Historical Introduction to Studies Among the Sedentary Indians of New Mexico Part 6

As far as I have been able to detect, the upright posts are not found inside of the house, except, perhaps, on the rear wall of the outer chamber, as in one room of building _A_, to which I shall hereafter refer. If this is the room, then the skeleton of the wood-work (upright and transverse posts and beams) would present nearly the appearance shown in Pl. III., Fig. 3, when viewed from the side, and admitting the house to be four stories high.

_a_, horizontal beams.

_b_, upright posts, along the western wall, and in the three upper stories. These posts are hypothetical, and therefore only indicated by dotted lines. (It may be also that every cell had its front and its rear posts, but I have not been able to detect any except in the outer rooms.)

With the exception of one chamber in building _A_, I nowhere met anything like a roof. This one appears to be nothing else than a ceiling-floor, but of nearly 0.75 m.--2 ft. 6 in.--in thickness. It is, as Pl. VIII. shows, much covered by fallen stones, and its original height may have been increased by _debris_; but at all events it was thoroughly impermeable, and such as would be required in a climate where, indeed, it seldom rains, but "whenever it rains it pours."

There is a certain air of sameness cast over the entire structure which has strongly impressed me with the thought that not only was it used as a dwelling for a large number (as the reports, indeed, establish), but also that all its inhabitants lived on an equal footing,--as far as accommodations for living were concerned. There are no special quarters, no s.p.a.cious halls. The few rooms of somewhat larger size are naturally explained by the mode of construction, adapting the house to the configuration of the rock, and not conversely as we do. It was, therefore, a large joint-tenement structure, harboring, perhaps, when fully occupied, several hundreds of families.

In regard to ingress and egress, not only have I found no doors in any fragments of exterior walls, but the many persons I have asked have always a.s.sured me that there had been none, that the house was entered by means of ladders, ascending to the top of each story in succession, and descending into the rooms also by ladders and through trap-doors in the roofs. They have also a.s.sured me that each room of each story communicated with the one above and below, also by means of trap-doors and ladders. It is quite certain that there are no staircases nor steps, and that consequently ladders were used, in the same manner as they are still used by the Indians of the pueblos of Zuni, Moqui, Acoma, Taos, and others. Ingress and egress, therefore, must have taken place, not horizontally "in and out," but vertically "up and down." I have not been able to identify any one of the trap-doors referred to, but I should not be surprised to hear that they have been subsequently found in the north-west corner of each room. By referring to the diagram of the floor (Pl. III., Fig. 4), it will be seen that the rectangular s.p.a.ces between the beams and overlying poles are almost everywhere large enough, if the superstructure of splinters (or brush) and clay is removed, to give pa.s.sage to any man. The ladders themselves have completely disappeared.

On one and the same floor, I found in the side walls at a few places, the remains of low and narrow openings through which a man might pa.s.s in a stooping position and "sidling." Nowhere could I see the full height of these small doorways, so that I do not know whether there was a lintel, or whether they terminated in an open angle, like the doorways of Yucatan. I have seen openings showing the peculiar so-called "aboriginal arch" of Yucatan on a small scale, and I also have seen that an accidental "knocking-out" of one or two stones from the walls produced a hole or gap very similar in shape to the doorways at Uxmal and other pueblos of Southern Mexico, though of course on a small scale.

It is self-evident that, the coincidence being accidental, I do not place any stress upon it in view of "tracing relations.h.i.+ps." The coincidence is of ethnological, and not of ethnographical, value. As far as I could ascertain, they were certainly 1 m.--3 ft. 3 in.--high, whereas their average width may have been 0.45 m.--18 in. (Those I measured averaged between 0.42 m. and 0.48 m.--16 in. and 19 in.) Their appearance is shown in Pl. II., Fig. 5.

_a_ is what might be termed a door-sill, a smooth oval stone, evidently from the drift, probably dioritic, at all events a dark-green hornblende rock. In the present instance one was not long enough to fill the gap left between the walls, and two were superposed. I saw no traces of wooden lintels or sills. These doorways appeared to be generally about 0.50 m.--20 in.--above the floor, but if we deduct 0.20 m.--8 in.--for the clay (measure having been taken from the timbers), 0.30 m.--12 in.--will remain as their approximate height over the chambers.

