The architecture of Pueblo Bonito : (with 81 plates) |
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GREAT KIVA Q |
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 | The architecture of Pueblo Bonito : |  |
GREAT KIVA Q
Kiva Q, our second Great Kiva at Pueblo Bonito, is older than
Kiva A and less complicated. It had 4 large pine posts rather than
masonry columns as roof supports. It had a single bench rather than
three encircling the floor at base of wall. There are no peripheral
rooms. Kiva Q lacks the numerous wall niches of Kiva A and the
recessed stairway to a north "altar room." But, unlike A, it has a
south alcove, or possible entrance-way, from which steps led to court
level and it had a midfloor repository that might reasonably be considered
a sipapu. This second Great Kiva is in the pattern of superkivas
elsewhere but it has its own unique features (fig. 17).
The masonry of Kiva Q does not fit into our local scheme. It is
predominantly of laminate sandstone with infrequent blocks dressed
by pecking or rubbing. It is neither our second- nor our third-type
but seems more closely related to the latter. Measured at time of
excavation the floor averaged 40 feet in diameter and was encircled
by a bench that varied considerably both in width and height but
averaged 25 by 23 inches. Above-bench masonry, 38 inches thick,
3 feet 8 inches in front of the south alcove. Although plaster survives
here and there absence of sooting suggests that the walls were
formerly covered full height.
Four pine posts, 15-18 inches in diameter, had supported the Kiva Q
roof. That at the northwest, the only one we examined, stood upon
a large sandstone slab in a neat masonry cylinder 36 inches in diameter
by 9 inches deep, filled with shale fragments and covered by a
closely-fitted slab pavement 7 feet 4 inches in diameter. The other
three posts were similarly seated and likewise surrounded by flagstones,
shale chips beneath. Those on the east side, best preserved,
were about 3 feet high but too decayed for ring analysis (pl. 75,
lower).
Although no trace remained of roofing timbers, large beams necessarily
spanned the distance between posts as in Great Kiva A. Originally
I estimated a ceiling height of 12 feet under the impression
it must have been continuous with that of the alcove. Ten feet would
have been a better guess. Our figure 7 shows the Kiva Q floor 1112
feet below the 1924 West Court surface; the alcove deserves at
least a 5 foot ceiling. We made no underfloor excavation.
On each side of the chamber is a masonry-lined, sunken vault,
neater in construction than those in Great Kiva A and free from
additions and substitutions. That on the east, 4 feet 8 inches wide
by 6 feet 7 inches long and 13 inches deep, had walls 10 inches thick,
topping off flush with the kiva floor. A companion vault on the west
side measured 4½ feet wide by 6 feet 5 inches long and 16 inches
deep. Unlike that on the east, however, its masonry walls are 14
inches thick, stand 3 inches above the floor, and are of superior external
construction. Further, this vault was paved with packed sand,
a thin layer of shale chips on top.
Between the two vaults, 11 feet 10 inches from the south bench,
is a masonry fireplace averaging 52 inches square by 29 inches high.
Its fire pit, 28 inches in diameter and 12 inches deep, was floored
with sand. On the north side at kiva floor level is a draft opening
or flue, 8 inches wide by 10 inches high, its sill and lintel both of
sandstone slabs. Twenty five inches north of this raised fireplace
our Zuñi workmen cleared an unburned but ash-filled basin 18 inches
in diameter, ringed with adobe 6 inches high and 39 inches across.
It was, they insisted, the container for ashes from the principal
fireplace.
A subfloor depository of neat masonry 12 inches in diameter by
feet north of the fireplace. It was covered by a thin sandstone slab
20 inches in diameter and, like that in nearby Kiva R, was empty.
This feature occupies the same relative position of the sipapu in
northern kivas, and I should be tempted to regard it as such except
that the sipapu is foreign to Chaco Canyon kivas, even those of
northern inspiration.
At 3 feet 9 inches south of the raised fireplace a slightly crescentic
masonry-lined receptacle 6 feet 5 inches long, 6 inches wide, and
25 inches deep marks the position of a former deflector or firescreen.
Within were the butts of nine 2-inch posts, tightly packed in shale,
the supports of a probable wattlework screen.
Between this deflector and the south bench, 28 inches from the
latter, three decayed poles with an overall width of 37 inches identify
a former ladder, slanting toward the middle of the kiva ceiling. Each
pole was seated in a hole, depth undetermined. Our Zuñi say that
old-time kiva ladders always had three poles (pl. 75, lower).
Behind this 3-pole ladder and 62 inches above the Kiva Q bench,
is a small alcove or antechamber, measuring 6 feet 4 inches on the east,
6 feet 5 inches on the west, 8 feet 9 on the south, and 8 feet 7 on
the north. Since 18 inches of kiva wall had collapsed at this point,
we do not know the size and shape of the connecting opening, if
any. There is no trace of a north side to the alcove; no evidence of
a stairway beneath. Therefore if the alcove opened into Kiva Q,
it opened full width and at its own floor level. At its south end
the antechamber has 3 steps 29 inches wide, the lowest 15 inches
above floor, leading to the West Court. There may formerly have
been other steps to the flight since the surface here is much eroded
and slopes toward the kiva. At its inner southeast corner, the alcove
masonry now stands only 30 inches high (pl. 75, upper) but a 5-foot
ceiling does not seem unreasonable.
