Casa Grande Ruin Part 2

_Openings._

The Casa Grande was well provided with doorways and other openings arranged in pairs one above the other. There were doorways from each room into each adjoining room, except that the middle room was entered only from the east. Some of the openings were not used and were closed with blocks of solid masonry built into them long prior to the final abandonment of the ruin.

The middle room had three doorways, one above the other, all opening eastward. The lowest doorway opened directly on the floor level, and was 2 feet wide, with vertical sides. Its height could not be determined, as the top was completely broken away and merged with the opening above, but the bottom, which is also the floor level, is 6 feet 9 inches below the level of the first roof beams. The doorway of the second story is preserved only on the northern side. Its bottom, still easily distinguishable, is 1 foot 6 inches above the bottom of the floor beams.

It was not over 2 feet wide and was about 4 feet high. The upper doorway is still well preserved, except that the lintels are gone. It is about three inches narrower at the top than at the bottom and about 4 feet high.

In addition to its three doorways, all in the eastern wall, the middle tier of rooms was well provided with niches and holes in the walls, some of them doubtless utilized as outlooks. On the left of the upper doorway are two holes, a foot apart, about 4 inches in diameter, and smoothly finished. Almost directly above these some 3 feet, and about 2 feet higher than the top of the door, there are two similar holes. Near the southern end of the room in the same wall there is another round opening a trifle larger and about 4 feet above the floor level. In the western wall there are two similar openings, and there is one each in the northern and southern walls. All these openings are circular, of small diameter, and are in the upper or third story, as shown on the elevations herewith, figure 330. The frequency of openings in the upper or third story and their absence on lower levels, except the specially arranged openings described later, supports the hypothesis that none of the rooms except the middle one were ever more than two stories high and that the wall remains above the second roof level represent a low parapet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Pl. LVIII: Square Opening in South Room.]

In the second story, or middle room of the middle tier, there were no openings except the doorway in the eastern wall and two small orifices in the western wall. In the middle of this wall there is a niche about 18 inches below the roof, and a foot below this is a round-cornered opening measuring about 7 by 8 inches extending through the wall. This opening was on a level with another in the western wall of the western room, and commanded a far-reaching though contracted view toward the west. Below and a little northward is a similar though somewhat larger opening corresponding to an opening in the western wall of the western room.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 330.--Elevations of walls, middle room.]

The upper doorway in the western wall of the western room is much broken out, but the top can still be traced. It was 4 feet 5 inches in height and 1 foot 11 inches wide at top. The opening was blocked by solid masonry built into it and completely filling it up to within 10 inches of the top. This upper s.p.a.ce, which is on a level with the upper hole in the middle room, seems to have been purposely left to allow an outlook from that room. The filling block is level on top and flush with the wall inside and out. At a height of 12 inches above the lower edge of the floor beams below it, and perhaps 3 inches above the floor, is the lower edge of a roughly square opening a foot across, cut out from the block itself and inclined slightly downward toward the exterior. It was plastered and smoothly finished. This opening corresponds to the one in the middle room already described. This filling block, with the orifice under discussion, is shown in figure 330, and in detail in plate LVII.

The lower doorway, shown in figure 330, is much broken out, and although now but 2 feet 1 inches wide at its narrowest part, no trace of the original surface remains on the northern side. The opening was 4 feet 6 inches high and probably less than 2 feet wide, with vertical sides.

In the western wall of the southern room there was but one opening. This is about 9 inches square, finished smoothly, and occurs in the upper room, about 6 feet 5 inches above the floor. It is shown in plate LVIII.

The doorway between this room and the western room was smoothly finished and is in good order except the top, which is entirely gone. It was covered with double lintels made of poles 2 to 4 inches in diameter, the lower series about 3 inches above the top of the door. The opening was originally filled in like that described above, leaving only 8 or 10 inches of the upper part open. The lower part of the block was pierced by a square hole, like that in the western room, but this has weathered or been broken out and the block has slipped down, so that now its top is 1 foot 5 inches below what was formerly the top of the opening. The top of the filling block is still smooth and finished and shows across its entire width a series of prints probably of flat sticks about an inch and a half wide, though, possibly these are marks of some finishing tool. The marks run north and south.

The opening below the one just described was so much filled up at the time of examination that none of its features could be determined, except that it was bridged by two tiers of sticks of the usual size as lintels. The subsequent excavation before referred to, however, apparently disclosed an opening similar to the one described, and, like it, filled nearly to the top with a large block.

A little west of the middle of the northern wall there are three niches, arranged side by side and about 6 feet above the first roof beams. The niches are 10 inches high, a foot wide, and about a foot deep, and are about 8 inches apart. They are smoothly finished and plastered, but were roughly made.

The eastern opening in the northern wall, opening into the east room, is well preserved except the top, which is missing. It measured 4 feet 2 inches in height and 1 foot 11 inches wide at the bottom, the top being nearly an inch narrower. It carried two tiers of lintels of medium size.

The gap in the southern wall of the southern room, shown in the plan, though now open from the ground up, represents the location of two doorways, one above the other. Remains of both of these can still be seen on the ends of the walls. No measurements can be obtained. The large fallen block near the southwestern corner of the room, which undoubtedly slipped down from above, shows a finished surface at the ground level inside, but above it no trace of an opening can be seen, possibly because the ends of the walls above are much eroded.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Pl. LIX: Remains of Lintels.]

The upper opening in the eastern wall of the eastern room was apparently capped with a single lintel composed of five sticks 4 to 6 inches in diameter laid level on the top of a course of masonry. The bottom of the opening is filled either with washed-down material or with the remains of a block such as that previously described. This opening is the most irregular one in the building, the top being nearly 4 inches narrower than the bottom, but the northern side of the opening is vertical, the southern side only being inclined inward. The opening was 4 feet 11 inches high and 1 foot 8 inches wide at the bottom. The opening immediately below that described, which was the ground floor entrance from the east, is so much broken out that no evidence remains of its size and character. There appears to have been only one row of lintel poles.

