Nordenskiöld figures a wooden object of rectangular shape, slightly concave on one side and more or less worn on the edges. Two similar wooden slabs (fig. 16) were found at Spruce-tree House. The objects occasioned much speculation, as their meaning is unknown. It has been suggested they are cradle-boards, a conjecture which, in view of the fact that similar specimens are sometimes found in child burials, is plausible. In this interpretation the holes which occur on the sides may have served for attachment of blankets or hoops. These boards, it may be said, are small even for the most diminutive Indian baby.
Another suggestion not without merit is that these boards are priest’s badges and were once carried in the hands suspended by strings tied to the holes in their edges.
Still another theory identifies them as parts of head dresses called tablets, worn in what the Pueblos call a tablita dance.
The upright portions of some of the Hopi altars have similar wooden slabs painted with symbolic figures and tied together. Altars having slabs of the same description are used in ceremonials of certain Tewan clans living in New Mexico.
There were found at Spruce-tree House a complete spindle with stick and whorl (fig. 17), and a whorl without the spindle, both of which are practically identical in type with the spinning apparatus of the Hopi Indians. When in use this spindle was made to revolve by rubbing it on the thigh with one hand, while the other held the unspun cotton, the fiber being wound on one end of the spindle. This implement affords still another indication that the arts of the people of Spruce-tree House were similar to those still practised by the Pueblos.
A few sticks which resemble those used by the Hopi as dibbles were collected at Spruce-tree House. These measure several feet in length; they are flat at one end, while the opposite end is pointed and rubbed down to a sharp edge. Some of these implements were slightly bent at one extremity.
Among various wooden objects found at Spruce-tree House may be mentioned sticks resembling prayer offerings and others which may have been employed in ceremonials (fig. 18.)
A fragment of a primitive fire-stick (fig. 19) was obtained from the northern refuse-heap and near it were straight sticks that undoubtedly served as fire-drills. There were one or two needles (fig. 20), made of hard wood, suggesting weaving or some similar process. A fragment of an arrow was unearthed in the débris of the northern refuse-heap.
The yucca plant, which grows wild in the canyons and level places of the Mesa Verde, furnishes a tough fiber which the prehistoric people of Spruce-tree House used in the manufacture of various fabrics. Small packages of this fiber and cords made of the same material were found in the refuse-heap and in the houses; these were apparently obtained by heating and chewing the leaves, after which the fiber was drawn out into cords or braided into strings.
A braided cord was also found attached to the handles of jars, and this fiber was a favorite one in mending pottery. It was almost universally employed in weaving cloth netting and other fabrics, where it was combined with cotton fiber. Belts (fig. 21) or headbands (figs. 22, 23) show the best examples of this weaving. Native cotton fiber is not as common as yucca, being more difficult apparently to procure. There is some doubt regarding the cultivation of the cotton plant, and no cotton seeds were identified; the cloth woven from this fiber shows great skill in weaving.
The bark of willows and alders was utilized for fabrics, but this furnished material for basketry rather than for cloth.
One of the most beautiful specimens of woven cloth yet obtained in the Mesa Verde ruins was taken from room 11; this is apparently a headband for carrying bundles.
Among the objects obtained in the northern refuse-heap were rings made of the leaf and fiber of yucca and other plants, sometimes blackened as if by fire (fig. 24). These rings may have been used for carrying jars on the head, although some are too large and flat for that purpose. It has been suggested that the largest were used in some game, but this theory lacks confirmation.
Small fragments of matting were found, but no complete specimen came to light. These fragments resemble those referred to by Nordenskiöld as “objects used in carpeting the floors.” It was customary among some of the sedentary Indians of the Southwest to sleep on rectangular mats, and in one building of compound B of Casa Grande impressions of these mats were found on the floor.
Fragments of cloth made of yucca fiber (fig. 25), in which feathers are woven, are abundant in the refuse-heaps of Spruce-tree House. There were found also many strings in which feathers were woven (fig. 26), but of these nothing but the midribs remain.
The object shown in figure 27 is made of agave fiber tied in a series of loops. Its use is unknown.
Several sandals were excavated at Spruce-tree House, the majority from the refuse-heap in the rear of the dwellings. One of these specimens, figure 28, is in good condition; it is evidently a mortuary object, being found near a skeleton. The other specimen (fig. 29) is fragmentary, consisting of a sole of a sandal with attached toe cords.
Several specimens of slender yucca leaves bound in a bundle were found. One of these (fig. 30) served as a hair-brush, or was used in stirring food. One brush made of finer material was collected.
A large collection of beautiful bone implements (see fig. 31)—needles, awls, tubes, and dirks—rewarded the work at Spruce-tree House. Some of these show the effects of fire throughout their length, while others are smoked only at one end. When unearthed, one of these dirks was still in the original sheath of cedar bark (fig. 32).
Most of the needles, bodkins, and awls are made of bones of birds or small animals. These were apparently rubbed down and pointed on stone implements or on the sides of the cliff, where grooves are often found (fig. 33).
Several fine bone scrapers (figs. 34, 35) were dug out of the débris covering the floors of the rooms. These are beveled to a sharp edge at one end, the trochanter of the bone serving as a handle.
Only one fetish in the form of a human being was obtained at Spruce-tree House, this being found in the débris near the floor of kiva G. So far as the objects from Mesa Verde ruins have been figured or described, this is the first record of the finding of a fetish of human shape in any of these ruins. Moreover, such a fetish is a rarity in cliff-house ruins elsewhere in the Southwest, a fact which imparts to this specimen more than usual interest.
