Preliminary report on a visit to the Navaho National Monument, Arizona

by Jesse Walter Fewkes

Scaffold House is about 300 feet long. The rooms, which are in fine condition, extend along the side of the cliff, those situated midway of the length of the ruin being fairly well preserved. There are not far from 56 rooms still to be traced, and at least two circular kivas, the walls of one of which are still in fair condition. The larger kiva measures about 15 feet in diameter; it is subterranean, with a deep bench or banquette on one side. There is no trace of the pilasters so conspicuous in the circular kivas of the Mesa Verde. The inner walls are smoothly plastered.

Enough of the roof of this kiva remains to show the method of construction, and as this is the first example of such a roof the writer has ever examined a brief description of it may prove to be instructive. (See pl. [14].) The supports or rafters are three in number, consisting of a large middle log laid across the center of the kiva halfway between the banquette and the opposite side, and of two smaller logs, parallel with it, resting on the top of the kiva wall, one across the banquette, and the other at about an equal distance on the opposite side. A number of smaller transverse beams, parallel with one another, are supported by the three logs already mentioned, and upon these lie the layers of sticks, bark, and adobe which cover the roof. No hatchway or place for a vertical opening was to be seen, but as the covering of the banquette is missing it is quite possible that the entrance to the kiva may have had some connection with this feature.

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

BULLETIN 50 PLATE 12

PICTOGRAPHS AT BETATAKIN

The top of a vertical stone slab, comparable in shape and position with a deflector, was seen projecting out of the débris that fills the lower part of the kiva, and rods in the wall near the roof represent pegs found at the tops of the pilasters in Mesa Verde kivas. There is a niche at one side for small objects, a constant feature in all kivas, circular and rectangular. The fire-hole was covered with débris.

The second circular kiva, which belongs to the same subtype, is situated not far from the one described, but is much more dilapidated, about half its walls having fallen. The roof of this kiva appears to have been supported in part by upright logs isolated from the walls, inside the chamber, three of which still stand in their original positions. This feature reminds one of kivas of the Rio Grande region as described by Castañeda, the historian of the Coronado expedition in 1540-42. In addition to the two circular kivas Scaffold House contains another room that may have been ceremonial in character, having all the essentials of the Betatakin rooms herein referred to as kivas. It lies near the western end of the ruin, its northwestern wall being bound by the vertical cliff. This room is rectangular, with a lateral entrance opposite which is a low bank, or deflector; the floor between the latter and the doorway is raised slightly above the general level. The fire-hole occupies a position on the other side, as in rooms of this kind in Betatakin. It was noticed that the sides of the doorway are considerably worn and that its lintel is made of split sticks.

In addition to the two circular subterranean kivas at Scaffold House there is at least one kihu in this ruin. This is situated near the western end, being built against the upright or rear wall of the cavern to which the two side walls are joined. The doorway is like those of the kihus in Betatakin and is situated opposite the cliff-wall. The roof has fallen in, but the beams and wattling remain in place as they fell. There is a fire-hole in the middle of the floor, and between it and the doorway is a deflector made of upright staves between which is adobe work; the whole is plastered with adobe. The threshold of the low doorway is slightly elevated above the floor, and between it and the base of the deflector is a raised platform. The lintels are made of sticks split with wedges, possibly of stone, as shown by their fibrous surfaces.

There are many pictographs on the cliff at Scaffold House, the most conspicuous of which represent human hands, snakes (one of them is 15 feet long), mountain sheep or other horned mammals, and nondescript figures representing tailed human beings.