Who were the Ancestral
Pueblo People (Anasazi)?
They were the
ancestors of modern Pueblo Indians, about 20
separate tribes living in New Mexico and
Arizona. There is extensive literature
available about the culture of modern and
historic Pueblo people.
There never
was an "Anasazi" tribe, nor did any group of
people call themselves by that name.
Anasazi is a descriptive term of Navajo
origin. Archaeologists applied the term to
villagers who lived and farmed in the Four
Corners between the years 1 and 1300 AD.
Archaeologists
identify a culture through its
artifacts. members of a culture share
traditions of architecture, crafts,
symbolisms, etc. When the Anasazi or Pueblo
culture began is a matter of definition,
because there is no single event or trait
which defines it.
The earliest
traces of Anasazi or Pueblo culture date to
at least AD 1 (or as early as 1500 BC
according to some opinions) in
characteristic kinds of basketry, sandals,
art, tools, architecture, settlement
patterns, and incipient agriculture.
According to Pueblo oral traditions,
different groups came from different
directions and points of origin before
joining together to form the clans and
communities of today.
The ancestral
Puebloan homeland was centered in the Four
Corners region of northwest New Mexico and
northeast Arizona, and in adjacent areas of
Colorado and Utah, where their occupation
lasted until 1280 or so. By 1300 AD the
population centers had shifted south, to the
Rio Grande Valley in north-central New
Mexico and the Mogollon Rim in central
Arizona, where related people had already
been living for centuries.
Modern Pueblo
people dislike the term Anasazi.
The word offends many who consider it an
ethnic slur. This Navajo word means "ancient
enemy" (or ancient stranger, alien,
foreigner, or outsider). Modern Pueblos
speak several different languages; they do
not share a common term for their ancestors.
"Ancient ones" or "ancestors" are adequate
but rough translations for the Pueblo names.
The Hopi name is Hisatsinom.
The term
Anasazi came into wide use about 70
years ago. Here is an excerpt from Dr.
William Lipe's comments on the subject:
"The
earliest published reference was by
Kidder in the mid-1930s.... J.O. Brew
(1946) rails against the use of the term
'Anasazi' on the grounds that a Navajo
term is inappropriate for an obviously
Puebloan culture, that 'Basketmaker-Pueblo'
or 'Puebloan' had precedence in the
literature, and would do just as well
for continued reference to this cultural
tradition... My guess is that this
Navajo word... caught on in the middle
1930s [with archaeologists because] it
did not imply any particular cultural
relationship... It was bad practice to
pre-judge the historical conclusions by
identifying a prehistoric archaeological
complex with some historically or
ethnographically known culture."
Today,
however, no doubt remains that these
prehistoric people were ancestral to modern
Pueblos, who insist that their ancestors did
not permanently "abandon" their former
territories. Modern Pueblos still make
pilgrimages to ancestral village sites, have
oral histories about them, and maintain
shrines in the Four Corners region.
TOP
What happened to
these people ?
The Ancestral Puebloan farmers were relatively successful in the Four
Corners area for over a thousand years, but
by AD 1300 they had left the entire region.
Long-term climate changes that reduced crop
yield may have been among the reasons that
the Ancestral Puebloans finally moved away
from their former homeland.
Tree-ring
records and other indicators show that
persistent drought and/or shortened
frost-free seasons affected this region
during several prehistoric periods,
including the early 900s, the early 1100s,
and the late 1200s. Each of these periods
corresponds to shifts in settlement pattern.
The last period (late 1200s) witnessed the
final, widespread Puebloan migrations out of
the Four Corners. Other factors responsible
for this exodus may have been deforestation
or other kinds of environmental degradation,
a growing scarcity of land or other
resources, and/or political conflicts
related to these problems.
The
Ancestral Puebloans may have reached the
limit of the natural resources available to
them. When crops consistently failed, the
people moved to a better location.
Archaeologists also see evidence of social
changes over time, changes perhaps related
to internal pressures or to outside
competition from non-Pueblo groups.
In the
Dolores Valley, research revealed that
people began settling in small villages
around AD 500. The settlements were heavily
populated between AD 600 and 900 when
conditions were most favorable for
agriculture. The number of households,
hamlets, and villages increased as the
population grew.
Environmental conditions began to change
around AD 900, as cooler temperatures made
farming unreliable. Families began leaving
the Dolores area to pursue agriculture and
community life at lower elevations nearby.
In later centuries the population rebounded
and use of the area continued through the
1200s. In southwestern Colorado, some
settlement areas persisted for centuries but
with internal changes such as a trend toward
concentration into larger, fewer villages.
While the
Four Corners settlements declined, more
southerly areas began to develop and grow.
The Rio Grande pueblos and the pueblos of
Acoma, Laguna, and Zuni grew in numbers
after AD 1300, perhaps including people from
this region. The Hopi people of Arizona
believe some of their clans came from the
north. Evidence exists for sudden population
growth around the Homolovi area near
Winslow, Arizona.