The few doors that I could observe are all in the longitudinal walls, and none of them in the transverse; that is, they all open from east to west. But not all the longitudinal part.i.tions have doorways. It cannot, therefore, be admitted that every transverse row was occupied by one family, still less that the family apartments were arranged longitudinally. I rather suspect that this arrangement was vertical, or perhaps vertical and transverse. This surmise is given, however, for what it may be worth. Windows I could not find, although small apertures undoubtedly existed in all the outer walls, both for light and for air.

The chambers being all very much ruined, the lower ones filled with the stones and decayed ruins of the superposed stories,--of these stories themselves but part of the walls, denuded and often twisted, remaining,--I have not been able, with one single exception, to secure or even see any of what we would call the "furniture." Small fragments of grinding-stones (_metates_) are spa.r.s.ely scattered over the entire ruins, otherwise the only object of daily use as articles of furniture met with by me has been a hearth, which I found or dug out _in situ_, in room _I_, and which, complete, forms part of the collections sent by me to Cambridge.

The place where this hearth was situated is marked on the diagram in room _I_. It stood on the floor against the north wall, and is composed of three plates of stone, originally ground and polished (as the specimen found in building A will show, which is a fragment only), and, judging from new fragments found, of diorite or other hornblende rock.

There are three plates,--a basal one, 40 m.--16 in.--long and 20 m.--8 in.--wide, and two sides, placed vertically east and west of the base,--all three resting against the north wall of the room. Pl. III., Fig. 4, is a diagram of the room, the floor timbers, and the hearth.

The basal plate was covered with 0.10 m.--4 in.--of very white ashes, which I have also secured, and the rear of the hearth, which is formed by the original "first coat" of earth daubed over the wall, is thoroughly baked by the heat produced in front of it, as the samples sent will show.[111]

Of course, I looked at once for an opening where the smoke arising from the hearth, etc., could have escaped. I am sorry to say, however, that I utterly failed in finding anything like a chimney,--not only in _B_, but in all the other buildings. Still, in the ruined condition of the place, this is no proof of their non-existence.[112]

I will refer to subsequent pages to such articles of mechanical use and of wearing apparel which I was fortunate enough to meet. I shall also return hereafter to the almost omnipresent pieces of painted pottery, of two distinct kinds, and to the very numerous chips of obsidian, jet-black on the face, but transparent as smoky gla.s.s; of black lava; and to the flint, jasper, and moss-agates, broken mechanically by man, and scattered over the premises. These premises have been thoroughly ransacked by visitors, and every striking object has already been carried off. I had heard mentioned, among such samples, flint, agate, and obsidian arrow-heads, stone hatchets and hammers, and copper (not bra.s.s or iron) rings used for ornamental purposes,[113] but my luck it was not to find any. Therefore the harvest is perhaps slim in that respect. It is beyond all doubt that judicious digging among the lower stories of the structures will reveal treasures,--not money, as the tale current among the inhabitants has it, but things of archaeological and ethnological value. For such an undertaking I was, as the Inst.i.tute well knows, not prepared. I attempted to dig, indeed, though quite alone, but soon came to the conclusion that the time consumed in excavating one metre of decayed and crumbling stones and earth would be more satisfactorily employed in other directions; paving the way for the exhaustive labors of better situated archaeologists.

I have been very lengthy in my _expose_ of facts and data regarding this particular house _B_, for the simple reason that, as far as the principles of architecture, based upon a knowledge and want of "how to live," are concerned, it is typical of the rest. Many details become therefore unnecessary in subsequent descriptions.

To return to the structure itself, its general plan and its mode of construction in detail more and more forcibly remind me of an extraordinarily large honeycomb. The various walls, a few of the outer walls excepted, have little strength in themselves (as the rapid decay shows), but combined altogether they oppose to any outside pressure an immense amount of "inertia." There is not in the whole building one single evidence of any great progress in mechanics. Everything done and built within it can be built and made with the use of a good or fair eyesight only, and the implements and arts of what was formerly called the "stone age." This does not exclude the possibility that they had made a certain advance in mechanical agencies. They may have had the plummet, or even the square; but such expedients, applied to their system of building, might at most have hastened the rapidity of construction. Necessary they were not at all, still less indispensable.

