FKWKES] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 17 



Floors and Roofs 



The floors of the rooms are all smoothly plastered and, although 

 purposely broken through in places by those in search of specimens, 

 are otherwise in fairly good condition. In one of the rooms at the 

 left of the main court is a small round hole at the bottom of a con- 

 cave depression like a fireplace, the use of which is not known. 

 Many of the floors sound hollow when struck, but this fact is not an 

 indication of the presence of cavities below. In tiers of rooms that 

 rise above the first story the roof of one room forms the floor of 

 the room above it. Wherever roofs still remain they are found to be 

 well-constructed (pi. 9) and to resemble those of the old Hopi houses. 

 In Spruce-tree House the roofs are supported by timbers laid from 

 one wall to another ; these in turn suj)port crossbeams on which were 

 placed laj^ers of cedar bark covered with a thick coating of mud. In 

 several roofs hatchways are still to be seen, but in most cases en- 

 trances are at the sides. One second-story room has a fireplace con- 

 structed like those on the ground floor or on the roof. Several fire- 

 places Avere found on the roofs of buildings one story high. 



The largest slabs of stone used in the construction of the rooms of 

 Spruce-tree House were generally made into lintels and thresholds. 

 The latter surfaces were often worn smooth b}^ those crawling through 

 the opening and in some cases they show grooves for the insertion of 

 the door slabs. Although the sides of the door are often upright slabs 

 of stone these ma}^ be replaced by boards set in adobe plaster. Simi- 

 lar sj)lit boards often form lintels. 



The door was apparently a flat stone set in an adobe casing on the 

 inside of the frame where it was held in position by a stick. Each 

 end of this stick was inserted into an eyelet made of bent osiers firmly 

 set in the wall. Many of these broken eyelets can still be seen in the 

 doorways and one or two are still entire. A slab of stone closing 

 one of the doorways is still in place. 



KIVAS 



There are eight circular subterranean rooms identified as ceremonial 

 rooms, or kit'cis, in Spruce-tree House (pis. 12, 13). Beginning 

 on the north these kivas are designated bj^ letters A-H. When exca- 

 vation began small depressions full of fallen stones, with here and 

 there a stone buttress projecting out of the debris, were the only 

 indications of the sites of these important chambers. The w^alls of 

 kiva H were the most dilapidated and the most obscured of all, the 

 central portion of the front wall of rooms 62 and 63 having fallen 

 into this chamber; added to the debris were the high walls of the 

 round room, no. 69. Kiva G is the best -preserved kiva and kiva A 

 the most exceptional in construction. Kiva B, never seen by previous 



