Jemez Kiva Magic and Its Relation to Features of Prehistoric Kivas

COUTHWESTERN archaeologists long have debated the original use of holes of various shapes and sizes (obviously not fire pits, ladder pits, sipapus, or post holes) found in the floors of prehistoric Pueblo houses and kivas. Some have been filled with clean sand, some with rubbish, and some with clay only less resistant to the trowel of the archaeologist than the hard-packed floor itself. As background to the common interpretation that the majority must have served for storage purposes we know that some of the Pueblo Indians today dig beneath the floors of ruined houses in their own villages to search for long forgotten storage pots. Some of the older men of Isleta remember that their parents told of the last cacique being responsible for keeping enough grain, contributed by his people, to distribute in time of need; they watched the old man stooping to the floor to ladle cornmeal from the big red jar buried there. The use of floor pits for storage presumably extends back into the late phases of the Cochise culture.