In the author’s account of his excavations in ruins in the Little Colorado valley there was figured a large fragment of a disk made of cannel coal or lignite. This disk is convex on one side and plain on the side opposite, the latter having an eyelet, or two holes for suspension. A lignite gorget, similar for the most part to the above-mentioned specimen, but differing therefrom in having the eyelet in the convex instead of in the flat side, was found at Spruce-tree House. Probably both objects were formerly used as ornaments, being suspended about the neck. No similar specimen has thus far been described from Mesa Verde ruins.
All indications point to maize, or Indian corn, as the chief food plant of the prehistoric people of this cliff-dwelling. This is evident not only from the presence in the ruins of metates and grinding stones, but also from the abundance of corn ears and other fragments discovered; corn husks and seed corn were especially plentiful in rooms and in the refuse-heaps. As in the case of the modern Pueblos, the corn appears to have been of several colors, while the size of the cobs indicates that the ears were small with but few rows of seeds. In addition to cobs, fragments of corn stalks, leaves, and even tassels were found in some of the rooms. Beans of the brown variety, specimens of which were numerous in one room, were the most esteemed. There were obtained also stalks and portions of gourds some of which are artificially perforated, as well as a gourd the rind of which is almost complete. Apparently these gourds were used for ceremonial rattles and for drinking vessels. The form suggests that of a Hopi netted gourd in which sacred water is brought from distant springs for use in the kivas, or ceremonial rooms.
It appears from the discovery of a small wooden hoop in one of the rooms that the prehistoric people of Spruce-tree House were familiar with the hoop-and-pole game (fig. 36) so popular among several of our aboriginal tribes. But whether or not the individual hoop obtained was used in a secular game or a ceremony may be open to differences of opinion. The author is inclined to connect the specimen above referred to with basket dances, one of which is called by the Hopi the Owakulti.[31] In this dance the hoop is rolled on the ground and the players throw or attempt to throw darts through it.
Fragments of leather or dressed skin (fig. 37) were found in several of the rooms. These are apparently parts of moccasins or sandals, but may have been pouches or similar objects. A strip of rawhide by means of which an ax was lashed to its handle was picked up in the dump, where also was a fragment of what may have been a leather pouch with a thong of hide woven in one edge. If skins of animals were used for clothing, as they probably were, but slight evidence of the fact remains.
In the excavations which were necessary to clean out the rooms of Spruce-tree House no object of European make was discovered. There was no sign of any metal, even copper being unrepresented; no object discovered shows traces of cutting by knives or other implements made of metal. Evidently European culture exerted no influence on the aborigines of Spruce-tree House.
Near Spruce-tree House, as elsewhere on the Mesa Verde, are found examples of those rock-etchings and other markings known as pictographs. Some of these represent human beings in various attitudes, and animals, as deer, mountain sheep, snakes, and other subjects not yet determined. As seems to be true of the other rock-inscriptions just mentioned, some of those near Spruce-tree House are religious symbols, some are totems, while others are mere scribblings.
These pictographs are so rude that they give little idea of the artistic possibilities of their makers, while many are so worn that even the subjects intended to be depicted are doubtful.
The walls of some of the rooms in the Mesa Verde cliff-dwellings still show figures painted while the rooms were inhabited. Among these the favorite designs are of triangular form.
The walls of the secular rooms and kivas of Spruce-tree House were formerly covered with a thin wash of colored sand which was well adapted for paintings of symbolic or decorative character. The colors (yellow, red, and white), were evidently put on with the hands, impressions of which can be found in several places. In some cases, as with the upper part of the wall painted white and the lower part red, the contrast brings out the colors very effectively. The walls of some of the rooms are blackened with smoke.
Among the designs used are the triangular figures on the upper margin of the dados and pedestals of kivas. Figures similar in form, but reversed, are made by the Hopi, who call them butterfly and raincloud symbols.
Birds and quadrupeds.—Nordenskiöld (pp. 108-9) thus writes of one of the ancient paintings:
The first of them, fig. 77, is executed in a room at Sprucetree House. Here too the lower part of the mural surface is dark red, and triangular points of the same colour project over the yellow plaster; above this lower part of the wall runs a row of red dots, exactly as in the estufa at Ruin 9. To the left two figures are painted, one of them evidently representing a bird, the other a quadruped with large horns, probably a mountain sheep. [Elsewhere, as quoted on p. 5, Nordenskiöld identifies these figures as “two birds.”] The painting shown in fig. 78 is similar in style to the two just described.
In this room the dado bears at intervals along its upper edge the triangular figures already noticed, and rows of dots which appear to be a symbolic decoration, occurring likewise on pottery, as an examination of the author’s collection makes evident.
Square figures.—On the eastern wall of the same room in which occur the figures of a bird and a horned mammal there is a square figure on the white surface of the upper wall. This figure is black in outline; part of the surface bears an angular meander similar to decorations on some pieces of pottery. Similar designs, arranged in series according to Mindeleff’s figures, form the decoration band of one of the kivas in Chelly canyon.
The significance of this figure is unknown but its widespread distribution, especially in that region of the Southwest characterized by circular kivas, adds considerable interest to its interpretation.
Terraced figure.—Covering almost the whole side of a wall north of kiva C and overlooking the plaza of which this room forms in part the northern wall, is a conspicuous figure painted white. If we regard the building of which this is a side as formerly two stories high, this painting would have been on the inside of a room, otherwise we have the exceptional feature of a painting on an outer wall. The purpose of this painting is not clear to the author, but similar figures, reversed, signify rain clouds. The figure recalls in form a representation of a T-shaped doorway and appears to be a unique one among Mesa Verde ruins.