Cosmos Mindeleff - Casa Grande Ruin
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Cosmos Mindeleff >> Casa Grande Ruin
The floor joists were 3 to 4 inches in diameter, and as a rule projected
into the wall but 5 to 8 inches. In some places in the northern wall,
however, they extended into the masonry as much as 3 feet 3 inches. The
beams were doubtless cut by guess, at the place where trees of the
requisite size were found, according to the method employed by the
Pueblo Indians today, and if, as supposed, the northern room was built
after the rest of the structure, the excess in length would necessarily
be found in the northern wall.
In the roof construction previously described rushes or canes formed the
third member, and in the northern room the wall is rough immediately
above the impressions of rushes, and projects 8 to 12 inches. This
feature is well marked; it may be a remnant of the clay covering of
floor or roof, but it is almost too thick for that and possibly marks
the position of a low bench, as previously suggested. The bottoms of the
openings come just to or a trifle above the top of this marking.
[Illustration: Pl. LVII: Blocked Opening in West Wall.]
The walls of the western room were smoothly finished and the finish is
well preserved, but here, as in the northern room, the exterior wall of
the middle room was not finished above the second roof level, and there
is no doubt that two stories above the ground were the maximum height of
the western rooms, excluding the parapet. The eastern wall presents a
marked double convexity while the western wall is comparatively straight
in a horizontal line, but markedly concave vertically above the first
roof level. Below this level it is straight. The floor beams were from 3
to 6 inches in diameter. The marks in the eastern wall show that the
beams projected into it to a nearly uniform depth of 1 foot 4 inches. In
the western wall, however, the depth varies from 1 to 3 feet. The beams
which entered the eastern wall were very irregularly placed, the line
rising in the center some 3 or 4 inches. The beams of the second roof
level show the same irregularity and in the same place; possibly this
was done to correct a level, for the same feature is repeated in the
eastern room.
The walls of the southern room are perhaps better finished and less well
constructed than any others in the building. The beam holes in the
southern wall are regular, those in the northern wall less so. The beams
used averaged a little smaller than those in the other rooms, and there
is no trace whatever in the overhanging wall of the use of rushes or
canes in the construction of the roof above. The walls depart
considerably from vertical plane surfaces; the southern wall inclines
fully 12 inches inward, while in the northeastern corner the side of a
doorway projects fully 3 inches into the room. The broken condition of
the southern wall indicates carelessness in construction. The weakest
point in pise construction is of course the framing around openings. In
the southern wall the openings, being doubtless the first to give way,
are now almost completely obliterated. In the center of the wall there
were two openings, one above the other, but not a trace of lintels now
remains, and the eastern half of the wall now stands clear from other
walls. Probably there was also an opening near the southwestern corner
of the room, but the lintels giving way the wall above fell down and, as
shown on the ground plan (plate LII), filled up the opening. This could
happen only with exceptionally light lintels and exceptionally bad
construction of walls; one of the large blocks, before described as
composing the wall, must have rested directly above the opening, which
was practically the same size as the block.
The walls of the eastern room were well finished, and, except the
western wall, in fairly good preservation. The floor beams were not
placed in a straight line, but rise slightly near the middle, as noted
above. The finish of some of the openings suggests that the floor was
but 3 or 4 inches above the beams, and that the roughened surface,
already mentioned, was not part of it. The northern wall of this room
seems to have run through to the outside, on the east, as though at one
time it formed the exterior wall of the structure; and the eastern wall
of the building north of this room is separated from the rest of the
wall by a wide crack, as though it had been built against a smooth
surface. The western wall of this room shows clearly that in the
construction of the building the floor beams were laid on the tops of
the walls, and that the intervening spaces were filled with small lumps
of material up to a level with or a little above the upper surface of
the beams, the regular construction with large blocks being then
resumed.
In the middle room many blocks bearing the imprint of grass and rushes
were found, and the rough marking of the walls just above the floor
beams is covered in places in this room with masonry composed of these
grass marked blocks projecting some distance into the room, indicating
that in this room at least they mark the position of a bench. These
blocks occupy the whole thickness of the setback at the second roof
level--perhaps an indication that the upper story was added after the
building was occupied.
_Openings._
The Casa Grande was well provided with doorways and other openings
arranged in pairs one above the other. There were doorways from each
room into each adjoining room, except that the middle room was entered
only from the east. Some of the openings were not used and were closed
with blocks of solid masonry built into them long prior to the final
abandonment of the ruin.
