HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



Many of the secular rooms at the rear of the cave must have been 

 very dark chambers, having neither doors nor windows. Some of 

 these rooms were probably used for storage, but human burials, ac- 

 companied with mortuary bowls, vases, and other offerings, have been 

 found under their floors. Refuse heaps like those found back of the 

 rear walls of Spruce-tree House were not discovered. Human skulls 

 or mummies were not uncovered by the author in this ruin, but as 

 fragments of human hair and various long-bones occurred in the 

 debris on the floor, it is supposed that the other parts of burials had 

 been removed by previous diggers. Like those of all other cliff- 

 dwellings in the Mesa Verde, the rooms of this one had been dug into 



\ \ J \ B H* F i c fc 



td g a of fhj Overhanging Cl.M 



Fig. i. — Ground-plan of Oak-tree House. 



and its walls mutilated in the search for pottery and other artifacts 

 before the author began his work, and the few things found were only 

 those that had been overlooked by relic-hunters. As compared with 

 Cliff Palace, there was a relatively large number of kiva beams. Many 

 walls of this ruin were in a better condition that those of Spruce-tree 

 House. The scarcity of beams in Cliff Palace indicates either their 

 removal by the cliff-dwellers for use in the erection of other buildings, 

 or possibly they had been taken by vandals for firewood. A few roof 

 and floor beams still remain in place, 1 but almost every floor had 



1 A number of beams that had fallen into the kivas were restored to their former places, as 

 nearly as could be determined. 



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