fewkes] PREHISTORIC VILLAGES, CASTLES, AND TOWERS 43 



by cliffs. Isolated towers are often too small lor defense; and they 

 show no signs of habitation. 



Are they granaries for storage of corn or places for rites and cere- 

 monies? Do they combine several functions — observation, defense, 

 and storage of food? Thus far in studies of more than 30 towers 

 and great houses not one has been found so well preserved that 

 enough remains to determine its use, and yet their Avails are among 

 the best in all southwestern ruins. Some future archeologist may 

 find objects in towers that will demonstrate their function, but 

 from our present knowledge no theory of their use yet suggested is 

 satisfactory. 



It is impossible from the data available to determine the century 

 in which the towers and great houses of the region were constructed. 

 Thus far a few were seen with great trees growing in them, but none 

 with roofs; the state of preservation of the walls does not point to a 

 great age. Several writers have regarded them as occupied subse- 

 quently to the Spanish conquest, while others have ascribed to them 

 a very remote antiquity. It can hardly be questioned that the cliff- 

 dwellers, and by inference their kindred, the tower builders, were 

 superior in their arts to modern Pueblos. 



It is important to determine first of all the forms of these towers; 

 whether their ground plans are circular, oval, square, rectangular, or 

 semicircular. The northern wall of many is uniformly curved and 

 the last to fall, which might lead to the belief that the southern side, 

 generally straight, was poorly made, but one can not determine that 

 by direct observation, since the latter has fallen. As a matter of fact 

 the south wall was generally low and straight, over 50 per cent of 

 the "round" towers being semicircular, D-shaped, or some modifica- 

 tion of that form ; but we also have square and rectangular towers. It 

 is also important to determine whether these had single or multiple 

 chambers and the arrangement of the rooms in relation to them. 

 This is especiall3 r desirable in towers with concentric compartments. 



It is also instructive to know more of the association of towers 

 with pueblos and cliff-dwellings or to analyze component archi- 

 tectural features. The tower type often occurs without appended 

 rooms. At Cliff Palace and Square Tower House it is united with a 

 pueblo village under cliffs; hi Mud Spring Ruin it has a like relation 

 to rooms of a pueblo in the open. Has its function changed by that 

 union? What use did the tower serve when isolated and had it 

 the same use when united with other kinds of rooms in cliff-dwellings 

 and pueblos ? 



No writer on the prehistoric towers of Colorado and Utah has 

 emphasized the fact that a large number of these buildings are 

 semicircular or D-shaped, but it has been taken for granted that the 

 fallen wall on the south side was curved, rendering the tower circular 



