50 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 51 



bly the}' did, and there may have been a slight elevation of the 

 hatchway, as in the Hopi kivas. It is commonly believed that the 

 kiva roof was level with the surrounding- plaza and that the entrance 

 was through a hatchway, but no depression or other sign of a ladder 

 or of its resting place on the kiva floor has yet been found in any of 

 the Mesa Verde ruins. 



The floors of the kivas are commonly of hardened adobe; unlike 

 those of the Hopi kivas they are never paved with stones, but the 

 mitural rock often serves for that purpose. It is not rare to find the 

 surface of solid rock that forms the kiva floor cut down a few feet 

 to a lower level. Although generally smooth, when the floor is the 

 natural rock there are sometimes found in it small, cu23-like,-artificial 

 depressions similar to those in the horizontal surfaces of the cliff or 

 in slabs of detached rock. 



The fire-pit, which is found in all kivas of the first type,<^ is a cir- 

 cular depression situated slightly to one side of the middle of the 

 room. "VVliile generally lined with adobe, slabs of stone sometimes 

 form its border, and it is also to be noted that one or two of these 

 small stones sometimes project above the floor level. The fire-hole 

 is sometimes deep, and is generally filled with wood ashes, indicating 

 long use. 



Ever}^ kiva of the first type has a lateral passageway for the ad- 

 mission of air, opening into the chamber on the floor level, generally . 

 under the large banquette. This passage, or tunnel, here designated 

 a flue, communicates either directly with the outside or turns upward 

 at a right angle and forms a small vertical ventilator which opens at 

 the level of the plaza. Between the entrance into the flue from the 

 kiva and the fire-hole there rises from the floor a device called the de- 

 flector (sometimes called an altar), the object of which was to pre- 

 vent -flames and smoke being drawn into the ventilator, or to evenly 

 circulate the inflowing fresh air in the chamber. This deflector may 

 be (1) a low stone wall, free on both ends; (2) a curved wall con- 

 nected with the kiva wall on each side with orifices to allow the pas- 

 sage of air; (3) a stone slab in the kiva floor; (4) a bank, free at each 

 end, supi^orted by upright stakes between which are woven twigs, the 

 whole being plastered with cinj.^ 



The supposed functions of the flue, the vertical passage, and the 

 ventilator have been discussed by several archeologists. The uses to 

 which the flue has been ascribed are as follows: (1) a chimney, (2)' a 



" The fire in these rooms was more for light than for heat, for when roofed a large fire 

 would navo produced so much smoke and heat that the occupants would be driven out. 

 The character of the ashes indicates that logs were not used as firewood, but that the 

 proscribed kiva fuel was, as at Walpi, small twigs or brush. No evidence of lamps has 

 been found in cliff-dwellings, the lamp-shaped pottery objects having boon used for pur- 

 poses otiier than illumination. 



" Cosmos Mindeleff quotes from Nordenskiold a description of a Mesa Verde kiva, the 

 deflector of which was made in the same waj". 