The middle room had three doorways, one above the other, all opening
eastward. The lowest doorway opened directly on the floor level, and was
2 feet wide, with vertical sides. Its height could not be determined, as
the top was completely broken away and merged with the opening above,
but the bottom, which is also the floor level, is 6 feet 9 inches below
the level of the first roof beams. The doorway of the second story is
preserved only on the northern side. Its bottom, still easily
distinguishable, is 1 foot 6 inches above the bottom of the floor beams.
It was not over 2 feet wide and was about 4 feet high. The upper doorway
is still well preserved, except that the lintels are gone. It is about
three inches narrower at the top than at the bottom and about 4 feet
high.
In addition to its three doorways, all in the eastern wall, the middle
tier of rooms was well provided with niches and holes in the walls, some
of them doubtless utilized as outlooks. On the left of the upper doorway
are two holes, a foot apart, about 4 inches in diameter, and smoothly
finished. Almost directly above these some 3 feet, and about 2 feet
higher than the top of the door, there are two similar holes. Near the
southern end of the room in the same wall there is another round opening
a trifle larger and about 41/2 feet above the floor level. In the western
wall there are two similar openings, and there is one each in the
northern and southern walls. All these openings are circular, of small
diameter, and are in the upper or third story, as shown on the
elevations herewith, figure 330. The frequency of openings in the upper
or third story and their absence on lower levels, except the specially
arranged openings described later, supports the hypothesis that none of
the rooms except the middle one were ever more than two stories high and
that the wall remains above the second roof level represent a low
parapet.
[Illustration: Pl. LVIII: Square Opening in South Room.]
In the second story, or middle room of the middle tier, there were no
openings except the doorway in the eastern wall and two small orifices
in the western wall. In the middle of this wall there is a niche about
18 inches below the roof, and a foot below this is a round-cornered
opening measuring about 7 by 8 inches extending through the wall. This
opening was on a level with another in the western wall of the western
room, and commanded a far-reaching though contracted view toward the
west. Below and a little northward is a similar though somewhat larger
opening corresponding to an opening in the western wall of the western
room.
[Illustration: Fig. 330.--Elevations of walls, middle room.]
The upper doorway in the western wall of the western room is much broken
out, but the top can still be traced. It was 4 feet 51/2 inches in height
and 1 foot 11 inches wide at top. The opening was blocked by solid
masonry built into it and completely filling it up to within 10 inches
of the top. This upper space, which is on a level with the upper hole in
the middle room, seems to have been purposely left to allow an outlook
from that room. The filling block is level on top and flush with the
wall inside and out. At a height of 12 inches above the lower edge of
the floor beams below it, and perhaps 3 inches above the floor, is the
lower edge of a roughly square opening a foot across, cut out from the
block itself and inclined slightly downward toward the exterior. It was
plastered and smoothly finished. This opening corresponds to the one in
the middle room already described. This filling block, with the orifice
under discussion, is shown in figure 330, and in detail in plate LVII.
The lower doorway, shown in figure 330, is much broken out, and although
now but 2 feet 11/2 inches wide at its narrowest part, no trace of the
original surface remains on the northern side. The opening was 4 feet 61/2
inches high and probably less than 2 feet wide, with vertical sides.
In the western wall of the southern room there was but one opening. This
is about 9 inches square, finished smoothly, and occurs in the upper
room, about 6 feet 5 inches above the floor. It is shown in plate LVIII.
The doorway between this room and the western room was smoothly finished
and is in good order except the top, which is entirely gone. It was
covered with double lintels made of poles 2 to 4 inches in diameter, the
lower series about 3 inches above the top of the door. The opening was
originally filled in like that described above, leaving only 8 or 10
inches of the upper part open. The lower part of the block was pierced
by a square hole, like that in the western room, but this has weathered
or been broken out and the block has slipped down, so that now its top
is 1 foot 51/2 inches below what was formerly the top of the opening. The
top of the filling block is still smooth and finished and shows across
its entire width a series of prints probably of flat sticks about an
inch and a half wide, though, possibly these are marks of some finishing
tool. The marks run north and south.
The opening below the one just described was so much filled up at the
time of examination that none of its features could be determined,
except that it was bridged by two tiers of sticks of the usual size as
lintels. The subsequent excavation before referred to, however,
apparently disclosed an opening similar to the one described, and, like
it, filled nearly to the top with a large block.
A little west of the middle of the northern wall there are three niches,
arranged side by side and about 61/2 feet above the first roof beams. The
niches are 10 inches high, a foot wide, and about a foot deep, and are
about 8 inches apart. They are smoothly finished and plastered, but were
roughly made.
