16 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 41 



Fireplaces 



There are many fireplaces in Spruce-tree House, in rooms, plazas, 

 and courts. From their number it is evident that most of the cook- 

 ing must have been done by the ancients in the courts and plazas, 

 rather than in the houses. The rooms are so small and so poorly 

 ventilated that it would not be possible for any one to remain in them 

 when fires are burning. 



The top of the cave in which Spruce-tree House is built is covered 

 with soot, showing that formerly there were many fires in the courts 

 and other open places of the village. In almost every corner of the 

 buildings in which a fire could be made the effect of smoke on the 

 adjoining walls is discernible, while ashes are found in a depression 

 in the floor. These fireplaces are very simple, consisting simply of 

 square box-like structures bounded by a few flat stones set on edge. 

 In other instances a depression in the floor bordered with a low ridge 

 of adobe served as a fireplace. There remains nothing to indicate 

 that the inhabitants were familiar with chimneys or firehoods as is 

 the case among the modern pueblos. Certain small rooms suggest 

 cook-houses, or places where pihi, or paper bread, was fried by the 

 women on slabs of stone over a fire, but none of these slabs were found 

 in place. The fireplaces of the kivas are considered specially in an 

 account of the structure of those rooms (see p. 18). 



No evidence that Spruce-tree House people burnt coal was observed, 

 although they were familiar with lignite and seams of coal underlie 

 their messa. 



Doors and Windows 



There are both doors and windows in the secular houses of Spruce- 

 tree House, although the two rarely exist together. The windows, 

 most of which are small square peep-holes or round orifices, look 

 obliquely downward, as if their purpose was rather for outlook than 

 for air, the latter being admitted as a rule through the doorway. 

 (Pis. 10, 11.) 



The two types of doorways differ more in shape than in any other 

 feature. These types may be called the rectangular and the T-shaped 

 form. Both are found at a high level, but it can not be discovered 

 how they could have been entered without ladders or notched logs. 

 Althougli these modes of entrance were apparently often used it is 

 remarkable that no traces of the logs have yet been found in the ex- 

 tensive excavations at Spruce-tree House. The T-shaped doorwa3^s 

 are often filled in at the lower or narrow part, sometimes with stones 

 rudely placed, oftentimes with good masonry, by which a T-shaped 

 door is converted into one of square type. Doorways of both types 

 are often completely filled in, leaving only their outlines on the sides 

 of the wall. 



