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MESA VERDE
Rules and Regulations 1920 |
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CLIFF PALACE.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION.
Cliff Palace lies in an eastern spur of Cliff Canyon, under the roof of an enormous cave which arches 50 or 100 feet above it. The floor of this cavern is elevated several hundred feet above the bottom of the canyon. The entrance faces the west, looking across the canyon to the opposite side, in full view of a great promontory, on top of which stands Sun Temple. The floor of the recess in which Cliff Palace is built is practically covered with buildings, some of which, especially those at each end, extend beyond the shelter of the cave roof. The total length of the Cliff Palace is approximately 300 feet.
The underside of the roof of rock arching over Cliff Palace is comparatively smooth, exhibiting horizontal cleavage and plane surfaces. A break in this cleavage extends approximately north and south, forming a ledge a few feet in breadth. On its edge the ancients constructed a long wall, thus making a passageway between it and the solid cliff. Although now inaccessible from the ruin below, in ancient times this passageway could have been entered from the roof of one of the houses (66) through a doorway which is still visible. Similar ledge rooms are common features in Mesa Verde ruins.
The floor of the cave in which Cliff Palace was built had practically one level, determined no doubt by a layer of comparatively hard rock, which resisted erosion more successfully than the softer strata above it. This floor was strewn with great angular bowlders that in the process of formation of the cave had fallen from the roof. These were too large to be moved by primitive man and must have presented to the ancient builders uninviting foundations upon which to erect their structures. The spaces between these rocks were better suited for their purposes. These were filled with smaller stones that could be removed, leaving cavities which could be utilized for the construction of subterranean rooms. The upper surfaces of the large rocks, even those which are angular, served as foundations for houses above ground and determined the levels of the plazas. From the bases of these rocks, which formed the outer edge of the level cave floor, a talus extended down the canyon side to the bottom. The rooms forming the front of the ancient village were constructed in this talus, and as their site was sloping they were necessarily situated at lower levels on terraces bounded by retaining walls which are marked features in this part of Cliff Palace. At least three different terraces indicating as many levels are recognized. These levels are indicated by the rows of kivas, or ceremonial rooms, which skirt the southern and middle sections of the ancient village. At the southern end, where the talus is less precipitous and where, on account of the absence of a cave roof, the fallen rocks are smaller, the terrace with its subterranean rooms is on the level of the floor of the cave, having the same height as the foundations built thereon. At the western extremity the buildings were erected on the tops of huge rocks fallen from the roof of the cave. Here the talus is narrow or wanting, and no rooms were constructed in front of these rocks. Thus the terrace rooms on the lowest level are found along the middle section of the cave, where the floor is highest and where the great fallen rocks still remain in sheltered places.
Fortunately, the configuration of the cliffs above the ruins makes it possible to get a fine bird's-eye view of Cliff Palace from the rim of the mesa. Views obtained from the heads of the two trails are most striking and should be enjoyed before closer examination and detailed study of the rooms in Cliff Palace. To obtain the best general view of the whole ruin from the front, one may cross the canyon and climb a promontory whence Cliff Palace appears to be set among trees in a rocky frame, the lower side being the precipice beneath and the upper the roof above.
ANCIENT ENTRANCE.
Deep under the débris which covered the lower terrace of Cliff Palace there was brought to light by excavation an ancient way, hitherto unknown, which leads by a gradual slope to the center of the village. This pathway extends parallel with the high front wall of kiva O, and, passing to a large rock in which foot rests were cut, enters Cliff Palace through a narrow court between high walls. From this court ascent to the level of the cave floor was accomplished by means of a ladder, which could be drawn in when danger necessitated. The floor of the main entrance was hardened adobe, the outer edge of which was held by a roughly laid retaining wall resting at the lower end on logs still well preserved. This main entrance may have led formerly to the village spring in the canyon below, now dry, and along it no doubt in ancient times toiled the weary women with jars of water on their heads.
GROUND PLAN OF REPAIRED CLIFF PALACE.