The eastern opening in the northern wall, opening into the east room, is
well preserved except the top, which is missing. It measured 4 feet 21/2
inches in height and 1 foot 11 inches wide at the bottom, the top being
nearly an inch narrower. It carried two tiers of lintels of medium size.
The gap in the southern wall of the southern room, shown in the plan,
though now open from the ground up, represents the location of two
doorways, one above the other. Remains of both of these can still be
seen on the ends of the walls. No measurements can be obtained. The
large fallen block near the southwestern corner of the room, which
undoubtedly slipped down from above, shows a finished surface at the
ground level inside, but above it no trace of an opening can be seen,
possibly because the ends of the walls above are much eroded.
[Illustration: Pl. LIX: Remains of Lintels.]
The upper opening in the eastern wall of the eastern room was apparently
capped with a single lintel composed of five sticks 4 to 6 inches in
diameter laid level on the top of a course of masonry. The bottom of the
opening is filled either with washed-down material or with the remains
of a block such as that previously described. This opening is the most
irregular one in the building, the top being nearly 4 inches narrower
than the bottom, but the northern side of the opening is vertical, the
southern side only being inclined inward. The opening was 4 feet 11
inches high and 1 foot 81/2 inches wide at the bottom. The opening
immediately below that described, which was the ground floor entrance
from the east, is so much broken out that no evidence remains of its
size and character. There appears to have been only one row of lintel
poles.
The eastern opening in the southern wall of the northern room is well
preserved, the lintels having been torn out by relic hunters without
much destruction of the surrounding masonry. It was neatly finished, and
its bottom, was probably a little above the first roof level. The edges
of the openings were made straight with flat sticks, either used as
implements or incorporated into the structure, and forming almost
perfectly straight edges. Marks of the same method of construction or
finish are apparent in all the other openings, but the remains are not
so well preserved as in this instance. Possibly the immediate lintels of
openings were formed of thin flat sticks, as the lintel poles are often
some inches above the top of the opening. In this opening the supporting
lintel was formed of a number of poles 2 to 4 inches in diameter,
irregularly placed, sometimes two or three in vertical series with very
little filling between them. This construction has been characterized as
a Norman arch. The opening was originally 1 foot 11 inches at the top
and 4 feet 6 inches high. The bottom is 11/2 inches wider than the top.
The upper opening in the western end of the southern wall is much like
that just described. A small fragment of masonry above the lintel
remains, and this is within a quarter of an inch of the top of the
opening. Above the opening there was a series of rough lintel poles, 3
to 5 inches in diameter, arranged in three tiers with 4 to 6 inches of
filling between them. Prints of these sticks are left in the wall and
show that some of them were quite crooked. Probably they were of
mesquite, obtained from the immediate vicinity. The edges of the
openings were finished with flat sticks, like those described, and its
bottom was 6 inches to a foot above the floor. The height of the opening
was 4 feet 3 inches and its width at the top 2 feet, at the bottom 2
feet 11/2 inches.
The opening immediately below the last described is filled with debris
to the level of the lintel. Above this, however, there is a series of
three tiers of sticks with 6 to 8 inches of masonry between them
vertically, sometimes laid side by side, sometimes separated by a foot
of masonry. Some of these lintel poles, as well as those of the opening
above it, extend 3 feet into the wall, others only a few inches. The
lower sides or bottoms of the holes are washed with pink clay, the same
material used for surfacing the interior walls. Perhaps this was merely
the wetting used to make succeeding courses of clay stick better. This
opening is shown in plate LIX.
Near the middle of the northern wall there are two openings, one above
the other. The upper opening was finished in the same manner as those
already described. But two tiers of poles show above it, though the top
is well preserved, and another tier may be buried in the wall. There are
indications that the opening was closed by a block about 2 feet thick
and flush with the outside. The height of the opening was 4 feet 5
inches, width at top 1 foot 41/2 inches, and at the bottom 1 foot 10
inches. It narrows a little from north to south.
The lower opening is so much broken out that little remains to show its
character. There is a suggestion that the opening was only 2 feet high,
and there were probably three tiers of lintels above the opening, the
top of which was 21/2 feet below the roof beams, but the evidence is not
so clear as in the other instances.
In the middle of the western wall, at a height of 5 feet 8 inches above
the first roof level, there is a large, roughly circular opening or
window, 14 inches in diameter. This is shown in plate LX. It is smoothly
finished, and enlarges, slightly, outward.
CONCLUSIONS.
As before stated, any conclusions drawn from a study of the Casa Grande
itself, and not checked by examination of other similar or analogous
ruins, can not be considered as firmly established, yet they have a
suggestive value.
