The very rapid disintegration of native-made adobe walls has brought
about the use in Zu?i of many protective devices, some of which will be
noticed in connection with the discussion of roof drains and wall
copings. Figs. 32 and 33 illustrate a curious employment of pottery
fragments on a mud-plastered wall and on the base of a chimney to
protect the adobe coating against rapid erosion by the rains. These
pieces, usually fragments from large vessels, are embedded in the adobe
with the convex side out, forming an armor of pottery scales well
adapted to resist disintegration, by the elements.
[Illustration: Plate LXV. Standing walls of Kin-tiel.]
[Illustration: Fig. 32. A Zu?i chimney, showing pottery fragments
embedded in its adobe base.]
[Illustration: Fig. 33. A Zu?i oven with pottery scales embedded in
its surface.]
The introduction of the use of adobe in Zu?i should probably be
attributed to foreign influence, but the position of the village in the
open plain at a distance of several miles from the nearest outcrop of
suitable building stone naturally led the builders to use stone more
sparingly when an available substitute was found close at hand. The thin
slabs of stone, which had to be brought from a great distance, came to
be used only for the more exposed portions of buildings, such as copings
on walls and borders around roof openings. Still, the pueblo builders
never attained to a full appreciation of the advantages and requirements
of this medium as compared with stone.
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