88 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 65 
lay entirely below ground, backed up against the cliff wall, and was 
not visible before excavation, the top of its wall having been hidden 
under the stratum of sheep dung. It was filled with cave slough 
and blown sand, and held no débris beyond half a dozen corrugated 
and red-and-yellow sherds, and a few building stones that had fallen 
from the upper part of the walls. In shape it is roughly square with 
well-rounded corners, and its diameter of 7 feet 6 inches makes it the 
smallest kiva yet recorded (fig. 14). Although the upper parts of 
the walls had fallen, the floor was excellently preserved. The body 
of the room and the horizontal passage of the ventilator proved to 
have been dug out of the solid, undisturbed hardpan at the base of 
the cliff and simply coated with adobe. The upper wall above the 
hardpan was of masonry to retain the 
looser top soil. Over the walls were 
many thin coats of plaster, each one 
heavily smoked. 
Of the typical kiva features there 
were present in this example the venti- 
lator, fire pit, and sipapu. There is no 
banquette, nor are there any cubby-holes. 
The ventilator enters at the floor level 
through an opening 1 foot 5 inches high 
by 2 feet wide. The horizontal passage, 
7 whose bottom and sides 
are cut from the hardpan 
and merely coated with 
adobe, is roofed with a 
series of small oak (7?) 
rods, above which are flat 
slabs of sandstone. Its 
total length is 2 feet 10 
inches. As the ascending 
shaft runs through the 
soft upper earth it is inclosed in masonry. At its present top it is 
8 inches square. It will be noticed in the plan that the ventilator 
opens into the kiva near the southwest corner. A more usual position 
for it would have been in the middle of the south side. The fire pit 
and sipapu are also arranged in an unusual way. In normal kivas on 
both the north and the south side of the San Juan a line drawn at 
right angles out from the center of the ventilator shaft passes first 
through the center of the fire pit and then through the sipapu. Here, 
however, the fire pit, instead of occupying its customary position 
directly in front of the ventilator, is placed well to the eastern side 
of it. The conventional requirement that ventilator, fire pit, and 
sipapu shall be in alignment is, however, fulfilled by placing the lat- 
Ire. 14.—Plan and section of kiva, Ruin 4. 
