124 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I47 



on the surface, and destroyed those buildings to replace them with 

 Others. And each time they razed and rebuilt they salvaged suitable 

 stones and timbers for reuse in their next architectural adventure. 



Back of Pueblo Bonito, at the vjrest end of the Braced-up Cliff 

 and built against a flat area of the canyon wall, is a one-room dwell- 

 ing and an associated kiva. The two were partly concealed by frag- 

 ments of a former rock-fall and filled with blown sand and fallen 

 masonry. To judge from their stonework — blocks of dressed friable 

 sandstone with sparse chinking — both structures are of Late Bonitian 

 origin and perhaps early. If others are present they were not immedi- 

 ately visible. By reverting to the past tense I emphasize the fact that 

 our observations were made in 1927; that the little room and its 

 kiva may not have survived collapse of the Braced-up Cliff in 1941. 



In 1927 the kiva measured 13 feet 7 inches in diameter and its 

 highest wall, at the north, stood 4 feet 5 inches above floor level. A 

 surrounding bench, flag-paved on top and adobe surfaced, averaged 

 17 inches wide by 34 inches high. There were no pilasters; above 

 and below bench level the walls were smoothly plastered. A south 

 bench recess, 4 feet 9 inches wide and 13^ inches deep, rose above a 

 subfloor ventilator duct that ended, 3^ feet from the rear wall, in a 

 10 by 13-inch vent. The duct, masonry-lined and flag-paved, was 

 13 inches wide by 19 inches deep and had been roofed ceiling-wise. 

 Fifteen inches beyond the opening was a plastered but unrimmed 

 fireplace 21 inches in diameter and 6 inches deep. 



Three feet 9 inches northeast from the concave face of the kiva 

 and also abutting the cliff was the one-room dwelling. It measured 

 11;^ feet on the east, 14 on the west, 9 feet 10 inches on the south, 

 and 10^ feet on the north. Here, at the north, eight seatings for 

 roof poles had been pecked into the sandstone 7 feet above the floor. 

 A large rock incorporated in the east side had been utilized for whet- 

 ting bone awls and like tools. About 2 feet from the northeast corner 3 

 human foot prints, pecked into the sandstone and averaging 6 inches 

 wide by 10 inches long, marched single file up the cliff face. The 

 lowermost of the three was half concealed by the adobe floor and its 

 underlying debris but of greater interest was the fact that each of 

 the three was represented with six toes (pi. 81, lower). A smaller, 

 5-toed print, the only normal one in the lot, likewise had been partly 

 buried. These 4 carvings and a zigzag figure incised on the middle 

 north wall apparently illustrate the full range of our unknown artist's 

 ability. 



Pecked beam seatings grouped at intervals along the canyon wall 

 east of Pueblo Bonito unquestionably mark the positions of other 

 former 1- and 2-room houses. 



