University of Virginia Library

Section B

Architectural Details of Rooms

Shape and Size of Rooms.—Sufficient idea of the variations here
can be obtained from study of Map 1.

Masonry.—(See Plates 2 and 3.) Most of what was noted for
Bc 50 applies here also. Wall thickness ranged from 9″ to 19″, with
about 12″ as the modal figure. Height of wall (from top to floor level)

Map 1. Plot of Excavations Bc 50-51, and Profiles

ranged from c. 3′ to c. 6′, with 4′ to 5′ being the commonest measurement.
As at Bc 50, a number of metates (often broken) were found
set into walls. As usual, there is considerable variation in the masonry
from room to room and even from wall to wall within the same room.
Room 1 shows a wall sequence on the west wall; three styles of masonry
may be observed in room 4; in room 10 there is a change in masonry
style beyond the "keyhole" doorway where the wall curves. Other examples
could be given and also cases (room 5, for instance) where the
materials and construction in the four walls are substantially identical.
Such variations are difficult of well-founded interpretation, for it is
clear that they may well reflect differences in the competence and
interest of individuals rather than differences in cultural fashions.
Certain generalizations, however, which probably bear upon cultural
patterns, can be made.

With the exception of a few walls in the northernmost section,
all masonry falls in Hawley's Blocks without Core Type. The divergent
walls (room 7) are Narrow Banded with Core Type and there
are a few other places (the west wall of room 2, for example) which
approximate this type in general surface style, though without core.
(One or two walls are also reminiscent of Spalled Blocks with Core
Type in surface finish.) The masonry of the southern end of Bc 51 is
quite generally cruder than that of the northern end, and approximates
more closely that found in Bc 50. It would seem likely that the pueblo
grew to the north. The masonry of Bc 51 shows generally more big
blocks with few spalls than does Bc 50. The walls give the general
impression of being more solid and made of more carefully shaped
stones. The masonry of rooms 16-, 17-, 22-, and 23-substructure was
distinguishable from that of the superstructure in these rooms but was
still of the Blocks without Core Type, not of the Slab Base Rubble
Type. There were rounded corners in room 16-sub, which was slightly
smaller than the superstructure room. The south wall of the superstructure
of room 17 was extended out slightly—otherwise the walls
of sub and superstructure were coterminous. The roof level of the
lower room was indicated by viga holes. Within room 23-sub was a
secondary east wall 38″ high of pieces of sandstone much larger than
those used in the walls of the room proper.

Fill.[2] —Above almost all floors roughly the first 2′ of fill consisted
of wind-deposited sand with varying amounts of ash and charcoal
(which could well have come from exposed portions of the refuse).

In some cases this wind-deposited sand in the lower levels was very
hard (semi-consolidated), possibly indicating a fairly considerable
interval between the abandonment of the room and the collapse of the
roof. In several rooms, (15, 19, 21) there was also a quantity of
vegetal material (various weeds?) which may have been blown in
through openings after rooms were abandoned. Above a level of from
2′ to 3′ were invariably found fallen-in wall stones and, usually, also
fragments of roof materials. In no rooms (with the possible exception
of rooms 3 and 9) was there clear evidence of water-sorted material,
although in many, plaster from roof and perhaps from walls,
appeared to have been consolidated into lumps by water action. In all
rooms there was abundant wind-deposited material at essentially all
levels, but the rooms at the north end of the mound were generally
distinguished also by intentional fill, of refuse character. Rooms 16,
17, 19, and 23 showed particularly large amounts of refuse. Miscellaneous
human bones were found in rooms 4, 8 (infant and adult), 9
(infant), 10, 16, 18, 22. The remains (except those designated otherwise)
were of adults, but only (at most) five or six scattered bones
without accompanying grave furniture appeared. Burials (differentiated
by remnants of most of an individual and by accompanying
objects) were discovered in the following rooms: 1 (7), 2 (10), 5 (3),
7 (1 adult, 1 infant), 16 (1 adult, 1 child), 18, 20, 21 (see Table 3).
Only rooms 3, 19, and 23 failed to reveal any human bones whatever.
In most cases there was evidence that pits had been dug in the fill to
accommodate the burials. In room 5 the floor was slightly but definitely
pitted. In some rooms, especially certain of those to the north, such
as 5, 7, and 8, the small quantity of sherds, except those definitely
associated with burials, and other refuse suggested that these rooms
had filled to a considerable depth from purely natural sources before
the burial pits were dug in them.

Openings.—These were of the same general character as those
described for Bc 50 except that no wooden uprights or lintels were
discovered. The following rooms showed no openings: 1, 2, 5, 20, 21,
22, 23. The following showed plugged openings: 3, 4, 7 (2), 8, 15, 18,
19. The following showed open "windows" or doorways: 7 (2), 9
(tau-shaped), 10 (2, one of "keyhole" type), 11, 16 (2), 17. There
was no uniformity in directional orientation. The distribution suggests
readjustment and rearrangement in the center of the pueblo as opposed
to the two extremities.

