Excavating the Pit

The Pueblo II builders chose to excavate their kiva pit in the middle of an older, abandoned Basketmaker III pithouse. The placement of the kiva within the remains of the pithouse leaves no doubt that this was an intentional decision made by the Pueblo II builders. Why would they choose to do this? One reason could be that they found it easier to remove old construction debris from an existing pit rather than dig a new pit "from scratch" in hard, undisturbed ground. A different reason could be that they wanted to occupy this exact location out of either sentimental or religious considerations.

For whatever reason, the Pueblo II builders dug their pit into a soft earthen matrix which contained old burned timbers, adobe, and artifacts. Unfortunately for the Pueblo II builders, the Basketmaker III pithouse had not been built as deep as the planned kiva. The Pueblo II builders therefore continued their excavations below the floor of the Basketmaker III structure. In doing so, they encountered natural caliche and sandstone deposits. The hardness of these deposits did not deter the Pueblo II excavators; they dug completely through the caliche (which was about 10" [25 cm] thick) and down into the bedrock to a depth as great as 6" (15 cm) along the kiva's north wall.

When they were done, they had excavated a circular, slightly conical pit. The pit was 4'8" (1.45 m) in depth and tapered in diameter from 12'10" (3.95 m) at the ground surface down to 11'3" (3.45 m) at the bottom of the pit. This pit was eventually converted into a room which provided them with 128 square feet of interior floor space.

Extending to the south of the circular pit, the builders also excavated a trench at least 3' (90 cm) long, 2' (60 cm) wide and, like the pit, 4'8" deep. This trench was later modified during interior wall construction into a tunnel which became part of the kiva ventilation system.