Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895 Part 10

At the time of the Spanish invasion three of the Hopi villages stood on the foothills or lower terraces of the mesas on which they now stand, and the other two, Awatobi and Oraibi, occupied the same sites as today, on the summits of the mesas.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CVIII

RUINS OF SAN BERNARDINO DE AWATOBI]

I believe that at the time of the Spanish discovery of Tusayan by Pedro de Tobar in 1540, there were only five Tusayan towns--Walpi, Awatobi, Shunopovi, Mishoninovi, and Oraibi. Later, Awatobi was destroyed, and shortly after 1680 Walpi, the only East Mesa town, together with Mishoninovi and Shunopovi, on the Middle Mesa, were moved to the elevated sites they now occupy. Oraibi, therefore, is probably the only Tusayan pueblo, at present inhabited, which occupies practically the same site that it did in 1540.

In their excavations for the foundations of new houses the present inhabitants of Oraibi often find, as I am informed by Mr H. R. Voth, the missionary at that place, vessels or potsherds of ancient Tusayan ware closely resembling that which is found in the ruins of Sikyatki and Awatobi.

The mission building at Awatobi, known in the church history of New Mexico and Arizona as San Bernardo or San Bernardino, was reputed to be the largest in Tusayan, and its walls are still the best preserved of any mission structure in that province. This, however, does not imply that the church structures of Tusayan are well preserved, for the mission buildings at Walpi have wholly disappeared, while at Oraibi little more than a pile of stones remains. Of the Shunopovi mission of San Bernabe there are no standing walls save at one end, which are now used as a sheep corral.

The mission of San Bernardino de Awatobi was built on the southern side of the eastern part of the pueblo on the edge of the cliff, and its walls are the only ones of Awatobi now standing above ground. From the situation of these walls, as compared with the oldest part of Awatobi--the western mounds--I believe that San Bernardino mission was, when erected, beyond the limits of the pueblo proper--a custom almost universally followed in erecting pueblo mission churches--necessary in this instance, since from the compactness of the village there was no other available site. The same was true of the missions of Oraibi and Shunopovi, and probably of Old Walpi. As time pa.s.sed additional buildings were erected near it, this eastward extension altering the original plan of the town, but in no way affecting the configuration of the older portion.

From its commanding position on the edge of the mesa the mission walls must have presented an imposing appearance from the plain below, rising as they did almost continuously with the side of the cliff, making a conspicuous structure for miles across Antelope valley, from which its crumbling walls are still visible (plate CVIII).

When compared with the masonry of unmodified pueblo ruins the walls of the mission may be designated ma.s.sive, and excavation at their foundations was very difficult on account of the great amount of debris which had fallen about them. With the limited force of laborers at my command the excavations could not be conducted with a great degree of thoroughness.

In the middle of what I supposed to have been the main church there was much sand, evidently drift, and in it I sank a trench 10 feet below the surface without reaching anything which I considered a floor. We found in excavations at the foundation of the church walls fragments of gla.s.s, several copper nails, a much-corroded iron hook, a copper bell pivot, and fragments of Spanish pottery. From the character of these objects alone there is no doubt in my mind of the former existence of Spanish influence, and the method of construction of the mission walls and the addition constructed of adobe containing chopped straw, substantiate this conclusion. Supposing, from the architecture and orientation of other New Mexican missions, that the altar was at the western end, opposite the entrance to the church, I sank a trench along the foundation of the wall on that side, but encountered such a ma.s.s of fallen stone at that point that I found it impossible to make much progress, and the fact that the floor was more than 10 feet below the surface of the central depression led me to abandon, as impossible with my little band of native excavators, the laying bare of the floor of the church.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 255--Ground plan of San Bernardino de Awatobi]

The ground plan (figure 255) of the mission resembles that of the Zuni church, and is not unlike the plans of the churches in the Rio Grande pueblos. The tall b.u.t.tresses, which rise 15 or 20 feet above the trail up the mesa on the southern corner, are, I believe, remnants of towers which formerly supported a balcony. During a previous visit to Tusayan I obtained fragments[72] of the ancient bell, which are now on exhibition in the Hemenway section of the Peabody Museum at Cambridge.