An examination of the correct ground plan of Cliff Palace shows that the houses were arranged in a crescent, the northern extension of rooms corresponding roughly to one point. The curve of the village follows, generally speaking, that of the rear of the cave in which it was constructed. There is little regularity in the arrangement of the rooms, which, as a rule, are not crowded together; most of the subterranean chambers are situated on terraces in front of the secular rooms. There is one passageway that may be designated a street; this is bordered by high walls over which a passer-by could not look. No open space of considerable size is destitute of a ceremonial chamber, and the largest court contains five of these rooms. It is not possible to count the exact number of rooms that Cliff Palace formerly had, as many upper stories have fallen and a considerable number of terraced rooms along the front are indicated only by fragments of walls. Roughly speaking, 200 is a fair estimate.
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| CLIFF PALACE |
It is instructive to note that although Cliff Palace is about three times as large as Spruce Tree House, judging from ceremonial chambers, it has no more than double the number of secular rooms.1
1This is explained on the theory that Cliff Palace is more ancient than Spruce Tree House, the kivas being the older rooms and probably more strictly limited to the use of clans, while at Spruce Tree House they are more in the nature of fraternity rooms, the membership of the priesthood occupying them being drawn from several clans.
CLIFF PALACE SUBDIVISIONS.
In order to facilitate the description of Cliff Palace it is here arbitrarily divided into certain quarters or sections. The front entrance, being situated about midway of the length of the village, is naturally a point of division of the ruin into halves.1
1The quarters into which Cliff Palace is divided were possibly sociologically different.
Four different regions may be distinguished in the ruin, two north of a line drawn from the front entrance to the rear of the cave and two south of that line. While structurally there appear to be no essential differences in these quarters, they present certain characteristic archaeological features which are worthy of consideration.
The part of Cliff Palace extending northward from the main entrance to the point where the ruin turns westward lies in the deepest part of the cave and may be called the "Old Quarter." Its northern end is formed by a castellated building three stories high, constructed of the finest masonry and perched on a huge fallen rock. This building contains several rooms, story above story, the uppermost reaching to the roof of the cave. It may be called the "Speaker Chief's House," from a banquette on one side overlooking the whole southern end of the ruin.
The extension of Cliff Palace westward from the Speaker Chief's House to the end of the ruin may be designated the "Northern Quarter." About 50 feet beyond the extreme western end stands above ground a solitary building, or ceremonial room, of singular construction.2 The part of the ruin from the main entrance to the Round Tower contains five ceremonial rooms huddled together. Their roofs and the intervening spaces formerly constituted the most extensive plaza in the village, and it seems appropriate to call this the "Plaza Quarter."
2Probably belonging to the second type of ceremonial rooms later described.
The part of the ruin from the Round Tower to the extreme southern end is divided into halves by the Square Tower, a four-storied room with painted walls.
To recapitulate, there are here recognized in Cliff Palace the following quarters:
1. Northern Quarter, from Speaker Chief's House to west end.
2. Old Quarter, from Speaker Chief's House to entrance to ruin.
3. Plaza Quarter, from village entrance to Round Tower.
4. Tower Quarter, from Round Tower to southern end.
NORTHERN QUARTER.
This quarter contains four ceremonial rooms and accompanying secular inclosures. On the western end it has a room fitted up with four corn-grinding bins (metates), a second room with one metate and two cooking rooms.
This quarter is built on two levels, the lower, adjoining the Old Quarter, having fine masonry, composed of well-dressed building stones. The higher level has two kivas, the more western of which shows in its floor the most extensive example of excavation in solid rock known in Cliff Palace. For more than two-thirds of its area the floor is here cut down on one side about 2 feet. The whole western section was considerably mutilated and was covered with small building stones and débris when the excavation and repair work began. This is obscurely indicated on previously published ground plans in which its rooms are not accurately represented.
OLD QUARTER.
The region northward from the main entrance of the Cliff Palace, including the lofty castellated building called "Speaker Chief's House," may be known as the Old Quarter. This contains many secular rooms, some of which are round and others rectangular, and three fine ceremonial rooms, one of which is of a type rare in cliff dwellings. The Old Quarter falls naturally into two regions, the Speaker Chief's House and the section adjoining the main entrance. A street extending north and south divides this quarter into a front and a rear section.
