88 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 82 



wood, they are entirely unsuited for potting plants. And yet it 

 might be that, in prehistoric times, such floor holes served this dual 

 purpose ; that some tradition of that dual function has survived 

 until the present. 



The firepit, 3 feet i^ inches from the base of the platform, is in 

 line w^ith the ventilator and deflector, though not parallel to the latter. 

 Though the length of the sides is not consistent, averaging i foot 4^ 

 inches, the firepit approximates a square. It is 7 inches deep and 

 lined with clay-coated slabs of sandstone, but no evidence of the 

 corners being rounded with clay was found. The top of the pit 

 is flush with the floor of the room. 



Seventeen inches from the firepit, and between it and the ven- 

 tilator, was a deflector — a sandstone slab with rounded top and 

 corners. The deflector is i-| inches thick, 2 feet 2 inches wide and 

 2 feet I inch high. It was set several inches deep into the floor and 

 so firmly that it was broken off just above the floor by the falling- 

 roof. Though cleanly broken when found, it was still in an upright 

 position supported by fallen debris. The narrow space between 

 the deflector and platform was the only part of the kiva floor not 

 paved with flagstones. Beneath the clay-surfaced area loose earth 

 and rocks were found. 



At the south end of the kiva, 19 inches from the deflector, was 

 the platform (pi. 21, fig. i) which was 2 feet 6^ inches high and 4 feet 

 wide. The vertical face of this platform as well as the natural walls of 

 KT-I were coated with plaster. Upon this plaster was a coat of white- 

 wash. As is usual in kivas of this type, fresh air was drawn in through 

 a vertical shaft outside the walls of the chamber, through a passage- 

 way beneath the platform and thence by means of an opening in the 

 middle front. In KT-I, this opening measured 12 inches wide by 

 22 inches high ; its lintel consisted of two superposed sandstone slabs, 

 6 or 7 inches wide and separated by adobe mortar, making a total 

 thickness of 6 inches. The total length of the passageway from the 

 entrance in the face of the platform to the back of the air shaft was 

 5 feet 6| inches. The passageway, or ventilator duct, was roofed with 

 small sticks covered by a 4|-inch layer of adobe mortar as a support 

 . for the flagstones of the platform. Most of these sticks had decayed 

 but their imprints remained where the passageway had not collapsed 

 under the weight of the falling roof. Like the sides of the ventilator 

 opening, the duct walls were of undisturbed earth, heavily plastered 

 with clay. At a point 2 feet 5 inches from the entrance was a plas- 

 tered step I foot high. This level continued back to the base of the 

 shaft where the width narrowed to 1 1 inches. Between the step and 

 the shaft the height of the passageway remained 10 inches. 



