A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola Part 19

Chimneys and fireplaces are often found in Tusayan in the small, recessed, balcony-like rooms of the second terrace. When a deep cooking-pit is required in such a position, it is obtained by building up the sides, as in the indoor fireplaces of upper rooms. Such a fireplace is ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 71. A roofed recess which usually occurs at one end of the first terrace, called tupubi, takes its name from the flat piki oven, the variety of fireplace generally built in these alcoves. The transfer of the fireplace from the second-story room to the corner of such a roofed-terrace alcove was easily accomplished, and probably led to the occasional use of the cooking-pit, with protecting chimney hood on the open and unsheltered roof. Fig. 72 ill.u.s.trates a deep cooking-pit on an upper terrace of Walpi. In this instance the cooking pit is very ma.s.sively built, and in the absence of a sheltering tupubi corner is effectually protected on three sides by mud-plastered stone work, the whole being capped with the usual chimneypot. The contrivance is placed conveniently near the roof hatchway of a dwelling room.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 71. A terrace fireplace and chimney of Shumopavi.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 72. A terrace cooking-pit and chimney of Walpi.]

The outdoor use of the above-described fireplaces on upper terraces has apparently suggested the improvement of the ground cooking pit in a similar manner. Several specimens were seen in which the cooking pit of the ordinary depressed type, excavated near an inner corner of a house wall, was provided with sheltering masonry and a chimney cap; but such an arrangement is by no means of frequent occurrence. Fig. 73 ill.u.s.trates an example that was seen on the east side of Shumopavi. It will be noticed that in the use of this arrangement on the ground--an arrangement that evidently originated on the terraces--the builders have reverted to the earlier form of excavated pit. In other respects the example ill.u.s.trated is not distinguishable from the terrace forms above described.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 73. A ground cooking-pit of Shumopavi covered with a chimney.]

In the discussion of the details of kiva arrangement in Tusayan (p. 121) it was shown that the chimney is not used in any form in these ceremonial chambers; but the simple roof-opening forming the hatchway serves as a smoke vent, without the addition of either an internal hood or an external shaft. In the Zui kivas the smoke also finds vent through the opening that gives access to the chamber, but in the framing of the roof, as is shown elsewhere, some distinction between door and chimney is observed. The roof-hole is made double, one portion accommodating the ingress ladder and the other intended to serve for the egress of the smoke.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate Lx.x.xVII. A kiva hatchway of Tusayan.]

The external chimney of the pueblos is a simple structure, and exhibits but few variations from the type. The original form was undoubtedly a mere hole in the roof; its use is perpetuated in the kivas. This primitive form was gradually improved by raising its sides above the roof, forming a rudimentary shaft. The earlier forms are likely to have been rectangular, the round following and developing later short masonry shafts which were finally given height by the addition of chimney pots.

In Zui the chimney has occasionally developed into a rather tall shaft, projecting sometimes to a height of 4 or 5 feet above the roof. This is particularly noticeable on the lower terraces of Zui, the chimneys of the higher rooms being more frequently of the short types prevalent in the farming pueblos of Cibola and in Tusayan. The tall chimneys found in Zui proper, and consisting often of four or five chimney pots on a substructure of masonry, are undoubtedly due to the same conditions that have so much influenced other constructional details; that is, the exceptional height of the cl.u.s.ters and crowding of the rooms. As a result of this the chimney is a more conspicuous feature in Zui than elsewhere, as will be shown by a comparison of the views of the villages given in Chapters III and IV.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 74. Tusayan chimneys.]

In Tusayan many of the chimneys are quite low, a single pot surmounting a masonry substructure not more than 6 inches high being quite common.

As a rule, however, the builders preferred to use a series of pots. Two typical Tusayan chimneys are ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 74. Most of the substructures for chimneys in this province are rudely rectangular in form, and clearly expose the rough stonework of the masonry, while in Zui the use of adobe generally obliterates all traces of construction.

In both provinces chimneys are seen without the chimney pot. These usually occur in cl.u.s.ters, simply because the builder of a room or group of rooms preferred that form of chimney. Pl. CI ill.u.s.trates a portion of the upper terraces of Zui where a number of masonry chimneys are grouped together. Those on the highest roof are princ.i.p.ally of the rectangular form, being probably a direct development from the square roof hole. The latter is still sometimes seen with a rim rising several inches above the roof surface and formed of slabs set on edge or of ordinary masonry. These upper chimneys are often closed or covered with thin slabs of sandstone laid over them in the same manner as the roof holes that they resemble. The fireplaces to which some of them belong appear to be used for heating the rooms rather than for cooking, as they are often disused for long periods during the summer season.

Pl. CI also ill.u.s.trates chimneys in which pots have been used in connection with masonry bases, and also a round masonry chimney. The latter is immediately behind the single pot chimney seen in the foreground. On the extreme left of the figure is shown a chimney into which fire pots have been incorporated, the lower ones being almost concealed from view by the coating of adobe. A similar effect may be seen in the small chimney on the highest roof shown in Pl. LVIII. Pl.

Lx.x.xII shows various methods of using the chimney pots. In one case the chimney is capped with a reversed large-mouthed jar, the broken bottom serving as an outlet for the smoke. The vessel usually employed for this purpose is an ordinary black cooking pot, the bottom being burned out, or otherwise rendered unfit for household use. Other vessels are occasionally used. Pl. Lx.x.xIII shows the use, as the crowning member of the chimney, of an ordinary water jar, with dark decorations on a white ground. A vessel very badly broken is often made to serve in chimney building by skillful use of mud and mortar. To facilitate smoke exit the upper pot is made to overlap the neck of the one below by breaking out the bottom sufficiently. The joining is not often visible, as it is usually coated with adobe. The lower pots of a series are in many cases entirely embedded in the adobe.

The pueblo builder has never been able to construct a detached chimney a full story in height, either with or without the aid of chimney pots; where it is necessary to build such shafts to obtain the proper draft he is compelled to rely on the support of adjoining walls, and usually seeks a corner. Pl. CI shows a chimney of this kind that has been built of masonry to the full height of a story. A similar example is shown in the foreground of Pl. LXXVIII. In Pl. XXII may be seen a chimney of the full height of the adjoining story, but in this instance it is constructed wholly of pots. Pl. Lx.x.xV ill.u.s.trates a similar case indoors.

The external chimney probably developed gradually from the simple roof opening, as previously noted. The raised combing about trapdoors or roof holes afforded the first suggestion in this direction. From this developed the square chimney, and finally the tall round shaft, crowned with a series of pots. The whole chimney, both internal and external, excluding only the primitive fireplace, is probably of comparatively recent origin, and based on the foreign (Spanish) suggestion.

GATEWAYS AND COVERED Pa.s.sAGES.

Gateways, arranged for defense, occur in many of the more compactly-built ancient pueblos. Some of the pa.s.sageways in the modern villages of Tusayan and Cibola resemble these older examples, but most of the narrow pa.s.sages, giving access to the inner courts of the inhabited villages, are not the result of the defensive idea, but are formed by the crowding together of the dwellings. They occur, as a rule, within the pueblo and not upon its periphery. Many of the terraces now face outward and are reached from the outside of the pueblo, being in marked contrast to the early arrangement, in which narrow pa.s.sages to inclose courts were exclusively used for access. In the ground plans of several villages occupied within historic times, but now ruined, vestiges of openings arranged on the original defensive plan may be traced. About midway on the northeast side of Awatubi fragments of a standing wall were seen, apparently the two sides of a pa.s.sageway to the inclosed court of the pueblo. The masonry is much broken down, however, and no indication is afforded of the treatment adopted, nor do the remains indicate whether this entrance was originally covered or not.

It is ill.u.s.trated in Pl. CII.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate Lx.x.xVIII. North kivas of Shumopavi, from the northeast.]

Other examples of this feature may be seen in the ground plans of Tebugkihu, Chukubi, and Payupki (Fig. 7, and Pls. XII and XIII).

In the first of these the deep jambs of the opening are clearly defined, but in the other two only low mounds of dbris suggest the gateway. In the ancient Cibolan pueblos, including those on the mesa of Taaiyalana, no remains of external gateways have been found; the plans suggest that the disposition of the various cl.u.s.ters approximated somewhat the irregular arrangement of the present day. There are only occasional traces, as of a continuous defensive outer wall, such as those seen at Nutria and Pescado. In the pueblos of the Cibola group, ancient and modern, access to the inner portion of the pueblo was usually afforded at a number of points. In the pueblo of Kin-tiel, however, occurs an excellent example of the defensive gateway. The jambs and corners of the opening are finished with great neatness, as may be seen in the ill.u.s.tration (Pl. CIII). This gateway or pa.s.sage was roofed over, and the rectangular depressions for the reception of cross-beams still contain short stumps, protected from destruction by the masonry. The masonry over the pa.s.sageway in falling carried away part of the masonry above the jamb corner, thus indicating continuity of bond. The ground plan of this ruin (Pl. LXIII) indicates clearly the various points at which access to the inner courts was obtained. On the east side a noticeable feature is the overlapping of the boundary wall of the south wing, forming an indirect entranceway. The remains do not indicate that this pa.s.sage, like the one just described, was roofed over. In some cases the modern pa.s.sageways, as they follow the jogs and angles of adjoining rows of houses, display similar changes of direction. In Shupaulovi, which preserves most distinctly in its plan the idea of the inclosed court, the pa.s.sageway at the south end of the village changes its direction at a right angle before emerging into the court (Pl. x.x.x).

