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 2½ 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.
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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 8½ 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 1½ 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 1½ inches.
The opening immediately below the last described is filled with débris 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 4½ 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 2½ 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.