| OCR Text |
Show I I 1 ifeB" 1 1 . Science Discovers .1 fj) Bjy Jl,.! tke Earliest Flat f Ayy i hLmMm-&Sm S li Dwellers with . ' - ..x-- PFPl f&-JL R fri5-2)" r) ' ' i heir 1 emple m- - . !- . . ',. ,.J I fff 1 111 P 1 drf '6' theBasementTieir Y'-Vy H ftal! 8j p tt W I Public Dance Plaza, ;'-,. -'" "; , ,"'' .I-" 'jv QsisJirtt ,....v,,,,; IxLt' Tkeir Communal ,- rr' lA N i' Iirf1! ' f (I Kitchen on the . 1 f m I- li Roof and Many . . j S3 S BSSs'll "'IJ I j, Other Adjuncts " v -s - L "Jr-T'f " J l " Remains of a Family of Prehistoric Plat-dwellers Found on the pjfpk m P fBf B ; of Civilization Mesa Verde-Colorado- fefi-v' y IS VQX Q , - - reservoir east-ward to Spruce Tree Honse- 3'f''' ' ' '' p-4a1.J li qC' J$''' '2 I : : ; izij- "J .-.--- Indian road of great antiquity, connect- t-' ; -' ', ' ' v nA-"1' ' -CjrVX.-J .7 - -T ' j V-r "ft 1 - ing the Mummy Lake group of flathousej "i:&h:ytSr7 . f f.i? 'fS ' ; vith Spruce Tree House and Cliff Palace. Li S .3 f. From this road a branch trail leads down " , 3,jlv KV' '.v '. Soda Canyon to a soda spring at the foot of ' S H f5l I PFI B , ' d!yh -iT a'l &. - It is supposed that the plateau was origi- L-P y CV ri ": V'l LLj Pi f f V52 M C?el rffj nally covered with a forest of cedars, which pff3 Qj pi fs--ja ' - j Li , J -J jWr .1'. its ear,iest prehistoric occupants cleared -y j ' Va h is 3 rFSjl V'' CL away to a considerable extent for purposes . iJ - jJET if) '. 't M of agriculture. They were farmers, growing LsJ rrr H A'-Ei aVH ' ' y f f A I beans, melons and, particularly, corn, which fcia Ai 'Sx"' i) LJcc'? JF i f I J J 4 ' last was their main subsistence. So fertile j p Erp! 1 "H b j ic( L ' V, v 1 3 i 1 was the soil of the clearings (now covered Jte?-1 t fi " ' !.' 1 J with ;-agebru5h) that even at the present L22 J:-4 M 'LT ' ' A hfl - 7 ,'nl? corn could probably bs j C " " gTjj I '.. j v, J - n - raised on them without irri- f-OXliy-J p3 fTDTf B " :- V' ' 1 ';V7' - During the Summer months ths.Vv ( Jt . I TvH L.4 j:;'::;-v!tv'? ' wp--.-,..:. : " r'"' " -V .; -i? ' clearings are carpeted with I JJ-T'' o WlTU t?S? -n ZZj S: j rf " 'l", '.' ! f: v';'' vl bright-hued flowers, most abun- , Q Cm Jk& ( 0-rW W tr fJ.Z -.fY-V-- T:i X-1 dant of which are those of the ' ilJ V 77 V.- :" - "Indian paintbrush." Later S , V 1P -SI V-7 --7 .7)!BSN. .. ,??rpf comes a gorgeous display of as- P. irSi' V b 4ff 7i! V-- - ' '7:- :;..---Vp . tors. Humming-birds, remark- By Rene Bache A PREHISTORIC American apart-ment apart-ment house, spacious and. of impressive im-pressive architecture, has been revealed to view by newly completed excavations. It stood on the edge of the lofty Mesa Verde, or Green Plateau, in southwest Colorado, and its occupants, occu-pants, in days long before the discovery of America by Columbus, were able to look southward unon a recion of mac- nificent scenery which embraced corners of four of our States Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. The plateau was set apart not long ago by Congress for the sake of preserving its prehistoric pre-historic remains. Oval in shape, with an area of sixty-five square miles, its north face rises over 1,500 feet above the plain below. Its surface is cleft by deep canyons, in which are found the most remarkable cliff dwellings dwell-ings of the Southwest among them the famous Spruce Tree House and Cliff Palace. The top of the mesa is dotted with mounds, none of which was opened or investigated until 1915, when an expedition under the direction di-rection of Dr. J. Walter Fewkes dug into it and disclosed a large building, manifestly constructed for religious purposes, which ha called the Sun Temple. 1 Last Summer, in behalf of the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. Fewkes attacked another mound, belonging to a cluster known as the Mummy Lake group, which proved to be a mass of debris that, hid from view a veritable prehistoric flathouse. The building has received the name Far View House, on account of the vast, and splendid view it enjoyed. The scientific investigations in-vestigations which have bo far been carried on show that it was singularly like a modern mod-ern American flathouse in arrangement, although al-though the life of tho occupants must have been considerably different. It. was quite a high flatbouse five stories in height. Each, floor was divided into many rooms, occupied by several families. T,'p the centre ran a stairway which served as a common meeting place arid station for sentinels sen-tinels to watch out for the approach of an enemy. The most important, feature of Ihe building build-ing was the great. "kiv;i.'' or religious ceremonial cere-monial ch a in ber, in I he basement,. There were several rooms devoted to (lie same religious ccremonieq, hut the principal chamber was n huge circular room, thirty-two feet in diameter, with pilasters attached to the walls for the support of a vaulted roof. That I.Iioko prehistoric people should have been aide to construct such a roof is proof of their hih skill in a rchil cet.ural engineering. Here t rair-'e, imjifc sivc, terrible riles were ccc. J.rat.