Cosmos Mindeleff - Casa Grande Ruin
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Cosmos Mindeleff >> Casa Grande Ruin
[Footnote 1: A Study of Pueblo Architecture; 8th Ann. Rep. Bur.
Eth., 1891, pp. 86, 227, and elsewhere.]
An inspection of the map will show a number of depressions, some of
quite large area, indicated by dotted contour lines. The principal one
occurs a little west of the center of the area, and is worth more than a
passing notice since similar structures are widely distributed
throughout this region. It may be roughly characterized as a mound with
excavated center. The ground for some distance about the structure
(except for two depressions discussed later) is quite flat. From this
flat surface as a base the structure rises to a height of 5 feet. From
the exterior it has the appearance of an ordinary mound, but on reaching
the top the interior is found to be hollowed out to a depth which even
at the present day is below the surrounding surface, although not below
the depressions adjoining. The main structure or mound is shown in
figure 329 (an enlargement from the map). It measures on top of the
crest 150 feet from north to south and about 80 feet from east to west,
but covers a ground area of 200 feet by 120 feet or over half an acre.
The crest is of the same height throughout, except for slight elevations
on the eastern and western sides and a little knoll or swell in the
southwestern corner. There is no indication of any break in the
continuity of the crest such as would be found were there openings or
gateways to the interior. The bottom of the depression in the main
structure is at present about a foot below the surrounding ground
surface, but it must have been originally considerably more than this,
as the profile indicates long exposure to atmospheric erosion and
consequent filling of the interior. No excavation was made and the
character of the construction can not be determined, but the mound is
apparently a simple earth structure--not laid up in blocks, like the
Casa Grande ruin.
[Illustration: Fig. 329.--Map of hollow mound.]
[Illustration: Pl. LIII: General View of Casa Grande.]
To the east and to the west are two large depressions, each about 5 feet
below the surrounding ground surface, evidently the places whence the
material for the construction of the mound was obtained. Yet the amount
of material removed from these excavations must have been considerably
in excess of that used in the construction of the mound, and this excess
was doubtless utilized in neighboring constructions, since it is hardly
to be supposed that it was carried away to any considerable distance.
The purpose of this hollow mound, which is a fair type of many similar
structures found in this region, is not clear. Mr. Frank Hamilton
Cushing, while director of the Hemenway southwestern archeological
expedition, found a number of these structures and excavated some of
them. From remains thus found he concluded that they were sun-temples,
as he termed them, and that they were covered with a roof made of coiled
strands of grass, after a manner analogous to that in which pueblo
baskets are made. A somewhat similar class of structures was found by
the writer on the upper Rio Verde, but these were probably thrashing
floors. Possibly the structure under discussion was for a similar
purpose, yet its depth in proportion to its size was almost too great
for such use. The question must be left for determination if possible by
excavation.
In the southern central part of the map is shown another excavation,
covering a larger area than any of the others, of very irregular outline
and from 3 to 4 feet deep. It is apparently older than the others and
probably furnished the material for the house structures northeast and
southwest of it. Bordering the depression on the south there are some
low mounds, almost obliterated, which probably were the sites of other
house structures.
Scattered about the area shown on the map there are several small
depressions, usually more regular in outline than those described. The
best example is situated near the northeastern corner of the area. It is
situated in the point of a low promontory, is about 3 feet deep, almost
regularly oval in outline, and measures about 50 by 100 feet. A similar
depression less than 2 feet deep occurs near the northwest corner of the
area, and immediately south of the last there is another, more irregular
in outline, and nearly 3 feet deep. There are also some small
depressions in the immediate vicinity of the Casa Grande ruin and of the
mounds north of it.
With a single exception none of these depressions are so situated that
they could be used as reservoirs for the storage of water collected from
the surface, and the catchment area of the depressions is so small and
the rate of evaporation in this area so great that their use as
reservoirs is out of the question. It is probable that all of the
smaller depressions represent simply sites where building material was
obtained. Possibly the ground at these points furnished more suitable
material than elsewhere, and, if so, the builders may have taken the
trouble to transport it several hundred yards rather than follow the
usual practice of using material within a few feet of the site. This
hypothesis would explain the large size of the depressions, otherwise an
anomalous feature.
