The North Americans of Antiquity / Their origin, migrations, and type of civilization considered

by John T. Short

Cave-Village in the Valley of the Rio Chelly.

About five miles southward from the San Juan, and in a valley of the Chelly, a cave-village of considerable extent was discovered, perched upon a recessed bench about seventy feet above the valley, and overhung by a solid wall of massive sandstone, extending up over two hundred feet farther. Mr. Jackson describes it in detail as follows: “The left-hand side of the bench supporting the buildings sweeps back in a sharp curve about eighty feet under the bluff, and then gradually comes to the front again until, on the extreme right hand, the buildings are built upon a mass of débris, but partially protected overhead. The total length over the solidly built portion of the town is five hundred and forty-five feet, with a greater width in no place of more than forty feet. There are somewhere in the neighborhood of seventy-five rooms upon the ground-plan, with some uncertainty existing as to many of the subdivisions on the right; but in the cave-built portion every apartment was distinctly marked. Midway in the town is a circular room of heavily and solidly built masonry, that was probably meant for an estufa or council-hall; that is, if we can reasonably assume any similarity in the methods of building or worship to those of the pueblos of New Mexico. Starting from this estufa is a narrow passage running back of the line of houses on the left to a two-story group, where it ends abruptly, further access being had through the back row of rooms, or over the roofs of the lower front row, probably the latter, for it is likely that these roofs served as a platform from which to enter the rooms back of it. At the extreme end a still higher ledge occurs, with the overhanging wall coming down close over it, its outer edge enclosed by a wall, and a little store-room in its farther corner; it was reserved, probably, as an out-door working-room. All the buildings of this half are of one story, with the exception of one group, the residence probably of the chief or of some other important family in the community. The rooms just back of it are the store-rooms of the family, where the corn and squashes were put away for the winter’s consumption. Near these store-rooms, there are two half-round enclosures of stone-work, that are very likely the remains of small reservoirs or springs. The rock back of them is dug out beneath, and had, even in the dry season, when we were there, a damp appearance, as though water was not far removed, and might easily be coaxed to the surface. The front line of wall of this left side of the town is built upon a steep angle of smooth rock, with the interior of the apartments filled up with earth so as to make their floors level, bringing them a little below the passage-way. In two or three instances the front wall has given way, precipitating all but the back wall to the bottom of the cliffs. Holes have been drilled into the rock in a few places beneath the walls, evidently to assist in retaining them in their places. The whole front of this portion of the town is without an aperture, save very small windows, and is perfectly inaccessible, both from the solidity of the wall and the precipitous nature of the foundation-rock beneath it. Admittance was probably gained from near the circular building in the centre, by ladders or any other well-guarded approach over the rocks.”

Two miles down the Cañon of the Chelly, below the mouth of the fertile Cañon Bonito Chiquito, the house figured on [page 306] was found with its niched stairway cut in the face of the rock. The house is two-storied, twenty feet in height, the lower story of which is eighteen by ten feet square, divided into two rooms. A natural reservoir of water was found in the rock only twenty rods distant. Eight miles up the Chelly they came to the cave Pueblo, seen by Simpson and mentioned on [page 293]. From this point it was but forty miles to the inhabited Moquis town Tegua. The explorers after visiting that interesting place returned northward again to the San Juan, reaching Epsom Creek, a tributary of the same from the north, a short distance from the mouth of the Chelly Cañon. Among a number of remains found in the Cañon of Epsom Creek, one in particular is of interest; this was the remnant of a square tower, of most perfect masonry, built upon a point of rock entirely inaccessible to the explorers.

Elevated Tower on Epsom Creek.

A few miles farther up the Epsom Valley, the ruins of quite a town were discovered. “It lay upon both sides of a small, dry ravine, some twenty or thirty rods back from the bed of the creek, and consisted of a main rectangular mass sixty by one hundred feet, occupying quite an elevation, dominating all the others. Just below it and close upon the edge of the ravine, was a round tower, twenty-five feet in diameter; and seventy-five below that, and also close to the ravine, was a square building, twenty-feet across, nearly obscured by a thicket of piñon-trees, growing about it. On the opposite bank were two small round towers, each fifteen feet in diameter, with two oblong structures between, twelve by fifteen feet square; at right angles to these four, which were arranged in a straight line, another square building occurred, the same size as the one just opposite on the other bank.” The surroundings of this ancient village are described as truly picturesque and the valley fertile, contrasting considerably with the Chelly Cañon. The exploring party followed the Epsom to a point thirty miles above the San Juan, and in the head cañons between it and the Montezuma found themselves in the midst of ruins which mark the former presence of a dense population. No ruins were found near the Sierra Abajo nor in the great basin lying between it and the Sierra La Sal. In the deep cañon of the Montezuma (fifteen hundred feet deep), cliff-dwellings and other remains were found in great numbers. Cave-shelters, with the orifice of the oval and circular crevices in the rocks walled up with neat masonry and accessible by means of niche-steps for the hands and feet, leading up the perpendicular cliff to the little nest-like houses above, were especially numerous. In one of these a skeleton was found, but examination proved it to be that of a Navajo, and quite certainly not that of one of the ancient residents. At different points midway down the cañon, narrow promontories jut out into the valley a hundred yards or more, ranging from twenty to one hundred feet in height. Within a distance of sixteen miles, eighteen of these were observed, covered with ruins of massive stone-built structures. They were rectangular in form, ranging from one hundred by two hundred feet, down to thirty by forty feet in size. We cannot devote further attention to the vast number of ruins found by Mr. Jackson and party in the Montezuma Valley, except to note the curious little house shown in the cut.

