Part 20 (1/2)
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 80. A large Tusayan doorway with small transom openings.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 81. A doorway and double transom in Walpi.]
The transom bars over exterior doorways of houses probably bear some relation to a feature seen in some of the best preserved ruins and still surviving to some extent in Tusayan practice. This consists of a straight pole, usually of the same dimensions as the poles of which the lintel is made, extending across the opening from 2 to 6 inches below the main lintel, and fixed into the masonry in a position to serve as a curtain pole. Originally this pole undoubtedly served as a means of suspension for the blanket or skin rug used in closing the opening, just as such means are now used in the huts of the Navajo, as well as occasionally in the houses of Tusayan. The s.p.a.ce above this cross stick answered the same purpose as the transoms of the present time.
A most striking feature of doorways is the occasional departure from the quadrangular form, seen in some ruined villages and also in some of the modern houses of Tusayan. Fig. 82 ill.u.s.trates a specimen of this type found in a small cliff ruin, in Canyon de Ch.e.l.ly. Ancient examples of this form of opening are distinguished by a symmetrical disposition of the step in the jamb, while the modern doors are seldom so arranged.
A modern example from Mashongnavi is shown in Fig. 83. This opening also ill.u.s.trates the double or divided transom. The beam ends shown in the figure project beyond the face of the wall and support an overhanging coping or cornice. A door-like window, approximating the symmetrical form described, is seen immediately over the pa.s.sage-way shown in Pl.
XXII. This form is evidently the result of the partial closing of a larger rectangular opening.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 82. An ancient doorway in Canyon de Ch.e.l.ly cliff ruin.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 83. A symmetrically notched doorway in Mashongnavi.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XCIII. Upright blocks of sandstone built into an ancient pueblo wall.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 84. A Tusayan notched doorway.]
Fig. 84 shows the usual type of terraced doorway in Tusayan, in which one jamb is stepped at a considerably greater height than the other.
In Tusayan large openings occur in which only one jamb is stepped, producing an effect somewhat of that of the large balcony openings with flights of stone steps at one side, previously ill.u.s.trated. An opening of this form is shown in Fig. 85. Both of the stepped doorways, ill.u.s.trated above, are provided with transom openings extending from one roof beam to another. In the absence of a movable door the openings were made of the smallest size consistent with convenient use. The stepped form was very likely suggested by the temporary partial blocking up of an opening with loose, flat stones in such a manner as to least impair its use. This is still quite commonly done, large openings being often seen in which the lower portion on one or both sides is narrowed by means of adobe bricks or stones loosely piled up. In this connection it may be noted that the secondary lintel pole, previously described as occurring in both ancient and modern doorways, serves the additional purpose of a hand-hold when supplies are brought into the house on the backs of the occupants. The stepping of the doorway, while diminis.h.i.+ng its exposed area, does not interfere with its use in bringing in large bundles, etc. Series of steps, picked into the faces of the cliffs, and affording access to cliff dwellings, frequently have a supplementary series of narrow and deep cavities that furnish a secure hold for the hands. The requirements of the precipitous environment of these people have led to the carrying of loads of produce, fuel, etc., on the back by means of a suspending band pa.s.sed across the forehead; this left the hands free to aid in the difficult task of climbing. These conditions seem to have brought about the use, in some cases, of handholds in the marginal frames of interior trapdoors as an aid in climbing the ladder.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 85. A large Tusayan doorway with one notched jamb.]
One more characteristic type of the ancient pueblo doorway remains to be described. During the autumn of 1883, when the ruined pueblo of Kin-tiel was surveyed, a number of excavations were made in and about the pueblo.
A small room on the east side, near the brink of the arroyo that traverses the ruin from east to west, was completely cleared out, exposing its fireplace, the stone paving of its floor, and other details of construction. Built into an inner part.i.tion of this room was found a large slab of stone, pierced with a circular hole of sufficient size for a man to squeeze through. This slab was set on edge and incorporated into the masonry of the part.i.tion, and evidently served as a means of communication with another room. The position of this doorway and its relation to the room in which it occurs may be seen from the ill.u.s.tration in Pl. C, which shows the stone in situ. The doorway or stone-close is shown in Fig. 86 on a sufficient scale to indicate the degree of technical skill in the architectural treatment of stone possessed by the builders of this old pueblo. The writer visited Zui in October of the same season, and on describing this find to Mr. Frank H.
Cus.h.i.+ng, learned that the Zui Indians still preserved traditional knowledge of this device. Mr. Cus.h.i.+ng kindly furnished at the time the following extract from the tale of The Deer-Slayer and the Wizards, a Zui folk-tale of the early occupancy of the valley of Zui.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XCIV. Ancient wall of upright rocks in southwestern Colorado.]