Plaster.—No plaster was observed in rooms 1, 3, 8, 10, 11, 18, 21, 22.
Other rooms showed greater or lesser wall areas plastered with one
to three layers of adobe-laden sand, often smoke-blackened. The thickness
of layers, and the coarseness varied within narrow limits. The
plaster in room 2 appeared to have included gypsum. There was red
paint on the plaster in the substructure under room 16.

Floors.—The description published for Bc 50 applies generally
here except that no use of carbonaceous shale was observed. Floors
were generally thin. Room 4 had a neat floor of stone flags (the blocks
averaging 9″ by 5″ by 2″ thick), set in packed adobe, the whole covered
with plaster an inch or more thick. The following rooms showed distinct
floors: 3 (5), 5 (3), 8 (3), 17 (2), 18 (2). These floor levels were
all within the superstructure and were never separated by more than
6″. Floor variations, like those of masonry, are here probably more
representative of individual than of cultural differences. Substructure
floor levels were reached in rooms 17, 22, and 23 at 111″, 66″, and 80″,
respectively, beneath the surface. Rooms 8, 9, and 19 showed 2″ or 3″
above floors proper what we termed "occupation levels"—surfaces
which had too little regularity and definitiveness to be called floors and
which yet were differentiated from the fill. One floor in room 8 may
have been blood-soaked. A considerable quantity of red ochre was
scattered over the floor of room 19. No floors were reached in rooms 11,
16, 18, and 16 (sub).

Roofs.—There was no evidence as to roofs recovered from the
following rooms: 1, 2, 5, 8, 10, 11, 20, 23. Fragments of roof materials
or imprints in adobe found in rooms 3, 9, 15, 16 (superstructure), 19,
21, 22 (superstructure) gave evidence of construction of the sort described
for Bc 50 superstructure roofs. Fragments of pine timbers
were found in room 4. Room 18 showed portions of six vigas still in
place. These were of cottonwood, as were the greater number of viga
portions observed (including rotted fragments found in the substructure
under room 17). Rooms 7 and 18 afforded sufficient materials upon
which to base somewhat more precise statements. In room 7 were
found seven pinyon beams, averaging 5″ in diameter. Pieces of split
juniper poles had been placed above and at right angles to these, and
the juniper slabs had been crossed with a matting of horsetail reed
tied together in groups of 7 with a straight twill of yucca fibre. In
room 18 it was clear that the wooden portion of the roof had begun to
fall in only after the room was somewhat more than half-filled with
sand and with adobe from the roof. The roof had been formed of
cottonwood beams, 4″ in diameter, with juniper and pinyon branches
at right angles to them. The juniper and pinyon branches were covered
with 2″ of adobe and this was covered with reeds (almost identical with
that described for room 7) laid parallel to the cottonwood vigas.

Cists and Bins.—With one exception, these were (as was the case
in Bc 50) found only at the south end of the pueblo. Rooms 19, 21,
and 23 (superstructure) showed cists of the size and style described
for Bc 50. (The top of the cist in room 21 was painted with red ochre.)
Room 20 had two shallow bins lined with stones and plastered with
adobe. Room 4, however, presented a sub-floor, cist-like cache of olla
shape and with a lid (like that found on the cist in room 21) of a circular

piece of laminated sandstone. It contained charred corn, charcoal,
sherds. The diameter of the mouth was 9″, that of the body
about 13″; the depth beneath the lid was 18″.

Fireplaces.—Firepits were found in the following rooms: 7, 8 (2),
9, 15, 16, 21 (2). None were found in the substructures. There was
a tendency toward central location but no real regularity. All were
oval or rectangular in shape. Four were lined with stone slabs (including
a "scoop" metate in the fire pit in room 15), and the remainder
with burned plaster. The linings projected very slightly above the
floor. The contents in room 15 included burned animal bones. There
was no uniformity in size, greatest lengths ranging from 15″ to 23″.

Special Structural Features.—In room 4 there was a bench in the
southeast corner constructed of stones and adobe and surfaced with
adobe. It was 10″ high and 11″ by 16″. This proved to be an extension
of a wall of room 17-sub. In room 9 there was a large block of stone
in front of the door. Room 10 presented a step (5″ high) below the
level of the doorsill. Room 15 showed an adobe bench along the west
wall, 1′ high and 1′ 9″ wide. In room 16 there were two steps leading
from the floor level to the doorway at the jog in the west wall, and a 10″
offset in the north end of the east wall. In room 20 there was an irregular
wall 11″ high and c. 10″ thick parallel to and 2″ west of the east
wall of the room. No wooden sills, lintels, or uprights were found in
Bc 51.