TOP
What language did they speak ?
No one knows
what language the Ancestral Puebloans spoke.
The culture was widespread in space and
time, so it is likely that different
languages were spoken. Though there is
some possibility that they spoke Nahuat.
Modern Pueblos
speak several languages within the broad
Uto-Aztecan language group, which also
includes the Nahuatl or Aztec, Ute, and
Tarahumara languages. Pueblo languages
include
• Tanoan
languages (including Tewa and Tiwa)
spoken at pueblos of the Rio Grande
area.
• Keresan,
spoken at Acoma and Laguna Pueblos
• Zuni, a
unique language isolate
• Hopi,
which is related to Shoshonean and Ute
TOP
What was Ancestral Pueblo
architecture like ?
Pueblo people
have created and lived in a variety of
shelters over the last 2000 years. The
earliest constructions were family unit
pithouses, which were shallow excavations
roofed over by earth and wood. The first
hamlets and villages were usually a row or
arc of small, square rooms, built of sticks
and mud plaster, set behind a cluster of
pithouses.
The
Ancestral Puebloans generally did not make
adobes or mud bricks. The earliest pueblos
often had walls made of clay covering a
lattice of sticks-- called jacal
construction-- usually anchored to a row of
foundation stones. Later villages had stone
stem walls below upper jacal walls. Later
still, walls were mostly stone masonry--
sometimes carefully shaped, sometimes not--
held together with mud/clay mortar. Roofing
was layers of brush and clay over a frame of
sticks and logs.
Later,
multi-family "pueblos" were built with
shaped stones. One major advantage to pueblo
construction is that adding rooms to a
pueblo is much easier than digging a new
pithouse. The first pueblos were single
story buildings, but evolved into larger
multi-level complexes beginning about
900-1000 AD. Pueblo-type villages resemble
modern apartment blocks, but with many rooms
devoted to food storage. A classic, modern
example is Taos Pueblo in New Mexico.
Pithouse-type
villages and pueblo-type villages overlapped
in time. The earliest pueblos were really an
arc of storage rooms behind a cluster of
pithouses. Gradually the above-ground
storage rooms became living/sleeping/working
rooms, while the pithouses became deeper and
less numerous. After this transition,
archaeologists often refer to them as kivas.
Some kivas in the western Anasazi area were
square rooms, as are Hopi kivas today.
There are
several differences between the kivas in
modern Pueblo villages and the "kivas" found
at Ancestral Puebloan sites. The kivas in
archaeological sites are much more numerous
than kivas in modern villages, and may have
had different functions. They may have
belonged to individual families or clans.
Since their form evolved from earlier
habitations (pithouses), ancient kivas
probably were used more often as working or
sleeping quarters than are modern kivas.
"Great Kivas" are a different
kind of building. They are usually not
found connected to any single family unit or
set of living rooms. They are larger than
simple kivas, and apparently they were used
to host community events. The oldest known
great kivas are as old as the earliest
pithouse villages, dating from around AD 1.
In terms of use and meaning, great kivas may
be the true ancestors of modern, communal
kivas.
It is worth
pointing out that the actual "living room"
space in Ancestral Pueblo villages was
usually outside on a rooftop or plaza during
good weather. Indoor areas were mainly for
sleeping or working in wet, windy, or cold
weather. Most of the rooms in a pueblo were
storage rooms, like a house full of closets.
Between AD
1200 and 1300 in the Four Corners region,
many large and small pueblos were built into
shallow caves. Known today as "cliff
dwellings," these village sites offer
several environmental advantages: They
shelter the buildings from rain and snow,
they usually have a good solar orientation
(shade in the summer, sun in the winter), a
spring is often found at the back of these
caves, and cave villages do not occupy
scarce agricultural land. However, the
absence of cliff dwellings before AD 1200--
and their sudden, widespread adoption
throughout the Four Corners region after
that date-- indicate other motivations for
this change. Many cliff dwellings have very
defensible locations and defensive
architecture; the difficulty of access must
have been a disadvantage to some
inhabitants. Recent evidence indicates that
malnutrition and famine were not uncommon
during this period, and that violent events
sometimes took place, so cliff dwelling
architecture may represent a response to
social stress.
TOP
What kind of government and
social structures did they have ?
Modern Pueblo
groups share certain social patterns.
Traditionally they are all matrilineal,
meaning that clan affiliation is reckoned
through the female line, and children
"belong" to the mother's clan. They are
matrilocal, meaning that husbands
traditionally move into the bride's family
household. Their society is matriarchal,
meaning that homes and farm land are owned
by and inherited from the mother, and a wife
has the right to divorce and evict her
husband. However, some kinds of civil and
religious authority are usually reserved for
men. Among the Hopi, for instance, the
village chief or kikmongwi
sometimes has been a woman, but usually the
kikmongwi is a man.