It seems probable that the Old Quarter was inhabited by the oldest and most influential clans of the pueblo. The masonry of the speaker chief's building is not only the finest in Cliff Palace but compares well with that laid by white masons. The walls throughout were built of hewn stones, ground plane, carefully laid, and smoothly plastered.1 The main building was erected on the inclined face of a very high, angular rock, unfortunately cracked, by which the foundations are raised above neighboring buildings and terraces. The castellated part extends to the roof of the cave and is three stories high. On the north side the wall of this part is curved, but on the south side there is a banquette or platform to which one mounts by a single step. The whole central and southern parts of Cliff Palace lie in full sight of this platform, and we may suppose that a speaker chief stood upon it every morning when he announced the events of the day.
1It is sometimes stated that the cliff dwellers rarely dressed or smoothed the stones out of which they constructed walls. While this may be true of some cliff dwellings, it is not true of those on Mesa Verde.
In addition to the three-storied castellated building there are included in the Old Quarter four fine ceremonial rooms and two circular rooms that lie deep in the cave.
The southern part of the Old Quarter, that adjoining the entrance to the village, has one ceremonial room and several secular inclosures. The "street" lies almost wholly in this section.
PLAZA QUARTER.
Almost the whole of this quarter is occupied by a large open space containing five kivas. These subterranean rooms are so close to one another and are so arranged that their roofs must have formed an almost level plaza, which was the central and largest open place of Cliff Palace. Two kivas, I and H, on the lower terraces likewise belong to this quarter. In addition to the subterranean rooms on the upper level there extends from it into the Old Quarter a court into which opens the "street." It may well be supposed that the Plaza Quarter was of the most frequented breathing places in this cliff dwelling when inhabited. Here we find a broad, open place fitted for ceremonial dances, into which opened the only large court and street of the village. The main entrance to Cliff Palace was situated at its northwest corner. It was well protected in all seasons of the year by the overhanging roof of the cave and the massive walls surrounding it on three sides. The outlook from its western side across Cliff Canyon is one of the finest. Situated midway between the two ends of the village, near the center of population, the Plaza Quarter must have been a much frequented place when Cliff Palace was inhabited, and may well be called the chief quarter.
TOWER QUARTER.
The Round Tower section includes the ceremonial rooms E to G and the secular buildings 13 to 33. Of the former F and G lie at lower levels in front of the foundations of the Round Tower. Kiva J is situated on a high level, and E is built near the cliff in the rear of the village.
The most striking architectural feature of this quarter is, of course, the picturesque Round Tower, a symmetrical structure perched on top of a huge rock. The use of this tower is unknown, but we can hardly suppose so important a building was built in this commanding position for purely secular purposes.
The southern end of Cliff Palace, including rooms 1 and 10 and the subterranean chambers A to D, is somewhat exposed to the weather and therefore much worn. Kivas A to C lie in the open in front of the rooms and outside the rim of the roof. The walls of Kiva D, among the finest known in cliff dwellings, are painted yellow and have the superficial plastering well preserved. The Square Tower (11) is four stories high and has fine mural decorations in white and red on the inner walls of the third story. The whole northwest angle of this tower had to be rebuilt to support the walls of this story.
CEREMONIAL ROOMS.
The majority of the ceremonial rooms in Cliff Palace are accompanied by rectangular chambers, but one of the former, situated about 50 feet from the western end, has no rooms near it. The ceremonial rooms naturally fall into two types: (1) Subterranean kivas having banquettes around their sides, separated by roof supports called pedestals; (2) kivas destitute of banquettes or pedestals, probably roofless, their roofs being replaced by high surrounding walls. Twenty ceremonial rooms have been referred to the first type; two or three to the second. The isolated kiva resembles in many particulars the other examples of the second type.1 The shape of the kivas varies from circular to square, with rounded corners. Their architecture varies somewhat, and their depth is not uniform. The walls are well constructed and generally show signs of plastering often blackened with smoke. One of the kivas is painted yellow; the lower part of another is red, with triangular decorations on the upper border.1
1Similar decorations occur likewise on the pedestals of kiva A of Spruce Tree House and on the inner walls of the third story of the Square Tower.
KIVAS OF THE FIRST TYPE.
The Cliff Palace kivas, provided with pedestals or roof supports, furnish examples of some of the finest masonry in prehistoric buildings of our Southwest. Owing to their subterranean position it was often necessary for the builders to excavate the floors in solid rock, and the curves of the sides were obtained in many instances by removing projecting ends of huge rocks. The number of pedestals varies in different kivas. In the majority there are six of these roof supports; the kiva in the speaker chief's section has eight, others four, and one has but two. The number of banquettes necessarily varies with the number of pedestals; one called the altar banquette is commonly larger than the remainder. This large shelf may be the place where ceremonial paraphernalia were placed. In most cases it is situated in the same side as the air shaft or ventilator. Every kiva of the first type has a ventilator, fire hole, and deflector.