The stone walls of the mission were rarely dressed or carefully fitted, the interstices being filled in with loose rubble laid in adobe. There was apparently a gallery over the entrance to the building overlooking many smaller buildings, which evidently were the quarters of the resident priest. The construction of the walls was apparently a laborious task, as many of the stones are large and must have been brought a considerable distance. These stones were laid in adobe, and apparently were plastered without and within, although little evidence of the former plastering may now be seen. At the northwestern corner, however, there still remain well-made adobe walls, the clay having been intermixed with straw. From the general appearance of these walls I regard them as of late construction, probably long after the destruction of the mission.

An examination of the plan of the mission building shows that it was oriented about north and south, with the entrance toward the latter direction. Compared with many other pueblo missions, this would seem to be an exceptional position. In my excavations I naturally sought the probable position of the entrance and, opposite it, the recess for the altar. It is evident, from the form of the standing walls, that an entrance from the east would be blocked by standing walls, and the axis of the building is north and south. The theory that the door was at the south has much in its favor, but there are several almost fatal objections to this conclusion.

If, however, we suppose that the entrance was in the south wall, the high walls still standing above the trail up the mesa would then recall the facades of other missions. The rooms east of the largest inclosure, by this interpretation, would be outbuildings--residence rooms for the padres--one side of which forms the eastern walls of the church edifice. The form of the Awatobi church, as indicated by the walls still standing, is very similar to that of Zuni, notwithstanding the orientation appears to be somewhat different.

Excavations failed to reveal any sign of the altar recess at either the northern or the western end, which is not surprising, since the walls are so poorly preserved in both these directions. It was, moreover, very difficult to make a satisfactory examination of the foundations of the walls at any point on account of the fallen stories, which enc.u.mbered the floor at their bases.

From the appearance of antiquity it seems probable that long before the mission buildings were erected a ridge of many-storied houses extended eastward from the pueblo on the northern side of a level s.p.a.ce or court, in which there were, either then or later, ceremonial chambers or kivas. The southern side of this open s.p.a.ce was the site of the mission, but was then unoccupied. This open s.p.a.ce recalls the large court at Walpi, where the Snake dance occurs, but it was considerably broader, one side being formed by the structures which rose from the edge of the mesa. In course of time, however, the mission buildings were erected on this site, and a wall connecting the ridge of houses on the north and the outhouses of the mission was made, thus inclosing the court on all four sides. It was into this inclosure, through a gateway, the b.u.t.tresses of which still remain, that the a.s.sailants pa.s.sed on that eventful night when Awatobi was destroyed.

There is good evidence that a ma.s.sacre of Awatobians occurred in the southeastern angle of the eastern part of the pueblo, just east of the mission. If so, it is probable that many of the unfortunates sought refuge in the outbuildings of the church. Suspecting that such was the case, I excavated a considerable s.p.a.ce of ground at these places and found many human skulls and other bones thrown together in confusion.

The earth was literally filled with bones, evidently hastily placed there or left where the dead fell. These bodies were not buried with pious care, for there were no fragments of mortuary pottery or other indication of burial objects. Many of the skulls were broken, some pierced with sharp implements. While it is true that possibly this may have been a potter's field, or, from its position east of the mission, a Christian burial place, as at Zuni, the evidence from the appearance of the bodies points to a different conclusion. According to the legends, the hostiles entered the pueblo through the adjacent gateway; their anger led them especially against those of the inhabitants who were regarded as _powako_ or sorcerers, and their first acts of violence would naturally have been toward those who sought refuge in the buildings adjacent the church. Near this hated "Singing-house" the slaughter began, soon extending to the kivas and the whole of the eastern section of the village. There was no evidence of murderous deeds in the rooms of the western section of the old pueblo, and the legends agree in relating that most of the men were in kivas, not far from the mission, when the village was overthrown. There is no legendary evidence that there were any Spanish priests in the mission at the time of its destruction, and there is no record extant of any Spaniards losing their lives at Awatobi at the time of its destruction, although the fact of the occurrence, according to Bandelier,[73] was recorded.

The traditional clans which inhabited Awatobi were the Awata (Bow), Honani (Badger), Piba (Tobacco), and Buli (b.u.t.terfly). The Bow people appear to have been the most important of these, since their name was applied to the village. Their totemic signatures, in pictographic form, may still be seen on the sides of the cliff under Awatobi, and in the ruins was found a fine arrowshaft polisher on which was an incised drawing of a bow and an arrow, suggesting that the owner was a member of the Bow phratry. Saliko, the chief of the woman's society known as the Mamzrautu, insists that this priesthood was strong in the fated pueblo, and that a knowledge of its mysteries was brought to Walpi by one of the women who was saved.