Archaeological
evidence is indirect, and does not usually
reveal much about a people's beliefs,
religion, political system, or social
customs. Sometimes the geographic patterning
of settlements in the landscape-- or the
placement of buildings within a village--
are indicators of social relationships.
Otherwise, we can only assume that many
cultural patterns are the same now as they
were a thousand years ago, and the Pueblos
tell us they were. For example: In recent
times, men were the weavers, and they
socialized in the kivas. In archaeological
sites, we often find evidence of weaving in
kivas. But our understanding of Anasazi
rules of property and authority are still
too vague to be certain about them. At least
there is nothing that would indicate that
roles have been reversed.
Many modern
Pueblo people believe their 13th century
ancestors were organized into clans and were
governed by clan elders. Some archaeologists
doubt that the clan system existed at that
time because they see little evidence for
it. They theorize that clan formation was a
response to social and geographical
dislocations ca. AD 1300 - 1400, and to a
need for a new way to define relationships
between new neighbors. In this view, clans
represent people who previously migrated as
a group and then settled with other groups
to form a larger community.
It is common
to find popular references to "Anasazi
cities." According to the narrowest
definition, a city is a large settlement of
non-farmers who make their living through
trade and/or the manufacture of specialized
products. The clustered settlements within
Chaco Canyon, New Mexico during the period
AD 1000-1100 might have approached the
definition of a true city. However, the
Anasazi culture region was much wider than
Chaco's sphere of influence. The vast
majority of Anasazi settlements are better
defined as farming villages.
Recent
research indicates that, as the landscape
grew more crowded over time, dispersed
settlements aggregated into larger
communities with smaller hamlets surrounding
the core villages.
There is also
evidence of status differences among the
later Ancestral Puebloans, as seen by
differences in architecture and burial
possessions. But compared to many ancient
societies, Ancestral Puebloan society
appears to have been relatively egalitarian
without well-defined class distinctions.
TOP
What
were their religious activities like ?
Archaeology
does not reveal much about beliefs,
religion, political system, or social
customs of a people, so evidence about
ancient religion is necessarily indirect.
But many early religious ideas and
traditions are no doubt preserved in the
modern Pueblo culture.
Pueblo
religion is still based on maintaining
harmony with the natural world, which was
the key to survival for ancient people. Like
today, the Ancestral Puebloans probably held
public and private ceremonies intended to
benefit the group as a whole. Different
segments of society may have been
responsible for different events, each one
important to the spiritual and material
well-being of the community. Some modern
villages ritually divide themselves into
"summer people and winter people," or
"squash people and turquoise people" with
each half assuming different religious
responsibilities. .
Careful
observation of the sun, moon and stars was
essential for planning activities such as
when to start planting and when to prepare
for winter. Important religious concepts and
events were associated with seasonal tasks
like farming (in spring and summer) and
hunting (in fall and winter). As in many
other agricultural societies, rituals were
keyed to annual events like the winter
solstice or the beginning of the harvest
season. Animal figures pecked or painted
images on rock walls may have been connected
to prayers or magical rituals for successful
hunting.
Shamans and
shamanic practices are rarely found
in Pueblo society. True shamans usually
belong to nomadic cultures. Shamans seek
visions for healing, warfare, finding game,
predicting the future, etc. Shamans may be
marked from an early age by physical
deformities, epileptic seizures, and/or
hallucinations.They use intoxicants,
hypnotic chanting, prolonged dancing, or
pain to reach the spirit world and
communicate with spirits on behalf of their
people. There is evidence that ancestral
Pueblos occasionally sought visions-- seeds
of the hallucinogenic Datura plant
were recovered from a kiva at Mesa Verde,
and some pottery vessels imitate Datura
seed pods-- but vision quests are not
now considered part of traditional Pueblo
culture.
By
contrast, Pueblo religious specialists draw
wisdom from inherited traditions rather than
from ecstatic visions. They are often chosen
by family lineage. Their power comes from
their responsibility for ceremonies, their
initiation into religious societies, and
their possession of secret knowledge.They
are expected to be exemplary members of the
community. Pueblo priests bring rain through
ceremony and prayer. Like shamans, they are
thought to have a special level of
communication with the spirits and deities
through their profession and personal
character.
Spirit
beings called Kachinas (or Katsinas) are
important within all modern Pueblo villages.
Kachinas are ancestor spirits who bring
rain, and who appear as masked dancers in
Pueblo villages during the summer. The
earliest trace of kachina imagery in rock
art appears in west Texas, southern New
Mexico, and central Arizona. However, the
archaeological record indicates that the
concept of kachinas came relatively late
into the Pueblo world. There is no evidence
of them at communities in Colorado and Utah
during the 1200s and before.
Top
Did they study astronomy ?
Probably all
Ancestral Puebloans anticipated and marked
the summer and winter solstices. Careful
observation of the sun, moon and stars was
essential for planning activities such as
when to start planting and when to prepare
for winter. As in many other agricultural
societies, important rituals were keyed to
annual celestial events like the solstices
and equinoxes.
