University of Virginia Library

OBJECTS OF WOOD

The men of Pueblo del Arroyo were skillful workers in wood.
Despite tools limited to stone axes, sandstone abraders, flint or obsidian
knives, and wedges of some sort, the product of their industry
merits our applause. Their methods of working wood were simple:
chopping and sawing, scraping and rubbing.

Architectural wood includes beams and ceiling poles, lintels, posts,
shakes, and planks. Beams were cut and peeled while green and
carried to the building site. We saw none that had been scarred or
chafed in transportation; none that had been felled by fire. The
principal beams, often 10 or 11 inches in diameter, presumably were
cut to the desired length either in the forest or at the building site,
since the final axwork, rechopping each end until it lay at a neat right
angle to beam length, was first delimited by an encircling line drawn
with a flint chip. Subsequently, and despite the fact that both ends
were to be concealed by wall plaster, the ax marks were commonly
erased by rubbing with sandstone abraders. Knots likewise were removed
by rubbing. Ceiling poles and lintels were treated in the same

way as beams but with less abrader work. Beams and ceiling poles
alike appear to have been in position when the mud-and-stone masonry
rose above them.

Shakes, or shingles, of split juniper (cedar) were locally preferred
in ceiling construction. Placed close together upon the poles and
bound to them by yucca thongs, these shakes supported layers of
cedar bark and adobe mud to provide a tight ceiling and a floor for the
room above (pls. 6, A; 7, A). Averaging between 2 and 3 feet long
and an inch or more in width, the shakes were split individually from
a log and, if need be, were shortened by sawing part way through from
both sides with a flint blade and breaking.

Boards adzed and abraded from sections of pine or fir logs occasionally
replaced cedar splints in ceilings; more frequently they
appeared as lintels over doors and ventilators. Other examples lay
detached and alone. A 32-inch-long fragment of dressed spruce, 2¼
inches wide by 1⅜ inches thick, was found among fallen masonry
above floor level in Room 16B (pl. 38, k). Another dressed board,
10½ inches wide by 1 inch thick by 12 feet long, floored a 3-inch deep,
11-inch-wide trench across the north end of Room 55.

Posts were often required to prop the ends of beams, even large
beams. Apparently rock and mud stonework, without wall plates,
lacked strength to support the combined weight of an average ceiling
and occupants of the room or rooms above. Posts usually were placed
close against the side walls, but not necessarily under both ends of a
given beam. In each case we examined, the post stood upon a slabstone
base.

What we believe to have been the prop for a broken beam in Room
16A is shown, in situ, in plates 7, A, and 8, A. It is of yellow pine
(Pinus sp.) stone-ax hewn and sandstone abraded, the largest example
of prehistoric woodwork from the Southwest with which I am acquainted.
Here, as in every other planklike artifact recovered during
our excavations, thickness lessens slightly from the middle toward
the edges. Plate 39, B, clearly illustrates the manner of finishing ends
and sides.

This great hewn timber is unique as far as I know, the only one of
its kind. Other wooden objects we recovered are not necessarily
unique but each stands alone. We found only one fragment of a
spindle shaft (U.S.N.M. No. 334691); only one digging stick (oak;
pl. 38, e); one piece, with square-cut ends and opposed X's incised on
one side (pl. 38, c); another piece, ⅝ inch diameter, with one end
rounded (the other is burned off) and a squared side notch, the bottom

of which has been compressed by pressure and friction (pl. 38, b).
These latter two, both cedar, are from Room 9B-III.

Bows and arrows.—Only one indubitable fragment of a bow was
recovered, a fragment 3 inches long and [fraction 7 by 16] inch in both width and
thickness. It had been partially severed with a flint knife and then
broken off. On either side at the tip is a slanting nock for the bowstring;
immediately below, sinew wrappings and some sort of adhesive
have left a dark encircling band ⅝ inch wide. But of greatest interest
is the fact that the wood is Osage orange (Maclura pomifera Schn.),[2]
a wood quite foreign to Chaco Canyon.

