HOVENWEEP NATIONAL MONUMENT FEWKES 467 



THE HOVENWEEP NATIONAL MONUMENT 1 



On March 2, 1923, the late President Harding issued a proclama- 

 tion creating a new monument in southwestern Colorado and south- 

 eastern Utah. Like several others, this reserve was created for the 

 preservation of its antiquities which, although having the same 

 general character as those of the adjacent Mesa Verde National 

 Park, are somewhat different. The special kind of ruins character- 

 istic of the Hovenweep monument are well preserved towers, similar 

 to those which are found in the Mesa Verde National Park, and are 

 most abundant and varied in the country west of that plateau far 

 into Utah. Archeologically speaking this monument supplements 

 the Mesa Verde National Park and the structure of its towers and 

 other buildings explains some of the enigmas of ruins in the park. 

 As this new reservation was created to preserve its numerous towers, 

 a brief notice of a few buildings of the same type would be a fitting 

 introduction to those of the new national monument. Fortunately 

 the author's field work during the summer of 1922 renders it possible 

 to interpret some of the architectural features of the new monu- 

 ment. 



There are several towers on the Mesa Verde that are like those of 

 the new monument, showing that the prehistoric people of the 

 Hovenweep resembled those of the Mesa Verde. 



Three types of prehistoric towers are found in our Southwest: 

 (1) Square, circular, or semicircular towers without surrounding 

 rooms; (2) towers accompanied with basal subterranean ceremonial 

 rooms or kivas; (3) towers rising from pueblos or cliff dwellings. 

 The first type of tower is generally mounted on top of a pinnacle of 

 rock or on the rim of a canyon. The second type is situated on level 

 ground or earth that allows excavation of basal kivas, and the third 

 ' rises from a pueblo or cliff house in which there are both kivas and 

 living rooms. The relatively greater abundance of the second type, 

 or a tower with a basal ceremonial room and no dwellings, would 

 seem to indicate that the tower was connected with ceremonies, and 

 if this be true it also seems likely that when associated with a num- 

 ber of rooms, as in a large ruin like Cliff Palace, it preserved the 

 same character. 



Several theories have been suggested to explain the function of 

 southwestern towers. They have been regarded as observatories, 

 forts, bins for the storage of grain, especially corn, and as in- 

 closures for the performance of religious rites. There are indi- 



1 Reprinted by permission from the American Anthropologist, Vol. 25, No. 2, April-June, 

 1923. 



