Prehistoric Indians of the Southwest

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Title: Prehistoric Indians of the Southwest
Author: Worthington, H. M.
Language: English
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SOUTHWEST ***

PREHISTORIC INDIANS OF THE SOUTHWEST

_by_
H. M. WORMINGTON
_Curator of Archaeology_

[Illustration: SEAL OF COLORADO MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY · 1900
NIL SINE NUMINE]

APPENDIX: OUTSTANDING EXHIBIT-SITES, MODERN PUEBLOS, LOCAL MUSEUMS
By Erik K. Reed
Regional Archaeologist, National Park Service

THE DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
Denver, Colorado

Popular Series No. 7 Seventh Printing, 1966
First Edition, 1947

PREFACE

During the past 25,000 years the Southwest has been invaded many times.
Now each year comes a fresh invasion—an invasion of those who have
succumbed to its beauty and strange, inexplicable charm. There is
something infectious about the magic of the Southwest. Some are immune
to it, but there are others who have no resistance to the subtle virus
and who must spend the rest of their lives dreaming of the incredible
sweep of the desert, of great golden mesas with purple shadows, and
tremendous stars appearing at dusk from a turquoise sky. Once infected
there is nothing one can do but strive to return again and again.

For many, a good portion of this charm lies in the intangible presence
of the “Ancient Ones”, the people who lived in these enchanted deserts
and plateaus through many centuries. One can see the places where they
lived and often one finds bits of pottery which show the immemorial
striving for beauty of some long dead craftsman. It is natural to want
to know more of these prehistoric people and how they lived and it is
the aim of this book to try to tell that story; not in technical terms
intelligible only to the professional scientist but in a way that will
make it of interest to the layman and the undergraduate student. It is
also an attempt to give at least a partial answer to the two questions
which inevitably arise when one considers the cultures of antiquity—“How
do you know these things?” and, “How old are they?”

There is always the hope, too, that publications such as this may serve
a further purpose. If more people understand some of the complexities of
excavation and realize how much information may be obtained by a trained
investigator, perhaps there will be less of the unscientific
“pot-hunting” which leads to the looting of ancient sites and which
every year is destroying an untold amount of irreplaceable data.

Constant references to source material, which are characteristic of
technical publications, are impractical in a book of this nature, for
they spoil the continuity of the narrative. It would be unfair, however,
not to give credit to the many fine archaeologists whose work has
provided this knowledge, and it is desirable for the reader to know
which publications to consult if he seeks more detailed information.
Numbers in fine print which appear throughout the text refer to
publications, listed under corresponding numbers in the bibliography,
from which the information under consideration was derived.

Although every effort has been made to avoid the use of unfamiliar
terms, this has not always been possible. A glossary of technical terms
will be found in the back of the book.

The task of writing this book has been made a pleasant one by the fine
cooperation of archaeologists and anthropologists. It is doubtful if the
members of any other profession would have given more unstintingly of
their time and have been more wholeheartedly willing to help and
cooperate in every possible way. I am deeply indebted to Dr. Harold S.
Colton, Dr. Edward T. Hall, Jr., Dr. Emil W. Haury, Dale S. King, Dr.
Erik K. Reed, Charles Steen, Dr. Walter Taylor, and Dr. Ruth Underhill
for checking and criticizing the manuscript or portions of it. Their
suggestions have been of the greatest possible value. They are not,
however, responsible in any way for any archaeological sins of
commission or omission which may follow.

I am most grateful to Earl H. Morris for graciously furnishing hitherto
unpublished data on his excavation of Basketmaker houses and to Harold
S. Gladwin and Emil W. Haury for permitting me to use information
contained in personal letters.

The kindness of F. H. Douglas, who put his excellent library at my
disposal, is greatly appreciated. Without his assistance, and that of
Marian Sheets who helped to assemble the necessary references, the work
could never have been completed.

My thanks are due to the American Museum of Natural History, the Arizona
State Museum, Columbia University Press, Gila Pueblo, the Laboratory of
Anthropology, Mesa Verde National Park, the Museum of Northern Arizona,
the National Park Service, Peabody Museum of Harvard University, and the
Taylor Museum for providing needed photographs. I am also very grateful
to Gila Pueblo, the Laboratory of Anthropology, the Museum of Northern
Arizona, and the Smithsonian Institution for permission to reproduce
plates and figures from their publications.