It is claimed by the folklorists of the Tataukyamu, a priesthood which, controls the New-fire ceremonies at Walpi, and is prominent in the Soyaluna, or the rites of the winter solstice, that the Piba or Tobacco phratry brought the fetishes of that society to Walpi, and there are many obscurely known resemblances between the Mamzrauti and the Wuwutcimti celebrations in Walpi which appear to support that claim. The Piba phratry is likewise said to have come to Walpi comparatively late in the history of the village, which fact points the same way.

Undoubtedly Awatobi received additions to its population from the south when the pueblos on the Little Colorado were abandoned, and there are obscure legends which support that belief; but the largest numbers were recruited from the pueblos in the eastern section of the country.[74]

THE KIVAS OF AWATOBI

A pueblo of the size of Awatobi, with so many evidences of long occupancy, would no doubt have several ceremonial chambers or kivas, but as yet no one has definitely indicated their positions. I have already called attention to evidences that if they existed they were probably to be looked for in the open court east of the western mounds and in the s.p.a.ce north of the mission. In all the inhabited Tusayan pueblos the kivas are separated from the house cl.u.s.ters and are surrounded by courts or dance plazas. No open s.p.a.ces existed in the main or western mounds of Awatobi, and there was no place there for kivas unless the pueblo was exceptional in having such structures built among the dwellings, as at Zuni. A tradition has survived that Awatobi had regular kivas, partially subterranean, of rectangular shape, and that they were situated in open courts. This would indicate that the s.p.a.ce east of the oldest part of the ruin may have been the sites of these chambers. The old priests whom I have consulted in regard to the probable positions of Awatobi kivas have invariably pointed out the mounds north of the mission walls in the eastern section of the ruin as the location of the kivas, and in 1892 I proved to my satisfaction that these directions were correct.

There is no reason to suppose that the kiva was a necessity in the ancient performance of the Tusayan ritual, and there are still performed many ceremonials as secret and as sacred as any others which occur in rooms used as dwellings or for the storage of corn. Thus, the Flute ceremony, one of the most complicated in Tusayan, is not, and according to legends never was, performed in a kiva. On the contrary, the secret rites of the Flute society are performed in the ancestral Flute chamber or home of the oldest woman of the Flute clan.

Originally, I believe, the same was true in the case of other ceremonials, and that the kiva was of comparatively recent introduction into Tusayan.[75]

Speaking of the sacred rooms of Awatobi, Mindeleff says: "No traces of kivas were visible at the time the ruin was surveyed," but Stephen is quoted in a legend that "the people of Walpi had partly cleaned out one of these chambers and used it as a depository for ceremonial plume-sticks, but the Navaho carried off their sacred deposits, tempted probably by their market value as ethnologic specimens." It is true that while from a superficial examination of the Awatobi mounds the position of the kivas is difficult to locate, a little excavation brings their walls to light. It is likewise quite probable that the legend reported by Stephen has a basis in fact, and that the people at Walpi may have used old shrines in Awatobi, after its destruction, as the priests of Mishoninovi do at the present time; but I very much doubt if the Navaho sold any of the sacred prayer emblems from these fanes. It is hardly characteristic of these people to barter such objects among one another, and no specimens from the shrines appear to have made their way into the numerous collections of traders known to me. There is, however, archeological evidence revealed by excavations that the room centrally placed in the court north of the mission contained a shrine in its floor on the night Awatobi fell.

In 1892, while removing the soil from a depression about the middle of the eastern court of Awatobi, about 100 feet north of the northern wall of the mission, I laid bare a room 28 by 14 feet, in which were found a skull and many other human bones which, from their disposition, had not been buried with care. The discovery of these skeletons accorded with the Hopi traditions that this was one of the rooms in which the men of Awatobi were gathered on the fatal night, and the inclosure where many died. I was deterred from further excavation at that place by the horror of my workmen at the desecration of the chamber. In 1895, however, I determined to continue my earlier excavations and to trace the course of the walls of adjacent rooms. The results obtained in this work led to a new phase of the question, which sheds more light on the character of the rooms in the middle of the eastern court of Awatobi. Instead of a single room at this point, there are three rectangular chambers side by side, all of about the same size (plate CVIII). In the center of the floor of the middle room, 6 feet below the surface, I came upon a cist or stone shrine. As the workmen approached the floor they encountered a stone slab, horizontally placed in the pavement of the room. This slab was removed, and below it was another flat stone which was perforated by a rectangular hole just large enough to admit the hand and forearm.

