Plate LXXXI. Eastern rows of Zuñi.
The arrangement of dwellings about a court (Pl. LXXXII), characteristic of the ancient pueblos, is likely to have prevailed in the small pueblo of Halona, about which clustered the many irregular houses that constitute modern Zuñi. Occasional traces of such an arrangement are still met with in portions of Zuñi, although nearly all of the ancient pueblo has been covered with rooms of later date. In the arrangement of Zuñi houses a noticeable difference in the manner of clustering is found in different parts of the pueblo. That portion designated as house No. 1 on the plan, built over the remains of the original small pueblo, is unquestionably the oldest portion of the village. The clustering seems to have gone on around this center to an extraordinary and exceptional extent before any houses were built in other portions. House No. 4 is a portion of the same structure, for although a street or passageway intervenes it is covered with two or three terraces, indicating that such connection was established at an early date. The rows on the lower ground to the east (Pl. LXXXI), where the rooms are not so densely clustered, were built after the removal of the defensive motive that influenced the construction of the central pile. These portions, arranged approximately in rows, show a marked resemblance to pueblos of known recent date. That they were built subsequently to the main clusters is also indicated by the abundant use of oblique openings and roof holes, where there is very little necessity for such contrivances. This feature was originally devised to meet the exceptional conditions of lighting imposed by dense crowding of the living rooms. It will be referred to again in examining the details of openings, and its wide departure from the arrangement found to prevail generally in pueblo constructions will there be noted. The habit of making such provisions for lighting inner rooms became fixed and was applied generally to many clusters much smaller in size than those of other pueblos where this feature was not developed and where the necessity for it was not felt. These less crowded rooms of more recent construction form the eastern portion of the pueblo, and also include the governor’s house on the south side.
Plate LXXXII. A Zuñi court.
The old ceremonial rooms or kivas, and the rooms for the meeting of the various orders or secret societies were, during the Spanish occupancy, crowded into the innermost recesses of this ancient portion of Zuñi under house No. 1. But the kivas, in all likelihood, occupied a more marginal position before such foreign influence was brought to bear on them, as do some of the kivas at the present time, and as is the general practice in other modern pueblos.
Plate LXXXIII. A Zuñi small house.