Cave-Dwelling in the Montezuma Valley.

Among a colony of these cave-dwellings, occurring at the first bend of the West Montezuma, a dozen miles above its junction with the east fork, this one commands attention as much for the neatness and perfection of its masonry as for the snug little cave in which its architect lodged it. A block of sandstone resting on the edge of the mesa bench fifty feet above the valley, had a deep oval hole worn in it by the winds and sands. This was occupied by the little house, ten feet long, six feet high and five feet deep; a space, however, was reserved at one end to serve as a platform from which to enter.

In addition to the explorations of Mr. Jackson and party, Mr. W. H. Holmes of the Geological and Geographical Survey, was also assigned the duty of examining ancient remains in the valley of the Upper San Juan, during the summer of 1875.[479] Mr. Holmes and party examined an area of nearly six thousand square miles, chiefly in Colorado on the San Juan and its tributaries. Most of the ruins met with were of the same general character and description as those examined by Mr. Jackson, and to repeat in detail the majority of descriptions contained in Mr. Holmes’ memoir, would be to weary the reader with repetitions without affording additional advantage. However, a few remarkable ruins described by Mr. Holmes command our attention. The first of these which may be pronounced unique in this section of the country, and quite unlike anything met with thus far in the exploration, is situated on the Rio La Plata, about twenty-five miles above its junction with the San Juan. The remains of an extensive village with structures of various forms, are scattered upon a terrace some twenty feet above the river-bed. The distribution of the works viewed in connection with plans upon which they were constructed are suggestive of the remains of the mound-builders of the Ohio valley. The forms are chiefly rectangular and circular, one or two seem to have been elliptical while a number have consisted of irregular groups of apartments. All now lie in ruins with their outlines marked by ridges of débris composed of earth, water-worn pebbles, and small fragments of sandstone. The walls of the main structure are still prominently defined, while those of a circular enclosure, used probably as an estufa, are standing to the height of four feet. Three hundred feet directly north of this enclosure is a truncated rectangular mound nine feet high, measuring fifty by eighty feet. In one of the angles of the east end are the remains of what may have been a tower rising above the platform of the mound. One hundred feet north of this mound is a rectangular enclosure measuring sixty by one hundred feet. Its wall ranges from four to six feet in height. The ruins of a wall extending between the mound and the enclosure, indicate that they were once connected. A system of works joined these to a range of low hills, lying to the north. Southward from the large central circle are earthworks and ruins covering an area of fifteen thousand square feet. A large number of small circles and mounds occupy the southern extremity of the terrace. It is impossible to account for the sudden change in the plan of works so contiguous to those of a well-marked pueblo origin. On the San Juan River, thirty-five miles below the mouth of the La Plata and ten miles above the Mancos, Mr. Holmes observed an interesting combination of cave-shelters and towers united in a system for giving signals upon the approach of the enemy. In the face of a vertical bluff thirty-five feet high and about half way from the trail below, caves had been quarried or weathered in considerable numbers in the shales which constitute one of the strata in the bluff. A hard platform of rock formed the floor, and afforded sufficient protection for a narrow platform in front of these openings. Immediately above these caves upon the summit of the bluffs, a system of ruined circular towers, enclosed by semicircular walls with the open side of the semicircle facing the precipice, was observed. The caves were accessible from the valley below only by means of ladders, and the towers in turn only by ladders from the caves through the open side of their semicircular enclosures. The walls of these enclosures presented no openings to the plateau above, and it is inferred that the towers which they enclosed served as outlooks from which the sentinel could signal the people who were engaged in tilling the valley below to flee to their cave-shelters at the approach of the enemy, and when too closely pressed by an enemy upon the plateau the sentinel himself could make his retreat by means of his ladder to the caves beneath.