Pithouse to Kiva
by Bruce Bradley
In 1982 I was commissioned by a film crew from the National Park Service to
act as technical advisor on a film they were producing called "Anasazi-Hisatsinom". They wanted a set that included a
full-scale
Pithouse scene from "Anasazi-Hisatsinom" film
I maintained it for twelve years with very little effort an had a good time learning about this type of structure. The only major rennovation was the lining of the ventilator shaft with stone about six years int the life of the pithouse. Finally, we had a really wet spring and the ground on the south side of the pithouse became saturated. The leaners on the south side collapsed into the pithouse. I tried a quick rebuild but it collapsed again. At that point, I decided to see what would happen if I left it alone.
The following are photos of the progress with annotations about construction methods, materials, and where possible, person hour estimates to complete the tasks. It is broken into four sections: 1)pit digging and masonry lining; 2) dismantling of old pithouse for wood elements; 3) roof construction; and 4) interior finishing.
The site of the kiva is just downhill from our house where we put several
very large boulders that came from our basement excavation. After these were
put there, it dawned on me that one is ideal for the construction of a Hovenweep style tower. My archaeological experience told me
that towers are usually connected, or at least directly associated with, a
kiva. So before I could build a tower, I had to construct the kiva. My original
idea was to do a real experiment, keeping track of every task, the time it
took, etc. This became too daunting and after two years of half-heartedly
trying to enlist help (especially for recording) I gave up and decided to make
it an experience rather than experiment. This is in line with my sense that the
best experiments are conducted only after a certain level of expertise is
gained. I had to build one first without the constraints of record keeping (a
decent rationalization I think). So, I began excavating the pit. I aligned it
to the south, slightly downhill from the boulders. I defined the mainchamber placement and shape by identifying the center
and drawing a circle on the ground surface with a peg in the center and a cord
that equalled the radius. The size was guessed and I
used no measuring insruments. I made the circle big
enough to accomodate the bench and the masonry
lining. Once the main pit was excavated, I decided upon the orientation by
simply guessing about where south is and this aligned closely with a prominant point on Mesa Verde. I adjusted the orientation
to point at this horizon marker. To this day I haven't actually measured the
orientation in relation to magnetic or true north. My intent was to make an
average-sized Ancestral Pueblo
PHASE 1: Pit Excavation and Masonry Lining
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Beginning of
kiva excavation. I did all of this by hand, mostly with a shovel but some, at
different times, with a digging stick and baskets. The pit cut into the
hillside and the upper side encountered soft silty
top soil (A horizon) folloed by more clayey
material (B horizon), underlain by silt with varying sized pieces of
different sandstones and numerous iron concretions. The south side of the pit
had deeper top soil with a more clayey and thicker B horizon. I only just
started getting into the rocky layer. I estimate that had I done the whole
excavation with digging stick, it would have taken about 100 person hours. |
Kiva excavation completed. My original intent was to dig the pit about
two feet deeper, but three things convinced me to stop: 1) I encountered our
main power line in the southern recess area; 2) I encountered our buried
phone line running right through the main chamber area; and 3) the rocks
started getting much bigger. The elevation of the power line defined the
depth of the bench surface, and since the floors of kivas are usually about a
meter below the bench surface, I had to stop. Ultimately, this meant that I
had to construct a retaining wall above the ground surface, especially on the
south side. |
|
Shannon Bradley
helping with construction of subfloor vent. Several of the Late |
Beginning of
southern recess. Stones for the lower lining and bench walls were obtained
partly from those found during pit excavation, partly from the nearby
hillside, and partly from robbing stone from the pithouse
(especially slabs). I also used some of the spoil stones from excavations at
Wallace Ruin. When needed, I shaped each stone by breaking them with a
hammerstone, and evening up the face by pecking with a home-made
peckingstone. Since I used hard sandstone for the lower lining walls, pecking
was kept to a minimum. |
|
Construction of
north lower lining wall. The lower lining walls are single stones stacked so
that the interior face is evenly aligned, the stone more-or les form even
courses that run around the entire interior, and the stones in succeeding
courses overlap the joints below (much like brick work). I also carefully
fitted the ends of the stones so that the vertical joints are very narrow
(most stone ends are in contact with each other. |
Construction was
recorded in a number of ways including by the popular media. Nickleodian was doing a show on ancient |
|
Construction of
floor-level vent. I did the lining of the floor-level vent tunnel first
because it was easier to get at than it would be later. I used a lot of the
irregular stones and some river cobbles for this. The large lintel stone is
Dakota snadstone from north of Cortez and I
carefully shaped it with a pecking stone. I estimate this took about 1/2 hour
per square foot. |
Construction of
southeast lower lining wall. One of the features common to old kivas is an
inward lean of the lower-lining wall. I am convinced this was done to
increase the wall strength much as a dome is strong. As the lining progressed
upward, the space behind was filled and packed with spoil dirt. |
|
Construction
Pilaster 6. I built the traditional six pilasters to hold the roof. These
were made from pecked blocks of soft Dakota sandstone. The centers of the
pilasters were filled with stone rubble and packed dirt. They rest on top of
the bench surface. Spacing was done by eye and other dimensions were kept
similar by using a small stick broken to the dimensions of the first
pilaster. |
Completed
masonry kiva. Finshing the masonry lining of the
pit was a great relief. Since I worked in fits and starts (I hate mixing
mortar), it seemed to take for ever. Actually, I estimate that stone shaping,
mortar mixing, and building, probably only took about 150 person hours. Add
to that more hours for stone procurement, and the total time to dig and line
the pit probably comes out at around 250-300 person hours. Not outrageous if
five people worked together. |
Interior Finishing and Use (check out an amazining accidental solar alignments!)
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