Although these structures are represented in every kiva, the configuration of the walls of many kivas made it difficult to introduce the ventilator on the same side or in the same form. In one case the passage turns at right angles before it joins the vertical so-called ventilator. In another instance this vertical passage is situated like a chimney at one angle of the outside wall, and in still another it opens through a roof support.2
2In the kivas of some of the cliff dwellings in Navajo National Monument a doorway occupies the position of the lateral entrance of the ventilator into the kiva. These kivas are rectangular and are exceptional in having entrances opening laterally instead of vertically.
Deflectors in Cliff Palace kivas have four modifications: (1) A slab of stone placed upright; (2) a low stone wall; (3) a curved wall joining the wall of the kiva on each side of the lateral entrance into the ventilator; (4) a row of upright sticks having twigs woven between them, the whole being covered and hidden with clay mortar. Thus, all varieties of deflectors discovered in Mesa Verde ruins are represented at Cliff Palace.
Every kiva of the first type has a fireplace near the center of the room, which is generally found to be packed solid with wood ashes. In some cases the sides are rimmed with flat stones, one stone smaller than the rest, sometimes projecting slightly above the level of the floor. The symbolic opening (sipapû) in the floor is not found in all Cliff Palace kivas. It is rarely absent; usually it is situated slightly to one side of the middle of the floor. In one kiva the opening is double and in another room this hole lies near the wall. Even when necessary to drill into solid rock the ancients did not hesitate to make this ceremonial opening, which, in some instances, was lined with a burnt-clay tube. For the reception of small objects diminutive niches were constructed in the walls of almost every kiva, and vases are now found inserted in the banquettes of a few of these chambers.
Each kiva possesses special characters notwithstanding that all the kivas have a general similarity.
KIVAS OF THE SECOND TYPE.
There are two, possibly three, ceremonial rooms that show no signs of roof supports or pedestals, no evidences of fireplaces, deflectors, or ventilators. It would appear that these rooms were used for the same purpose as kivas of the first type. They have banquettes on the side wall, quite wide at each end, and generally a lateral passageway at the floor level.
The existence of two types of ceremonial rooms in Cliff Palace may indicate a division of the ritual into two distinct parts performed by the summer and the winter people, respectively, a specialization still perpetuated among some modern pueblos. The best example of the second type is kiva R, situated in the Old Quarter of the ruin in the neighborhood of the Speaker Chief's House. No signs of pedestals are to be found, but broad banquettes occupy the northern and southern ends, connected on the other sides by a narrow shelf. In the side walls below the banquettes are several recesses or cubby-holes, and there is a lateral entrance on the floor level in the southern side which sends off side branches under the banquette, but no indication was discovered of a vertically placed ventilator.
The walls above this kiva were built high, as if to prevent observation by outsiders. There was probably no roof.1
1Nordenskiöld's comments on this chamber as a connecting link between circular and square kivas are not convincing. In origin square kivas were independent of circular kivas, and the indications are that in some cases the former had lateral openings or doorways.
SECULAR ROOMS.
Secular rooms in Cliff Palace may be classified as follows: (1) Living rooms; (2) storage rooms; (3) mill rooms; (4) granaries; (5) dark rooms of unknown use; (6) towers, round and square; (7) round rooms not towers. The highest rooms have four stories. There are several of three stories, many of two, but the majority have only one. Walls projecting at right angles to the foundations in front of the ruin on a level below the cave floor indicate that in this part Cliff Palace was terraced, consisting of several-storied houses and terraces at different levels. There is little uniformity in size, shape, or character of the walls of secular rooms. In rare instances they extend to the roof of the cave, a feature sometimes shown by markings or fragments of masonry on the rock surface.
LIVING ROOMS.
Several rooms show such marked evidences that they were inhabited and used as sleeping places that they are called living rooms. One or two of these have each a banquette extending across one side and several have fireplaces in the floor in one corner. The inner walls of these rooms are generally smoothly plastered, sometimes painted. They contain small niches, and in one case pegs on the walls on which blankets or kilts could be hung. These chambers are supposed to have been the sleeping rooms for women and children, and, although not living rooms in one sense, they are the nearest approach to them in Cliff Palace. Much of the daily work—pottery making, cooking, etc.—was done on housetops or in open places adjoining the living rooms.