CASA GRANDE RUIN.
_State of Preservation._
The area occupied by the Casa Grande ruin is insignificant as compared
with that of the entire group, yet it has attracted the greater
attention because it comprises practically all the walls still standing.
There is only one small fragment of wall east of the main structure and
another south of it.
The ruin is especially interesting because it is the best preserved
example now remaining of a type of structure which, there is reason to
believe, was widely distributed throughout the Gila valley, and which,
so far as now known, is not found elsewhere. The conditions under which
pueblo architecture developed in the north were peculiar, and stamped
themselves indelibly on the house structures there found. Here in the
south there is a radical change in physical environment: even the
available building material was different, and while it is probable that
a systematic investigation of this field will show essentially the same
ideas that in the north are worked out in stone, here embodied in a
different material and doubtless somewhat modified to suit the changed
environment, yet any general conclusion based on the study of a single
ruin would be unsafe. In the present state of knowledge of this field it
is not advisable to attempt more than a detailed description, embodying,
however, a few inferences, applicable to this ruin only, which seem well
supported by the evidence obtained.
The Casa Grande ruin is located near the southwestern corner of the
group, and the ground surface for miles about it in every direction is
so flat that from the summit of the walls an immense stretch of country
is brought under view. On the east is the broad valley of Gila river
rising in a great plain to a distant range of mountains. About a mile
and a half toward the north a fringe of cottonwood trees marks the
course of the river, beyond which the plain continues, broken somewhat
by hills and buttes, until the view is closed by the Superstition
mountains. On the northwest the valley of Gila river runs into the
horizon, with a few buttes here and there. On the west lies a range of
mountains closing the valley in that direction, while toward the
southwest and south it extends until in places it meets the horizon,
while in other places it is closed by ranges of mountain blue and misty
in the distance. In an experience of some years among northern ruins,
many of them located with special reference to outlook over tillable
lands, the writer has found no other ruin so well situated as this.
The character of the site occupied by the ruin indicates that it belongs
to a late date if not to the final period in the occupancy of this
region, a period when by reason of natural increase of numbers, or
perhaps aggregation of related gentes, the defense motive no longer
dominated the selection of a village site, but reliance was placed on
numbers and character of structures, and the builders felt free to
select a site with reference only to their wants as a horticultural
people. This period or stage has been reached by many of the Pueblo
tribes, although mostly within the historical period; but some of them,
the Tusayan for example, are still in a prior stage.
[Illustration: Pl. LIV: Standing Wall near Casa Grande.]
A ground plan of the ruin is shown in plate LII, and a general view in
plate LIII. The area covered and inclosed by standing walls is about 43
feet by 59 feet, but the building is not exactly rectangular, and the
common statement that it faces the cardinal points is erroneous. The
variation from the magnetic north is shown on the ground plan, which was
made in December, 1890. The building comprised three central rooms, each
approximately 10 by 24 feet, arranged side by side with the longer axes
north and south, and two other rooms, each about 9 by 35 feet, occupying
respectively the northern and southern ends of the building, and
arranged transversely across the ends of the central rooms, with the
longer axes running east and west. Except the central room, which was
three stories in height, all the rooms were two stories above the
ground. The northeastern and southeastern corners of the structure have
fallen, and large blocks of the material of which they were composed are
strewn upon the ground in the vicinity. It is probable that the
destruction of these corners prior to that of the rest of the building
was due to the disintegration of minor walls connected with them and
extending, as shown by the ridges on the ground plan, northward from the
northeastern corner and eastward from the southeastern corner. These
walls doubtless formed part of the original structure and were probably
erected with it; otherwise the corners of the main structure would not
have been torn out or strained enough to fall before the rest of the
building was affected.
