BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY—— SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XCII
ENTRANCES TO CAVATE RUINS
Whether the rock had recesses in it before the caves were enlarged would seem to be answered in the affirmative, for similar caves without evidences of habitations were observed. These, however, are as a rule small, and wherever available the larger caverns have been appropriated and enlarged by stone implements, as shown by the pecking on the walls. The enlargement of these caverns, however, would not be a difficult task, for the rock is very soft and easily worked.
Entering one of these cavate rooms the visitor finds himself in a dark chamber, as a rule with side openings or passageways into adjoining rooms. Broad lateral banquettes are prominent features in the most complicated caves, and there are many recesses and small closets or cists.
The ramifications formed by lateral rooms are often extensive, and the chambers communicate with others so dark that we can hardly regard them as once inhabited. In these dimly lighted rooms the walls were blackened with smoke, as if from former fires, and in many of the largest the position of fireplaces could plainly be discovered. As a type of one of the more complicated I have chosen that figured to illustrate the arrangement of these cavate dwellings ([figure 245]). Many are smaller, others have more lateral chambers, but one type is characteristic of all.
A main room (a, [figure 245]), or that first entered from outside, is roughly rectangular in shape, 12 feet long by 6 feet wide, and about 6 feet high. The floor, however, was covered with very dry débris which had blown in from the exterior or, in some instances, fallen from the roof. That part of the floor which was exposed shows that it was roughly plastered, sometimes paved or formed of solid rock.
On three sides of this room there is a step 2 feet high, to platforms, three in number, one in the rear and one on each side. These platforms are 5, 6, and 6 feet 6 inches wide, respectively, and of the same length as the corresponding sides of the central room. It would appear that these platforms are characteristic architectural features of these habitations, and we find them reproduced in some of the rooms of the cliff houses of the Red-rocks, while Nordenskiöld has described a kindred feature in the kivas of the Mesa Verde ruins. A somewhat similar elevation of the floor in modern Tusayan kivas forms what may be called the spectator's part, in front of the ladder as one descends, and the same feature is common to many older Hopi dwellings.[15]