l60 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL, I47 



Rooms 225 and 175. At this junction, 41 inches below the floor of 

 Room 261, a 15-inch-wide foundation oflfset marks approximate 

 floor level of Rooms 265 and 267 as they were originally built (pi. 46, 

 upper). Apparent work surfaces 10 and 24 inches above that off- 

 set are suggested by trampled constructional debris that diminishes 

 in thickness in proportion to distance from the wall. That Late 

 Bonitian construction did not always keep pace with building plans 

 is again demonstrated in the east corner of 261 where a previously 

 completed ventilator was reduced to a width of 4 inches by the abut- 

 ting southeast wall. 



Rooms 265 and 267 are part of a 14-room block that forms a 

 conspicuous rectangle in the east half of the village. The studies we 

 made inside and outside that rectangular block suggest its 14 rooms 

 were originally constructed of second-type masonry but were subse- 

 quently and repeatedly changed. Floor level in Rooms 265 and 267, 

 as represented by their foundation offset, was 3^ feet lower than 

 that of Room 261. The indicated floor level of Rooms 247 and 252, 

 farther down the rectangle, was 5 feet 2 inches below that of Rooms 

 256 and 258, adjoining, and the original floor of much-altered Room 

 245, at the southeast corner of the 14-room block, may have been a 

 full 6 feet lower than that of 244, next on the east. 



Room 244 is a large room and the remains of earlier structures 

 lie underneath. Its Late Bonitian builders utilized walls already 

 standing on the south and west. Its east wall overlies the arc of 

 a well-preserved second- type kiva 10 feet deep. At time of excava- 

 tion I described the west- wall masonry of 244 as third-type although 

 obviously patched areas reflected the fourth-type technique of the 

 north and east sides. Plaster on these latter stops at floor level while 

 the original west-side plaster terminates with a floor at depth of 4 feet 

 9 inches, 26 inches below the sill of a former door, while the masonry 

 itself continues another 13 inches and there rests upon a wall rem- 

 nant built on a 2- foot-high foundation the outer 4 inches of which 

 is a veneer of mud and sandstone spalls. A floor associated with 

 this remnant lies at a depth of 6 feet 9 inches but we carried our 

 exploratory test 3 feet deeper without learning the significance of all 

 we encountered. 



Excavation of Room 239, on the opposite side of the wall, and 

 subfloor inquiries in neighboring rooms showed, in part at least, why 

 we found this section of Pueblo Bonito so perplexing. Evidence of 

 reconstruction and the Late Bonitian propensity for reusing stones 

 from razed walls was to be seen everywhere. We cleared 239 to what 



