Montezuma Castle National Monument 4
Adults were buried in the refuse dump near a settlement, or placed in a
cavity or under a ledge along the base of a cliff. Most bodies were
buried at full length, lying on the back, and were generally accompanied
by offerings or grave gifts. Pioneers reported several burials beneath
floors in Montezuma Castle, and one additional burial was located in
1939. It contained the remains of a child about 5 years old, which had
been wrapped first in a cotton blanket and then in a yucca leaf mat. The
child had been buried in the corner of a room about 2 feet below the
floor level. Some rooms in Montezuma Castle were built directly above
others; therefore, no floor burials were possible in these upper rooms.
This might explain why one shallow grave was found on a narrow ledge at
the base of the building. The mummified remains of a 2-year-old child
from this grave can now be seen in the museum.
The undercut graves dug into soft bedrock at Montezuma Well constitute
one of the unusual features of that area. Sometimes similar individual
burials are found in other Indian ruins. In contrast to most sites,
including others in the Verde Valley, there is at the Well a fairly
definite cemetery—an area in which these peculiar graves are
concentrated.
Now, let us turn from the general story of customs and way of life to a
detailed description of the Castle and the Well.
_Montezuma Castle_
Montezuma Castle is one of the best preserved cliff dwellings in
America. About 600 years ago, it was an apartment house occupied by
perhaps 45 or 50 individuals.
The Castle might be called a 5-story structure, though there is no place
where 5 stories have been built directly above each other. It is
actually a 4-story building of 17 rooms, plus a “basement” of 2
store-rooms. The building was fitted into the ledges of the natural cave
in such a way that it appears terraced. There are 2 rooms in the first
story, 4 in the second, 8 in the third, 3 in the fourth, and 2 in the
fifth.
The Indians had 2 trails that led to the Castle: 1 leading up from the
creek bottom and the other coming in along the face of the cliff to the
top of the first ledge. Overlooking the point where the upper and lower
trails join are 2 smoke-blackened cave rooms which are too small to be
dwellings. Perhaps these held sentries to guard the trails at night.
Geologists believe the cliff has changed but little since the Indian
occupation. If so, the Indians must have used ladders to make numerous
trips to their dwellings each day. In addition, ladders had to be
employed in the building to go from one floor to another. No original
Indian ladders are known to have been found at Montezuma Castle. Ladders
found at other Indian dwellings, however, indicate that two types were
known—single logs with notches cut into them, and a type made by lashing
rungs across upright poles.
[Illustration: MONTEZUMA CASTLE AREA]
The walls of Montezuma Castle are formed from rough chunks of limestone
laid in mud mortar which was probably made from pockets of clay found in
the vicinity. After the clay was pulverized and mixed with river sand
and water, it made an excellent mortar. The walls average about 12
inches thick throughout the building and are curved to conform to the
arc of the cave in which the Castle rests.
Walls were constructed on the very edge of the ledges with enough earth
fill behind to provide level floor space. Since most of the building
material had to be carried up from the base of the cliff, the individual
building stones were rather small, usually no larger than two bricks.
The walls were covered with mud plaster, both inside and out. Most of
this has weathered away on the outside, but the plaster is
well-preserved inside. In some places, finger marks of the original
builders may still be seen.
Rooms have an average of about 100 square feet of floor space. The
smallest room is in the second story with 37.5 square feet of floor
space, and the largest is in the fifth story with 240 square feet.
What is now the fifth story is in the deepest part of the cave and
apparently was the first part of the Castle to be constructed. At this
point the cave extends in from the face of the cliff for 33 feet. Solid
rock forms the roof and back wall of the room while the ends and outside
wall are of masonry construction. This room is almost too large to have
been a dwelling because it would be hard to heat in winter, but it might
have been intended for joint occupancy by 2 or 3 families—perhaps while
other, smaller rooms were being built.
The Castle was constructed by people who had no metal tools of any kind.
Their picks were pointed stones about as long as an adult’s hand, and
their stone axes were about the same size. A shallow groove was ground
three-fourths of the way around these implements; then a short stick
handle was bent in a J-shape and lashed on over the groove.