To Mary Chilton Gray, I wish to express my appreciation of her fine
execution of the cover design and the line drawings. The pattern used on
the cover is derived from an encircling band on a Mesa Verde bowl. The
services of Walker Van Riper, who devoted many hours to checking
spelling and punctuation in the manuscript and to proof-reading, were of
immeasurable assistance. I am also greatly indebted to Nedra McHenry, to
Harvey C. Markman and to Margaret Roush for their assistance in
proof-reading. Dr. Alfred M. Bailey and Albert C. Rogers gave valuable
aid in the preparation of photographs.

Most especially I am grateful to my husband, George D. Volk, for his
unfailing interest and understanding and for the preparation of the maps
and the execution of the lettering on illustrations.

My sincere thanks are due to Dr. Alfred M. Bailey, Director of the
Colorado Museum of Natural History, who made it possible for this book
to be written and published, and to Charles H. Hanington, President of
the Board of Trustees, for his constant interest in the project.

H. M. Wormington

Denver, Colorado

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE
Preface 3
Chapter I—Introduction 11
Chapter II—The Most Ancient Cultures 20
Sandia 20
Folsom 20
San Jon 22
Yuma 22
Gypsum Cave 22
Cochise 22
Tabeguache Cave 26
Chapter III—The Anasazi Culture 27
General Remarks 27
The Basketmaker Period 27
The Modified-Basketmaker Period 49
Summary 56
The Developmental-Pueblo Period 57
Peripheral Areas 72
Summary 75
The Great Pueblo Period 76
The Largo-Gallina Phase 102
Athapaskan People 105
Summary 106
The Regressive and Historic Pueblo Periods 107
Chapter IV—The Hohokam Culture 118
General Remarks 118
The Pioneer Period 120
The Colonial Period 124
The Sedentary Period 132
The Classic Period 137
The Recent Hohokam 144
Summary 146
Chapter V—The Mogollon Culture 148
General Remarks 148
Bluff Ruin 150
The Pine Lawn Phase 151
The Georgetown Phase 152
The San Francisco Phase 153
Bear Ruin 155
The Three Circle Phase 157
The Mimbres Phase 158
Summary 161
Chapter VI—The Sinagua People 163
Chapter VII—The Patayan Culture 167
Conclusion 169
Glossary 170
Bibliography 174
Appendix by Erik K. Reed 181
Outstanding Exhibit-Sites 181
Modern Pueblos 185
Local Museums 186
Index 187

