Jesse Walter Fewkes

“ The megalithic dolmens of England exhibit no walls superior in masonry to massive walls in the mountain canyons of Utah and Arizona constructed before the advent of the whites. In other words it is evident that the architecture of a people is not wholly an index of stage of culture. If the prehistoric aborigines of our Southwest be judged by buildings we may say they had progressed in historic development into a stage attained by nations more advanced because they were acquainted with metals. ”

“ Passing over the earliest expression of architecture, where a hut or dugout shows few peculiar features but practically is universal among a seminomadic people, we come to durable houses built of clay or stone. Even in these small buildings we recognize two types of rooms—circular and rectangular. We find two distinct types of village communities, one occupying the area extending from Utah to the inhabited pueblos on the Rio Grande. This group may be known in prehistoric culture by circular ruins and circular kivas. Here probably arose the original terraced form of building. ”

“ The consciousness of being able to rely upon a definite food supply expresses itself in the art of building. He is led to construct more durable habitations. Successful agriculture, stable architecture, and a reliable calendar are thus closely connected. The most successful agriculture in aboriginal North America is found in regions where knowledge of the calendar was most highly developed. Early efforts to perfect the calendar by studies of the sun intensified sun worship. ”

“ The most highly developed expressions of solar worship as well as the best constructed masonry on the American continent are associated with the highest development of the calendar. There can be adduced no better illustration than the masonry of Peruvian temples which compares favorably with any in the world. ”

“ Pueblos both ancient and modern can be placed in one or another of the above-mentioned types, although in some cases two of these types may be combined, making a composite building reaching a considerable size. In whatever type the pueblo is placed, the circular-form room also exists, either enclosed in the rows or free from the rows of secular rectangular chambers. The pyramidal, rectangular, and linear types are comparatively modern, having persisted to the present day, when many are inhabited; the circular type is confined wholly to ancient times and is no longer inhabited. ”

“ Manifestly our subject must be so treated that all pueblos, whether uninhabited or inhabited, should be taken into account in morphological studies. On comparison of ruined pueblos with those inhabited in the sixteenth century certain identities in form are revealed, but there are found also radical differences showing degrees of culture. Indications exist that certain arts of the later pueblos have degenerated: the masonry is not so good and pottery, textiles, and other manufactured articles are inferior. ”

“ Among primitive peoples the calendar, sun worship and agriculture are closely connected. When man was just emerging from the hunting or fishing stages into early agricultural conditions it rarely happened that he replanted the same fields year after year, for it was early recognized that the land, however fertile, would not yield good crops in successive years but should lie fallow one or more years before replanting. ”

“ It is obligatory for the agriculturist, especially when the country is arid, to have a reliable calendar; he must know the best time for planting that the seeds may germinate, the epoch when the rains are most abundant [Pg 4] that the plants may grow, and the season when the hot sun may mature the growing corn. ”

“ Having then determined that we can regard the oldest form of pueblo building as a religious structure, let us pass to the probable steps in the evolution from this early condition into the highest development of that strictly American type of habitation. It is evident, if the tower be looked on as the sanctuary of the clan, that the existence of two or more clans united would necessitate the same number of towers, a condition which we find repeated in the areas under consideration. ”

“ The surface ornamentation of these buildings is not as elaborate as in those of Central America, but there are few examples of masonry in the Old World with stones more accurately fitted together, the walls more enduring—a remarkable fact when we consider that the people who built these colossal structures in the New World were unfamiliar with the metals, iron and steel. ”

“ Granted that the first step in the evolution of the pueblo would be the union of the [Pg 15] secular with the sacred room, this might be accomplished either by adding the tower to the group of dwellings, if the latter were situated in a cave, or by moving the habitations out of the cave and annexing them to the base of the tower. Both of these methods seem to have been adopted, resulting on the one hand in cliff-dwellings, and on the other in communal buildings in the open or on top of a plateau. ”

“ We consequently find the winter solstice, which occurs at the close of December, is practically set aside by all agricultural people as an occasion of a great festival in which sun-worship is dominant. ”

“ This holds true among agricultural peoples whose food is cereal and can be stored indefinitely or prepared for use when necessary. It is not necessary to suppose that man learned the habit of storing food from bees and squirrels; the same needs produced the same habits. The earliest storage places adopted by man were caves, trunks of trees or pits dug in the earth, the first mentioned being the most common. The first step taken to improve this storage place was the construction of a wall to close the entrance to the cave or pit. ”

“ The primitive agriculturist learned by experience that a change was necessary to insure good crops. To effect this change the agriculturist moved his habitation and planted on the sites where the soil was found to be fertile. ”

“ All have both the terraced and the community form. They are all accompanied by a sacred room of circular form compactly enclosed in the mass of building or built separate from it. If we examine the distribution geographically of the pueblo [Pg 11] type, ancient and modern, we find it limited to the area including the southern parts of Colorado, Utah, and the greater part of New Mexico, its highest development occurring in the mountains. ”

“ Offshoots of the mountain or pueblo culture following down the San Juan River penetrated to Hopi and settled at Walpi, shortly after which they were joined by clans from Little Colorado bringing Gila culture, as is recounted in legends still existing. The mountain culture introduced the terraced form of building and the kiva free from the house masses. But this kiva has a rectangular form due either to the configuration of the mesa top or to influences from the south, where the sacred room is rectangular and enclosed by dwellings. ”

“ It will also be found that habitations or buildings devoted to certain utilitarian purposes have one form, while sacred buildings have another, following a law geographically widespread. Man shares with the animal a desire for protection for his family or food accumulated or awaiting consumption. ”