Several
known rock art sites mark the solstices, and
perhaps the equinoxes as well. At Hovenweep
National Monument, a narrow shaft of light
crosses the center of a spiral marking on
the bedrock near Holly Pueblo.
Among the
most famous solstice markers is the
so-called "Sun Dagger" at Chaco Canyon. This
delicate site is not normally open to the
public.
Most
remarkably, the alignment and construction
dates of the structures at the
Chimney Rock archaeological
site near Pagosa Springs, Colorado offers
strong evidence that the ancient people
understood and anticipated an 18.6 year
lunar cycle.
Dr. J.
McKim ("Kim") Malville, a professor of
astronomy at the University of Colorado, has
published extensively on Anasazi
astronomical alignments.
Top
Did the Ancestral Puebloans communicate and trade with other
groups ?
Ancestral
Puebloan communities were not isolated from
each other, or from other cultures in
western North America. They participated in
a far-reaching network of trade that brought
exotic items from as far away as the Pacific
coast, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Great
Plains. Such items probably traveled by
passing from person to person, or group to
group.
There is no evidence they intentionally
organized a widespread regional trade
network, except maybe within the Chaco
canyon system during the11th century.
Trade items
arrived from other cultures to the south,
but most trade took place among different
Anasazi areas stretching from Colorado to
Nevada. The Puebloans obtained California
sea shells, parrots, and copper bells made
in western Mexico. Mogollon people were
probably a conduit for the Mexican bells and
parrots. The Hohokam area around Phoenix
produced cotton, which the Anasazi
ultimately received, but apparently most
other goods did not arrive via the Hohokam.
On the more local level, a
potter might find her wares in demand, as
would a successful farmer with surplus corn.
Marriage partners probably came from
neighboring villages. Such activities kept
open lines of communication between groups.
Information exchange was
an important by-product of trade. What were
other communities doing? How was the climate
in other areas? How did others irrigate? How
did other people make kivas? Such
communication was involved in learning to
make pottery, learning new farming
techniques, acquiring the bow and arrow, and
other important advances.
Traders
traveled on footpaths, and there must have
been a vast network of these. The "roads"
extending from Chaco Canyon have excited
much interest and speculation, but some
archaeologists feel they should not be
considered as genuine roads at all. The
Chacoan network was apparently quite limited
in time and space. The "roads" found so far
only connect a few Chaco sites to one
another, not to more distant culture areas.
They are more clearly marked and constructed
at either end than in their remote middle
parts. They run very straight, sometimes
intersecting cliffs and canyons, so they are
not practical for foot travel. (Compare the
Inca roads of South America, which really
were functional for commerce.)
Top
What did they wear ?
Little
clothing has been found because it is so
perishable. Some knowledge of early clothing
comes from comparing archeological evidence
to the traditional clothing of the historic
Pueblo Indians.
The people
wove textiles from cotton obtained in trade
from southern areas. Weaving on large
upright-frame looms was probably done mostly
by men working in the kivas. They also wove
blankets, shirts, robes, aprons, kilts,
breechcloths, socks, and belts using various
vegetal fibers, animal hair, and human hair.
They also made thick robes using split
feathers or fur strips wrapped around a
yucca fiber core. Matted fiber from juniper
bark was used for diapers and menstrual
pads, and for insulating sandal-clad feet
during cold weather.
Footwear
included sandals, moccasins, and possibly
snowshoes. Sandals were usually made of
plaited or woven yucca fibers and came in a
variety of styles.
Animal
hides may have provided material for some
clothing, but very few leather moccasins or
other leather garments have been found.
Jewelry was
common. Necklaces, earrings, bracelets, arm
bands, hair combs, and pins were made from
wood, bone, shell (including abalone),
coral, jet (coal), and stone beads made of
turquoise, slate, and other minerals. Some
ornaments may have had ritual significance
as badges of office. Jewelry probably helped
define social status, especially in larger
communities.
Top
How did the Ancestral Puebloans
farm ?
This
region's earliest inhabitants were
originally hunters and gatherers. In time,
agricultural knowledge came north from
Mexico. Evidence exists for some corn
agriculture by 1500 BC. By AD 1, people we
call the Basketmakers began to rely on dry
farming (using soil moisture from melted
snow, summer rainstorms, and occasional
springs). The first farmers probably did not
plant crops and leave them to survive on
their own. Most archaeologists believe that
agriculture requires people to settle down
in order to be successful. Corn usually
needs periodic care and protection
throughout the growing season. Major crops
eventually included corn, beans, and squash.
Farming
became the mainstay of the Ancestral
Puebloan economy and supported a large
population. Although it is difficult to
estimate accurately, the Montezuma County
area may have been occupied by as many as
20,000 people during the peak years between
AD 1000 and 1300— roughly the same number as
live there today. Each person is estimated
to have needed about one acre's worth of
corn per year as an adequate food supply.
