Antiquities of the Mesa Verde National Park: Cliff Palace

by Jesse Walter Fewkes

This kiva is situated in the terrace below that last mentioned, that is, in the second terrace, and was wholly buried when excavations began. The roofs of rooms 30 and 31 overlooked this kiva, their floors being on the same level as the kiva roof.

KIVA H

Kiva H ([pl. 18]) measures 8 feet from the floor to the top of the wall, and 6 feet from the floor to the top of the pilasters. The height of the banquette is 4 feet 6 inches. The diameter of the kiva is 11 feet 6 inches.

The deflector is a curved stone wall joining the kiva wall on each side of the flue.[53] It is built of stone, 7 feet 6 inches high, 10 inches wide, and 20 inches high. The deflector is 1 foot 6 inches from the flue and 15 inches from the fire-hole. The diameter of the fire-hole is 2 feet and its depth 1 foot.

The sipapû is situated 2 feet from the fire-hole; it is 3 inches in diameter and 4 inches deep.

There are 2 mural niches. Exceptional features of this kiva are the curved deflector and the opening into a small room at the northwestern corner. Instead of extending straight from the kiva to the vertical ventilator, the flue turns at a right angle midway in its course. The ventilator is built at one corner of the kiva wall. As this kiva lies deep below the base of the round tower, a fine view of these several characteristics may be obtained from that point.

KIVA I

When work began there was no indication of the walls of this kiva, except a fragment of one which at first was supposed to belong to a small secular room. The kiva had been filled with débris by those who had dug into the upper rooms, and a large hole[54] was broken through the high western wall of kiva L, through which to throw débris. The removal of this accumulation was a work of considerable magnitude, and the repair of the kiva wall was very difficult, as it was necessary to reconstruct the foundations that had been blasted away to make the opening above mentioned.

When this débris was removed and the floor of the kiva was reached, it was found that its walls were much disintegrated, the component stones having practically turned into sand, necessitating the construction of buttresses to support them. The dimensions of kiva I are as follows: The height of the top of the wall from the floor is 8 feet, and that of the pilasters 6 feet 8 inches. The banquette rises 3 feet 8 inches above the floor. The interior diameter of the kiva is 10 feet 10 inches. The number of pedestals is 4, averaging 4 feet in height.

The flue is situated at the southwestern side. The distance from the flue to the deflector is 21 inches; from the deflector to the fire-hole, 2 inches. There are two mural niches, one at the northeast measuring 13 by 11 by 8 inches, and one at the southeast measuring 13 by 11 by 7 inches. A dado, painted red, surrounded the kiva, the color being most conspicuous, because best protected, in the mural niches, half of which are above, half below the upper margin of the dado. On this margin are traceable triangular figures like those on the painted wall of room 11.