2l6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I47 



ladles and water jars with low-neck, if any — the black-on- white 

 pieces decorated with mineral paint in a variety of rectilinear and 

 curvilinear designs. Only from the upper third of those two 12-foot- 

 deep sections were sherds recovered that bear design elements in 

 Straight-line Hachure, a combination of Straight-line and Solid, 

 Chaco-San Juan and, less frequently, those characteristic of the 

 Mesa Verde plateau. Thus our West Court Trench revealed both 

 the sequence of pottery types at Pueblo Bonito and one very obvious 

 reason for the admixture of occupational and constructional debris 

 in the two principal refuse mounds. 



Early during their residence here the Late Bonitians chose to build 

 a super-kiva where Old Bonitian housewives had long been accus- 

 tomed to throw their household sweepings. That Great Kiva, 50 feet 

 in diameter and 10 feet deep, served its purpose for a time and then 

 was completely dismantled. Thus, in turn, approximately 39,000 

 cubic feet of Old Bonitian rubbish were removed to provide space 

 for the kiva and subsequently, when the kiva was razed, all build- 

 ing materials not suitable for reuse were carried away and discarded. 

 Much of this waste went to the south refuse mounds where, with 

 like material from other sources, the two piles gradually increased in 

 height as they spread out laterally — east, west, and south. 



THE ENCLOSING WALLS 



In successive efforts to confine these mounting accumulations and 

 to limit their dispersal, the Late Bonitians erected rock fences or 

 barriers around both mounds — fences that were raised or replaced 

 as necessity required. But the interesting fact is that neither en- 

 closure was begun until village waste had filled the old watercourse 

 fronting the pueblo and piled up 7 or 8 feet above the valley floor as 

 it existed at the time. 



The retaining walls about Pueblo Bonito's two principal refuse 

 mounds are not unique but they are more extensive, and more pur- 

 poseful than any other known to me (fig. 23).^ Architecturally they 

 vary from nondescript stonework faced on the outside only to good 

 second- and third-type masonry finished on both sides. Steps for the 

 convenience of burden bearers led over the wall nearest the pueblo. 



Because a sand-filled trench showed that the West Mound enclo- 

 sure had been examined previously we turned our attention to that 



^ In preparing this drawing from two separate surveys an error of approxi- 

 mately 3 feet was disclosed. This difference has been adjusted in the space 

 between mounds. 