Most
settlements in our area were found at
elevations around 6800 ft (2100 m) above sea
level, where both precipitation and growing
season are favorable for farming, and the
hunting and gathering is also good. At
higher elevations the growing season is
usually too short for most crops to mature,
and lower elevations are often too dry for
successful dry-farming.
Like their
historic and modern Pueblo descendants, the
Ancestral Puebloans probably cared for the
plants periodically throughout the spring
and summer. They rarely practiced river
irrigation, except near the Rio Grande in
New Mexico, but they often captured rain
runoff for agricultural use. Community
planning and labor went into water control
projects such as reservoirs and small dams.
The Puebloans
farmed mesa tops, plains, or canyon bottoms,
depending on local variables. They farmed
intensively, planting large and small
patches of land— wherever there was
sufficient water, warmth and light to
support a few plants. Archaeologists'
experiments suggest that the Dolores people
might have been able to produce up to 40
bushels of corn per acre through careful
management and under ideal conditions.
Modern dry-farming methods produce about 14
bushels per acre.
The
Ancestral Puebloans gradually farmed more
and hunted less over time, but they
continued to hunt and gather wild plants
long after they had settled in year-round
villages. The weather in this region has
always been erratic, and crop failures were
probably fairly common even in the best of
times.
Drought and
other climatic changes were constant
threats. Surplus corn was stored to provide
food during bad years. Large storerooms
became prominent features of communities.
Changing precipitation patterns, shortened
growing seasons, and/or cool summers could,
and probably did, spell disaster for many
local settlements. Extended drought was one
factor which caused them to finally leave
the Four Corners region.
Top
How did the Ancestral Puebloans
make their living besides farming ?
Hunting and gathering, the
primary food resources of the earliest
people, were never totally abandoned. When
crops were reduced by drought or cold
weather-- or as the population grew larger--
communities were forced to rely more on game
and wild plants to make up the difference.
Meat remained the major source of protein.
Piñon nuts, yucca fruit, berries and other
wild plants were still part of the diet. The
people also gathered plant materials to make
baskets, clothing and tools.
Garden plots actually made
hunting easier by attracting rabbits, birds
and mice. The people also hunted deer and
elk in the mountains, and antelope and
bighorn sheep at lower elevations.
The
Ancestral Puebloans did not move seasonally
to the lowlands to hunt or gather wild
plants. Lower elevations in this region are
mostly desert, with few game animals or food
plants. If they did make extended hunting
and gathering trips, it is more likely they
went uphill toward the mountains, but we
have not found evidence of seasonal camps at
higher elevations.
Top
What did they eat, and how did
they prepare their food ?
Although
the Anasazi were farmers of corn, beans, and
squash, they also hunted and gathered wild
plants for food. Studies indicate that
sometimes people depended more on wild foods
than on farmed crops.
Corn was
dried and stored on the cob. Strips of dried
squash hung in the storage rooms. Wild plant
foods were also stored and prepared for
cooking. Piñon nuts, sunflower and other
seeds had to be winnowed and hulled before
they could be cooked and eaten.Corn kernels
were parched in jars that lay on their sides
near the fire.
Women spent
hours each day grinding corn into flour with
manos and metates. Beans were soaked then
cooked in large jars. Vessels full of stew
or mush may have been placed directly over
fires, or hot rocks were dropped into the
contents. They probably made paper-thin
piki (a Hopi word) by spreading corn
meal batter on a hot greased rock.
Mice and
rabbits were probably more important sources
of meat than larger game such as deer or
bighorn sheep. Among the larger game
animals, wild sheep apparently were more
abundant than deer. Large animals were
butchered at the kill site. Back at home the
meat was roasted, stewed, or dried for
jerky. Long bones were cracked to extract
marrow, and hides were cured for other uses.
Turkeys were
domesticated and used mainly for feathers,
or as pets. They also were good for keeping
bugs out of gardens. There is little
evidence that turkeys or turkey eggs or dogs
were eaten.
Top
What was
Ancestral Puebloan pottery like ?
Pottery and
agriculture usually appear in ancient
cultures at about the same time. Pottery is
more practical for settled people who do not
move frequently. Nomads commonly use baskets
for storage and transport, but pottery
better protects stored food from insects and
rodents.
Much of the
earliest Puebloan pottery is not decorated,
but simple decorations (lines, dots,
zigzags) appear at almost the same time as
the undecorated pieces, around AD 575 in the
Four Corners. In general, designs become
denser and more precise over time up until
about 1250-1300 AD, which is the end of the
Anasazi (or Pueblo) period in Colorado.
Pottery designs from Colorado usually are
bold geometric patterns in black-on-white,
although sometimes they include obvious
representations of birds or lizards, or
humans. These geometric motifs seem to have
originated from basketry decorations, in
which straight and right-angle lines and
stepped patterns were easier to create than
curving forms.
We do not
know what the geometric designs mean.