It is not likely that the main building originally stood alone as at
present. On the contrary there is every reason to suppose that it was
connected with other buildings about 75 feet east of it, now marked by a
bit of standing wall shown on the map (plate LI), and probably also with
a small structure about 170 feet south of it, shown in plate LIV. These
connections seem to have been by open courts inclosed by walls and not
by continuous buildings. The court east of the ruin is well marked by
the contours and seems to have been entered by a gateway or opening at
its southeastern corner.
_Dimensions._
It is probable that the area immediately adjacent to the ruin, and now
covered by mounds, carried buildings of the same time with the main
structure and was occupied contemporaneously with it or nearly so. This
area, well marked on the map, measures about 400 feet north and south,
and 240 feet east and west. It is not rectangular, although the eastern
and western sides, now marked by long ridges, are roughly parallel. The
northeastern corner does not conform to a rectangular plan, and the
southern side is not more than half closed by the low ridge which
extends partly across it. This area is doubtless the one measured in
1776, by Padre Font, whose description, was copied by later writers, and
whose measurements were applied by Humboldt and others to the ruin
itself. Font gave his measurements as those of a circumscribing wall,
and his inference has been adopted by many, in fact most, later writers.
A circumscribing wall is an anomalous feature, in the experience of the
writer, and a close inspection of the general map will show that Font's
inference is hardly justified by the condition of the remains today. It
seems more likely that the area in question was covered by groups of
buildings and rows of rooms, connected by open courts, and forming an
outline sometimes regular for a considerable distance, but more often
irregular, after the manner of pueblo structures today. The long north
and south ridge which forms the southeastern corner of the area, with
other ridges extending westward, is quite wide on top, wide enough to
accommodate a single row of rooms of the same width as those of the
ruin, and it is hardly reasonable to suppose that a wall would be built
10 or 12 feet wide when one of 4 feet would serve every purpose to which
it could possibly be put. Furthermore, the supposition of an inclosing
wall does not leave any reasonable explanation of the transverse ridges
above mentioned, nor of the long ridge which runs southward from the
southeastern corner of the ruin.
The exterior walls rise to a height of from 20 to 25 feet above the
ground. This height accommodated two stories, but the top of the wall is
now 1 to 2 feet higher than the roof level of the second story. The
middle room or space was built up three stories high and the walls are
now 28 to 30 feet above the ground level. The tops of the walls, while
rough and much eroded, are approximately level. The exterior surface of
the walls is rough, as shown in the illustrations, but the interior
walls of the rooms are finished with a remarkable degree of smoothness,
so much so as to attract the attention of everyone who has visited the
ruin. Mange, who saw the ruin with Padre Font in 1697, says the walls
shine like Puebla pottery, and they still retain this finish wherever
the surface has not cracked off. This fine finish is shown in a number
of illustrations herewith. The walls are not of even thickness. At the
ground level the exterior wall is from 31/2 to 41/2 feet thick, and in one
place at the southern end of the eastern wall, is a trifle over 5 feet
thick. The interior walls are from 3 to 4 feet thick at base. At the top
the walls are reduced to about 2 feet thick, partly by setbacks or steps
at the floor levels, partly by exterior batter, the interior wall
surface being approximately vertical. Some writers, noting the
inclination of the outer wall surface, and not seeing the interior, have
inferred that the walls leaned considerably away from the perpendicular.
This inference has been strengthened, in some cases, by an examination
of the interior, for the inner wall surface, while finely finished, is
not by any means a plane surface, being generally concave in each room;
yet a line drawn from floor level to floor level would be very nearly
vertical. The building was constructed by crude methods, thoroughly
aboriginal in character, and there is no uniformity in its measurements.
The walls, even in the same room, are not of even thickness, the floor
joists were seldom on a straight line, and measurements made at similar
places, e.g., the two ends of a room, seldom agree.
[Illustration: Pl. LV: West Front of Casa Grande Ruin.]
