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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



easily have housed the same number of 

 people. Its main building is 359 feet 

 in length, the east and west wings re- 

 spectively 282 and 281 feet, but the 

 actual space occupied by the village 

 is somewliat larger, owing to tlic out- 

 curving wall which encloses the court. 

 Each of the building wings is from 

 four to six rooms wide, and was three, 

 and in some places possiMy foiir, stories 

 high. The walls, which are a little over 

 three feet thick in tlie lower story, still 

 rise to a height of twenty-seven feet. 

 The secular rooms, which are always 

 rectangular, vary somewhat in size, the 

 smaller ones measured being only a 

 trifle over nine feet square and the 

 largest as much as twelve and one half 

 by twenty-three and one half feet. The 

 height of some of these rooms from 

 floor to ceiling ranges from nine to 

 eleven feet. The doors average a little 

 over two by four feet and usually re- 

 quire one to stoop for passage. The 

 windows or ventilating apertures that 

 open out through the rear wall are all 

 in the neighborhood of one foot square. 

 Of ceremonial rooms, which are 

 circular in outline and more or less sub- 

 terranean, there may be as many as 

 thirteen in the pueblo. The greater 

 number are incorporated in the build- 

 ings proper, but three at least are situ- 

 ated out in the open court. These 

 "kivas," as they are called, diifer 

 greatly in size, the largest being ap- 

 parently all of sixty feet in diameter 

 while the smallest so far excavated is 

 only about twelve feet. ' They also vary 

 somewhat in details of construction. 



The amoimt of labor involved in 

 erecting such a village seems enormous 

 when we consider that these people pos- 

 sessed no burden-bearing animals and 

 no tools except such as were made of 

 stone, bone, and wood. We are still 

 more impressed on finding that in this 



particular instance the building stone 

 used was quarried in the hills some four 

 or five miles away. Likewise the great 

 timbers employed, some of them meas- 

 uring twelve inches or more in diame- 

 ter, were felled on the mountain-sides, 

 ])robably far up the valley, and trans- 

 ported at least in part by sheer human 

 strength. The proverbially "lazy" 

 Indian would seem to be a myth. And 

 yet the Indian performed his task, we 

 l)clieve, as a free man, and not as the 

 slave of royal taskmasters as in the 

 case of those who built cities and 

 monuments in Egypt and ^Mesopotamia. 

 How much of an enterprise it really 

 was to erect such a fortified town, it 

 wdidd be im])ossil)le to convey to the 

 reader at this time. The fact would 

 hai'dly be appreciated even 1)y a visit to 

 the site. But in the course of the four 

 or five years of future work planned for 

 the complete excavation and reparation 

 of the ruin, we may expect that the 

 enormity of the enterprise will become 

 tolerably clear. 



When we reached the Aztec ruin in 

 the latter part of July, we found what 

 appeared to be an immense heap of 

 debris, almost entirely covered with a 

 heavy growth of "chico'' brush. By 

 early September, the place looked very 

 different. The brush had been cut and 

 burnt, so that the ruin itself stood out 

 in full view. The walls that rose above 

 the general level of fallen masonry had 

 been repaired, and from thirty to forty 

 rooms, mostly in the east wing, had 

 been cleared. It was merely a begin- 

 ning, however — an experimentation, as 

 it were — in ways and means. During 

 the coming season we may hope for con- 

 siderable progress. The task set is one 

 calling not only for infinite patience 

 with regard to scientific details but also 

 for practical tact in dealing with men 

 (even the visiting public is a problem), 



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