Antiquities of the Mesa Verde National Park

by Jesse Walter Fewkes

The rectangular kiva is a structure altogether different from a round kiva, morphologically, genetically, and geographically. It is peculiar to the southern and western pueblo area, and while of later growth, should not be regarded as an evolution from the circular kiva. Several authors have found in circular kivas survivals of nomadic architectural conditions, while the position of these rooms, in nearly every instance in front of the other rooms of the cliff-dwelling, has led others to accept the theory that they were later additions to the village, which should be ascribed to a different race. It would seem that this hypothesis hardly conforms to facts, as some kivas have secular rooms in front of them which show evidences of later construction. The strongest objection to the theory that kivas are modified houses of nomads is the style of roof construction.

Kiva A

This room ([pl. 13]), which is the most northerly of all of the ceremonial rooms of Spruce-tree House, is, the author believes, the oldest. In construction this is a remarkable chamber. It is built directly under the cliff, which forms part of its walls. In addition to its site the remarkable features are its double walls, and its floor on the level of the roofs of the other kivas. Although this kiva is not naturally subterranean, the earth and walls built up around it make it to all intents below the surface of the ground.

It appears from the arrangement of walls and banquettes that there is here presented an example of one room constructed inside of another, the inner room utilizing for its wall a portion of the outer. The inner room is more nearly circular than the outer in which it was subsequently built. In this inner room as in other kivas there are six banquettes, and the same number of pedestals to support the roof. Three of these pedestals are common to both rooms. The floor of this room shows nothing peculiar. It has a fire hole, a sipapû, and a deflector, or low wall between the fire hole and the entrance into the horizontal passageway of the ventilator. The ventilator itself opens just outside the west wall through a passageway, the walls of which stand on the wall of a neighboring room. No plaza of any considerable size surrounded the top of this kiva.

In order to get an idea as to how many rectangular rooms naturally accompany a single kiva, the author examined the ground plans of such cliff-dwellings as are known to have but one circular kiva, the majority of these being in the Chelly canyon. While it was not possible to determine the point satisfactorily, it was found that in several instances the circular kiva lies in the middle of several rooms, a fact which would seem to indicate that it was built first and that the square rooms were added later. Several clusters of rooms, each cluster having one kiva, closely resemble kiva A and its surroundings, in both form and structure.

Kiva B

The walls of this subterranean room had escaped all previous observers. They are very much dilapidated, being wholly concealed when work of excavation began. A large old cedar tree growing in the middle of this room led the author to abandon its complete excavation, which promised little return either in enlarging our knowledge of the ground plan of Spruce-tree House or in shedding additional light on the culture of its prehistoric inhabitants.

Kivas C and D

The two kivas, C and D, the roofs of which form the greater part of plaza C, logically belong together in our consideration. One of these rooms, C, was roofed over by the author, who followed as a model the roofs of the two kivas of the House with the Square Tower (Peabody House); the other shows a few log supports of an original roof—the only Spruce-tree House kiva of which this is true.