A series of precise measurements gives the following results: Outside
eastern wall, at level 3 feet above center of depressed area adjoining
the ruin on the east, 59 feet; western wall at same level, 59 feet 1
inch; northern and southern walls, at same level, 42 and 43 feet
respectively. These measurements are between points formed by the
intersection of the wall lines; the northeastern and southeastern
corners having fallen, the actual length of standing wall is less. At
the level stated the northern wall measures but 34 feet 4 inches, and
the southern wall 36 feet 10 inches. A similar irregularity is found in
the interior measurements of rooms. The middle room is marked by an
exceptional departure from regularity in shape and dimensions. Both the
east and west walls are bowed eastward, making the western wall convex
and the eastern wall concave in reference to the room.
Precise measurements of the middle room at the second floor level, 8
feet above the base previously stated, are as follows: Eastern side, 24
feet 81/2 inches; western side, 24 feet 2 inches; northern side, 9 feet 31/2
inches; southern side, 9 feet 1 inch. The eastern room is a little more
regular, but there is a difference of 11 inches between the measurements
of the northern and southern ends. A similar difference is found in the
western room, amounting there to 6 inches. The northern and southern
rooms do not afford as good bases for comparison, as a corner is missing
in each; but measurements to a point where the interior wall surfaces
would intersect if prolonged, show variations of from 6 inches to a
foot. The statement that the ruin exhibits exceptional skill in
construction on the part of the builders, is not, therefore, supported
by facts.
_Detailed Description._
The Casa Grande ruin is often referred to as an adobe structure. Adobe
construction, if we limit the word to its proper meaning, consists of
the use of molded brick, dried in the sun but not baked. Adobe, as thus
defined, is very largely used throughout the southwest, more than nine
out of ten houses erected by the Mexican population and many of those
erected by the Pueblo Indians being so constructed; but, in the
experience of the writer, it is never found in the older ruins, although
seen to a limited extent in ruins known to belong to a period subsequent
to the Spanish conquest. Its discovery, therefore, in the Casa Grande
would be important; but no trace of it can be found. The walls are
composed of huge blocks of earth, 3 to 5 feet long, 2 feet high, and 3
to 4 feet thick. These blocks were not molded and placed in situ, but
were manufactured in place. The method adopted was probably the erection
of a framework of canes or light poles, woven with reeds or grass,
forming two parallel surfaces or planes, some 3 or 4 feet apart and
about 5 feet long. Into this open box or trough was rammed clayey earth
obtained from the immediate vicinity and mixed with water to a heavy
paste. When the mass was sufficiently dry, the framework was moved along
the wall and the operation repeated. This is the typical pise or
rammed-earth construction, and in the hands of skilled workmen it
suffices for the construction of quite elaborate buildings. As here
used, however, the appliances were rude and the workmen unskilled. An
inspection of the illustrations herewith, especially of plate LV,
showing the western wall of the ruin, will indicate clearly how this
work was done. The horizontal lines, marking what may be called courses,
are very well defined, and, while the vertical joints are not apparent
in the illustration, a close inspection of the wall itself shows them.
It will be noticed that the builders were unable to keep straight
courses, and that occasional thin courses were put in to bring the wall
up to a general level. This is even more noticeable in other parts of
the ruin. It is probable that as the walls rose the exterior surface was
smoothed with the hand or with some suitable implement, but it was not
carefully finished like the interior, nor was it treated like the latter
with a specially prepared material. The material employed for the walls
was admirably suited for the purpose, being when dry almost as hard as
sandstone and practically indestructible. The manner in which such walls
disintegrate under atmospheric influences has already been set forth in
detail in this report. An inhabited structure with walls like these
would last indefinitely, provided occupancy continued and a few slight
repairs, which would accompany occupancy, were made at the conclusion of
each rainy season. When abandoned, however, sapping at the ground level
would commence, and would in time level all the walls; yet in the two
centuries which have elapsed since Padre Kino's visit--and the Casa
Grande was then a ruin--there has been but little destruction, the
damage done by relic hunters in the last twenty years being in fact much
greater than that wrought by the elements in the preceding two
centuries. The relic hunters seem to have had a craze for wood, as the
lintels of openings and even the stumps of floor joists have been torn
out and carried away. The writer has been reliably informed that as late
as twenty years ago a portion of the floor or roof in one of the rooms
was still in place, but at the present day nothing is left of the floors
except marks on the vertical walls, and a few stumps of floor joists,
deeply imbedded in the walls, and so high that they can not be seen from
the ground.