This arrangement was undoubtedly determined by the position of the terraces long before the pa.s.sageway was roofed over and built upon. Pl.

XXII shows the south pa.s.sageway of Walpi; the entrances are made narrower than the rest of the pa.s.sage by building b.u.t.tresses of masonry at the sides. This was probably done to secure the necessary support for the north and south walls of the upper story. One of the walls, as maybe seen in the ill.u.s.tration, rests directly upon a cross beam, strengthened in this manner.

One of the smaller inclosed courts of Zui, ill.u.s.trated in Pl. Lx.x.xII, is reached by means of two covered pa.s.sages, bearing some general resemblance to the ancient defensive entrances, but these houses, reached from within the court, have also terraces without. The low pa.s.sage shown in the figure has gradually been surmounted by rooms, reaching in some cases a height of three terraces above the openings; but the acc.u.mulated weight finally proved too much for the beams and sustaining walls--probably never intended by the builders to withstand the severe test afterwards put upon them--and following an unusually protracted period of wet weather, the entire section of rooms above fell to the ground. This occurred since the surveying and photographing. It is rather remarkable that the frail adobe walls withstood so long the unusual strain, or even that they sustained the addition of a top story at all.

In the preceding examples the pa.s.sageway was covered throughout its length by rooms, but cases occur in both Tusayan and Cibola in which only portions of the roof form the floor of superstructures. Pl. CIV shows a pa.s.sage roofed over beyond the two-story portion of the building for a sufficient distance to form a small terrace, upon which a ladder stands. Pl. XXIII ill.u.s.trates a similar arrangement on the west side of Walpi. The outer edges of these terraces are covered with coping stones and treated in the same manner as outer walls of lower rooms. In Zui an example of this form of pa.s.sage roof occurs between two of the eastern house rows, where the rooms have not been subjected to the close crowding characteristic of the western cl.u.s.ters of the pueblo.

DOORS.

In Zui many rooms of the ground story, which in early times must have been used largely for storage, have been converted into well-lighted, habitable apartments by the addition of external doors. In Tusayan this modification has not taken place to an equal extent, the distinctly defensive character of the first terrace reached by removable ladders being still preserved. In this province a doorway on the ground is always provided in building a house, but originally this s.p.a.ce was not designed to be permanent; it was left merely for convenience of pa.s.sing in and out during the construction, and was built up before the walls were completed. Of late years, however, such doorways are often preserved, and additional small openings are constructed for windows.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate Lx.x.xIX. Masonry in the north wing of Kin-tiel.]

In ancient times the larger doorways of the upper terraces were probably never closed, except by means of blankets or rabbit-skin robes hung over them in cold weather. Examples have been seen that seem to have been constructed with this object in view, for a slight pole, of the same kind as those used in the lintels, is built into the masonry of the jambs a few inches below the lintel proper. Openings imperfectly closed against the cold and wind were naturally placed in the lee walls to avoid the prevailing southwest winds, and the ground plans of the exposed mesa villages were undoubtedly influenced by this circ.u.mstance, the tendency being to change them from the early inclosed court type and to place the houses in longitudinal rows facing eastward. This is noticeable in the plans given in Chapter II.

Doorways closed with masonry are seen in many ruins. Possibly these are an indication of the temporary absence of the owner, as in the harvest season, or at the time of the destruction or abandonment of the village; but they may have been closed for the purpose of economizing warmth and fuel during the winter season. No provision was made for closing them with movable doors. The practice of fastening up the doors during the harvesting season prevails at the present time among the Zui, but the result is attained without great difficulty by means of rude cross bars, now that they have framed wooden doors. One of these is ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 75. These doors are usually opened by a latch-string, which, when not hung outside, is reached by means of a small round hole through the wall at the side of the door. Through this hole the owner of the house, on leaving it, secures the door by props and braces on the inside of the room, the hole being sealed up and plastered in the same manner that other openings are treated.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 75. A barred Zui door.]

This curious arrangement affords another ill.u.s.tration of the survival of ancient methods in modified forms. It is not employed, however, in closing the doors of the first terrace; these are fastened by barring from the inside, the exit being made by means of internal ladders to the terrace above, the upper doors only being fastened in the manner ill.u.s.trated. In Pl. LXXIX may be seen good examples of the side hole.

