The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-04-05
NEW MEMC0'S GREAT RUINS.
REMAINS OF PREHISTORIC BUILD
INGS OF ROUGHLY HENN STONE.
ty-VaIuable Relics Secured in
Scaled Chambers.


Scaled Chambers.
From the Sante Fe New Mexican
1t is not only i'm Santa Fe county where
the ancient dwellings are found. but in San
Juan their exist wonderful remains of the
early dwellers About mile west of the
county town of Aztec on a mesa now I'M
der cultivation are found the fallen or pa
tally standing walls of structure which
presents features of unusual interest. The
mound of debris which has been made
from the fallen walls in quite twenty-five
feet above the general level, and out of
the heap walls yet standing rise in their
original position to a further hight of
thirty feet,
The lower rooms can now be reached
only through a passageway that has been
cut through the second story and can be
examined only by the aid of artificial light.
They vary from by 10 10 10 by 16 feet at
the base and are 10 feet in hight. The
ground walls are three and one-half feet
in thickness, and the faeings of all outer
and inner walls are made of dressed
stone of uniform thickness. While SHAPED
without the aid of metal too.s, they present
a very uniform appearance, and he
amount of labor required TO dress them
with implements of stone ,attests the skill
and patience of the builders. The many
thousands of tons of rock were brought
by human labor from quarry TWO miles
distant. Some attempt was made to break
joints in the different courses, and, doubt
less for artistic effect, alternate layers of
stone, not more than one inch in thickness,
were frequently used in the walls.
The builder evidently knew the use of
the plumb line, for the standing walls are
Veritacle, but they were ignorant Of the
principles Of bonding at point of wall in
tersections, for each cross wall is built to,
but not into, the wall it meets al the true
right angle. They evidently we're not IA
miliar with the use of lime, for all mortar
was made from a deposit of red clay,
about one-half mile distant, which con-
tains a large amount of pyroxide of iron
and minute infusioriae of marine deposit,
which furnishes a mortar, when protected
from the weather, almost as hard as ce
ment. In these dry and now underground
rooms this mortar has become almost as
hard as the stone itself but in the. outer
walls the centuries of storms and sand
laden winds have worn it away to depth
of about two inches.
Passage to the several rooms was made
through doorways of uniform width of
three feet varying from four to five feet
in hight, and so far as known all en-
trance was first made from the court or
quadrangular area embraced within the
outer walls. Light and ventilation were
secured to the outer ter of rooms by open
ings, usually eight by twelve inches in
size, which are located at a uniform dis
lance of six feet from the clay floors.
In all places where Irregular joints oc-
cur the mortar is filled with countless
numbers Of flakes of stone, perhaps not
more than one-eighth of an inch in thick
no
hand, as is apparent from the palm and
finger prints. All dividing walls were
carried from the base through the upper
stories, thus making rooms in tiers of
uniform size. As the several stories were
completed an offset of about four inches
was made, and from the receding thick
ness of the three stories now standing
the building was evidently seven stories
in hight.
While many of the rooms bear no evil
dence of fire, others are blackened with
smoke, and the fireplaces in the angles
are connected with plastered 1ues that
extend upright through the several
stories.
A puzzling question arises as to how or
where they procured the logs that sup
port the several floors. They resemble
red spruce, but that is not now found
nearer than 100 miles distant on the
higher mountains at the head of the Ami
mas river, and, If procured, could have
been brought down only by being hoated
on that stream one log, which now in
part supports the floor of three rooms is
forty-twO feet in length, with differ.
ence of but two inches in diameter at
either end.
Some years ago log was removed from
the ruins that was siXty-four feet in
length, having a diameter of eight and
eleven inches at the extreme ends. No
red spruce now growing in the forest
maintains its size to this degree All sup
porting beams were cut in the spring, for
they are free from bark, and bear no
marks of tools except at the ends, where
with stone axes they were cut off as
evenly as can be done with the modern
steel ak. This may be a hard statement
to believe, but the logs are here to speak
for themselves, in the absence Of their
former owners, and all can see who Will
So enduring and great is the strength Of
this timber that now, after centuries of
use, where 1t has been protected from
moisture. It is apparently as sound as
when first cut, and the two logs that
span each room now support a deposit Of
from ten TO fifteen feet Of rock and NOR
tar that has fallen from former walls.
In other rooms through the open door
ways can be seen the broken and battered
beams and poles that have been crushed
by the great weight of fallen debris
writes Cecil A. Deane.
Al right angles TO the beams IS laid a
tier Of small poles about three inches IN
diameter, and also free from bark. on