Some of the roof timbers still bear chopping marks. With each stroke of
the ax the Indian made little progress, and cutting a large timber must
have consumed considerable time. Some logs are about 1 foot in diameter
and up to 10 feet in length. Ropes were probably used to pull the
timbers into place since fragments of fiber ropes have been found in the
excavations. Without pulleys, great physical effort must have been
required to lift the logs into the cave.
Resting on the main rooftimbers and laid at right angles was a covering
of poles and over this a layer of coarse grass or willows. On top was
placed a layer of mud 3 or 4 inches thick. Most of the original mud
floors have been worn out by early visitors.
[Illustration: _Vertical cross section of Montezuma Castle._]
[Illustration: _Floor plan of Montezuma Castle._]
[Illustration: _A doorway in Montezuma Castle._]
[Illustration: _Smoke-blackened ceiling in Montezuma Castle._]
When the weather was cold, the Indians could safely build their fires
indoors on the floors. However, they sometimes used one spot for too
many years and wore a hole through the mud floor. The fire would then
find its way through to the willows or grass underneath, and there it
could smolder for hours without being discovered because the odor of
smoke was common within the building. There are several places in the
building where fires of this type occurred.
Pioneer visitors supposed that a group of pigmies constructed the Castle
because the doors are so small. This is not the case. Studies of the
skeletal remains show that the men averaged about 5 feet 4 inches in
height. Like many modern Pueblo Indians, they were short but not
abnormally small. Doors throughout the building are low for at least two
good reasons: they helped keep out the cold, and they would also force
any attacker to put his head through first or to back through, which
would make it possible for even a woman to defend her home.
There were scarcely any openings in the building to supply light and
fresh air—only a few close to the floor level. The Indians had no chairs
or tables; like about half of the world’s population today, they lived
on the floor. Probably most of the cooking was done outside on balconies
and rooftops, but when weather was cold, fires were built inside in open
pits on the floor. There was no chimney or smoke vent, so smoke drifted
out the door. Much of it stayed in the rooms, which accounts for the
smoke-blackened condition of the walls and ceilings.
There is now no soot on the ceiling of the largest fifth-story room.
Presumably it was very black at one time, but the large numbers of bats
which cling there in the warm months have probably rubbed the soot off
through years of continuous use. They have long occupied the room, for
pioneers found 4 feet of droppings covering the floor.
An interesting feature of this room is what appears to have been a
shelf. Timbers projecting from the walls were covered with a layer of
poles and sticks and over this a layer of mud.
On the wall of another room is an interesting pictograph incised in the
mud plaster. This roughly rectangular figure measures about 6 by 8
inches, and is laid off into 4 sections by lines that intersect at the
center. In the upper left quarter and the lower right quarter are
vertical wavy lines that suggest water.
Sixty yards west of Montezuma Castle, on a lower ledge, was a cluster of
6 or 8 rooms. The walls have all collapsed and only a few traces of
foundation and fallen building stones indicate the location of these
homes.
The next settlement down the creek west of the Castle was once a 6-story
building with perhaps 40 rooms. This was not a cliff dwelling, but a
structure built against the base of the cliff. The roofs were burned and
all the walls collapsed, leaving only a great heap of rubble. Evidently
part of the building was abandoned long before it burned, for
archeologists found that charred roof timbers had fallen on some floors
already covered with drifted sand and dust. This ruin was excavated in
1933-34 under the direction of Archeologist Earl Jackson. Many artifacts
were brought to light and are now exhibited in the museum. These are of
the same type as those found in the Castle, and both places must have
been occupied at the same time. Probably no more than 300 Indians lived
in the neighborhood of the Castle at any one time—somewhat more than the
maximum population at Montezuma Well.
[Illustration: _Metates and manos, and burned ceiling beams as found
in excavated ruin at cliff base west of Montezuma Castle._]
_Montezuma Well_
The appeal of Montezuma Well consists largely in the sudden vision of a
lake and large trees inside a barren hill in a dry region. This
limestone sinkhole (or solution basin) in which a large spring flows is
an unusual geological feature of considerable scientific interest.
In 1871 a U. S. Geological Survey party visited the Well. Although they
thought themselves the first to explore it, they found a paper collar on
the floor of a nearby cave dwelling! The area was first brought to
public attention by Richard J. Hinton in his _Handbook to Arizona_, published in 1878.
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