202 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I47 



Vivian (1960, pp. 67-70) doubts the presence of shale under the four 

 local columns because he saw none and he states that the southeast 

 pillar (identified by his figure 31) had been rebuilt since excavation 

 to provide a circular timber socket. The Pueblo Bonito Expeditions 

 began and concluded their study of Kiva A as part of the 1921 

 program and the reported pillar alteration could only have been ac- 

 complished some time later. The southeast pillar, like that at the 

 southwest, had been braced by crossed poles and those still present, 

 however decayed, were left as we found them (pi. 74, upper). 



Shale, occurring with low-grade subbituminous coal that sometimes 

 approaches lignite in quality, is a product of the Menefee formation 

 which underlies Chaco Canyon's Cliff House sandstone (Bryan, 1954, 

 p. 4 ; Shaler, 1907) . It was lavishly employed at Pueblo Bonito both 

 as a wall packing about pilasters and elsewhere and as an under-floor 

 spread but was never, to my knowledge, used as a fuel in the manner 

 of the prehistoric Hopi (Colton, 1936; Hack, 1942). 



Sunken, masonry-lined vaults of unknown purpose abutted the 

 north side of the two southern pillars. That adjoining the southwest 

 column although reduced to an average height of 12 inches on the 

 east side and 22 on the west — the number of dislodged stones did not 

 indicate any appreciable increase — appeared continuous with the pillar 

 masonry as though built at the same time (fig. 16). Originally 

 plastered and measuring 9 feet 5 inches long, 50^ inches wide, and 

 30 inches deep, this vault was subsequently reduced to 6 feet 4 inches 

 long by 33 inches when abutting masonry was introduced at the north 

 end, the remainder filled with clean sand covered with flagstones, 

 and new masonry built upon the slabs (pi. 71, lower). 



Apparently the sides of that southwest vault formerly continued 

 north to enclose a companion but this latter had been razed and 

 replaced by a third vault on a floor 8 inches higher. Lying across 

 the doubled masonry between the older vault and its replacement was 

 a sandstone slab 1^ inches thick, 24 inches wide, and 33^ inches long 

 with two corners missing. 



Comparable vaults with varying floor levels occupied the space 

 between the southeast pillar and that at the northeast. This latter, 

 like its opposite at the northwest, had been repaired once or twice 

 but finally was reduced to a low square standing upon its foundation 

 of rough stonework. In this instance the foundation had been built 

 in a hole 4 feet deep the diameter of which was a foot greater than 

 that of the foundation itself thus leaving a 6-inch space all around 

 that was filled with loose shale to within 10 inches of the kiva floor. 



