Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 3, 2025
"The sand has been blowing against them for a good many hundred years," Ray explained, directing Thea's eyes with his gloved hand. "You see the sand blows low, being so heavy, and cuts them out underneath. Wind and sand are pretty high-class architects. That's the principle of most of the Cliff-Dweller remains down at Canyon de Chelly.
In De Chelly whatever defensive value the settlements had was due to the character of the sites selected. It is believed, however, that other considerations dictated the selection of the sites, and that the defensive motive, if present at all, exercised very little influence in this region.
This later filling is not uncommon in De Chelly, and is often found in Tusayan, where openings are sometimes reduced for the winter season and enlarged again in the summer. Many openings are completely closed, either by filling in with masonry or by a stone slab, and examples of both of these methods are found in De Chelly.
Altogether the constructive expedients employed in De Chelly suggest the introduction of plans and methods adapted to other regions and other conditions into a new region with different requirements, and that occupancy of the latter region did not continue long enough to conform the methods to the new conditions.
The study of the ruins in Canyon de Chelly has led to the conclusion that the cliff ruins there are generally subordinate structures, connected with and inhabited at the same time as a number of larger home villages located on the canyon bottom, and occupying much the same relation to the latter that Moen-kapi does to Oraibi, or that Nutria, Pescado, and Ojo Caliente do to Zuñi; and that they are the functional analogues of the "watch towers" of the San Juan and of Zuñi, and the brush shelters or "kisis" of Tusayan: in other words, they were horticultural outlooks occupied only during the farming season.
Other Verde ruins may have accommodated more people, when inhabited, but none of its type south of Canyon de Chelly have yet been described which excel it in size and condition of preservation.
Taken as a whole, the settlements in De Chelly appear to have been well provided with doorways and other openings, and there is no perceptible difference in this respect between the various classes of ruins.
At the time of the Spanish conquest the prevailing form in the old province of Cibola was rectangular, although the circular kiva was not entirely absent; while, on the other hand, in the cliff ruins of Canyon de Chelly, whose date is partly subsequent to the sixteenth century, the circular kiva is the prevailing, if not the exclusive form.
Some idea of the number and distribution of these sites may be obtained from the following list, wherein the numbers represent the location shown on the detailed map: 2, 8, 9, 11, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 30, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 53, 54, 57, and 66 in all 21 sites which occur between the mouth of De Chelly and the junction of Monument canyon, 13 miles above.
It will be clear, therefore, that prior to very recent times De Chelly would be selected by almost any tribe moving across the country, and, barring a hostile prior occupancy, would be the most desirable place for the pursuit of horticultural operations for many miles in any direction.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking