306 



CLIFF-DWELLINGS 



[b. a. e. 



settling ill the valleys along the running 

 streams, in many cases naturally oecu- 

 pied the ready-made shelters for resi- 

 dence, storage, and burial, and for hiding 

 and defense in time of danger. This 



CASA BLANCA RUINS IN CANYON DE CHELLY, ARIZONA 



occupancy led in time to the building of 

 marginal walls for protection and houses 

 within for dwelling, to the enlargement 

 of the rooms by excavation when the 

 formations permitted, and, probably later 

 on, to the excavation of commodious 

 dwellings, such as are now found in 

 many sections of the arid region. Arche- 

 ologists thus find it convenient to dis- 

 tinguish two general classes of cliff-dwell- 

 ings, the cliff-house proper, constructed 

 of masonry, and the cavate house, exca- 

 vated in the cliffs. 



It is commonly believed that the agri- 

 cultural tribes of pre-Spanish times, who 

 built large towns and developed an ex- 

 tensive irrigation system, resorted to the 

 cliffs, not from choice, but because of the 

 encroachment of warlike tribes, who were 

 probably nonagricultural, having no well 

 established jilace of abode. This must be 

 true to some extent, for no j^eople, unless 

 urged by dire necessity, would resort to 

 fastnesses in remote canyon walls or to 

 the margins of barren and almost inac- 

 cessible plateaus and there establish their 

 dwellings at enormous cost of time and 

 labor; and it is equally certain that a peo- 

 ple once forced to these retreats would, 

 when the stress was removed, descend to 

 the lowlands to reestablish their houses 

 where water is convenient and in the 

 immediate vicinity of arable lands. Al- 

 though these motives of hiding and de- 



fense should not be overlooked, it appears 

 that many of the cliff sites were near 

 streams and fields, and were occupied be- 

 cause they afforded shelter and were nat- 

 ural dwelling places. It is important to 

 note also that many of the cliff-houses, 

 both built and excavated, are mere stor- 

 age places for corn and other property, 

 while many others are outlooks from 

 which the lields below could be watched 

 and the approach of strangers observed. 

 In some districts evidence of post-Spanish 

 occupancy of some sites exists — walls of 

 houses are built on deposits accumulated 

 since sheep were introduced, and adobe 

 l)ricks, which were not used in prehistoric 

 times, appear in some cases. A well au- 

 thenticated tradition exists among the 

 llopi that, about the middle of the 18th 

 century a group of their clans, the Asa 

 people, deserted their village on account 

 of an epidemic and removed to the Can- 

 yon de Chelly, where they occupied the 

 cliff-shelters for a considerable period, 

 intermarrjdng with the Navaho. 



The area in which the cliff-dwellings 

 occur is practically coextensive with that 

 in which are now found traces of town 

 ))uilding and i-elics attributable to the 

 Pueblo tribes. The most noteworthy of 

 these groups of built dwellings are found 

 in the canyons of the Mesa Vercle in 

 Colorado, in Ilovenweep, McElmo, and 



SQUARE TOWER IN CLIFF RUIN GROUP, McELMO CREEK, 

 COLORADO 



INIontezuma canyons in Colorado and 

 Utah, in Canyon de Chelly and its 

 branches in n. e. Arizona, and, of the 

 cavate variety, in the cliffs of the Jemez 

 plateau facing the Rio Grande in New 



