Culture and Ecology of Chaco Canyon and the San Juan Basin

Table 6.8. Unusual architectural features found in great houses."FeatureExamplesReference( s)CommentsMasonry piers:Used in special context; do not supportupper story wallsA) ColonnadeChetro KetlFerdon (1955)Great houseBe 51Ferdon (1955)Small house (one ofthe largest of thesmall house sites, see Truell 1986).B) Roof supports (piers)Common in great kivasAztec ruin, rooms 117 and 120Pueblo Bonito, Room 308Gordon Vivian and Reiter(1960:90)Morris (1928:333)Judd (1964:96)Rare as free-standing supports forvigas. Possible time-related, latedevelopment,perhaps due to scarcepine posts of proper size.Buttressing:A) Broad brace along exterior walls Pueblo del Arroyo, south wallKin Kletso, Area 60, south wallCasa Chiquita, south wallKin Bineola, west wallJudd (1959:96)Gordon Vivian and Mathews(1965:44)Buttress-only, one story high, eventhough walls are two or three storieshigh.B) Beams or masonry wallsbetween rectangular walls ofsquare rooms and cylindricalwalls of elevated round roomsPueblo del Arroyo, Kiva CChetro Ketl, Kiva GPueblo BonitoKin KletsoPossibly used as braces for scaffolding(Hewett 1936: 102) or as locations tobond buttresses (Lekson 1984a:35).Neither suggestion is compelling.Filled rooms: Lower floors filled withearth, sand, or trash.Kin KletsoChetro KetlPueblo Bonitoand othersGordon Vivian and Mathews(1965:Figure 15)Lekson (1983b)Reiter (1933:56)Judd (1964)Earth often in interstitial spacesbetween square rooms and elevatedround rooms. Lekson (1984a:35)gives two functional reasons: a)reinforcement of walls, b) insulation.Trash fill may signify change in roomfunction.Use of natural features:Pueblo BonitoKin KletsoUna VidaRoom blocks built over boulders orfragments of cliff; suggests inflexiblelocation or orientation. Talus pueblosutilize cliff walls.