Mesa Verde [Colorado] National Park

by United States. Department of the Interior

Two hundred feet north of Spruce Tree House the canyon comes to an abrupt box end. A splendid spring flows from the base of the sandstone cliff, and it was to this spring that the cliff-dweller women went for water carrying it back to their homes in their big water jars. At the south end of the cave a trail, consisting of small toeholds cut in the cliff, led to the mesa top above. This trail was used by the men as they went to their mesa-top fields, where they raised corn, beans, and squash, and by the hunters as they went in search of deer and mountain sheep that lived in the forests above.

LIVING ROOMS

The rooms of Spruce Tree House are divided into two groups by a court or street running from the front to the back of the cave, at a point just south of the center of the village. The majority of the rooms are north of this street, and some of the walls show the finest work in the entire structure. The stones were well shaped and smoothed; the mud mortar was carefully worked into the crevices and compressed with thin stone wedges. Over many of the walls was spread a thin coat of reddish plaster, often decorated with paintings. These rooms, standing as when they were constructed 700 years ago, are mute evidence of the cleverness of the masons who built them.

Spruce Tree House has more walls that reach the top of the cave than any other ruin in the park. All through the central part the walls were three stories high, the top of the cave serving as the roof of the upper rooms. One-and two-story structures usually required a ceiling of heavy rafters, running lengthwise of the rooms. These were covered with a crosswise layer of small poles and withes as a support for an average 3-inch floor of clay. Very often a small hatchway was left in one corner of the ceiling. A short ladder leaning in the corner of the lower room gave access to the room above.

Very few of the houses were equipped with fire pits. Most of the cooking was done in the open courts. Small fire pits can be found along the walls and in the corners of the courts and passageways.

CEREMONIAL ROOMS OR KIVAS

Spruce Tree House has eight of the circular, subterranean rooms that were set aside for ceremonial purposes. Similar rooms are still in use in the present day Pueblo Indian villages and are known as kivas.

Usually the kiva roofs have collapsed, but in Square Tower House two kivas have the original roofs almost intact. Following the plan of these original roofs, three of the kivas in Spruce Tree House have been reroofed. Details of construction may be noted by descending the ladder into one of these restored kivas.

Kivas in the Mesa Verde are always underground and generally circular in shape. The average diameter is 12 to 13 feet and the depth is such that the roof would clear a man's head. At a point about 3 feet above the floor is a narrow ledge running entirely around the room. This ledge is known as the banquette and its exact use is unknown. On this ledge were built six stone buttresses or pilasters, 2 to 3 feet in height, which served as roof supports. Short beams were placed from pilaster to pilaster around the room, and additional series of beams were laid to span the angles formed by the lower series. Normally five or six sets of beams extended this cribwork almost to the ground level. Horizontal beams were then placed across the top and the whole structure was covered with bark and earth. A small square hole in the center of the roof provided an entrance which also served for a smoke vent.

On the south side of the kiva the banquette is wider between two of the pilasters than anywhere else around the room. This deep recess is often referred to as an altar, although its exact use is not known. Just back of the wall of this deep recess is a vertical shaft that leads down to meet a horizontal shaft that opens into the kiva just above the floor. This is the ventilator shaft. The fire, burning in the small pit in the center of the room, sent the smoke up through the hole in the roof, and the fresh air was drawn down through the ventilator shaft. Between the ventilator and the fire pit a small wall, known as the "deflector", was constructed to keep the fresh air current from blowing on the fire.