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE
1. Diagram to illustrate chronology-building with tree-rings 15
2. Map showing sites referred to in Chapter II 21
3. Projectile points of the most ancient cultures 23
4. Folsom diorama 25
5. Map showing sites referred to in Chapter III 28
6. Basketmaker mummy 30
7. Basketmaker diorama 32
8. Basketmaker and Modified-Basketmaker sandals 34
9. Atlatl and grooved club 39
10. Weaving techniques 41
11. Basketmaker coiled baskets 42
12. Basketmaker carrying basket with tump strap 43
13. Basketmaker twined-woven bags 44
14. Mummies of two varieties of Basketmaker dogs 47
15. Modified-Basketmaker diorama 48
16. Modified-Basketmaker house after excavation 50
17. Postulated method of Modified-Basketmaker house construction 51
18. Modified-Basketmaker figurine and nipple-shaped object 54
19. Developmental-Pueblo diorama 58
20. Undeformed and deformed skulls 60
21. Interior view of a kiva 65
22. Corrugated pottery 66
23. Black-on-white pottery, Developmental-Pueblo period 67
24. Neck-banded vessel, Developmental-Pueblo period 68
25. Developmental-Pueblo and Great-Pueblo sandal 69
26. Rosa pit house after excavation 74
27. Great Pueblo Diorama 77
28. Types of Great-Pueblo masonry 83
29. Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon National Monument, New Mexico 85
30. Chaco black-on-white pottery of the Great-Pueblo period 88
31. Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado 92
32. Mesa Verde black-on-white pottery of the Great-Pueblo period 95
33. Betatakin, Navajo National Monument, Arizona 98
34. Black-on-white pottery from the Kayenta area, Great-Pueblo
period 100
35. Largo surface house and artifacts 103
36. Cavate dwellings and talus houses at Bandelier National
Monument 109
37. Tyuonyi, Bandelier National Monument 111
38. Glazed ware from the Rio Grande area, Regressive Pueblo period 112
39. Biscuit ware from the Rio Grande area, Regressive Pueblo
period 113
40. Hopi maiden 116
41. Map showing sites referred to in Chapter IV 119
42. Hohokam figurines 123
43. Hohokam house and ball court, Colonial period 126
44. Red-on-buff Hohokam vessel, Colonial period 128
45. Hohokam carved stone vessel, Colonial period 130
46. Hohokam ornaments of carved shell 131
47. Red-on-buff Hohokam jars, Sedentary period 133
48. Hohokam stone palette, Sedentary period 134
49. Hohokam etched shell, Sedentary period 136
50. Salado polychrome ware 138
51. Big house built by the Salado people, Casa Grande National
Monument 141
52. Child’s cotton poncho from Ventana Cave, Desert Hohokam 143
53. Pima House in 1897 145
54. Map showing sites referred to in Chapter V 149
55. Postulated reconstructions of the dwelling units of three
Mogollon phases 154
56. Mimbres black-on-white pottery 160
57. Map showing distribution of cultures referred to in Chapters
VI and VII 164
58. Montezuma Castle National Monument 165

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

Before beginning any discussion of the Southwest it is best to decide
exactly what we mean by the word, for it means many things to many
people. For the geographer it has one meaning, for the economist
another, and for those who study its ancient inhabitants still another.
It is in the latter sense that we shall interpret it. To the
archaeologist, that is, to the scientist who studies and seeks to
interpret the life and times of prehistoric man, the Southwest usually
means New Mexico, Arizona, southern Utah, and the southwestern corner of
Colorado. Interpreting the term in its broadest sense, he may include
the remainder of Utah, southeastern Nevada, southwestern Texas, and
northern Mexico. State lines and international boundaries are, of
course, recent man-made devices and we must consider this region, not in
terms of present political units, but on a cultural and geographic
basis.

In the centuries since the Spaniards first arrived the presence of the
many imposing ruins which dot the Southwest has naturally led to much
speculation about their inhabitants, and the collecting of antiquities
has been inevitable. The collecting instinct is such that some
relationship between man and the pack rat might well be postulated if it
were not that man takes without leaving anything in place of what he has
removed.

From the time when the ruins of the prehistoric dwellings of the
Southwest were first observed, until about 1880, there was a period of
exploration and the more obvious places of archaeological interest were
described and superficially investigated. From then, until approximately
1910, much sound work was done but there was an unfortunate tendency
toward digging up specimens for their own sake rather than for the
information which they could reveal. In the last thirty-five years or
so, however, the emphasis has come to be more on the acquiring of
information and less on the collection of examples of material culture.
This has led to the excavation of less physically spectacular ruins,
increasing cooperation with workers in related fields of science, and
more careful planning of attacks on specific problems.

In a sense the development of archaeology in the Southwest may be
compared with the putting together of a great jig-saw puzzle. First came
the period of general examination of the pieces, then a concentration on
the larger and more highly colored pieces, and finally a carefully
planned approach to the puzzle as a whole with serious attempts to fill
in specific blank areas. After all, archaeology as a science can justify
its existence only as it serves to increase and deepen our knowledge of
that strange, and to us most fascinating mammal—man.

Archaeologists in the Southwest have been particularly fortunate for a
number of reasons. Perhaps most important is that climatic conditions
have made possible the preservation of much material which in most
climates would have disappeared in a relatively short time. Under
sufficiently arid conditions the bacteria of decay cannot survive and
the lack of humidity in the Southwest has insured the survival of much
material which would normally be lost. Another thing for which
archaeologists may be grateful is that pottery-making came to be so well
developed in this area, for pottery fragments are almost indestructible.
Furthermore, pottery is a most sensitive medium for reflecting change.
Since it is fragile there is constant breakage which leads to the
frequent manufacture of new pieces and this accelerates the rate of
technical change. Archaeologists have learned to recognize certain
styles which are characteristic of specific areas and periods and it is
remarkable how much information ancient vessels will reveal about the
people who made them.