Fig. 75 shows a barred door. The plastering or sealing of the small side hole instead of the entire opening was brought about by the introduction of the wooden door, which in its present paneled form is of foreign introduction, but in this, as in so many other cases, some a.n.a.logous feature which facilitated the adoption of the idea probably already existed. Tradition points to the early use of a small door, made of a single slab of wood, that closed the small rectangular wall niches, in which valuables, such as turquoise, sh.e.l.l, etc., were kept. This slab, it is said, was reduced and smoothed by rubbing with a piece of sandstone. A number of beams, rafters, and roofing planks, seen in the Chaco pueblos, were probably squared and finished in this way. The latter examples show a degree of familiarity with this treatment of wood that would enable the builders to construct such doors with ease. As yet, however, no examples of wooden doors have been seen in any of the pre-Columbian ruins.

The pueblo type of paneled door is much more frequently seen in Cibola than in Tusayan, and in the latter province it does not a.s.sume the variety of treatment seen in Zui, nor is the work so neatly executed.

The views of the modern pueblos, given in Chapters III and IV, will indicate the extent to which this feature occurs in the two groups. In the construction of a paneled door the vertical stile on one side is prolonged at the top and bottom into a rounded pivot, which works into cup-like sockets in the lintel and sill, as ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 76. The hinge is thus produced in the wood itself without the aid of any external appliances.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 76. Wooden pivot hinges of a Zui door.]

It is difficult to trace the origin of this device among the pueblos. It closely resembles the pivot hinges sometimes used in medival Europe in connection with ma.s.sive gates for closing masonry pa.s.sages; in such cases the prolonged pivots worked in cavities of stone sills and lintels. The Indians claim to have employed it in very early times, but no evidence on this point has been found. It is quite possible that the idea was borrowed from some of the earlier Mormon settlers who came into the country, as these people use a number of primitive devices which are undoubtedly survivals of methods of construction once common in the countries from which they came. Vestiges of the use of a pivotal hinge, constructed on a much more ma.s.sive scale than any of the pueblo examples, were seen at an old fortress-like, stone storehouse of the Mormons, built near the site of Moen-kopi by the first Mormon settlers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XC. Adobe garden walls near Zui.]

The paneled door now in use among the pueblos is rudely made, and consists of a frame inclosing a single panel. This panel, when of large size, is occasionally made of two or more pieces. These doors vary greatly in size. A few reach the height of 5 feet, but the usual height is from 3 to 4 feet. As doors are commonly elevated a foot or more above the ground or floor, the use of such openings does not entail the full degree of discomfort that the small size suggests. Doors of larger size, with sills raised but an inch or two above the floor or ground, have recently been introduced in some of the ground stories in Zui; but these are very recent, and the idea has been adopted only by the most progressive people.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 77. Paneled wooden doors in Hano.]

Pl. XLI shows a small paneled door, not more than a foot square, used as a blind to close a back window of a dwelling. The smallest examples of paneled doors are those employed for closing the small, square openings in the back walls of house rows, which still retain the defensive arrangement so marked in many of the ancient pueblos. In some instances doors occur in the second stories of unterraced walls, their sills being 5 or 6 feet above the ground. In such cases the doors are reached by ladders whose upper ends rest upon the sills. Elevated openings of this kind are closed in the usual manner with a rude, single-paneled door, which is often whitened with a coating of clayey gypsum.

Carefully worked paneled doors are much more common in Zui than in Tusayan, and within the latter province the villages of the first mesa make more extended use of this type of door, as they have come into more intimate contact with their eastern brethren than other villages of the group. Fig. 77 ill.u.s.trates a portion of a Hano house in which two wooden doors occur. These specimens indicate the rudeness of Tusayan workmanship. It will be seen that the workman who framed the upper one of these doors met with considerable difficulty in properly joining the two boards of the panel and in connecting these with the frame. The figure shows that at several points the door has been reenforced and strengthened by buckskin and rawhide thongs. The same device has been employed in the lower door, both in fastening together the two pieces of the panel and in attaching the latter to the framing. These doors also ill.u.s.trate the customary manner of barring the door during the absence of the occupant of the house.

The doorway is usually framed at the time the house is built. The sill is generally elevated above the ground outside and the floor inside, and the door openings, with a few exceptions, are thus practically only large windows. In this respect they follow the arrangement characteristic of the ancient pueblos, in which all the larger openings are window-like doorways. These are sometimes seen on the court margin of house rows, and frequently occur between communicating rooms within the cl.u.s.ter. They are usually raised about a foot and a half above the floor, and in some cases are provided with one or two steps. In Zui, doorways between communicating rooms, though now framed in wood, preserve the same arrangement, as may be seen in Pl. Lx.x.xVI.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 78. Framing of a Zui door-panel.]