-!. 'I'ii" at :-,ii.o of this "kiva" suggests tho ffis- l ij?0J n Art'st'c Reconstruction of j a J the Flathouse. p In tht Basement Are Shown the Great Kiva or Temple, With a Ceremony in Prop-ess; the Reservoir and the Food Storage Cellar; on the Right, in Front of tlie House, a Dancing Plaza; the Small Rooms on Four Floors Are Devoted to Pottery Weaving and Other Arts; in the Centre Is the Common Stairway, and on the Roof the Public Kitchen and Dining-room. There Were Many Rooms Besides Those Shown idea that its use was not limited to one clan, but that it was the meeting place of a fraternity fra-ternity of priests of several clans. Such "kivas" are important structural feature of the pueblos, or communal dwellings, built by the present-day descendants of the aneient people of the Mesa Verde, who use them for the same purpose as did their ancestors. A "kiva" is always underground. In the cliff dwellings it, was sometimes dug out of solid rock. It is a chamber for religious ceremonial, always circular, with no entrance en-trance save by a ladder through a "scuttle"' in the roof, and with an opening in the floor for communication with the underworld the world of ghosts. There- are no windows in it. According to the belief of the modern Moki and Zuni, and of their prehistoric ancestors, an-cestors, it was from the underworld that tho first human being emerged upon the earth. The dead go back to it, and communication with them is maintained through the opening open-ing above mentioned. During the ceremonials ceremo-nials their voices are heard thanks to a contrivance con-trivance of priestly ingenuity, which is simply sim-ply a speaking-tube that cuters the chamber from without. In the building of Far View House thn lilies of the walls were evidently determined by astronomical observation before the foundations were laid. The direction of the rising sun at the Summer Holstice (June 131) gavo them one cardinal point; another wan furnished by the direction of the setting sun on the shortest, day in mid-Winter. Lengthwise, Length-wise, the building followed this cast-to-west line. Another very interesting feature of the apartment house was the court., or dance-plazn. dance-plazn. paved with hewn stone, and running the full length of the building, 110 feet, with a width of 'M feet. It was Hiluated in front of tho building. Here the rutin; inhabitants in-habitants of the house gathered to wilnrsft or take part in the dances. These people led a highly organized, eo-opera t.i ve community life, and religion and dancing were vital factors in it. Other rooms were sel, apart for feasting, cooking, preparing idols for the religious ceremonies, makiny pottery and other domestic do-mestic arts, CnpyrlKl Most of the rooms on the ground floor were storage rooms for grain and other things of value. val-ue. They were entered from above, through hatchways, but some of them had doors opening from one to another. There were also rooms for grinding corn, and in one of them a primitive primi-tive mill was found. The cooking was done outdoors, usually on tho rooftops, but the apartment-house had some indoor in-door fireplaces, presumably presum-ably used for bread-baking. bread-baking. The entire building w a s constructed o P stones, most, of which shows signs of pecking or dressing. A number of stone hammers, such ' - ' .'i- J C,.-'-'J-'-'-xfJ-- j-- j v -j;: s-m ' . . r--i--..w. - .tit""' i"i,i" The Ground Floor of Far View House, the Great Prehistoric Apartment House Newly Discovered at Mesa Verde, Colorado. x u . . -' - .- ..;.,.. - j Jj-J "-'::;:,' r .; : v,;: -:.ry - r.Kt5"-3 :; --, : .... .. .. i ' . -.. . ... v . . , - . V J - ; ; . . . : v . . - - : - ; ;.. u -' t. ' .! . - . i - - -v -: , - i . ... .... , . . . '.' ' ; ' ..'' ' ' . ' i ' ' ' ij -: i '-'J'- -... ..i... . .- '..'.:--V'..V-v-"-' ; .'i5r.r.- ''.r-..-. . ; -."'r ' "--"v..,." . f- ' 'r :--". ' ' ':' '''-'y' " - . . -:'y: tt' '':'', J.J: ' V v"' .'i," .'"'-" ": 's ; n " ' ' c The Great "Kiva," or Religious Temple, in the Baremcnt, with a Hole in the Ground Through Which the Spirits Communicated With the Spirit World. ployed for the purpose, some of them with handles, were discovered. The stones were bound together with mortar, in which marks of human hands anil occasional impressions of corncobs are still to be seen. lVams of wood served as supports for floors and roofs. Many objects of household use were dug out of the ruins -much-worn stone mortars and pi'Htles. sloue rollers for reducing corn to meal, Hat stones on which pigments wen; ground, bone dirks, bone needles and bodkins, bod-kins, and bone skin -scrapers. There were also three stone idols. Accumulations of the Iioiick of rabbits, deer, elk, mountain sheep and birds went to show that those prehistoric prehis-toric people depended to some extent on the chn.se for their subsistence; but their main source of food supply undoubtedly