BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY—— SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CIX
EXCAVATIONS IN THE WESTERN MOUND OF AWATOBI
Fig. 256—Structure of house wall of Awatobi
On the western, northern, and eastern sides the slope is more gradual, and while there are many obscurely marked house plans visible over the surface, even quite near the top of the elevation, they are doubtless the remains of single-story structures. This leads me to suspect that when Awatobi was built it was reared on a mound of soil or sand, and not on the solid rock surface of the mesa. The configuration, then, shows that the pueblo sloped by easy decline to the plain to the north, but rose more abruptly from the south and west. There are low extramural mounds to the north, showing that on this side the dwellings were composed of straggling chambers. The general character of the rooms on the level slope at the western side of old Awatobi is shown in the accompanying illustration ([plate cx]). The peculiarity of these rooms appears by a comparison with the many-story chambers of the southern declivity of the ruin. Extending the excavations four feet below the surface we encountered a floor which rested on solid earth, and there were no signs of walls beneath it. This was without doubt a single-story house, the roof of which had disappeared. The surrounding surface of the ground is level, but the tops of adjoining walls of rooms may readily be traced near by.
The room was rectangular, twice as long as wide, and without passageways into adjoining chambers. The northern, eastern, and western walls were unbroken, and there was nothing peculiar in the floor of these sections; but we found a well-preserved, elevated settle at the southern side, extending two-thirds of the length of the main wall to a small side wall, inclosing a square recess, the object of which is unknown to me.
All walls were smoothly plastered, and the floor was paved with flat stones set in adobe. The singular inclosure at the southern corner could not be regarded as a fireplace, for there was no trace of soot upon its walls. I incline to the belief that it may have served as a closet, or possibly as a granary. Its arrangement is not unlike that in certain modern rooms at Walpi.
An examination of the masonry of the rooms of the western mounds of Awatobi shows that the component stones were in a measure dressed into shape, which was, as a rule, cubical. In this respect they differ from the larger stones of which the mission walls were built, for in this masonry the natural cleavage is utilized for the face of the wall.
The differences between the masonry of the mission and that of the room in which we found a chief buried were very marked. In the former, elongated slabs of stone, without pecking or dressing, were universal, while in the latter the squared stones were laid in courses and neatly fitted together. The partitions likewise are narrower, being not more than 6 inches thick.