This second slab was found to cover a stone box, the sides of which were formed of stone slabs about 2-1/2 feet square. On the inner faces of the upright slabs rain-cloud symbols were painted. These symbols were of terrace form, in different colors outlined with black lines.

One of the stones bore a yellow figure, another a red, and a third white. The color of the fourth was not determinable, but evidently, from its position relatively to the others, was once green. This arrangement corresponds with the present ceremonial a.s.signment of colors to the cardinal points, or at least the north and south, as at the present time, were yellow and red, respectively, and presumably the white and green were on the east and west sides of the cist. The colors are still fairly bright and may be seen in the restoration of this shrine now in the National Museum.

There was no stone floor to this shrine, but within it were found fragments of prayer-plumes or pahos painted green, but so decayed that, when exposed to sunlight, some of them fell into dust. There were likewise fragments of green carbonate of copper and kaolin, a yellow ocher, and considerable vegetal matter mixed with the sand. All these facts tend to the belief that this crypt was an ancient shrine in the floor of a chamber which may have been a kiva.

The position of this room with a shrine in the middle of the court is interesting in comparison with that of similar shrines in some of the modern Hopi pueblos. Shrines occupy the same relative position in Sich.o.m.ovi, Hano, Shipaulovi, and elsewhere, and within them sacred prayer-offerings are still deposited on ceremonial occasions. At Walpi, in the middle of the plaza, there is a subterranean crypt in which offerings are often placed, as I have elsewhere described in treating of certain ceremonies. This shrine is not visible, for a slab of stone which is placed over it lies on a level with the plaza, and is securely luted in place with adobe. There are similar subterranean prayer crypts in other Tusayan villages. They represent the traditional opening, or _sipapu_, through which, in Pueblo cosmogony, races crawled to the surface of the earth from an underworld. In Awatobi also there is a similar shrine, for the deposit of prayer-offerings, almost in the middle of a plaza bounded on three sides by the mission, the spur of many-storied houses, and the wall with a gateway, while the remaining side was formed by the great communal houses of the western part of the pueblo.

While we were taking from their ancient resting places the slabs of stone which formed this Awatobi shrine, the workmen reminded me how closely it resembled the _pahoki_ used by the _katcinas_, and when, a month later, I witnessed the _Niman-katcina_ ceremony at Walpi, and accompanied the chief, Intiwa, when he deposited the prayer-sticks in that shrine,[76] I was again impressed by the similarity of the two, one in a ruin deserted two centuries ago, the other still used in the performance of ancient rites, no doubt much older than the overthrow of the great pueblo of Antelope mesa.

OLD AWATOBI

The western mounds of Awatobi afford satisfactory evidence that they cover the older rooms of the pueblo, and show by their compact form that the ancient village in architectural plan was similar to modern Walpi. They indicate that Awatobi was of pyramidal form, was symmetrical, three or four stories high,[77] without a central plaza, but probably penetrated by narrow courts or pa.s.sages. No great ceremonial dance could have taken place in the heart of the pueblo, since there was not sufficient s.p.a.ce for its celebration, but it must have occurred outside the village, probably in the open s.p.a.ce to the east, near where the ruined walls of the mission now stand.

From the nature of the western mounds I found it advantageous to begin the work of excavation in the steep decline on the southern side, and to penetrate the mound on the level of its base or the rock formation which forms its foundation. In this way all the debris could advantageously be moved and thrown over the side of the mesa. We began to open the mounds, therefore, on the southern side, making converging trenches at intervals, working toward their center. We found that these trenches followed continuous walls connected by cross part.i.tions, forming rooms, and that these were continued as far as we penetrated. The evidence is good that these rooms are followed by others which extend into the deepest part of the mound. We likewise excavated at intervals over the whole surface of the western area of Awatobi, and wherever we dug, walls of former rooms, which diminished in alt.i.tude on the northern side, were found. From these excavations I concluded that if any part of the western mound was higher than the remainder, it was on the southern side just above the edge of the mesa, and from that highest point the pueblo diminished in alt.i.tude to the north, in which direction it was continued for some distance in low, single-story rooms.

