NO. II PUEBLO RUINS IN ARIZONA HAURY AND HARGRAVE 87 



The floor of KT-I, and that of the platform as well, is of smoothly 

 worn irregular sandstone slabs averaging i inch in thickness and about 

 2^ by 3 feet square. In the stone floor, 2 feet 9 inches from the east 

 wall, are five holes in line. They average approximately 2f inches 

 in diameter and 19 inches from center to center. On the opposite 

 side of the kiva is a row of six similar holes, slightly closer together, 

 this second series being 14 inches from the base of the platform, 

 whereas the first hole in the other row lies 2 feet 10 inches from the 

 platform. Of six other holes, five lie in the main part of the floor; 

 one, in that of the platform. Since these latter six were either plugged 

 with clay or a sandstone stopper, it is believed that they had been 

 abandoned and superseded by the two series above described. It is 

 also a possibility that the slabs in which they occur may have been 

 salvaged from other rooms and re-used. 



A possible explanation of this belief may be the clay-plugged 

 hole which lies 4 feet 6 inches from the north wall and 3 feet 3 inches 

 from the east. The position of this hole, primarily, prompts a sugges- 

 tion that it might be a sipapu, but it is not in line with the firepit, 

 deflector, and ventilator, and it is too far removed from the firepit 

 which, itself, is not carefully oriented (fig. 24). A careful exami- 

 nation of the earth beneath this hole revealed only undisturbed soil ; 

 not the clay-lined cylinder anticipated. 



From our observations it would appear that only the two series 

 of five and six holes, respectively, were in use at the time Kiva KT-I 

 was abandoned. As to their functions, two theories have been ad- 

 vanced. The first is that such holes were used to anchor the lower 

 end of a loom, a theory to which the writer subscribes. It is well- 

 known that Hopi men have long woven blankets in their kivas. 



The second and quite improbable explanation is advanced by a 

 Hopi who admitted that while such holes are often used in fastening 

 the looms to the floor their real purpose is ceremonial. According to 

 our informant, holes such as those under discussion were designed 

 to hold freshly grown plants. The writer has not observed flag- 

 stone floors in modern Hopi kivas nor has he seen this arrangement 

 of round holes. In Hopi ceremonial chambers a square log or j^lank 

 with a series of small rectangular holes is buried in the floor on 

 cither side.' These rectangular holes are definitely made for weaving. 

 They may lie not only in the floor proper, but at either side of the 

 platform, and even at the ends of the kiva, and cut as they are in 



' Mindeleff, Victor, A study of Pueblo architecture, Tusayan and Cibola. 

 8th Ann. Rep., Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 1886-7, p. 132. 