Two 5-inch pieces from Room 9B-III, both planoconvex in cross
section and tapering toward one end, have the appearance of bow fragments,
but they are of willow (U.S.N.M. No. 334693) and one
has two X's incised upon its flat side. A third possible portion of a
bow is illustrated on plate 38, d. It is of unidentified wood 20 inches
long by ⅜ inch diameter at the tip and ⅞ at the butt, light-colored,
compact, and heavy. The butt is rounded and covered by minute nicks
of a flint knife; lengthwise striations left by the abrader are plain
upon the surface. There is no bowstring nock and no trace of a handgrip
at the larger end.

Our lone fragment of an arrow is a 2-inch section of reed containing
the shank of a wood foreshaft with an encircling green band
where a sinew wrapping had been (U.S.N.M. No. 334704).

Scraper.—A juniper splinter beveled along its curved edge evidences
use as a scraper (pl. 38, j). A second, more specialized example
from Room 9B-II, is 4⅛ inches long by 1¾ inches wide and ¼ inch thick
with square-cut ends and back, smoothly abraded sides, and a thinned
front edge half polished from scraping or burnishing (pl. 38, i).

Resonator (?).—The specimen illustrated by figure 27, drilled at
the upper end for ancient repairs, may be an early version of the
"notched stick," or "resonator" to be seen and heard widely throughout
the Southwest today. Ours is of mountain mahogany, dark and
heavy, with a glossy sheen that could be the result of friction from
another stick. Notched resonators have been popular pseudomusical
instruments among the Pueblos since pre-Spanish times. Kidder
(1932, pp. 252-255) found several at Pecos. Parsons (1939, p. 383)
notes that "the musical rasp or notched rattle" invariably provides
an accompaniment for the Jemez kachina dance no matter where
performed. I assume that our Pueblo del Arroyo specimen likewise

furnished the rhythm for dance songs. A comparable example, but
with only four notches, was found in a cave south of Silver City,
N. Mex., and presented to the National Museum in 1879 by Henry
and James K. Metcalf (U.S.N.M. No. 35265).

Handle (?).—Figure 28 will suggest to some readers a violin tailpiece.
It is of juniper. Indistinct traces of sinew (?) wrappings (no
cord marks) are to be seen on each side. One binding, ⅛ inch wide,
encircled the piece immediately below the uppermost hole; another,
continuous from the second hole to the bottom, exhibits a variable
tension on the wrapping at time of application. The lighter band
across the lower end represents a closer, more carefully applied
wrapping. I detect no trace of cord wear at the five holes; the
gouged-out groove is a shade less than [fraction 3 by 16] inch deep.

Altar piece (?).—A tablet of cedar less than ⅛ inch thick, carved
in the form of a sandal, is undoubtedly part of an altar piece. Its
ornamentation is a black geometric design on a green background
(fig. 29); the lighter, middle section is now orange in color, but may
have been red. A chemical change has taken place in this area, for
the black lines formerly continued across. The specimen is comparable
to, but somewhat smaller than, a painted-wood sandal form illustrated
by Morris (1939, pl. 145) from Aztec Ruin.

Bits of painted wood from Rooms 44 and 62, too small to suggest
either shape or size, may also have been parts of altar pieces
(U.S.N.M. Nos. 334696, 334698).

Pot rest.—A loose coil of cedar bark, 7 inches in diameter and
with no trace of wrapping, was found among debris of occupation
in Room 44 (pl. 38, h).

Willow screen.—The partially charred and decayed screen protruding
from the fill in Room 16 (pl. 7, B) was made of dressed
willows, pierced at intervals of about 4 inches and threaded by yucca
cords. Apparently it had fallen with the second-story floor.

Five sections of peeled willows 13¼ to 14¼ inches long, likewise from
Room 16, had been cut off at both ends but are otherwise unworked
(pl. 38, a). They are not comparable to the peeled and abraded willows
customarily used in ceilings of second-type masonry at Pueblo
Bonito.