Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: July 9, 2025
In the region under discussion cavate lodges usually occur in connection with and subordinate to village ruins, and range in number from two or three rooms to clusters of considerable size.
There are but three regions in the United States in which cavate lodges are known to occur in considerable numbers, viz, on San Juan river, near its mouth; on the western side of the Rio Grande near the pueblo of Santa Clara; and on the eastern slope of San Francisco mountain, near Flagstaff, Arizona.
This tradition was derived from an old Walapai Indian whose grandfather was alive when the cavate lodges were occupied. It was impossible to follow this tradition to its source, and it is introduced only as a suggestion. Attention is called, however, to the tradition given in the introduction to this paper with which it may be connected.
There is but little masonry about the cavate lodges, and that is rude in character. As elsewhere stated, walled fronts are exceptional in this region, and where they occur the work was done very roughly. It will be noticed that little selection has been exercised in the stones employed, and that an excess of mortar has been used to fill in the large interstices.
Major Powell obtained a tradition of the Santa Clara Indians, reciting three successive periods of occupancy of the cavate lodges by them, the last occurring after the Spanish conquest of New Mexico in the seventeenth century.
The fireplaces or fire holes of the cavate lodges have already been alluded to, and one of the best examples found is illustrated in plate XXXII, and the location of a number of others is shown on the general plan. These fireplaces are located not in the center of the chamber, but near the principal doorway, and doubtless the object of this location was to facilitate the escape of the smoke.
The former inhabitants of this region were an agricultural people, and their villages were always located either on or immediately adjacent to some area of tillable soil. This is true even of the cavate lodges, which are often supposed to have been located solely with reference to facility of defense.
In many cases natural caves were thus utilized; in other cases cavate chambers were made; that is, chambers have been excavated in the friable cinders. On the very summit of the ridge stone buildings were erected, so that this village was in part a cliff village, in part cavate, and in part the ordinary stone pueblo.
It will be noticed that here again the cavate lodges and village ruins are associated, although in this case the village ruins on the mesas above are said to be more ancient than the cavate lodges. A general view of a small section of cliff containing lodges is given in plate XXXI for comparison with those on the Verde.
The study of the archeology of Verde valley had gone far enough to show that the banks of the river were formerly the sites of many and populous pueblos, while the neighboring mesas from one end to another are riddled with cavate dwellings or crowned with stone buildings.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking