Plate XXVIII. Back wall of a Mashongnavi house-row.

A few of these ancient examples, especially some of the smaller ruins of the Chaco group, are so symmetrical in their arrangement that they seem to be the result of a single effort to carry out a clearly fixed plan. By far the largest number of pueblos, however, built among the southwest tablelands, if occupied for any length of time, must have been subject to irregular enlargement. In some ancient examples, such additions to the first plan undoubtedly took place without marring the general symmetry. This was the case at Pueblo Bonito, on the Chaco, where the symmetrical and even curve of the exterior defensive wall, which was at least four stories high, remained unbroken, while the large inclosed court was encroached upon by wings added to the inner terraces. These additions comfortably provided for a very large increase of population after the first building of the pueblo, without changing its exterior appearance.

In order to make clearer this order of growth in Mashongnavi, a series of skeleton diagrams is added in Figs. [10], [11], and [12], giving the outlines of the pueblo at various supposed periods in the course of its enlargement. The larger plan of the village ([Pl. XXVI]) serves as a key to these terrace outlines.

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Figs. 10,11, 12.Diagrams showing growth of Mashongnavi.

The first diagram illustrates the supposed original cluster of the east court ([Fig. 10]), the lines of which can be traced on the larger plan, and it includes the long, nearly straight line that marks the western edge of the third story. This diagram shows also, in dotted lines, the general plan that may have guided the first additions to the west. The second diagram ([Fig. 11]) renders all the above material in full tint, again indicating further additions by dotted lines, and so on. ([Fig. 12].) The portions of a terrace, which face westward in the newer courts of the pueblo, illustrated in [Pl. XXIX], were probably built after the western row, completing the inclosure, and were far enough advanced to indicate definitely an inclosed court, upon which the dwelling rooms faced.

Plate XXIX. West side of a principal row in Mashongnavi.