In his description of Great Kiva Q, which he renamed "Pueblo
Bonito II" for his own convenience, Gordon Vivian (1960, p. 65)
doubts the existence of this south alcove and otherwise complains
because the situation as he found it in 1940 did not agree with his
preconceived notions. He was especially annoyed with reconstructions
at the antechamber, and rightfully so. It is a very incompetent
job. But Vivian was too hasty in placing the blame! Had he troubled
to inquire of his Park Service superiors he could have learned which
of his colleagues repaired walls at Pueblo Bonito between 1924, when
I excavated Kiva Q, and 1940, when he recorded his opinions. Vivian
permit is required for any activity on a national monument. All
1924 repairs made in Kiva Q, and they were made under my supervision,
are listed in Appendix C. Where they differ from Vivian's
1940 observations the latter are at fault. Restoration of the south
antechamber, clearly seen in his figure 30, is not a product of the
National Geographic Society's expeditions. Furthermore, our only
underfloor inquiry was that at the northwest pillar.
In the north wall of Kiva Q, opposite the south alcove and 46
inches above the bench, we found seatings for four 5-inch timbers,
their over-all width 11 feet 3 inches (fig. 17). Each contained shreds
of decayed wood.
During 1924 wall repairs we unexpectedly came upon a cache of
diversified objects with meaning only for the old ritualists who practiced
in Great Kiva Q (Judd, 1954, p. 323). The lot (U.S.N.M. No.
336041) was concealed in an unplastered recess in the stonework above
the easternmost of the 4 empty beam sockets or 5 feet 4 inches above
the bench. Except for a west jamb 8½ inches high, thus equalling the
wall recesses of Great Kiva A, nothing remained of the opening
through which, presumably, the objects had been passed. We saw
no trace of other, comparable repositories.
Because this north wall was endangered through seepage we restored
it to a height of 10½ feet with a downward slope on the Kiva R.
side. Our restoration at the north may have exceeded original ceiling
height, of which no evidence remained, but I felt it necessary as
a means of supporting the debris fill under the southwest corner of
the Kiva 16 enclosure and the open courtyard fronting Room 28B
(pl. 73, left).
Overhanging the east arc of Great Kiva Q, paired logs formerly
carried the west wall of an unnumbered room between 211 and 212
and when those logs decayed they let fall not only the masonry they
had supported but 23 metates and metate fragments stored in the
room (Judd, 1954, pl. 31, upper). This overhanging wall was of
later construction than that of Kiva Q, although I have classed both
as third-type on the basis of their preponderant use of laminate sandstone.
The same type of stonework appears in paired walls subfloor
in that unnumbered room and in those on either side. Walls carried
on paired beams are a recurrent architectural achievement of the Late
Bonitians as witness those in Rooms 55, 247BN, 290, 291, and others
noted herein.
When we began excavation of Great Kiva Q in 1924 its depression,
and silt in which chico brush had taken root. Building stones fallen
from the enclosing masonry had collected around the edge but there
was no evidence of a neighborhood dump. Other than the 23 milling
stones and fragments found along the eastern side we recovered less
than a dozen discarded stone implements throughout the fill. One of
these was part of a notched cobblestone ax, noteworthy only because
axes of any sort, irrespective of quality, are exceedingly rare at
Pueblo Bonito.
Normally an excessive number of miscellaneous potsherds will
identify a former trash pile but, in my opinion, out-worn and discarded
household implements provide stronger evidence. Only a
handful of such tools was found in Kiva Q while the sherds numbered
4,527. Among these Roberts and Amsden counted 3 as prePueblo;
the remainder as Old Bonitian or Late Bonitian, the latter
preponderant with 24.9 percent Corrugated Coil and 11.8 percent
Chaco-San Juan or Mancos Black-on-White. In addition there were
scattered over much of the floor, and directly upon it, bits of squared
claystone and turquoise—pieces from one or more treasured mosaic
ornaments, crushed beyond repair.
Great Kiva Q had its predecessor, a completely razed structure we
came upon unexpectedly in 1925 while digging a West Court exploratory
trench. Only remnants of the north and south benches, parts
of two pillars and the vaults between, and an irregular floor at depth
of 10 feet 2 inches remained for our study. In the portion we exposed,
practically every facing stone had been removed; hence we had
but little on which to judge the age of that ruin. I guessed the razed
stonework to have been of our third-type but it is more likely to have
been second-type and an early project of Late Bonitian architects.
Our profile of that deep-lying remnant (fig. 7) is self-explanatory;
details would be uninteresting and superfluous. With two bench
points already known, we deliberately cut a third and from the three
estimated floor diameter at 53 feet, hence the largest of known superkivas
at Pueblo Bonito. More precise information would have been
desirable but, with 10 feet of packed clay to penetrate, one can be
content with less. Marks of digging tools were still plain upon the
clay bank at two points on the periphery of the 69-foot pit prepared
for that Great Kiva and, just outside its former south wall, a previously
undisturbed Old Bonitian rubbish pile 12 feet deep invited
the stratigraphic study through which Roberts and Amsden contributed
so greatly to the history of Pueblo Bonito and Chaco Canyon.
| The architecture of Pueblo Bonito : | |