These plans were primarily intended to be used in the construction of large scale models, and consequently recorded an amount of information that could not be reproduced upon the published drawings without causing great confusion.
The methods followed in surveying the ruins underwent some changes from time to time as the work progressed. In the earlier work the lines of the walls, so far as they could be determined, were run with a compass and tapeline and gone over with a level. Later it was found more convenient to select a number of stations and connect them by cross-sights and measurements. These points were then platted, and the walls and lines of débris were carefully drawn in over the framework of lines thus obtained, additional measurements being taken when necessary. The heights of standing walls were measured from both sides, and openings were located on the plan and described in a notebook, as was done in the survey of the inhabited villages. The entire site was then leveled, and from the data obtained contour lines were drawn with a 5-foot interval. Irregularities in the directions of walls were noted. In the later plans of ruins a scale of symbols, seven in number, were employed to indicate the amount and distribution of the débris. The plans, as published, indicate the relative amounts of débris as seen upon the ground. Probable lines of wall are shown on the plan by dotted lines drawn through the dots which indicate débris. With this exception, the plans show the ruins as they actually are. Standing walls, as a rule, are drawn in solid black; their heights appear on the field sheets, but could not be shown upon the published plans without confusing the drawing. The contour lines represent an interval of 5 feet; the few cases in which the secondary or negative contours are used will not produce confusion, as their altitude is always given in figures.
[ PLANS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF RUINS.]
The ruins described in this chapter comprise but a few of those found within the province of Tusayan. These were surveyed and recorded on account of their close traditional connection with the present villages, and for the sake of the light that they might throw upon the relation of the modern pueblos to the innumerable stone buildings of unknown date so widely distributed over the southwestern plateau country. Such traditional connection with the present peoples could probably be established for many more of the ruins of this country by investigations similar to those conducted by Mr. Stephen in the Tusayan group; but this phase of the subject was not included in our work. In the search for purely architectural evidence among these ruins it must be confessed that the data have proved disappointingly meager. No trace of the numerous constructive details that interest the student of pueblo architecture in the modern villages can be seen in the low mounds of broken down masonry that remain in most of the ancient villages of Tusayan. But little masonry remains standing in even the best preserved of these ruins, and villages known to have been occupied within two centuries are not distinguishable from the remains to which distinct tradition (save that they were in the same condition when the first people of the narrators’ gens came to this region) no longer clings. Though but little architectural information is to be derived from these ruins beyond such as is conveyed by the condition and character of the masonry and the general distribution of the plan, the plans and relation to the topography are recorded as forming, in connection with the traditions, a more complete account than can perhaps be obtained later.
In our study of architectural details, when a comparison is suggested between the practice at Tusayan and that of the ancient builders, our illustrations for the latter must often be drawn from other portions of the builders’ territory where better preserved remains furnish the necessary data.
[ WALPI RUINS.]
In the case of the pueblo of Walpi, a portion of whose people seem to have been the first comers in this region, a number of changes of sites have taken place, at least one of which has occurred within the historic period. Of the various sites occupied one is pointed out north of the gap on the first mesa. At the present time this site is only a low mound of sand-covered débris with no standing fragment of wall visible. The present condition of this early Walpi is illustrated in Fig. 2. In the absence of foundation walls or other definite lines, the character of the site is expressed by the contour lines that define its relief. Another of the sites occupied by the Walpi is said to have been in the open valley separating the first from the second mesa, but here no trace of the remains of a stone village has been discovered. This traditional location is referred to by Mr. Stephen in his account of Walpi. The last site occupied previous to the present one on the mesa summit was on a lower bench of the first mesa promontory at its southern extremity. Here the houses are said to have been distributed over quite a large area, and occasional fragments of masonry are still seen at widely separated points; but the ground plan can not now be traced. This was the site of a Spanish mission, and some of the Tusayan point out the position formerly occupied by mission buildings, but no architectural evidence of such structures is visible. It seems to be fairly certain, however, that this was the site of Walpi at a date well within the historic period, although now literally there is not one stone upon another. The destruction in this instance has probably been more than usually complete on account of the close proximity of the succeeding pueblo, making the older remains a very convenient stone quarry for the construction of the houses on the mesa summit. Of the three abandoned sites of Walpi referred to, not one furnishes sufficient data for a suggestion of a ground plan or of the area covered.
Fig. 2. Ruins, Old Walpi mound.