8 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 41 



terranean rooms called l-ivas, which are sunken below the surround- 

 ing level places, or plazas, the roofs of these kivas having been for- 

 merly level with the plazas. 



The front boundary of these plazas is a wall » which wdien the exca- 

 vations were begun was buried under debris of fallen walls, but 

 which formerly stood several feet above the level of the plazas. 



Major Antiquities 



Under this term are included those immovable prehistoric remains 

 which, taken together, constitute a cliff-dwelling. The architectural 

 features — walls of rooms and structures connected with them, as 

 beams, balconies, fireplaces — are embraced in the term " major an- 

 tiquities." None of these can be removed from their sites without 

 harm, so they must be protected in the place where they now stand. 



In a valuable article on the ruins in valley of the San Juan and its 

 tributaries, Dr. T. Mitchell Prudden ^ recognizes in this region what 

 he designates a " unit tjqDc;'' that is, a ruin consisting of a kiva backed 

 by a row of rooms generally situated on its north side, with lateral 

 extensions east and west, and a burial place on the opposite, or south, 

 side of the kiva. This form of '"' unit type," as he points out, is more 

 apparent in ruins situated in an open country than in those built in 

 cliffs. The same form may be recognized in Spruce-tree House, which 

 is composed of several " unit types " arranged side by side. The 

 simplicity of these " unit types " is somewhat modified, however, in 

 this as in all cliff-dwellings, b}^ the form of the site. The author 

 would amend Prudden's definition of the " unit type " as applied to 

 cliff-houses by adding to the latter's description a bounding wall con- 

 necting the two lateral extensions of the row of rooms, thus forming 

 the south side of the enclosure of the kiva. For obvious reasons, in 

 this amended description the burial place is absent, as it does not 

 occur in the position assigned to it in the original description. 



PLAZAS AND COURTS 



As before stated, the buildings of Spruce-tree House are divided 

 into a northern and a southern section by a street which penetrates 

 from plaza G to the rear of the cave. (PI. 1.) The northern section 

 is not only the larger, but there is evidence that it is also the older. 

 It is bounded by some of the best-constructed buildings, situated 

 along the north side of the street. The rooms of the southern section 

 are less numerous, although in some respects more instructive. 



" See American Anthropologist, n. s., v. no. 2, 224-288, 1903. 



« See n. R. No. 3703, 58th Cong., 3d sess.. 1905— The Ruined Cliff Dwellings in Ruin 

 and Navajo Canyons, in the Mesa Verde, Colorado, by Coert Dubois, 



