Antiquities of the Jemez plateau, New Mexico / by Edgar L. Hewett.

  • Edgar Lee Hewett
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Antiquities of the Jemez plateau, New Mexico / by Edgar L. Hewett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    fragmentary mesas about a mile south of the river stood the village of Poihuuinge. Its ruins are probably 500 feet above the level of the river. The pueblo was of adobe, with large irregular blocks of basalt in the foundation. It consisted of three buildings so placed as to form an irregular quadrangle, the south side being open. The extreme length of the longest side is 421 feet. There are two circular, subter- ranean kivas within the court. About 100 yards south of the pueblo is.the ruin of a large circular kiva, 50 feet in diameter, which was in part subterranean and in part constructed of irregular blocks of basalt, conglomerate, and sandstone carried above ground to a height of probably eight or ten feet. About 200 yards east are the ruins of a building similarly constructed, which bears some evidence of having been used for a shrine. In this structure large blocks or slabs of stone set on edge were used in the walls and the general form is that of shrines still in use among the Tewa. It is 35 feet in diame- ter, considerably larger than any of the shrines now in use. The pottery of this ruin is strik- ingly similar to that found in the ruins farther south. While there is every evidence of the use of corn at this pueblo, there has been no possibility of agri- culture in the immediate vicin- ity. The nearest land that might have been arable is about a mile away. No. 29. Teeuinge (fig. 17).— This is a large ruin situated on the rim of the mesa overlooking the valley, just below the con- fluence of the Rio Oso with the Chama. It is about a quarter of a mile south of the river, and the bluff on which it stands is about 200 feet high. The pueblo was constructed of adobe with some use of lava blocks in the foundation walls, and is now reduced to low mounds. It was built in two large adjoining quadrangles, or would perhaps be better described as one long rectangle divided by cross walls into two courts. The extreme length of the rectangle is 525 feet, the extreme width 210 feet. The walls have a perimeter of 1,470 feet. Within and con- tiguous to the pueblo are ten circular, subterranean kivas and a few yards to the east is a ruined shrine in circular form, eight feet in diam- eter, built of lava blocks set on edge. No. 30. Kwengyauinge (‘‘blue turquoise house”), figure 18.—This is a large pueblo ruin on a conical hill about 150 feet high overlooking
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