ROOMS OF THE WESTERN MOUND

The older or western portion of Awatobi is thus believed to be made up of a number of high mounds which rise steeply, and for a considerable height from the southern edge of the cliff, from which it slopes more gradually to the north and west. On account of this steep declivity we were able to examine, in vertical section, the arrangement of the rooms, one above the other (figure 256). By beginning excavations on the rocky foundation and working into the mound, parallel walls were encountered at intervals as far as we penetrated. From the edge of the cliff there seemed to extend a series of these parallel walls, which were united by cross part.i.tions, forming a series of rooms, one back of another. The deeper we penetrated the mound the higher the walls were found to be, and this was true of the excavations along the whole southern side of the elevation (plate CIX). If, as I suspect, these parallel walls extend to the heart of the mounds, the greatest elevation of the former buildings must have been four stories. It would likewise seem probable that the town was more or less pyramidal, with the highest point somewhat back from the one- or two-story walls at the edge of the cliff, a style of architecture still preserved in Walpi. The loftiest wall, which was followed down to the floor, was 15 feet high, but as that was measured over 20 feet below the apex of the mound, it would seem that, from a distance, there would be a wall 30 feet high in the center of the mound. Even counting 7 feet as the height of each story we would have four stories above the foundation, and this, I believe, was the height of the old pueblo. But probably the wall did not rise to this height at the edge of the mesa, where it could not have been more than one or two stories high. There is no evidence of the former existence of an inclosed court of any considerable size between the buildings and the cliff, although a pa.s.sage probably skirted the brink of the precipice, and house ladders may have been placed on that side for ready access to upper rooms. By a series of platforms or terraces, which were in fact the roofs of the houses, one mounted to the upper stories which formed the apex of the pueblo.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CIX

EXCAVATIONS IN THE WESTERN MOUND OF AWATOBI]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 256--Structure of house wall of Awatobi]

On the western, northern, and eastern sides the slope is more gradual, and while there are many obscurely marked house plans visible over the surface, even quite near the top of the elevation, they are doubtless the remains of single-story structures. This leads me to suspect that when Awatobi was built it was reared on a mound of soil or sand, and not on the solid rock surface of the mesa. The configuration, then, shows that the pueblo sloped by easy decline to the plain to the north, but rose more abruptly from the south and west. There are low extramural mounds to the north, showing that on this side the dwellings were composed of straggling chambers. The general character of the rooms on the level slope at the western side of old Awatobi is shown in the accompanying ill.u.s.tration (plate CX). The peculiarity of these rooms appears by a comparison with the many-story chambers of the southern declivity of the ruin. Extending the excavations four feet below the surface we encountered a floor which rested on solid earth, and there were no signs of walls beneath it. This was without doubt a single-story house, the roof of which had disappeared. The surrounding surface of the ground is level, but the tops of adjoining walls of rooms may readily be traced near by.

The room was rectangular, twice as long as wide, and without pa.s.sageways into adjoining chambers. The northern, eastern, and western walls were unbroken, and there was nothing peculiar in the floor of these sections; but we found a well-preserved, elevated settle at the southern side, extending two-thirds of the length of the main wall to a small side wall, inclosing a square recess, the object of which is unknown to me.

All walls were smoothly plastered, and the floor was paved with flat stones set in adobe. The singular inclosure at the southern corner could not be regarded as a fireplace, for there was no trace of soot upon its walls. I incline to the belief that it may have served as a closet, or possibly as a granary. Its arrangement is not unlike that in certain modern rooms at Walpi.

An examination of the masonry of the rooms of the western mounds of Awatobi shows that the component stones were in a measure dressed into shape, which was, as a rule, cubical. In this respect they differ from the larger stones of which the mission walls were built, for in this masonry the natural cleavage is utilized for the face of the wall.

The differences between the masonry of the mission and that of the room in which we found a chief buried were very marked. In the former, elongated slabs of stone, without pecking or dressing, were universal, while in the latter the squared stones were laid in courses and neatly fitted together. The part.i.tions likewise are narrower, being not more than 6 inches thick.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CX

EXCAVATED ROOM IN THE WESTERN MOUND OF AWATOBI]