FEWKES: RELATIONSHIP OF SUN TEMPLE 



215 



of a ladder leaning against a wall, turkey tracks, and the conventional 

 sign for flowing water. 



The importance of these incised figures on stones set in walls lies 

 in the fact that they seem to indicate an advance in architectural 

 decoration not represented in other prehistoric buildings in the South- 

 west. They may be regarded as first steps in mural sculpture, a form 

 of decoration that reached such an advanced stage in old ruins in 

 Mexico and Central America. Each figure may have had a special 

 meaning or symbolic significance connected with the room in which 

 it was placed, but these figures seem to me to have been introduced 

 rather for ornament or decorative effect. 



Fig. 2. Perspective view of Sun Temple from the southwest. 



The argument that appeals most strongly to my mind as supporting 

 the theory that Sun Temple was a ceremonial building is the unity 

 shown in its construction. A preconceived plan existed in the minds 

 of the builders before they began work on the main building. Sun 

 Temple was not constructed haphazard, nor was its form due to addi- 

 tion of one clan after another, each adding rooms to an existing nucleus. 

 There is no indication of patching one building to another, so evident 

 at Cliff Palace and other large cliff dwellings. The construction of 

 the recess of the south wall, situated exactly, to an inch, midway in 

 its length, shows it was planned from the beginning. 



We can hardly believe that one clan could have been numerous 

 enough to construct a house so large and massive: its walls are too 

 extensive; the work of dressing the stones too great. Those who 

 made it must have belonged to several clans fused together; and if 

 they united for this common work, they were in a higher state of socio- 

 logical development than the loosely connected population of a cliff 

 dwelling. 