As the bee builds one cell alongside of the other and above the other,--the norm of one and the "habitat" impelling the norm of those above and alongside,--so the Indians of Pecos aggregated their cells according to their wants and the increase of their numbers; their inside accommodations, the wood-work, bearing the last trace of the frail "lodge" of a former s.h.i.+fting condition.

Leaving _B_ for the present, I turn to the other ruins on the so-called "neck" of the _mesilla_.

4 m.--13 ft.--west of the N.W. corner of the northern annex, I struck stone foundations indicating a structure (whether enclosure or building I do not venture to tell) 10.21 m.--33 ft.--from E. to W., and 6.60 m.--22 ft.--from N. to S.[114], 49 m.--160 ft.--to the north-west of its north-easterly angle there is a mound about 2 m. or 6 ft. in diameter, thence 20 m.--65 ft.--further N.W. or N.N.W. the southern ruins of the east wing of _A_ are reached.

Parallel to _B_, longitudinally, and at an average distance of 28 m.--90 ft--to the west from it, there is a row of detached buildings or structures, of which only the foundations and shapeless stone heaps indicating the corners remain. Pl. I., Fig. 8, conveys an idea of their position and size. The walls are reduced to mere foundations, or to heaps in the corners; but these remnants indicate that the rocks used were similar in kind and shape to those composing the walls of all the other kinds of construction in the _mesilla_ north of the church.

For what purpose these buildings were erected, and in what relation they stood to _B_, I am unable to determine. Some of them appeared to have doors opening to the east.[115] Beyond _f_ the ground rises suddenly.

The floor of those structures is, in some instances, formed of a black or red loam. I excavated one of those, or, rather, dug into it, to the depth of one metre. The surface had shown traces of a fire built in the centre, and I found also, at the depth of nearly two feet, that the dark soil was traversed by a band of charcoal, fragments of burnt and blackened pottery, and some splinters of bone. Below it the soil was dark red. Whether there was a buried hearth at that depth, or whether the traces of fire were due to an original destruction of woodwork through combustion, the _debris_ subsequently covering them with clay, I am unable to judge.[116] In all of them, of course, pottery and obsidian were found.

I have already stated that the _mesilla_ dips to the south-west; that there is a depression along the northern end of its "neck;" and that from _f_ the rocks bulge upwards again. All this contributes to concentrate the drainage of the entire cliff-top, as far north of the church as it was inhabited, in the hollow where the gate of the general enclosure is placed. This gate was therefore not only a pa.s.sage-way, but also the water-gap or channel through which the _mesilla_ was finally drained into the bottoms of the Arroyo de Pecos.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE IV PLAN OF BUILDING A.]

20 m.--65 ft.--to the N.N.W. of the mound i, there rises before us the huge pile of ruins which, on the plat as well as on the diagram, I have designated by _A_. It crowns the highest point of the entire _mesilla_, and covers the greatest portion of its top. In ruins like _B_, its general aspect is yet somewhat different Instead of forming, like the latter, a narrow, solid rectangle of 140 m. 20 m.--460 ft. 65 ft.--, the building _A_ is (taking, of course, the outlines of the entire _debris_) a broad hollow rectangle of 150 m. 75 m.--490 ft. 245 ft.