How will they enter? said the young man to his wife. Through the stone-close at the side, she answered. In the days of the ancients, the doorways were often made of a great slab of stone with a round hole cut through the middle, and a round stone slab to close it, which was called the stone-close, that the enemy might not enter in times of war.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 86. An ancient circular doorway or stone-close in Kin-tiel.]
Mr. Cus.h.i.+ng had found displaced fragments of such circular stone doorways at ruins some distance northwest from Zui, but had been under the impression that they were used as roof openings. All examples of this device known to the writer as having been found in place occurred in side walls of rooms. Mr. E. W. Nelson, while making collections of pottery from ruins near Springerville, Arizona, found and sent to the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution, in the autumn of 1884, a flat stone about 18 inches square with a round hole cut in the middle of it. This stone was taken from the wall of one of the old ruined stone houses near Springerville, in an Indian ruin. The stone was set in the wall between two inner rooms of the ruin, and evidently served as a means of communication or perhaps a ventilator. I send it on mainly as an example of their stone-working craft. The position of this feature in the excavated room of Kin-tiel is indicated on the ground plan, Fig. 60, which also shows the position of other details seen in the general view of the room, Pl. C.
A small fragment of a stone-close doorway was found incorporated into the masonry of a flight of outside stone steps at Pescado, indicating its use in some neighboring ruin, thus bringing it well within the Cibola district. Another point at which similar remains have been brought to light is the pueblo of Halona, just across the river from the present Zui. Mr. F. Webb Hodge, recently connected with the Hemenway Southwestern Archeological Exposition, under the direction of Mr. F. H.
Cus.h.i.+ng, describes this form of opening as being of quite common occurrence in the rooms of this long-buried pueblo. Here the doorways are a.s.sociated with the round slabs used for closing them. The latter were held in place by props within the room. No slabs of this form were seen at Kin-tiel, but quite possibly some of the large slabs of nearly rectangular form, found within this ruin, may have served the same purpose. It would seem more reasonable to use the rectangular slabs for this purpose when the openings were conveniently near the floors.
No example of the stone-close has as yet been found in Tusayan.
The annular doorway described above affords the only instance known to the writer where access openings were closed with a rigid device of aboriginal invention; and from the character of its material this device was necessarily restricted to openings of small size. The larger rectangular doorways, when not partly closed by masonry, probably were covered only with blankets or skin rugs suspended from the lintel.
In the discussion of sealed windows modern examples resembling the stone-close device will be noted, but these are usually employed in a more permanent manner.
The small size of the ordinary pueblo doorway was perhaps due as much to the fact that there was no convenient means of closing it as it was to defensive reasons. Many primitive habitations, even quite rude ones built with no intention of defense, are characterized by small doors and windows. The planning of dwellings and the distribution of openings in such a manner as to protect and render comfortable the inhabited rooms implies a greater advance in architectural skill than these builders had achieved.
The inconveniently small size of the doorways of the modern pueblos is only a survival of ancient conditions. The use of full-sized doors, admitting a man without stooping, is entirely practicable at the present day, but the conservative builders persist in adhering to the early type. The ancient position of the door, with its sill at a considerable height from the ground, is also retained. From the absence of any convenient means of rigidly closing the doors and windows, in early times external openings were restricted to the smallest practicable dimensions. The convenience of these openings was increased without altering their dimensions by elevating them to a certain height above the ground. In the ruin of Kin-tiel there is marked uniformity in the height of the openings above the ground, and such openings were likely to be quite uniform when used for similar purposes. The most common elevation of the sills of doorways was such that a man could readily step over at one stride. It will be seen that the same economy of s.p.a.ce has effected the use of windows in this system of architecture.
WINDOWS.
In the pueblo system of building, doors and windows are not always clearly differentiated. Many of the openings, while used for access to the dwellings, also answer all the purposes of windows, and, both in their form and in their position in the walls, seem more fully to meet the requirements of openings for the admission of light and air than for access. We have seen in the ill.u.s.trations in Chapters III and IV, openings of considerable size so located in the face of the outer wall as to unfit them for use as doorways, and others whose size is wholly inadequate, but which are still provided with the typical though diminutive single-paneled door. Many of these small openings, occurring most frequently in the back walls of house rows, have the jambs, lintels, etc., characteristic of the typical modern door. However, as the drawings above referred to indicate, there are many openings concerning the use of which there can be no doubt, as they can only provide outlook, light, and air.