The other portion of the opening containing the ladder is used
for ingress and egress. This singular combination strongly suggests that
at no very remote period one opening was used to answer both purposes,
as it still does in the Tusayan kivas. It also suggests the direction in
which differentiation of functions began to take place, which in the
kiva was delayed and held back by the conservative religious feeling,
when in the civil architecture it may have been the initial point of a
development that culminated in the chimney, a development that was
assisted in its later steps by suggestions from foreign sources. In the
more primitively constructed examples the cross pieces seem to be simply
laid on without any cutting in. The central piece is held in place by a
peg set into each side piece, the weight and thrust of the ladder
helping to hold it. The primitive arrangement here seen has been
somewhat improved upon in some other cases, but it was not ascertained
whether these were of later date or not.
In the best made frames for kiva entrances the timbers are "halved" in
the manner of our carpenters, the joint being additionally secured by a
pin as shown in Fig. 99.
The use of a frame of wood in these trapdoors dates back to a
comparatively high antiquity, and is not at all a modern innovation,
as one would at first be inclined to believe. Their use in so highly
developed a form in the ceremonial chamber is an argument in favor of
antiquity.
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