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Updated: June 11, 2025
We found evidences that both Honanki and Palatki had been occupied by Apache Mohave people for longer or shorter periods of time, and some of the specimens were probably left there by these inhabitants. The ancient pottery found in the rooms, although fragmentary, is sufficiently complete to render a comparison with known ceramics from the Verde ruins.
To this section I have referred as the "main ruin," for it was evidently the most populous quarter of the ancient cliff dwelling. It is better preserved than the remainder of Honanki, and is the only part in which all four walls of the chambers still remain erect.
The hand of man and the erosion of the elements have dealt harshly with this portion of Honanki, for not a fragment of timber now remains in its walls. This destruction, so far as human agency is concerned, could not have been due to white men, but probably to the Apache, or possibly to the cliff villagers themselves at the time of or shortly after the abandonment of the settlement.
All the component rooms of the main part of Honanki can be entered, some by external passageways, others by doorways communicating with adjacent chambers. None of the inclosures have roofs or upper floors, although indications of the former existence of both these structural features may readily be seen in several places.
Built at a higher level than the series of rooms already considered, it must have towered above them, and possibly served as a place of retreat when danger beset the more exposed quarters of the village. On the right there towers above the visitor a well-preserved wall of masonry, the front of room a, and he soon passes abreast of the main portion of the ruin of Honanki.
In the main portion of Honanki we found that the two ends of the crescentic row of united rooms which compose it are built on rocky elevations, with foundations considerably higher than those of the rooms in the middle portion of the ruins. About midway in the curve of the front walls two walls indicative of former rooms extend at an angle of about 25° to the main front wall.
The smaller ruin, Palatki, we discovered by chance during our visit, and while it is possible that some vaquero in search of a wild steer may have visited the neighborhood before us, there is every reason to believe that the ruin had escaped even the notice of these persons, and, like Honanki, was unknown to the archeologist.
In fact, it is probable that the whole section of the ruin was two stories high throughout, the front walls having fallen along the entire length. From the last room on the left to the eastern extremity of the line of houses which leads to the main ruin of Honanki, no ground plans were detected at the base of the cliffs, but fallen rocks and scattered débris are strewn over the whole interval.
Some of the specimens of cotton cloth were finely woven and are still quite strong, although stained dark or almost black. Specimens of netting are also common, and an open-mesh legging, similar to the kind manufactured in ancient times by the Hopi and still worn by certain personators in their sacred dances, were taken from the western room of Honanki.
The few excavations which were made were limited almost wholly to Honanki, and from their success I can readily predict a rich harvest for anyone who may attempt systematic work in this virgin field. We naturally chose the interior of the rooms for excavation, and I will say limited our work to these places.
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