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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



ancient small ruins which surround the 

 pueblo on all sides, at first one would 

 be inclined to correlate these walls with 

 an older structure which underlies the 

 southeast corner of the pueblo, but in- 

 asmuch as they form a definite and 

 integral part of the great ruin, it seems 

 more justifiable to suppose that they 

 represent temporary buildings, hastily 

 erected to complete the predetermined 

 outline of the fortress-pueblo and 

 poorly constructed because they were in- 

 tended to be torn down to make way for 

 the more permanent, compact, many- 

 storied buildings which the demands of 

 a growing population necessitated. 



Adjoining these tumbled-down walls 

 on the north there is a series of rooms, 

 numbers 16-36 inclusive, whose ma- 

 sonry, although much superior to that 

 described above, is markedly inferior to 

 the masonry of the main ruin. This 

 inferiority is due, however, not to a 

 lack of skill on the part of the masons, 

 but to the choice of building material. 

 The walls were erected of iron concre- 

 tions which weather out of the clay 

 strata of neighboring hills. Intensely 

 hard, and irregular in shape, they could 

 not be faced with primitive tools, and 

 walls built of them were of necessity 

 rough and unlovely to the eye. On the 



A kiva with r.-i on^tructi'd roof. — The entrance is through a hatchway in the center of the roof 

 (see view above ground on page 602). The excellent architectural principle involved in the construc- 

 tion of this type of covering for a circular chamber is one of the highest tributes to the mechanical 

 skill of the ancient Pueblos. Pillars of masonry support the roof, which is a cribbing of timbers in 

 the form of a truncated cone. With its flat top and sloping sides, this sort of roof has the strength 

 and permanence of a dome, and the neatly dressed timbers placed in regular rows impart beauty and 

 dignity to the chamber which they enclose 