In the course of the following discussion the reader will no doubt grow
weary of the word ‘pottery’. However, before he decides that the ancient
Southwesterners did nothing but sit around and make pottery or that the
writer is the victim of a pottery mania, it might be profitable for him
to cast an observant eye about the room in which he is sitting. After
the passage of five hundred or a thousand years how much would survive,
if one discounted material not available in the most ancient times such
as metal, glass, and plastics? High at the top of the list will be
dishes, ashtrays, and vases of china or porcelain—the modern
counterparts of prehistoric pottery. Also, it may readily be seen that
there are differences in style between older and more recent objects. A
vase purchased this year is likely to differ in many respects from one
acquired even as little as twenty-five or fifty years ago.

An amazing amount of information can also be derived from the
microscopic study of pottery. Trained investigators can examine thin
sections under a microscope and identify the materials used in
manufacture and often locate their sources. With this information it is
then possible to determine whether pottery was locally made or imported.
This tells us a great deal about the cultural relationships of ancient
people, for trade implies contact between people which will affect other
phases of their culture. In prehistoric times, when people lacked rapid
means of transportation and communication, human groups were naturally
isolated as they can never be again, but even then cultural units were
affected by the activities of the inhabitants of other regions.
Accordingly, we cannot see the ancient life of the Southwest in true
perspective if we do not know something of the inter-relations of the
various cultures.

One of the great boons to southwestern archaeology has been
dendrochronology—a system which has made it possible to establish an
absolute count of years through the pattern combinations of annual
growth rings of trees. The inevitable question which arises in
connection with anything prehistoric is “How old is it?”, and prior to
the introduction of tree-ring dating it was difficult to answer except
in relative terms, for in the Southwest we are dealing with a people who
left no written records. It is remarkable, however, how much had been
accomplished in establishing relative chronology through the use of
stratigraphic studies and the cross-checking of sites.

It is on the principle of _stratification_ that most archaeological work
must rest. The word means the characteristic of being in layers or
strata. The usefulness of stratigraphic studies lies in the fact that in
any undisturbed deposit the lowest layer or stratum will be the oldest
since it was laid down first. This may be shown graphically by piling
books on a table, one by one. The book at the bottom of the pile must
inevitably have been put in place before the ones on top. The same
principle is applied to ancient cultures. If the remains of one people
are found underlying those of another, those on the bottom are older.

Rarely are the remains of many cultures found lying directly over each
other in a complete series but through correlation between sites the
sequence may be established. For example, if in one place we find
remains of Culture A underlying those of Culture B and in another place
find material from Culture B underlying that of Culture C we may
postulate that C is more recent than A even though the two are not found
together. In still another place C may be found to underlie D and
eventually a long sequence will be established, although it may not be
present in its entirety in any one place.

Objects acquired through trade are also useful in dating sites. For
example, if we know the relative or absolute date at which a certain
type of pottery was being made at one site, then find pieces of this
ware at a site which we are trying to date we may assume at least some
degree of contemporaneity.

Stratigraphic studies, of course, do not provide us with absolute dates
and for those we must turn to dendrochronology or tree-ring dating.[23]
[121] The story of the development of this method is a strange one. It
is a tale of an astronomer and archaeologists, of buried treasure that
was only wood, of sun spots, and of purple chiffon velvet. Most
important of all was the astronomer, for it was in his keen mind that
the idea was born that was to lead to one of the most exciting
scientific discoveries of our time.