According to the Pueblos, some of them
signify clan affiliation.They may also
represent family or village affiliation, or
simply the potter's imagination. Many have
been identified by Hopis and other Pueblo
groups as symbolic of clouds, birds, bear
claws, spider webs, water, friendship,
migration, etc.
Other kinds pf
pottery included plain-surfaced and textured
or corrugated cooking vessels.
Black-on-red pottery from northern Arizona
was traded throughout the Four Corners, as
were Red-on-buff styles from Utah. Shapes
included jars, bowls, pitchers, ladles,
canteens, figurines, and a variety of
miniatures.
Firing was
done with wood fuel at relatively low
temperatures, and apparently took place in
earth trenches. To achieve a black-and-white
result, the firing environment must be
oxygen-deprived (reduction atmosphere) but
without excess carbon which would produce an
all-black surface.
For more info,
try these reference books:
-
Breternitz, David A., Arthur H. Rohn,
Jr., and Elizabeth A. Morris
(1974)
Prehistoric Ceramics of the
Mesa
Verde Region.
Museum of Northern Arizona Ceramic
Series No. 5., Flagstaff , Arizona .
-
Dittert, Alfred E., Jr., and Fred Plog
(1980)
Generations in Clay: Pueblo Pottery
of the American Southwest.
Flagstaff, Arizona: Northland Press.
-
Hayes, Allan and John Blom (1996)
Southwestern Pottery - Anasazi to
Zuni
Flagstaff, Arizona: Northland Publishing
-
Lister, Robert H. and Florence C. (1978)
Anasazi Pottery
Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of
New Mexico Press
Earth, Water, and Fire
Boulder, Colorado: Johnson Publishing
Company
From This Earth
Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe,
New Mexico
Top
Why is pottery important to
archaeologists ?
Ancient
pottery contains hidden clues about the
people who made it.
Styles and
designs changed through time, and varied
across regions. Pottery can be sorted or
"typed" into categories based on grouped
traits such as color, texture, decoration
and vessel shape. Archaeologists often name
a ceramic type after the place where the
pottery of that style was first
identified--for example, Mancos
Black-on-gray (from Mancos, Colorado) or Tin
Cup Polychrome (from Tin Cup Mesa, Utah).
Archaeologists follow the principle that
most pottery made in one place and time
tends to be fairly uniform in decoration.
Consequently, ceramic fragments ("sherds")
can indirectly show when a household or
village was occupied. Since certain designs
are unique to specific geographic areas and
periods, studying and classifying designs
helps to reconstruct social affiliation,
communication networks, and trade
relationships between regions. The
distribution of certain styles indicates
degrees of cultural continuity or
discontinuity across times and places. It
would be valuable to know if certain designs
"belonged" to a family, clan, or village; or
how free a potter was to invent or borrow
designs.
Temper (gritty
binding material) in the clay may be
traceable to a geologic source area where
the pottery was made. Its surface may retain
pollen from food plants or scrapings from a
meal.
Top
What other tools did they have ?
The Ancestral
Puebloans' many tools can be categorized by
their use-- such as hunting tools, building
tools, gardening tools, weaving and sewing
tools, tools to make other tools, etc.-- or
by the materials the tools were made from,
such as stone, wood, plant fiber, etc. Many
tools were probably made of materials which
did not survive for centuries in
archaeological sites, so we know little
about these.
BASKETRY is
an extremely old technology going back many
thousands of years. Willow, sumac, yucca and
apocynum were commonly-used
materials in this part of the world. Baskets
were used as backpacks to carry food,
firewood, tools, etc. Pitch-lined baskets
were used for carrying water, and probably
for cooking (by dropping in hot rocks into
the water). Baskets are far more useful to
nomads than pottery would be, because they
are not as heavy or fragile. Although the
craft of basketry is certainly much older
than pottery, its survival in archaeological
sites is rarer. The earliest period of the
Ancestral Puebloan culture is called the
Basketmaker era because of their
mastery of this important skill.
STONE TOOLS
have survived very well. Archaeologists
separate stone tools into two categories
according to how they were made: FLAKED
STONE TOOLS are made by carefully breaking
apart and chipping rocks like obsidian or
chert. These are sharp-edged tools for
cutting or piercing, such as spear and arrow
points, knives, and drill points. GROUND
STONE TOOLS are shaped by grinding one stone
against another stone. Ground stone tools
are not made of brittle rock and can be
pounded on. They do not have sharp edges.
These include axe heads (which have a thin
but not a sharp edge), hammer stones, manos
and metates (for grinding foods), and
mortars or paint palettes (small cup shaped
indentations for grinding pigments). Ground
stone tools can be made of granite, basalt,
sandstone, or other kinds of rock. Small
STONE DRILLS were made of flaked stone, and
might have been used in making beads and
other kinds of jewelry. Sandstone blocks
used in house construction must have been
shaped with stone HAMMERS made of harder
material.
