40 BUREAU OF AMEKICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULr,. 51 



have been placed in the burning phices after the heat had subsided. 

 for beautiful jars showing no action of fire were found in some of 

 these inclosures. The existence of cremation among the cliff-dwellers 

 is offered as an explanation of the great scarcity of skeletons in their 

 neighborhood. Wlien it is remembered that Cliff Palace must have 

 had a population of several hundred, judging from the number of 

 the buildings, and was inhabited for several generations, it other- 

 wise would be strange that so few skeletons were found. It would 

 appear that the chiefs or the priestly class were buried either in the 

 ground or in the floors of the rooms, which were afterward sealed, 

 whereas the bodies of the poorer class, or tlie people generally, Avere 

 cremated. The fonner existence of Pueblo peoples who buried their 

 dead in the region between the Gila valley and Mesa Verde where 

 the dead were cremated is a significant fact, but further observations 

 are necessary before it can be interpreted. It may be that in ancient 

 times all the sedentary tribes practiced cremation, and that the region 

 in question was settled after this custom had been abandoned. 



Ledge Rooms 



In a shallow crevice in the roof of the cave on a higher level 

 than the roofs of the tallest houses there is a long wall, the front 

 of inclosures that may be called " ledge rooms." " Some of these 

 rooms have plastered walls, others are roughly laid; the latter form 

 one side of a court and served to shield those passing from one room 

 to another. On this outer wall, about midway, there is painted in 

 white an inverted terrace figure, Avhich may represent a rain cloud. 

 Attention should be called to the resemblance in form and position 

 of this figure to that on an outside wall overlooking plaza C of 

 Spruce-tree House. This series of ledge rooms was probably entered 

 from the roof of a building in front, and the opening or doorway 

 above room (Ui served as such an entrance, according to several stock- 

 men who visited Cliff Palace in earlier days. 



ENUMERATION OF THE ROOMS IN CLIFF PALACE 



Secui^r Rooms 



The rooms in Cliff Palace, now numbered from 1 to 04, include all 

 tliose on the ground floor, but do not embrace the second, third, and 

 fourth stories nor the elevated ledge rooms secluded in the crevices 

 of the cave roof at a high level. Their classification by function 



" This type of biiildins is liclievod to be the oldest in those sections of the Southwest 

 where cllfl' liabitatious occur. 