Its interior is occupied by a vast court or square, containing three circular depressions, and surrounded on all four sides by the broad ruined heaps of the former dwellings. On the east side, between the circ.u.mvallation and the eastern line of the structure, there are two more circular depressions similar to those within the court. The latter is entered by four pa.s.sageways,--one on the S.E. corner, 4 m.--13 ft.--wide and about 12 m.--40 ft.--long from S. to N.; one through the eastern wing, 3.40 m.--11 ft.--wide and about 14 m.--46 ft.--long from E. to W.; one in the N.W. corner and another from the S.W., both 2 m.--6 ft. 6 in.--across. I have designated these four gateways respectively as _R_, _E_, _G_, and _N_. _R_ and _E_ enter straight through the wall; _G_ forms a semicircle almost from W. through N. to S.; _N_ describes a right angle from S. by N. to E. The distribution of decay in this house is the same as in _B_,--the southern parts are on all sides almost totally obliterated; the N.W. corner is very nearly perfect; the northern and western walls are tolerably fairly preserved; but the eastern outline of the east wing, the southern outline of the south wing, and the southern ends of both east and west have almost completely disappeared under hills of rubbish, a few posts alone a.s.sisting the explorer. The path of destruction has in both buildings lain in the same direction,--from S.S.E. to N.N.W.,--and across both its effects have decreased from south to north. Still, while the similarity in that respect is astonis.h.i.+ng, and while there are apparently more walls in _A_ standing than in _B_, there is, owing to the very uneven surface of the rock upon which it is built, much more confusion among the ruins of the former than among those of the latter. _B_ is built on a gradual slope or ridge; _A_ caps a generally convex surface, scooped out in the middle, and sloping eastward.[117] Hence comes the division of the whole structure into four separate and distinct buildings, and hence, also, the complicated manner in which the whole or each part is ruined, even walls still standing being twisted out of shape and out of position.

Actual measurements were much less efficacious here than in _B_; and, although I have worked with not less zeal and conscientiousness, the result in neatness and precision is certainly less satisfactory. This explanation will, I hope, induce subsequent explorers to look up my inaccuracies and correct them.

It is needless, of course, to detail the methods of work. They are on a larger scale, and in more tedious ways, a repet.i.tion of the proceedings in the case of _B_. The results are as follows, starting from the line _f f_ northwards: The s.p.a.ce comprised between the corners (_e_, _e_, _f_, _f_) forms a rectangle, containing 18 longitudinal rows of 6 rooms each. These rows are all on the same level, except the most easterly one, which lies on the slope. The cells, as far as measured and still measurable, appear to be of the same size in length, namely, 2.87 m.--9 ft. 6 in.,--and their widths are respectively from W. to E., or 2.83 m., 2.00 m., 3.14 m., 2.70 m., 2.53 m., and 2.53 m.--9 ft., 6 ft. 6 in., 10 ft., 9 ft., 8 ft., and 8 ft. The whole area is therefore 51.66 m.

15.73 m.--170 ft. 51 ft. Still, I believe that a sensible narrowing (possibly of nearly 2.0 m.--6 ft. 6 in.--) may have taken place up to _ee_; but this is compensated by the strengthening of the corners, which there are rounded outwards, so that the line _e e_ presents about the same length as _f f_. Thereupon follows the open pa.s.sage _E_, which is 3.40 m.--11 ft. wide, and north of it a rectangle of 3 longitudinal rows of 3 apartments, _two_ of which rows are on the eastern slope. The width of the rooms appears to be the same as that in the former section, whereas their length from N. to S. is respectively 6.10 m., 4.27 m., and 5.44 m.--20 ft., 14 ft., and 18 ft. It is therefore a rectangle of 15.81 m. 15.73 m.--51 ft. 51 ft. North of it is an open s.p.a.ce marked C, 3.13 m.--10 ft.--wide, in which I could detect no longitudinal part.i.tion, except one closing its western outlet towards the court. I have therefore left it an open question, and marked it as an alley or corridor. It may yet prove to have contained six rooms on the ground; but, as this is uncertain, the rooms that may have existed are not included in the computation of cells. North of the line _b b_ begins the section _a B b b_, which is very badly ruined. This forms also the north-east angle of the whole building, and whose northern line (_a B_) shows the part.i.tions of six chambers, each 2 m.--6 ft. 6 in. wide, each one indicating a longitudinal row of 4 rooms, respectively 2.83 m.--9 ft.--each from N. to S. It would indicate a rectangle of 11.32 m.

12.00 m.--37 ft. 40 ft. Of its six rows of rooms, three are on the slope.

From _a_ to A extends the main northern wall of the structure. It is very strong, .78 m.--2 ft. 6 in.--wide, and constructed as follows, Pl.

V., Fig. IX.:--

_a_, the outer wall, is 0.33 m.--13 in.--wide.

_b_, filling of mud, is 0.17 m.--6 in.--wide (this filling is both earth and gravel).

_c_, inner wall, is 0.28 m.--11 in.--wide.

