94 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 82 



contained pieces of small bones while part of the top and side was 

 found in the pit. The only decorated pottery found on the floor were 

 a few black-on-white sherds but as no two belong to the same vessel 

 we assume they had weathered from the mortar of the walls. On 

 top of the fallen roof, however, black-on-white sherds and other 

 fragments of an unusual shade, somewhat between brown and orange, 

 with black decoration were found mixed with the rocks and sand. 

 Sherds from KT-II, in general, are the same types as those from 

 KT-I. 



DATING THE KIVAS 



When selecting Kin Tiel for excavation it was hoped that a good 

 selection of datable pine timbers would be recovered. The surround- 

 ing forests today consist almost wholly of pinon (Pinus cdulis) and 

 juniper (Junipcrus monospcnna) with here and there a lonely yellow 

 pine (Pinus pondcrosa). We may infer that comparable conditions 

 obtained during the occupancy of Kin Tiel for, in the two rooms we 

 cleared, only one pine timber was found and this, unfortunately, 

 proved too complacent for dating. We may rejoice, however, in the 

 fact that Doctor Douglass and Mr. Haury, concentrating upon the 

 most promising of the material in hand, finally succeeded in determin- 

 ing the cutting dates of 27 pihon beams used in the two kivas. 



Of this number, 13 were from KT-I and of these six were cut 

 between A. D. 1264 and 1270; one in 1274; four in 1275 ; and two in 

 1276. The collecting of building material usually requires some time, 

 at least among the Hopi, for never are beams plentiful in this region 

 even since the advent of the telephone pole. My personal observations 

 confirm this fact. We believe, therefore, that the building date of 

 KT-I is 1276 rather than 1275 A. D., the year of preparation ; that the 

 earlier dates evidence re-use of timbers. 



Of the 14 dated specimens from KT-II one was cut in 1266; one 

 in 1272; nine in 1275 (four of these are from the same tree) ; two 

 in 1276; and one in 1285. It is obvious from the grouping of these 

 dates that the accumulation period was during 1275, and that KT-II 

 was therefore probably constructed at about the same time as KT-I, 

 sometime during 1276 A. D. It is a significant fact that KT-I had no 

 timbers cut later than its supposed building date, which, in view of 

 the unexpected collapse of the walls, suggests that it was destroyed 

 soon after construction — probably when the summer rains saturated 

 the sand walls. In contrast, KT-II was in use for at least ten years 

 before its final abandonment, as is shown by the date 1285 which 