HUNTING TOOLS
serve to catch or kill animals (weapons for
warfare are very similar): ATLATLS or
spear-throwers have been found throughout
the world, so the concept is probably very
ancient. An atlatl is a piece of wood about
a meter long, with a hand grip of leather or
sinew on one end and a "tooth" or notch on
the other, to hold the end of a spear. An
atlatl works to make the hunter's arm much
longer, allowing him to throw a spear with
great force and distance. They may have come
into North American with the first
immigrants over 20,000 years ago.
The BOW and
ARROW were introduced more recently, about
1500 years ago on this continent. Many kinds
of strong, flexible wood could be used for
the bow. SINEW from animal hide or gut was
twisted together to make the bow string.
ARROW SHAFTS were made straight by grinding
semi-straight branches against a SHAFT
STRAIGHTENER, a tool which is a small
flat-faced piece of sandstone with a deep
groove cut into it. THROWING STICKS
(sometimes called RABBIT STICKS) were thrown
at small game during a chase.
SNARES and
NETS were also hunting tools woven from
plant fibers such as yucca. A snare is a
trap which closes when an animal steps on
it. People would also walk or run in long
lines to chase animals into a long net held
by other people. Some Ancestral Puebloan
nets were hundreds of yards long. Snares and
nets are rarely preserved in archaeological
sites since they were made from perishable
material, and archaeologists may
underestimate how common or important they
were to ancient people.
FLESHERS or
SCRAPERS were spatula-shaped tools, usually
made from the leg bone of a large mammal,
used to remove fat and flesh from the inside
surface of a hide. Various kinds of KNIVES,
and other cutting tools made of flaked
stone, also helped in butchering an animal.
DIGGING STICKS
were hardened wood shafts used to make holes
in the earth for planting seeds of corn,
beans, and squash in gardens.
COOKING and
EATING TOOLS would include WOODEN DRILLS
used to kindle fire when spun against
another piece of wood. BOWLS, CUPS, POTS,
and LADLES were made of pottery and used for
boiling and serving food. METATES are large,
flat stones for grinding corn and other
seeds into meal. MANOS are hand-held stones
used to grind against a metate.
WEAVING and
SEWING TOOLS were very important to the
Ancestral Puebloans. They spun cotton fibers
into yarn on a DROP SPINDLE (a wooden shaft
on a pottery disc). They wove cotton yarn
and other fibers into cloth on a LOOM which
was a vertical wooden frame. A BATTEN is a
flat, wide stick used to separate lines of
yarn during weaving. Animal bones were made
into SEWING NEEDLES and AWLS for piercing
and stitching hide to make clothing such as
moccasins, leggings, shirts, etc.
The Ancestral
Puebloans made ROPE, TWINE, and THREAD for
many purposes. Coarse rope was often made
from yucca fiber, and fine thread was
sometimes made from twisted human hair.
POTTERY-MAKING
TOOLS included SCRAPERS and SHAPERS which
could be made of many things-- other
fragments of pottery, wood, or pieces of a
gourd shell. Small yucca BRUSHES were used
to paint decorations on pottery.
CALENDAR
MARKERS were also a kind of tool-- these
were sometimes holes in a wall, or rocks set
upright in a high place, used to mark the
arrival of a season (solstice) by a shadow
or a shaft of light which fell on one exact
location only one day per year. Knowing the
date was very important for farmers who had
to decide when to plant their crops.
TOP
What is the meaning of rock art?
Where can I see some?
Like many
prehistoric peoples, the Ancestral Puebloans
pecked or painted a variety of images on the
sandstone cliffs. Some of them might have
been idle doodling. But the sustained effort
needed to create them and
the interpretations offered by Native
Americans indicate that most images probably
have deeper meanings.
For
instance, some spirals may signify the sun's
movement, or the passage of time. In certain
places, shafts of sunlight strike a spiral
differently at the spring and autumn
equinoxes, and the winter and summer
solstices. These spirals probably served as
part of a ritual calendar. Elsewhere,
according to modern Pueblos, spirals are
symbols of a group's migration from one
locale to another.
Other
symbols may have been maps showing out the
locations of springs, villages, and other
features. Animal figures may have played
roles in rituals or prayers for successful
hunting. Corn plants might represent a
successful harvest. Some symbols evidently
represent family, clan, or ceremonial
society affiliation. Some of these same
designs appear in the decorations of early
Puebloan pottery.
In the Four
Corners area, petroglyphs' dates extend from
ca. 3000 BC though the 19th century, and on
to the present. They represent (among
others) the Desert Archaic tradition, the
Ancestral Pueblo or Anasazi culture,
historic Ute, and historic Navajo cultures.
Most
petroglyph locations are not marked on maps
or roadways. Mesa Verde National Park has
one impressive panel known as "Petroglyph
Point" that is accessible by a 2-mile trail.
Hovenweep National Monument has a well-known
solstice marker petroglyph site. Newspaper
Rock State Park, near Monticello in
southeast Utah, is a drive-up site with many
images and time periods represented. In
general, there seem to be more petroglyphs
in southeast Utah than in the adjacent part
of Colorado.