The side pieces of a paneled pueblo door are mortised, an achievement far beyond the aboriginal art of these people. Fig. 78 ill.u.s.trates the manner in which the framing is done. All the necessary grooving, and the preparation of the projecting tenons is laboriously executed with the most primitive tools, in many cases the whole frame, with all its joints, being cut out with a small knife.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XCI. A group of stone corrals near Oraibi.]

Doors are usually fastened by a simple wooden latch, the bar of which turns upon a wooden pin. They are opened from without by lifting the latch from its wooden catch, by means of a string pa.s.sed through a small hole in the door, and hanging outside. Some few doors are, however, provided with a c.u.mbersome wooden lock, operated by means of a square, notched stick that serves as a key. These locks are usually fastened to the inner side of the door by thongs of buckskin or rawhide, pa.s.sed through small holes bored or drilled through the edge of the lock, and through the stile and panel of the door at corresponding points. The entire mechanism consists of wood and strings joined together in the rudest manner. Primitive as this device is, however, its conception is far in advance of the aboriginal culture of the pueblos, and both it and the string latch must have come from without. The lock was probably a contrivance of the early Mormons, as it is evidently roughly modeled after a metallic lock.

Many doors having no permanent means of closure are still in use. These are very common in Tusayan, and occur also in Cibola, particularly in the farming pueblos. The open front of the tupubi or balcony-like recess, seen so frequently at the ends of first-terrace roofs in Tusayan, is often constructed with a transom-like arrangement in connection with the girder supporting the edge of the roof, in the same manner in which doorways proper are treated. Pl. x.x.xII ill.u.s.trates a balcony in which one bounding side is formed by a flight of stone steps, producing a notched or terraced effect. The supporting girder in this instance is embedded in the wall and coated over with adobe, obscuring the construction. Fig. 79 shows a rude transom over the supporting beam of a balcony roof in the princ.i.p.al house of Hano. The upper doorway shown in this house has been partly walled in, reducing its size somewhat. It is also provided with a small horizontal opening over the main lintel, which, like the doorway, has been partly filled with masonry. This upper transom often seems to have resulted from carrying such openings to the full height of the story. The transom probably originated from the s.p.a.ces left between the ends of beams resting on the main girder that spanned the princ.i.p.al opening (see Fig. 81). Somewhat similar balconies are seen in Cibola, both in Zui and in the farming villages, but they do not a.s.sume so much importance as in Tusayan. An example is shown in Pl. CI, in which the construction of this feature is clearly visible.

In the remains of the ancient pueblos there is no evidence of the use of the half-open terrace rooms described above. If such rooms existed, especially if constructed in the open manner of the Tusayan examples, they must have been among the first to succ.u.mb to destruction. The comparative rarity of this feature in Zui does not necessarily indicate that it is not of native origin, as owing to the exceptional manner of cl.u.s.tering and to prolonged exposure to foreign influence, this pueblo exhibits a wider departure from the ancient type than do any of the Tusayan villages. It is likely that the ancient builders, trusting to the double protection of the inclosed court and the defensive first terrace, freely adopted this open and convenient arrangement in connection with the upper roofs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 79. Rude transoms over Tusayan openings.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XCII. An inclosing wall of upright stones at Ojo Caliente.]

The transom-like opening commonly accompanying the large opening is also seen in many of the inclosed doorways of Tusayan, but in some of these cases its origin can not be traced to the roof constructions, as the openings do not approach the ceilings of the rooms. In early days such doorways were closed by means of large slabs of stone set on edge, and these were sometimes supplemented by a suspended blanket. In severe winter weather many of the openings were closed with masonry. At the present time many doorways not provided with paneled doors are closed in such ways. When a doorway is thus treated its transom is left open for the admission of light and air. The Indians state that in early times this transom was provided for the exit of smoke when the main doorway was closed, and even now such provision is not wholly superfluous. Fig.

80 ill.u.s.trates a large doorway of Tusayan with a small transom. The opening was being reduced in size by means of adobe masonry at the time the drawing was made. Fig. 81 shows a double transom over a lintel composed of two poles; a section of masonry separating the transom into two distinct openings rests upon the lintel of the doorway and supports a roof-beam; this is shown in the figure. Other examples of transoms may be seen in connection with many of the ill.u.s.trations of Tusayan doorways.