[Illustration: Pl. LVI: Interior Wall of Casa Grande Ruin.]
The floors of the rooms, which were also the roofs of the rooms below,
were of the ordinary pueblo type, employed also today by the American
and Mexican population of this region. In the Casa Grande ruin a series
of light joists or heavy poles was laid across the shorter axis of the
room at the time the walls were erected; these poles were 3 to 6 inches
in diameter, not selected or laid with unusual care, as the holes in the
side walls which mark the places they occupied are seldom in a straight
line, and their shape often indicates that the poles were quite crooked.
Better executed examples of the same construction are often found in
northern ruins. Over the primary series of joists was placed a layer of
light poles, 11/2 to 2 inches in diameter, and over these reeds and coarse
grass were spread. The prints of the light poles can still be seen on
the walls. The floor or roof was then finished with a heavy coating of
clay, trodden down solid and smoothed to a level. A number of blocks of
this final floor finish, bearing the impress of the grass and reeds,
were found in the middle room. There is usually a setback in the wall at
the floor level, but this practice was not followed in all the rooms.
The position of the floor is well marked in all cases by holes in the
wall, into which beams projected sometimes to a depth of 3 feet, and by
a peculiar roughness of the wall. Plate LVI shows two floor levels, both
set back slightly and the upper one strongly marked by the roughness
mentioned. This roughness apparently marks the thickness of the floor in
some cases, yet in others it is much too thick for a floor and must have
had some other purpose. The relation of these marks to the beam holes
suggests that in some cases there was a low and probably narrow bench
around two or more sides of the room; such benches are often found in
the present Pueblo villages.
The walls of the northern room are fairly well preserved, except in the
northeastern corner, which has fallen. The principal floor beams were of
necessity laid north and south, across the shorter axis of the room,
while the secondary series of poles, 11/2 inches in diameter, have left
their impression in the eastern and western walls. There is no setback
in the northern wall at the first floor level, though there is a very
slight one in the southern wall; none appears in the eastern and western
walls. Yet in the second roof level there is a double setback of 9 and 5
inches in the western wall, and the northern wall has a setback of 9
inches, and the top of the wall still shows the position of nearly all
the roof timbers. This suggests--and the suggestion is supported by
other facts to be mentioned later--that the northern room was added
after the completion of the rest of the edifice.
The second roof or third floor level, the present top of the wall, has a
decided pitch outward, amounting to nearly 5 inches. Furthermore, the
outside of the northern wall of the middle room, above the second roof
level of the northern room, is very much eroded. This indicates that the
northern room never had a greater height than two stories, but probably
the walls were crowned with low parapets. In this connection it may be
stated that a calculation of the amount of debris within the building
and for a distance of 10 feet about it in every direction, the interior
floor level being determined by excavation, showed an amount of material
which, added to the walls, would raise them less than 3 feet; in other
words, the present height of the walls is very nearly the maximum
height.
Subsequent to this examination the ruin was cleared out by contractors
for the Government in carrying out a plan for the repair and
preservation of the ruin, and it was reported that in one of the rooms a
floor level below that previously determined was found, making an
underground story or cellar. This would but slightly modify the
foregoing conclusion, as the additional debris would raise the walls
less than a foot, and in the calculation no account was taken of
material removed from the surface of the walls.
In support of the hypothesis that the second roof level of the northern
room was the top roof, it may be stated that there is no trace of an
opening in the walls above that level, except on the western side. There
was a narrow opening in the western corner, but so well filled that it
is hardly perceptible. Doubtless it formed a niche or opening in the
parapet.
The southern wall on the first roof level still preserves very clear and
distinct impressions of the rushes which were used in the construction
of the roof. In some cases these impressions occur 3 inches above the
top of the floor beams, in others directly above them, showing that the
secondary series of poles was very irregularly placed. In the eastern
and western walls the impressions of rushes are also clear, but there
they are parallel with the wall surface. The rushes were about the
thickness of a pencil.
