164 THE CLIFF RUINS OF CANYON DE CHELLY __[xm. axy.16 
OPENINGS 
The ruins in De Chelly are so much broken down that few examples 
of openings now remain; still fewer are yet intact; but there is no 
doubt that they are of the regular pueblo types. Most of the openings 
in the De Chelly ruins are rectangular, of medium size, neither very 
large nor very small, with unfinished jambs and sills, and with a lintel 
such as that shown in plate Ly111, composed of one or two series of 
light sticks, sometimes surmounted by a flat stone slab. This example 
occurs at the point marked 3 on the map, in what was formerly an 
extensive village. The wall on the left, now covered by loosely piled 
rocks, was pierced by a narrow notched doorway. The opening shown 
in the illustration, which is in the northern wall, is 2 feet high and 14 
inches wide; its sill is about 18 inches from the ground. The lintel is 
composed of six small sticks, about an inch in diameter, surmounted by 
a flat slab of stone, very roughly shaped, and separated from the sticks 
by 2 inches of mud mortar. a 
Plate Lvit shows an opening which occurs in ruin No, 16, The 
building consisted 
of two rooms, be- 
tween which there 
Was no communica- 
tion. The eastern 
room was entered by 
the doorway shown 
in the illustration, 
which is 2 feet above 
the ground and 2 
feet high. To facili- 
tate ingress a notch 
was dug in the wall 
about 8 inches from 
the ground. The western room was entered through a large doorway, 
shown in plate Lr. The sill is about 8 inches above'the ground; the 
opening is 3 feet high and 14 inches wide, The lintel is composed of 
small sticks, with a slab of stone above them, and the top of the opening 
and perhaps the sides were plastered. 
The notched or T-shape doorway, which is quite common in the 
Mesa Verde ruins and in Tusayan, is not abundant in De Chelly, but 
some examples can be seen there. One is shown in figure 67, which 
illustrates the type. There is no doubt that doorways of this kind 
developed at a time when-no means existed for closing the opening, 
except blankets or skins, and when loads were carried on the backs of 
men. It often happened that doorways originally constructed of this 
style were afterward changed by partial filling to square or rectangu- 
Jar openings. The principal doorway in the front wall of the White 
House proper was originally of T-shape; at some later period, but before 






Fie. 67—Notched doorway m Canyon de Chelly. 