The eastern opening in the southern wall of the northern room is well preserved, the lintels having been torn out by relic hunters without much destruction of the surrounding masonry. It was neatly finished, and its bottom, was probably a little above the first roof level. The edges of the openings were made straight with flat sticks, either used as implements or incorporated into the structure, and forming almost perfectly straight edges. Marks of the same method of construction or finish are apparent in all the other openings, but the remains are not so well preserved as in this instance. Possibly the immediate lintels of openings were formed of thin flat sticks, as the lintel poles are often some inches above the top of the opening. In this opening the supporting lintel was formed of a number of poles 2 to 4 inches in diameter, irregularly placed, sometimes two or three in vertical series with very little filling between them. This construction has been characterized as a Norman arch. The opening was originally 1 foot 11 inches at the top and 4 feet 6 inches high. The bottom is 1 inches wider than the top.

The upper opening in the western end of the southern wall is much like that just described. A small fragment of masonry above the lintel remains, and this is within a quarter of an inch of the top of the opening. Above the opening there was a series of rough lintel poles, 3 to 5 inches in diameter, arranged in three tiers with 4 to 6 inches of filling between them. Prints of these sticks are left in the wall and show that some of them were quite crooked. Probably they were of mesquite, obtained from the immediate vicinity. The edges of the openings were finished with flat sticks, like those described, and its bottom was 6 inches to a foot above the floor. The height of the opening was 4 feet 3 inches and its width at the top 2 feet, at the bottom 2 feet 1 inches.

The opening immediately below the last described is filled with debris to the level of the lintel. Above this, however, there is a series of three tiers of sticks with 6 to 8 inches of masonry between them vertically, sometimes laid side by side, sometimes separated by a foot of masonry. Some of these lintel poles, as well as those of the opening above it, extend 3 feet into the wall, others only a few inches. The lower sides or bottoms of the holes are washed with pink clay, the same material used for surfacing the interior walls. Perhaps this was merely the wetting used to make succeeding courses of clay stick better. This opening is shown in plate LIX.

Near the middle of the northern wall there are two openings, one above the other. The upper opening was finished in the same manner as those already described. But two tiers of poles show above it, though the top is well preserved, and another tier may be buried in the wall. There are indications that the opening was closed by a block about 2 feet thick and flush with the outside. The height of the opening was 4 feet 5 inches, width at top 1 foot 4 inches, and at the bottom 1 foot 10 inches. It narrows a little from north to south.

The lower opening is so much broken out that little remains to show its character. There is a suggestion that the opening was only 2 feet high, and there were probably three tiers of lintels above the opening, the top of which was 2 feet below the roof beams, but the evidence is not so clear as in the other instances.

In the middle of the western wall, at a height of 5 feet 8 inches above the first roof level, there is a large, roughly circular opening or window, 14 inches in diameter. This is shown in plate LX. It is smoothly finished, and enlarges, slightly, outward.

CONCLUSIONS.

As before stated, any conclusions drawn from a study of the Casa Grande itself, and not checked by examination of other similar or a.n.a.logous ruins, can not be considered as firmly established, yet they have a suggestive value.

From the character of the remains it seems probable that the site of the ruins here designated as the Casa Grande group was occupied a long time, not as a whole, but piecemeal as it were, one part being occupied and abandoned while some other part was being built up, and that this ebb and flow of population through many generations reached its final period in the occupation of the structure here termed the Casa Grande ruin. It is probable that this structure did not exist at the time the site was first occupied, and still more probable that all or nearly all the other sites were abandoned for some time before the structure now called the Casa Grande was erected. It is also probable that after the abandonment of the Casa Grande the ground about it was still worked by its former population, who temporarily occupied, during the horticultural season, farming outlooks located near it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Pl. LX: Circular Opening in North Room.]

The methods employed in the construction of the buildings of the Casa Grande were thoroughly aboriginal and characteristically rude in application. A fair degree of adaptability to purpose and environment is seen, indicating that the Casa Grande was one, and not the first, building of a series constructed by the people who erected it and by their ancestors, but the degree of skill exhibited and amount of ingenuity shown in overcoming difficulties do not compare with that found in many northern ruins. As architects, the inhabitants of the Casa Grande did not occupy the first rank among pueblo-builders.

It is probable that the Casa Grande ruin as we see it today shows very nearly the full height of the structure as it stood when it was abandoned. The middle tier of rooms rose to a height of three stories; the others were but two stories high. It is also probable that the building was enlarged after being once completed and occupied. At one time it probably consisted of four rooms on the ground plan, each two stories high. The northern tier, of rooms was added afterward, and probably also the third room in the central tier.

The Casa Grande was undoubtedly built and occupied by a branch of the Pueblo race, or by an allied people. Who these people were it is impossible to determine finally from the examination of one ruin, but all the evidence at hand suggests that they were the ancestors of the present Pima Indians, now found in the vicinity and known to have formerly been a pueblo-building tribe. This conclusion is supported by the Pima traditions, as collected by Mr. Bandelier, who is intimately acquainted with the doc.u.mentary history of the southwest, and whose knowledge of the Pima traditions is perhaps greater than that of anyone else now living. In his various writings he hints at this connection, and in one place he declares explicitly that the Casa Grande is a Pima structure. None of the internal evidence of the ruin is at variance with this conclusion. On the contrary, the scanty evidence is in accord with the hypothesis that the Casa Grande was erected and occupied by the ancestors of the Pima Indians.