Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-09-04

325x73S feet, built on the three sides of
a court, which conforms to the contour
of the cliff and extends to the very
edge. The walls of this, as of nearly all
of the great buildings or the top of the
cliff, lie north and south, n in the abb
of the compass it is a matter of
surprise that they should be so exact.
The main court is 1S3x325 feet. On the
west side is a large burial mound. cor
nering on one of the two kivas located
in the court. This mound was carefully
e~Xcavated by DR.. Coles party, and a
number of skeletons We're taken out.
These skeletons We're not as well pre-
served as those found in the Santa
Clara ruins, owing to the fact that the
bottom of the mound, where they had
been, vas cemented, and thus held
moisture. This mound was especially
rich in pottery, some two or three
pieces being buried with each body.
over fifty pieces of pottery were Sc
cured from it, besides several pipes and
fitches. There are four p~assageways or
Railways leading out from the court
one on the east, one on the north ana
two on the west side. One of those on
the west leads to a smaller court in the
center of the main building. Around
the court, as we'll as on the outside, the
walls are double. The building was put
up I'LL pS III lOIll, UtlllS lWp lit
three stories high, and must have con-
tanned from 1900 to 1,500 rooms. There
are over 600 rooms on the ground floor.
These rooms are Of good size, being Ok
II, okla and 9X15 feet, and Z feet high.
They were nicely plastered, sometimes
tinted. In some places finger prints are
found in the plaster, showing that
trowels were unknown to the builders.
Evidences hat rooms were used for
different purposes still remain. In n
the inhabitants made their metate and
las manas: the marks of the stone
hammer are still visible on pieces in
process of construction. In another
they fashioned their row instru-
ments for chipping the obsfdian and
grooves for the polishing of the arrows
We're found here. In still another their
musical instruments were manufac-
tured; some finished flutes and others
partly finished We're secured. Another
room was doubtless a sleeping apart
ment, another a store room, and yet
another was the kitchen or living room.
In the well-constructed fireplaces in
this last room, half buried in ashes,
were cooking vessels; some containing
what seemed to be dough, others the
| bones of birds. 1t would appear as if
the owners left this building uneX-
| pectedly and hurriedly, ever while the
meal was being prepared.
To the northwest, about 100 yards
from this building, is a large reservoir,
| with cedar trees of considerable size
| growing out of the bottom, testifying
to the great age of the ruins. There
' are also two kivas on the west. These
kivas, Or estufas, were council ham
bers and lodge rooms, places where the
men assembled to discuss the affairs of
the town. Some of them were used for
religious purposes, others as places of
social resort and lounging places for
the idle. Besides the usual stone imple-
ments, such as metates, las manas.
portilla stones, mortars and pestles,
polishing stones, axes, hammers,
knives, etc., many curious relics were
found here. Among these was a phos-
phorescent stone, used to reproduce and
represent the lightning in night dances
in the kivas. Bone avis and needles,
drills made of something like a flint
rock, bits of basket work, cloth, strings
made of a sort of hemp fiber, and from
the yucca, and Ove fifty pieces of pot
terry of the more ancient type, white
and black, red, with geometrical fig
ures, were also found
The question naturally arises who
these people were who constructed such
great buildings, and whence they came.
A great many theories have been ad-
vanced, but the question is far from
being settled. There are those who
ascribe to the cliff dwellings a marvel
Gus antiquity. Others regard them as
quite modern. The truth probably lies
between the two extremes.