The astronomer was Dr. A. E. Douglass, who was engaged in the study of
the effect of sun spots on climatic conditions. The available
meteorological records, of course, went back only a relatively few years
and it soon became apparent that a much longer record must be obtained
to be of any real value. In searching for information about climatic
conditions for past centuries, Dr. Douglass thought of pines, for they
may reach a great age and the presence or absence of adequate rainfall,
particularly in a climate like Arizona’s, will greatly affect the
development of a tree. Every year a new layer of wood is added to the
entire living surface of a pine. The size of these layers, which show up
as rings when the tree is cut and viewed in cross-section, varies with
the amount of food and moisture which the tree has obtained in the
course of the year. A dry year will produce a thin ring and a wet year
will produce a wide one. By cutting down old trees it was thus possible
to learn what the climatic conditions had been during the years of their
life. None of the pines which were still living, however, had existed
for more than a few hundred years, and the giant sequoias of California
which would have covered a longer span did not reflect climatic change
in the same way.

Fortunately, through the study of living trees, Dr. Douglass had learned
that the tree-rings over a period of years formed a distinct pattern
which could be recognized when found on most conifers. Next he began to
search for trees which had been cut perhaps many years before, but which
contained a pattern which fitted some early portion of that tree whose
cutting date was known. This led him to beams made from whole logs which
have been a characteristic feature of Southwestern architecture for many
centuries. By finding old beams whose outer rings formed the same
pattern as the inner rings of living trees the known chronology was
increased. Through correlating the patterns of progressively older trees
with younger ones the pattern was finally established for the period
between 1280 and 1929.

[Illustration: Fig. 1—Diagram to illustrate chronology-building with
tree rings. Because of space limitation the number of rings in the
overlapping specimens has been arbitrarily reduced. (After
Stallings.[121] Courtesy Laboratory of Anthropology.)]

THE RING PATTERNS MATCH AND OVERLAP BACK INTO TIME
A THIS WAS A LIVING TREE WHEN CUT BY US
DATE OF LAST RING IS THAT OF YEAR WHEN WE CUT TREE
B THIS BEAM CAME FROM A HOUSE
THIS DATE OBTAINED BY COUNTING BACK FROM BARK OF A
C THIS BEAM CAME FROM AN OLD HOUSE
THIS DATE OBTAINED BY COUNTING BACK FROM BARK OF A THROUGH B
SPECIMENS TAKEN FROM RUINS WHEN MATCHED AND OVERLAPPED AS INDICATED
PROGRESSIVELY EXTEND THE DATING BACK INTO PREHISTORIC TIMES

Next Dr. Douglass began to examine beams from prehistoric sites. From
these a continuous sequence of tree-ring patterns was established for a
period of 580 years. Unfortunately though, it could not be correlated
with the sequence starting in 1280. Relative dates could be obtained and
it could be determined how many years had intervened between the
occupation of different sites but there was as yet no way of correlating
these dates with the Christian calendar. The next step was to seek to
bridge the gap between the floating chronology of relative dates and
that which carried up to the present day and gave absolute dates.

The search for the missing sequence was begun in the Hopi villages in
Arizona where one, Oraibi, has been continuously occupied since before
the coming of the first white men in 1540. The fact that many of the
logs had been cut with stone axes indicated a considerable age. The
Hopis, as might be expected, were not overly enthusiastic about the
arrival of American scientists who wanted to saw cross-sections from the
beams of their buildings and bore holes in other timbers where cutting
was not practical. Dr. Douglass did much to solve this problem by
presenting the chief with yards and yards of beautiful purple chiffon
velvet which delighted him. Dr. Douglass and his associates also did a
great deal to mollify the Indians by treating their ancient customs with
respect. In many cases, for example, they placed bits of turquoise in
holes made in extracting cores in order to “appease the spirit of
decay”. One remarkable piece of timber was found which gave an
extraordinarily clear series of rings from 1260 to 1344. What made it of
particular interest was not only that it lengthened the known chronology
but that it had been in continuous use from the time it was cut until
1906 when the section of the village in which it was found was
abandoned.

Many beams were studied, but no others were found whose inner rings
predated 1300. The search was next begun in ruins of villages
traditionally occupied by the Hopis prior to moving to their present
location. Of particular interest was the Showlow ruin, for pottery finds
suggested that it had been the home of Hopis in pre-Spanish times and
its proximity to a great pine forest suggested that wood must have been
readily available for building purposes. It was here that one of the
most famous pieces of wood in the world was found.