MILL ROOMS.
Several special rooms set apart for mills in which corn was ground were discovered in different quarters of Cliff Palace. These differed from some other rooms only in being smaller. Almost the whole space was occupied by rude stone mills of characteristic forms. These consist of boxes made of slabs of rock set upright, in each of which was placed an inclined stone, the mealstone (metate). In front of this, at the bottom of the mill, is a receptacle into which the meal fell after it had been ground by hand by means of a slab of stone called the mano. The women or girls who ground the corn knelt on the side of the mill at the top of the metate and rubbed the mano over the metate (mealstone) until the corn between was ground. In one of these mill rooms there were two and in another four of these mills set in a row side by side. The surfaces of the metates in this series are graded in roughness, so as to grind the meal finer and finer as it is passed from one to another. The mills were so well preserved that even the fragments of pottery in the angles of the receptacles in which the meal collected after grinding were still in place and the upright stones on which the girls braced their feet had not been moved. The brushes with which the meal was brushed into baskets after grinding, had been left in the mills and were still in good condition.
STORAGE ROOMS.
The smaller rooms and the back chambers, many of them darkened by their position in the rear of other rooms, were probably used for storage of corn. These dimunitive rooms, many having the form of cysts, are carefully built; many are erected on flat rocks, but have doorways. Every crevice and hole in the corners of these granaries was carefully stopped with clay, no doubt to prevent rats or squirrels from entering. The impression prevalent in some places that the inhabitants of Cliff Palace and of other cliff dwellings were of diminutive size is supported by the erroneous belief that these rooms were used as dwellings. If we had visited Cliff Palace when inhabited, we should probably have found in these storage rooms corn on the cob stacked in piles, from which the daily consumption was drawn. The living rooms were often small, but they were unencumbered with furniture or even with food in great quantities and were ample for people of small stature. The cliff dwellers were not pygmies.
ROUND TOWER AND ROUND ROOMS.
The most prominent and picturesque building in Cliff Palace is the Round Tower, situated about midway in its length on a high angular rock, which raises it in full view above all the terraces. This tower is not the only round room in the ruin, for there are foundations and walls of two other circular rooms not far from the Speaker Chief's House at the north end of the "street." These are inconspicuous because hidden far back in the cave behind more lofty walls.
The Round Tower, formerly two stories high, was entered from the north side. It was little damaged during the centuries elapsing since Cliff Palace was abandoned and needed little repair. The walls show most beautiful examples of aboriginal masonry, perhaps the finest north of Mexico. Almost perfectly symmetrical in form, the stones that compose the walls are skillfully dressed, fitted to one another, and carefully laid. This tower was evidently ceremonial in function, or it may have served as an observatory, for which purpose it is well situated. The presence of small peepholes through which one can look far down the canyon supports the theory that the tower was a lookout, to which theory its resemblance to other towers in the Mesa Verde region likewise contributes.
SQUARE TOWER.
This building also is one of the picturesque and prominent structures at the southern end of Cliff Palace. It is four stories high, the walls reaching from the floor to the roof of the cave. The walls of the third story are painted white and red with decorative symbols, as triangles, zigzag lines, and parallel lines, perhaps representing feathers. When work began on this tower the whole northwestern angle had fallen and the wall of the "painted room" was tottering and in great danger of falling. The repair of this section was dangerous as well as difficult, one whole corner having to be rebuilt from the bottom of an adjacent kiva.
LEDGE ROOMS.
A projecting ledge in the cave roof, about 20 feet above the top of the highest wall, served as the foundation of a marginal wall and accompanying rooms. This wall is pierced by doorways, windows, and peepholes. One of the doorways, probably an entrance situated near the northern end, was apparently on the former level of the roof of one of the round rooms of the Old Quarter of the pueblo. The outer surface of the marginal wall is decorated with a white terraced figure, suggesting the white figure overlooking plaza C in Spruce Tree House. The ledge rooms, which occur in several Mesa Verde ruins, were probably used for storage or for protection.
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Last Updated: 16-Feb-2010