MESA VEEDE PUEBLO FEWKES. 469 



lar rooms have not been excavated to their floors. The majority of 

 these are arranged in two tiers on the north and west sides. They 

 are two-storied; the floor beams of the second story, which are 

 rafters of the first, were found and left in place. The row of rooms 

 north of kiva A likewise show evidences of the existence of a third 

 story, so that it may be said there were about 50 secular rooms in 

 the building. 



All the secular rooms on the west side were completely excavated, 

 and earth was removed from all kivas. The court or dance plaza is 

 situated south of the main structure and is inclosed by a low wall 

 measuring 110 feet on the south side, 37^ feet on the east and 34 feet 

 on the west side. 



The peculiarity of this pueblo consists of a large central circular 

 kiva, around which are grouped secular rooms, to which are added 

 smaller circular kivas. This central room recalls a tower, but, unlike 

 some of the towers, this and the smaller kivas have pilasters attached 

 to the walls for support of a vaulted roof. The great size of the 

 central kiva suggests that the room was not limited to one clan: it 

 points rather to a fusion of clans forming so intimate a union of 

 several families that the room may no longer be considered as limited 

 to men of one clan, but the meeting place of a fraternity of priests, 

 drawn from several clans. The formation of such a fraternity is 

 an advance, sociologically speaking, upon what we find indicated by 

 the small clan kivas of cliff dwellings and implies more recent 

 construction. 



The regularity of the secular rooms, as shown in plate 5, strikes 

 the observer at first sight. The partitions separating these rooms 

 lun north-south and east- west and are continuous through the 

 pueblo. No such regularity is found in cliff dwellings, although it 

 is a marked feature of pueblo ruins along the Chaco and elsewhere. 

 Inhabited pueblos as Zuiii, Walpi, and others show this character 

 only to a limited extent. 



The rooms of this pueblo are consolidated into a rectangular form 

 with straight walls broken on the south. The building is oriented 

 approximately to the cardinal points, and terraced to secure sunny 

 exposure on the south side. The method adopted by the Mesa 

 Verde people in orienting their buildings, as Sun Temple, seems 

 to have been followed at this pueblo, and reveals a knowledge of 

 solstitial sun rising which is instructive. The sun priests of the pueb- 

 los had, of course, no compass and probably the polar north was un- 

 known to them. Their north, west, south, and east, as with the Hopi, 

 are not the same as ours and the line of the south wall of Sun 

 Temple was determined by the position of the sun. It was not made 

 haphazard, but was carefully thought out and determined by astro- 

 nomical observation before the foundation was laid down. At the 

 73839'— sji 1916 31 



