.

MASONRY OF RUIN AT MOUTH OF THE EAST VERDE.]

Before the archeologic investigation of the pueblo region commenced and when there was little knowledge extant by which travelers could check their conclusions, the immense number of ruins in that region was commonly attributed to an immense population, some writers placing the number as high as 500,000. Beside this figure the present population, about 9,000, is so insignificant that it is hardly surprising that the ancient and modern villages were separated and attributed to different tribal stocks.

The process briefly sketched above explains the way in which village ruins have their origin; a band of 500 village-building Indians might leave the ruins of fifty villages in the course of a single century.

It is very doubtful whether the total number of Pueblo Indians ever exceeded 30,000. This is the figure stated by Mr. A. F. Bandelier, whose intimate acquaintance with the eastern part of the pueblo region gives his opinion great weight. The apparently trifling causes which sometimes result in the abandonment of villages have been already alluded to.

The lower Verde forms no exception to the general rule sketched above.

Scattered along the river, and always located on or immediately adjacent to some area of tillable land, are found many small ruins, typical examples of which have been described in detail. These form the subordinate settlements whose place in the general scheme has been indicated. The masonry is generally of river bowlders only, not dressed or prepared in any way. The number of these settlements is no greater than would be required for one complete cycle or period, although the evidence seems to support the hypothesis that the movement commenced in the northern part of the region and proceeded southward in two or perhaps three separate steps. It is possible, however, that the movement was in the other direction. This question can be settled only by a thorough examination of the regions to the north and south.

There are two, possibly three, points in the region discussed where a stand was made and the various minor settlements were abandoned, the inhabitants congregating into larger bands and building a larger village for better defense against the common foe. These are located at the extreme northern and southern limits of the region treated, opposite Verde and near Limestone creek, and possibly also at an intermediate point, the limestone ruin above Fossil creek. These more important ruins are all built of limestone slabs, and the sites are carefully selected.

The internal evidence supports the conclusion that the movement was southward and that in the large ruin near Limestone creek the inhabitants of the lower Verde valley had their last resting place before they were absorbed by the population south of them, or were driven permanently from this region. The strong resemblance of the ground plan of this village to that of Zuni has been already commented on, and it is known that Zuni was produced in the way stated, by the inhabitants of the famous "seven cities of Cibola," except that in this case Zuni was the second site adopted, the aggregation into one village, or more properly a number of villages on one site, having taken place a few years before. The fact that Zuni dates only from the beginning of the last century should not be lost sight of in this discussion.

The inhabitants of the Verde valley were an agricultural people, and even in the darkest days of their history, when they were compelled to abandon the minor settlements, they still relied on horticulture for subsistence, and to a certain extent the defense motive was subordinated to the requirements of this method of life. There can be no doubt that the hostile pressure which produced the larger villages was Indian, probably the Apache and Walapai, who were in undisputed possession at the time of the American advent, and but little doubt that this pressure consisted not of regular invasions and set sieges, but of sudden raids and descents upon the fields, resulting in the carrying off of the produce and the killing of the producers. Such raids were often made by the Navajo on Tusayan, Zuni, and the eastern pueblos and on the Mexican villages along the Rio Grande for some years after the American occupation, and are continued even today in a small way on the Tusayan.

The effect of such raids is c.u.mulative, and it might be several years before important action would result on the part of the village Indians subjected to them. On the other hand, several long seasons might elapse during which comparative immunity would be enjoyed by the village. In the lower Verde there is evidence of two such periods, if not more, and during that time the small pueblos and settlements previously referred to were built. None of these small settlements was occupied, however, for more than a few decades, the ground plans of most of them indicating an even shorter period.

That cavate lodges and cliff-dwellings are simply varieties of the same phase of life, and that life an agricultural one, is a conclusion, supported by the remains in the lower Verde valley. The almost entire absence of cliff-dwellings and the great abundance of cavate lodges has already been commented on, and as the geologic formations are favorable to the latter, and unfavorable to the former on the Verde, whereas the Canyon de Ch.e.l.ly, where there are hundreds of cliff-dwellings and no cavate lodges, the conditions are reversed, this abundance of cavate lodges may be set down as due to an accident of environment. The cavate lodge of the Rio Verde is a more easily constructed and more convenient habitation than the cliff-dwelling of Canyon de Ch.e.l.ly.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XLIX.

DOORWAY TO CAVATE LODGE.]

An examination and survey of the cliff ruins of Canyon de Ch.e.l.ly, made some years ago by the writer, revealed the fact that they were always located with reference to some area of adjacent tillable land and that the defensive motive exercised so small an influence on the selection of the site and the character of the buildings that it could be ignored.

It was found that the cliff-dwellings were merely farming outlooks, and that the villages proper were almost always located on the canyon bottom. With slight modifications these conclusions may be extended over the Verde region and applied to the cavate lodges there. The relation of these lodges to the village ruins and the character of the sites occupied by them support the conclusion that they were farming outlooks, probably occupied only during the farming season, according to the methods followed by many of the Pueblos today, and that the defensive motive had little or no influence on the selection of the site or the character of the structures. The bowlder-marked sites and the small single-room remains ill.u.s.trate other phases of the same horticultural methods, methods somewhat resembling the "intensive culture," of modern agriculture, but requiring further a close supervision or watching of the crop during the period of ripening. As the area of tillable land in the pueblo region, especially in its western part, is limited, these requirements have developed a cla.s.s of temporary structures, occupied only during the farming season. In Tusayan, where the most primitive architecture of the pueblo type is found, these structures are generally of brush; in Canyon de Ch.e.l.ly they are cliff-dwellings; on the Rio Verde they are cavate lodges, bowlder-marked sites and single house remains; but at Zuni they have reached their highest development in the three summer villages of Ojo Caliente, Nutria, and Pescado.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate L.

DOORWAY TO CAVATE LODGE.]

Since the American occupancy of the country and the consequent removal of the hostile pressure which has kept the Pueblo tribes in check, development has been rapid and now threatens a speedy extinction of pueblo life. The old Laguna has been abandoned, Acoma is being depopulated, the summer pueblos of Zuni are now occupied all the year round by half a dozen or more families, and even in Tusayan, the most conservative of all the pueblo groups, the abandonment of the home village and location in more convenient single houses has commenced. It is the old process over again, but with the difference that formerly the cycle was completed by the reaggregation of the various families, and little bands into larger groups under hostile pressure from wilder tribes, but now that pressure has been permanently removed, and in a few years, or at most in a few generations, the old pueblo life will be known only by its records.