Good source
books for petroglyphs of our area are
Indian Rock Art of the Southwest
by Polly Schaafsma (U of New Mexico Press
1980) and Legacy on Stone
by Sally Cole (Johnson Books, Boulder,
1990).
Top
What is unique about the
Escalante and Dominguez Pueblos ?
These sites were excavated
and stabilized in 1976, and are adjacent to
the Anasazi Heritage Center.
In 1776 a small expedition
headed north from Santa Fe, seeking a route
to the California missions while exploring
unknown territory. The group was led by
Father Francisco Atanasio Dominguez. His
fellow Franciscan, Father Silvestre Velez de
Escalante, kept the expedition journal. They
failed to reach California, but they did
describe and map a large portion of the
interior West.
In the early weeks of their journey the
expedition camped by a river they knew as El
Rio de Nuestra Señora de Los Dolores
(the River of Our Lady of Sorrows) near the
present town of Dolores. On August 13, 1776,
Escalante wrote in his journal: "Upon an
elevation on the river's south side, there
was in ancient times a small settlement of
the same type as the Indians of New Mexico,
as the ruins we purposely inspected show."
The ruins that Escalante noted might be the
sites which now bear their names. Theirs was
the first written report of Pueblo
settlements in present-day Colorado.
The Dominguez Pueblo was a
small household settlement on the grounds of
the Anasazi Heritage Center. All that
remains today are the foundation stones of
four rooms. The structure was originally
roofed with poles, brush, and mud plaster.
Just south of the room block was a kiva
where residents would have carried out
social and religious activities. The site,
typical of our area in the early 1100s, was
occupied at the same time as the Escalante
Pueblo at the top of the hill. Excavation at
the Dominguez site recovered 6,900
turquoise, jet and shell beads; a shell and
turquoise frog pendant and mosaics, two fine
ceramic vessels, six bone scrapers, a woven
mat and many other items.
Some archaeologists
interpret Escalante Pueblo as an outpost of
the Chaco culture, which was centered in New
Mexico. It was built around AD 1120 to 1130,
when Puebloan groups were flourishing
throughout the Four Corners region and trade
among various groups was active.The pueblo
shows typical Chaco-style architecture— a
large rectangular room block enclosing
living rooms, storage rooms, and a kiva.
Dressed stone outer walls filled with a
rubble core, and the kiva's sub-floor
fresh-air ventilator are also characteristic
of Chaco.
The Dominguez Pueblo is
just one of several small local (Northern
San Juan) type settlements surrounding
Escalante. Among the many questions that
remain to be answered: Did Chacoans
establish Escalante Pueblo because of the
many nearby communities, or did the local
people cluster around Escalante to be close
to the action?
Top
Archaeological site locations
"Where can
I find a map showing archaeological sites in
the Southwest?"
No map will
show all the archaeological sites. In
Montezuma County, Colorado, for instance,
there are about 20,000 known Ancestral
Pueblo archaeological sites, and thousands
more elsewhere.
Canyons of the Ancients
National Monument alone includes about
6,000 sites recorded so far, and many more
are expected. Most of these sites are small
and not immediately obvious to the untrained
eye.
As a matter of
policy the BLM does not publicize precise
locations for most of these sites. More than
a century of looting and vandalism has shown
the damage such publicity can do. However,
many books show the extent of territory
occupied by this culture, and identify a
large number of well-known individual sites.
Among these, we suggest
-
Ancient Pueblo Peoples
by Linda S. Cordell
-
Ancient Ruins of the
Southwest by David Grant
Noble
-
The Prehistoric Pueblo World
by Michael A. Adler
Top
Excavation Opportunities
"Where can I join an archaeological
expedition or dig?"
Most
archaeological digs are not staffed by
volunteers. Most are of two kinds:
-
A professional archaeology company is
hired to survey an area where modern
construction will take place-- a
building, a highway, a canal, a power
line, etc- and write a report on the
area before work begins. These are
called "salvage" archaeology projects,
which may or may not involve actual
excavation. Archaeological surveys are
required by law if the construction
project involves publicly-owned land.
-
Students pay to join a dig or
expedition, which is sponsored by a
college or other institution. In our
area, the Crow Canyon Archaeological
Center offers such an opportunity. See
their web site at www.crowcanyon.org
However, some
opportunities for volunteer work do exist.
Here are two excellent sources:
-
Passport in Time (PIT) is a
clearinghouse of volunteer opportunities
nationwide, managed by the U.S. Forest
Service. You can contact them at:
Passport in Time Clearinghouse
P.O. Box 15728
Rio Rancho, NM 87174-5728
(800) 281-9176 voice, TTY
(505) 896-1136 fax
(e-mail)
volunteer@passportintime.com
-
Archaeology Magazine
lists opportunities
throughout the world. You may find it at
the library, or go to www.archaeology.org
