JUDD— USE OF ADOBE 



with fragments of tabular stone, in which adobe was utilized as a 

 mortar or binding material; (2) those made of closely fitted or inter- 

 woven willows, osiers, or reeds, thickly plastered with adobe mud; 

 (3) those built entirely of adobe — the so-called caliche (caleche) or 

 pise construction, as observed in ancient house remains in the Gila 

 and Salt river valleys of southern Arizona. 



Walls of the first type are found in all parts of the Southwest, in 

 ruins commonly credited to pre-Pueblo peoples. Such ruins consist 

 both of cliff-houses and exposed dwellings, the latter built in valleys 

 or upon elevated tablelands or mesas. Walls of this type are familiar 

 to all students of American archeology and therefore need not be 

 especially considered within the limited pages of the present paper. 

 Suffice it to say that, in the erection of structures embodying such 

 walls, the primitive artisans were governed as always by the accessi- 

 bility of suitable material. Stone was near at hand and could be 

 secured in sufficient quantities with but little labor other than that 

 required for its transportation. Previous observations had taught 

 the builders that, when mixed with water, desert soil possessing cer- 

 tain characteristics formed a satisfactory bond for irregular stone 

 fragments, uniting them into a solid mass and adding the strength 

 necessary to their continued stability. In house walls of this type 

 natural deterioration could be lessened only by decreasing the amount 

 of adobe mortar exposed to the action of the elements. The stone- 

 work in but few ancient Pueblo dwellings, however, exhibits that 

 degree of previous preparation where it is possible to approach the 

 complete elimination of mortar, therefore it seems reasonable to con- 

 clude that the aboriginal house-builders of our Southwest had not 

 passed much beyond the elementary stage in their knowledge of 

 masonry. Adobe was recognized merely as an accessible and seem- 

 ingly satisfactory means of joining the stones with which their house 

 walls were constructed, and it was so used in a vast majority of those 

 prehistoric dwellings under consideration. 



Walls of the second type, those made of willows plastered with 

 adobe (pi. 1), are found mainly in cliff-houses, although evidence of 

 their former existence has been observed also in pueblo ruins situated 

 in open, exposed places. Perhaps the best preserved examples of this 

 class are to be found in conjunction with walls of the first type, in 

 cave-dwellings of the Navaho National Monument region, north cen- 

 tral Arizona. But here, as elsewhere, wattled walls form only a small 

 proportion of the structure in villages of which they are a part. 

 Houses of this character are seldom more than one story in height, 

 and their roofs are usually, but not always, supported by the stone 



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