The width of the inner wall being the average thickness of all the other walls in the whole house, the suggestion is not improbable that it was built first, and the outer one, which is made of larger stones, added subsequently for additional strength, and the interstice filled up as the work rose.

The line _a A_ is 17.28 m.--56 ft.--long. From _A_ it runs down to the south for 8.10 m.--27 ft.--, thence east, 17.28 m.--56 ft.--, to connect with the north-east corner of the eastern wing. It thus forms an aisle, and at the same time closes the court to the north. A rectangle of 8.10 m. 17.28--27 ft. 56 ft.--consists of 4 longitudinal sections of 3 rooms each, which, while their length is uniformly 2.70 m.--9 ft.--(from N. to S.), have widths from W. to E. of 5.46 m., 3.18 m., and 3.62 m.--18 ft., 10 ft., and 12 ft. All the rooms are on the same level, and they are the largest and best preserved of any in the entire area of ruins. Room _I_ has even an unimpaired roof.

The north wall of _a A_ stands out boldly on the highest crest of the _mesilla_. Below it northwards, a small hill of stones, from which timbers occasionally protrude, forms a tumbled and confused slope of inextricable ruin; and beyond this slope there extend the foundations of walls on the level _mesilla_ up to 10 m.--33 ft.--from the northern transverse part of the general circ.u.mvallation, which there is 45 m.--148 ft.--from _a A_, and 30 m.--100 ft.--long from W. to E. It thus appears that the building _A_ had its northern annex as well as the house _B_. To this annex I shall hereafter return.

West of line _A n_ there runs alongside of it the interesting gateway _G_, 2 m.--6 ft. 6 in.--wide, its bottom somewhat higher than the floor of the adjoining rooms,[118] and forming, as before stated, the north-westerly entrance to the great inner court. It is perfectly straight on the east as far as _r_; but then a heavy bank of stones and gravel starts out like a lower continuation of the wall _a A_, and winds down, curving, till close to the western circ.u.mvallation on the edge of the _mesilla_. It thus forms a northern embankment to the gateway.

Almost parallel to it, on the opposite side of _n r_, the conical mound or tower H const.i.tutes the western and southern wall of the pa.s.sage _G_. This pa.s.sage is therefore nearly semicircular. It is level from _n_ to _r_, and thence descends steeply towards the edge of the _mesilla_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE X VIEW OF Pa.s.sAGE G, BUILDING A, FROM THE NORTH.]

The mound _H_ describes about two-thirds of a circle. Its base at the south is 6 m.--20 ft.--from E. to W.; its diameter, 6.85 m.--23 ft; its actual height, about 1.5 m.--5 ft. It is conical, and appears to be a round heap of earth and rocks encased with neat and judicious piling of well-selected stones. This naturally gave the stone-work a slanting surface; the higher it reaches, however, the more it becomes vertical, until at last it juts out above the surface of the mound like a circular breastwork, or a hollow round tower on a conical base. I refer to Pl. X.

for an excellent view of its vertical aspect and structure. This mound, or tower, while it commands an extensive view to the west, north, and even north-east, is also the most northerly "spur" of the western wing of the great house _A_. This wing extends in an unbroken length of 62 m.--203 ft.--from the base line of _H_ to the entrance _N_, and is divided into 3 transverse sections, all connected, and all having 3 longitudinal rows of rooms or cells. The width of each cell is the same in every section, to wit, from E. to W. 2.58 m., 2.58 m., and 3.22 m.--8 ft. 6 in., 8 ft. 6 in., and 10 ft. 6 in., respectively.

Section _k l l m_ has 3 5 apartments; in length from N. to S., 2.51 m., 3.86 m., 2.35 m., 3.71 m., and 3.72 m.--8 ft., 13 ft., 8 ft., 12 ft., and 12 ft. It was therefore 16.15 m. 8.38 m.--53 ft. 27 ft.

Probably all the ground-floor cells were on the same level.

Section _l l h h_ has 3 12 apartments, each 2.53 m.--8 ft.--long.

Consequently, it was a rectangle of 30.36 m. x 8.38 m.--100 ft. 27 ft.

The eastern row of chambers was on the slope.