From the character of the remains it seems probable that the site of the
ruins here designated as the Casa Grande group was occupied a long time,
not as a whole, but piecemeal as it were, one part being occupied and
abandoned while some other part was being built up, and that this ebb
and flow of population through many generations reached its final period
in the occupation of the structure here termed the Casa Grande ruin. It
is probable that this structure did not exist at the time the site was
first occupied, and still more probable that all or nearly all the other
sites were abandoned for some time before the structure now called the
Casa Grande was erected. It is also probable that after the abandonment
of the Casa Grande the ground about it was still worked by its former
population, who temporarily occupied, during the horticultural season,
farming outlooks located near it.
[Illustration: Pl. LX: Circular Opening in North Room.]
The methods employed in the construction of the buildings of the Casa
Grande were thoroughly aboriginal and characteristically rude in
application. A fair degree of adaptability to purpose and environment is
seen, indicating that the Casa Grande was one, and not the first,
building of a series constructed by the people who erected it and by
their ancestors, but the degree of skill exhibited and amount of
ingenuity shown in overcoming difficulties do not compare with that
found in many northern ruins. As architects, the inhabitants of the Casa
Grande did not occupy the first rank among pueblo-builders.
It is probable that the Casa Grande ruin as we see it today shows very
nearly the full height of the structure as it stood when it was
abandoned. The middle tier of rooms rose to a height of three stories;
the others were but two stories high. It is also probable that the
building was enlarged after being once completed and occupied. At one
time it probably consisted of four rooms on the ground plan, each two
stories high. The northern tier, of rooms was added afterward, and
probably also the third room in the central tier.
The Casa Grande was undoubtedly built and occupied by a branch of the
Pueblo race, or by an allied people. Who these people were it is
impossible to determine finally from the examination of one ruin, but
all the evidence at hand suggests that they were the ancestors of the
present Pima Indians, now found in the vicinity and known to have
formerly been a pueblo-building tribe. This conclusion is supported by
the Pima traditions, as collected by Mr. Bandelier, who is intimately
acquainted with the documentary history of the southwest, and whose
knowledge of the Pima traditions is perhaps greater than that of anyone
else now living. In his various writings he hints at this connection,
and in one place he declares explicitly that the Casa Grande is a Pima
structure. None of the internal evidence of the ruin is at variance with
this conclusion. On the contrary, the scanty evidence is in accord with
the hypothesis that the Casa Grande was erected and occupied by the
ancestors of the Pima Indians.
INDEX
Adobe defined 309
Age of Casa Grande 299, 318
Bandelier, A. F., Description of Casa Grande by 297
Pima Casa-Grande tradition by 319
Bartlett, J. R., cited 296, 297
Casa Grande, Masonry of 306
Chichilticale, Description of 295
Cushing, F. H., Allusion by, to Casa Grande 297
southwestern sun-temples 305
Defensive motive of Casa Grande 307
Depressions, Artificial, at Casa Grande 303
Dimensions of Casa Grande 307
Doorways in Casa Grande 314
Emory, W. H., Visit of, to Casa Grande 297
Fewkes, J. W., Description of Casa Grande by 298
Floors of Casa Grande 311
Font, Pedro, Account of Casa Grande by 296
on dimensions of Casa Grande 307
Humboldt, A. von, on dimensions of Casa Grande 308
Johnston, Capt., Visit of to Casa Grande 297
Kino, Eusebio, Visit of, to Casa Grande 296
Lintels in Casa Grande 317
Mange, Juan M., on Casa Grande 296
Masonry of Casa Grande 309
Mindeleff, V., on pueblo farming outlooks 303
Mound surrounding Casa Grande 300
Photographs of Casa Grande compared 300
Pima, Casa Grande built by the 319
Population
of pueblos 300
Casa Grande 300
Rooms of Casa Grande, Dimensions of 307
Site of Casa Grande, Character of 306
Ternaux-Compans, Translation of Castaneda by 296
Thrashing Floors in Verde valley 305
Tradition of Pima, of Casa Grande 319
Walls of Casa Grande 308, 300, 313
Window-Openings in Casa Grande 314
Woodwork of Casa Grande 310, 312, 313
* * * * *
[Errata:
...no English translation has yet been published.)
_closing parenthesis missing in original_
Bancroft gives a partial translation in op. cit., p. 623, note,
_original reads_ p. 623, note),
thrashing floors
_spelling as in original (text and Index)_
(Index)
Casa Grande / Masonry of 306
_text reads_ 360]