After excavating the pit, the builders lined the interior walls with sandstone masonry. This was done at least in part out of necessity, because the soft debris of the Basketmaker III pithouse needed to be stabilized to keep it from falling into the kiva. Into the north, east and west walls, the builders incorporated a bench, in effect creating a lower wall and an upper wall in these areas.
Several styles of masonry were used throughout the room. It is not known if these different styles represent the work of different people, or if one person created all the styles. Regardless, these various styles probably never showed, as much of the masonry surface was covered over with mud plaster.
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Along the north, east and west sides of the pit, the masons built a lower wall which measured 29" (75 cm) in height. The void which was formed between the vertical masonry wall and the slanting pit wall was filled with orange-brown loam. On the eastern side of the kiva, the masons lined the lower wall with large vertical slabs topped by as many as four courses of horizontal masonry. The horizontal masonry and the vertical slabs were set in thick beds of a gray clay mortar. |
On the northern and western sides of the kiva, the masons did not utilize any large vertical slabs. Rather, they set horizontal masonry two to five courses thick directly on either the bedrock or the caliche layer. Like the eastern side these slabs were set into thick beds of gray clay mortar.
The upper wall measured 10" to 12" (25-30 cm) in height, from the bench surface to the top of the kiva pit. On the upper wall, as they did on the lower wall, the masons used both upright slab and horizontal masonry set with copious amounts of gray clay mortar. So heavily did they apply mortar in some areas that the wall could be better described as an adobe wall with rock temper. The rocks used in the upper wall were generally smaller than those used in the lower wall, and varied in size and shape from 2"-diameter chunks to 13"-long slabs. Along much of the upper wall, the mortar was smeared over the masonry face and formed a de facto plaster.
Into the upper wall, the masons incorporated at least one, and probably four pilasters. These pilasters were spaced an average of 8' (2.4 to 2.6 m) apart around the structure, and rose to a height of 3'3" (1 m) from the floor; (this is quite low for a traditional kiva). The most formalized and best-preserved pilaster was located in the northeast portion of the kiva. It was built using a mix of upright slab and horizontal masonry, and was then plastered over with a dark brown clay. This pilaster protruded 10 cm (4") into the bench area.
In order to build the south wall, it was first necessary for the masons to convert the ventilator trench into a tunnel. They did this by lining the lower sides of the trench with large sandstone blocks, and then "roofing" the trench with horizontally laid branches. At the far south end they left the trench unroofed, as this portion was about to be converted into a vertical shaft. Over the roofed portion of the trench the masons then horizontally stacked rocks up to the top of the trench. These rocks were large unshaped sandstone blocks set in gray clay mortar with abundant chinking stones. The unroofed portion of the trench remained open and created a de facto shaft.
To the east of the vent tunnel, the lower wall was built using large upright slabs. To the west of the vent tunnel, the lower wall was probably built using horizontal blocks. (This is inferred from fallen wall debris, since the masonry in this portion of the wall had slumped off shortly after abandonment).
The upper portion of the south wall was covered by a masonry veneer composed of small fist-sized rocks set in a matrix of reddish-brown adobe. East of the vent tunnel, this veneer still adheres to the south wall face. Above and to the west of the vent tunnel, this veneer fell off the wall shortly after the kiva was abandoned, and its remains were located just above the floor.