Section _h h N_ 3 4 long, respectively 2.77 m.--9 ft. each, therefore 10.98 m. 8.38 m.--36 ft. 27 ft. There were two eastern rows on the slope.

This entire wing (forming a rectangle of 62 m. 8.38 m.--203 ft. 27 ft., if we add to the s.p.a.ces given the thicknesses of the transverse part.i.tions, this time not included in the measures) has given me more trouble than the rest of _A_ and _B_ combined. Nowhere are the walls so twisted and out of range as here. Besides, there is an unfinished air about it that is almost bewildering. The height of the stories does not agree with that of the other sections,--the western wing would be one story lower. Furthermore, it contains in several places squared beams of wood inserted in the stone-work lengthwise. These beams (of which there is also one in the opposite wing similarly embedded) are identical and apparently of the same age with the (not sculptured) beams still found in and about the old church. Entire walls of chambers, or rather sides, appear to be new; the mud or adobe is fresh, whereas almost everywhere else it has disappeared, out of the crevices even; the stones are almost laid in courses. As I shall hereafter relate, there are at several places adobe walls, the adobe containing wheat-straw! And all this right among chambers showing sides as uncouth and old as any of the pueblo, though still as high as their more recent and better preserved neighbors. Here there is evidently patchwork of later date, and patchwork executed with material unknown to the Indians previous to the advent of the Spaniards. I am even convinced that it was done after 1680; for the beams evidently came from the church or the convent, which buildings we know were sacked and fired by the Indians in the month of August of that year. If this conclusion be correct, the south-western part of _A_, its entire westerly wall, was somehow destroyed after 1680, and partly rebuilt with materials unknown to the Indians at the time when Pecos was first erected.

I say partly, because there is evidence that the western wing, from _H_ to _N_, was originally much broader. As it now appears, the wall _m h_ presents itself as the western line of the structure. But there are, still further out, although distinctly connected with it, remains of buildings which were at least attached to it. These are the ruined enclosures designated on the ground-plan by _I_, _K_, and _L_.

Nothing besides foundations, heaps of stones defining corners, and upright posts protruding along the western limits of _L_ and _K_ inside, remain of these structures. _L L_ are of the size of the ordinary chambers; _K K_ are four times larger. Their interior shows no part.i.tion whatever: the soil is level, somewhat depressed in the centre of each apartment; and on the whole they present very much the same appearance as those structures on the "neck," which lie to the west of B, but are not connected with the latter. Besides, the enclosures are on a lower level than the two rows of rooms immediately east of the wall _m N_.

This wall itself is a double wall, each single one being of the size of the ordinary part.i.tion; the total width is therefore 0.56 m.--22 in.,--as proven by actual measurement. The idea is therefore suggested--very naturally--that the entire western wing of the building _A_ was originally a double house,[119] terraced both towards the east and the west. In sketching the cross-sections, I have taken due notice of this very probable, if not positive, fact.

The double wall _m N_ shows no trace of lateral pa.s.sages. It therefore divides the whole structure from _H_ to _N_ into two longitudinal sections. The western one, from _o_ to _p_, consisted of but one row of 5 rooms; from _p_ to _N_ it had two rows of 16 chambers each. The ground slopes still further to the S. and S.W. outside of the trapezoidal enclosures, _I I_, and is covered with _debris_; so that I presume that, from _ll_ to _N_, there was an additional row of 3 rooms on the outside. The entire division was at one time very completely razed to the ground, so that its owners never attempted to rebuild it after the original plan.

The western division was also badly damaged in its southern half, but the damage was subsequently repaired with the aid of material and mechanical arts postdating the Spanish conquest of New Mexico. Pl. V., Fig. 3, gives a view of the western end, along the line _h h_.

I would recall here the fact already noticed, that the northern part of building _B_ is also mended in places with adobes of the same make as those used in repairing the western wing of _A_, and that, while the squared beams are wanting, the stone-work there in places appears also of a more recent date. The suggestion may therefore not be uncalled for, that the same destroying power which spent its main force on _A_, distinct from the general decay, and moving in a direction from S.W. to N. E., reflected or glanced off upon the northern portions of _B_. This question will, however, be discussed hereafter.