was agriculture. agri-culture. The npn rl menl, house had ils own reservoir of (inc pure water, drawn from Ihe main reservoir, which had been constructed on Inp of the mesa The. cluster of ruins, of which this apartment, house formed part, has long been known to archaeologists as the "Mummy l,oke (Iroup," bul the formation which has been called n lake is not a lake, it, VJ18, tijr tho HUir ComiMiiiy. Croul tiilinln 1 ; Ik ti t a Ko but a reservoir, and no mummies have ever been found there. The so-called lake is a prehistoric reservoir, used in ancient davs for irrigation, and also presumably to furnish fur-nish drinking water, inasmuch as there are no springs anywhere near that afford a potable po-table lluid. The reservoir is circular in form, somewhat some-what over ninety feet in diameter, and surrounded sur-rounded by a low wall fourteen feet thick. Parts of the wall are double, inclosing spaces that suggest rooms, but Or. Fewkes is sure thnt. they served no such purpose. Water was probably conducted into the basin from a neighboring gulch, and there are still traces of the ditch supposed to have furnished the connecting channel. The reservoir is on the northern edge of the group of mounds, where the slope of the mesa-top is such that water could, be readily drawn from it. Like the ditch, it has been filled with windblown sand and soil, so that to-day it is comparatively shallow; but it. was originally of considerable depth, and doubtless in prehistoric limes yielded a plentiful aim perpetual water supply. A much-worn trail extended i'nm; tho reservoir eastward to Spruce Tree House an Indian road of great antiqnity, connecting connect-ing the Mummy Lake group of flathousej vith Spruce Tree House and Cliff Palace. From this road a branch trail leads down Soda Canyon to a soda spring at the foot of the mesa. It is supposed that the plateau was origi-nally origi-nally covered with a forest of cedars, which its earliest prehistoric occupants cleared away to a considerable extent for purposes of agriculture. They were farmers, growing beans, melons and, particularly, corn, which last was their main subsistence. So fertile was the soil of the clearings (now covered with sagebrush) that even at the present time corn could probably bs . raised on them without irri- 7?-T gation. During the Summer months ths v!r'C-'"'i clearings are carpeted with ' 'jipJJZ.-J bright-hued flowers, most abun- , jT-Jvc dant of which are those of the :,-'!:-"..":!'v "Indian paintbrush.'' Later y y.;-' " ; ( comes a gorgeous display of as- I . ..f tcrs. Humming-birds, remark- I ". , nVil,- tamo flit oVirtiit in rrr oof I numbers, attracted by the nectar cf the blossoms. Kemains of stone walls, suggesting gardens, are found here and there between be-tween the mounds. Dr. Fewkes believes that ths cluster of mounds represents an assemblage of such apartment houses, and that the one he has unearthed was probably the biggest big-gest and most populous of the group. A reason he had for picking pick-ing out this particular mound was that its site, on the rim of the plateau, was most prominent, dominating in a way the others. He thought to find in it a type to indicate the character of the ruins represented by all the mounds of the cluster, which are sixteen in number scattered, within short distances of each other, on both sides of the government gov-ernment road that gives access by carriage or automobile to the reservation. The mound-group is a little over four miles north of the cliff dwelling called Spruce Tree House. L No white man has ever serit f an inhabited cliff-dwelling in that f region, and no article of white f man's manufacture has ever been found in any of those strange rock-shelf habitations. It is to be presumed, therefore, that they were abandoned before ami probably long before the rpamsn conquest. Nirao autnor-ities autnor-ities place the age of the f.athouse at 10.000 years, but it is more conservatively estimated at 7,000 years. Tho descendants of the cliff -dwellers ventured ven-tured into the open country, presumably because be-cause they felt strong enough to defend ; themselves on equal terms against their 1 enemies, among whom were many wandering tribes of savages. Put they sought safety and strategic advantage in such easily -detVnsiWo ; places as the Mexi Verde. It was not imtil cciiturics lntcr that they dared to build their villages in the plains such villages as ar represented to-day by the pueblos of th Moki snd Zuiii, who unquestionably arc the posterity of the prehistoric dwellers cf the el iff s. It is manifest that in prehistoric times parts of Arizona. I'tah, Colorado and N'c Mexico were inhabited by tribes of Indians representing n culture 'unlike any 1o be found elsewhere m North America. Their skill in agriculture and epcrlnes as builders build-ers of elaborate structures of dressed stone-such stone-such structures as existed nowhere rise north of Mexico would alone snllice to set thc'.U apart as u pcoplo whollv diMuict. I |
