﻿NO. 5 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I922 ICQ 



The main object in excavating Far View Tower was to discover the 

 use of these buildings, many of which occur on the Mesa Verde and 

 still more in the canyons and tablelands west of the park. These 

 structures are commonly supposed to have been used to detect enemies 

 approaching the settlements. This was one of their functions; they 

 were undoubtedly constructed to enable the (jl)server to see or signal 

 a long distance. Nordenskiold suggested that L'edar Tree Tower had 

 a religious character, which appears feasible. it is believed that 

 one of their uses, perhaps the main one, was to observe the position of 

 the sun on the horizon and thus to determine the seasons of the year 

 by noting the corresponding points of sunrise and sunset. The sun 

 priests of the early cliff dwelling determined the time of planting and 

 other necessary calendar data for the agriculturists in the same way 

 as the Hopi who use the following method: The line of the horizon 

 silhouetted against the sky l)etween the rising of the sun at the sum- 

 mer and winter solstices is divided into a number of parts each corre- 

 sponding to a ceremony or other important event.^ The point of sun- 

 set at the winter solstice is likewise used for the .same ]nir])ose. Having 

 determined in this way that the time for jilanting has come, the sun 

 priest informs the speaker chief who makes the announcement stand- 

 ing on the highest roof of the pueblo. These towers were not only 

 lookouts from which by horizontal sun ol)servations the seasons were 

 determined, but likewise sun houses or chambers where certain sun 

 rites were performed. There is a room dedicated to sun ceremonies 

 connected with the (ireat Serpent worshi]) among the modern Hopi; 

 and it is instructive to note that incised spiral designs representing the 

 great snake frequentlv occur on stones of which towers are built. 

 These towers mav be square, circular, or D-shapcd in form ; may have 

 one or many chambers ; and mav be accompanied with kivas or desti- 

 tute of the same. Commonly the rising or the setting sun illuminates 

 their summits. Sun Temple, on the Mesa Verde, may be regarded 

 as a complicated tc^wer with many chamliers Ixit in function practi- 

 cally the same as that of a simple one-chamber tower. The complex 

 of rooms at Far View Tower should be looked upon as an architectural 

 unit, composed of a tower, probal)ly when in use as high as the tops 

 of the neighboring cedars ; three subterranean ceremonial rooms, cir- 

 cular in form and similar to cliff-house kivas ; and a cemetery situated 

 on the south. The rooms for habitation surrounding the tower do 



^ Tt would be ver}- instructive in thi.s connection to determine by excavation 

 whether the two towers known as Kiikiichomo, on the East Mesa of the Hopi, 

 were used for the same purpose as those at ]\Iesa Verde. 