The decaying, partially burned, piece of wood to which the field number
HH39 was given was not impressive in appearance but it was a treasure,
more valuable to those who found it than any buried pirate gold for
which adventurers might dig. As it was examined the climatic conditions
of year after year were revealed, new ring combinations were established
and the chronology was carried back to 1237 A.D., the year in which this
tree had begun its life. A comparison with the ring patterns of the
floating chronology showed that its 551st ring checked with that for
1251 in Beam HH39. June 22, 1929, the date on which this beam was found,
is a red letter day in the history of American archaeology, for from
that day it became possible to date many ruins in the Southwest, not
only in a comparative sense, but in terms of the Christian calendar.
Actually, of course, the floating and the absolute chronology had
already overlapped but the evidence had been based on such small
fragments as to be unconvincing. Duplication of ring patterns may occur
if only a few rings are used. It is only if a pattern covering fifty or
more rings is available that one may be assured of correct dating. It
was not until the discovery of Beam HH39 that final proof was available.

In the years which have elapsed since 1929 much further work has been
done by Dr. Douglass and his associates, who include many brilliant
students whom he has trained. The tree ring chronology now stretches
back to 11 A.D.

Great as was the importance of being able to establish absolute dates
for a people who had left no written records, this was not the only
contribution made by what have been aptly called “the talkative
tree-rings”.[23] The life of man, and particularly primitive man, is
greatly influenced by climatic conditions and in an arid climate such as
that of the Southwest the difference between drought and adequate
rainfall may, quite literally, be the difference between life and death.

It is naturally an inestimable boon to the archaeologist to know the
conditions under which the people he is studying lived and it enables
him to understand many things, such as periods marked by expansion or by
the abandonment of certain areas, which would otherwise be
unintelligible.

Important as dendrochronology is, it is far from being the only outside
science upon which archaeologists must depend. The records left by
Spanish historians, who found the Pueblo Indians in the 16th century
still untouched by European civilization and living essentially the same
sort of life as their ancestors, have provided invaluable information.
Also of great importance has been the work of ethnologists, scientists
who analyze the culture of living primitive people. In the Southwest
archaeologists are particularly fortunate, for in many cases descendents
of the prehistoric people whom they study are still living in the same
general area and under very similar circumstances. In spite of the
outside influences to which they have been subjected there is still much
to be learned from them. The knowledge of these people garnered by the
historian and the ethnologist, added to that obtained by the
archaeologist, gives us a far better picture of the life of prehistoric
times.

Although a study of material culture tells a great deal about a people,
there is much of their social, political and religious life which it
cannot reveal unless supplementary information is available. There are
grave dangers inherent in too great a concentration on material culture.
It has been said of the archaeologist that “sometimes he cannot see the
people for the walls”[125] and it is the people themselves, after all,
who are important.

Two examples will show how ethnology and archaeology may complement each
other. In certain prehistoric sites are found circular underground rooms
with highly specialized characteristics. The objects found in these are
usually non-utilitarian so that, even if no further information were
available, archaeologists would consider them chambers having some
religious significance. However, thanks to the fact that similar rooms
or kivas, as they are called, are still in use in the modern Pueblo
villages, the archaeologist may not only be sure of their ceremonial
nature, but he is in a position to understand more of their significance
through studying their function in modern Pueblo society. One point
demonstrates very clearly how, through correlating ethnological and
archaeological evidence, it is possible to understand something of the
religious beliefs of people who died hundreds of years ago leaving no
written records.

In prehistoric kivas are found small tubelike pits in the floors. If no
other information were available the archaeologist would be forced to
fall back on simply calling these holes “ceremonial”. The quip that when
archaeologists do not know what a thing is they designate it as
ceremonial is sufficiently close to the truth to be uncomfortable. In
many modern kivas, however, the same type of hole is found. It is
symbolic of the mythical place of emergence or route from the underworld
from which it is believed that the first people and animals came into
the world. Archaeologists refer to it by the Hopi name _Sipapu_. Taking
into account the conservatism and dependence on tradition of religions
in all parts of the world in all times, it is not too rash to assume
that the builders of the prehistoric kivas held some beliefs similar to
those of their present day descendents.

Similarly, by equating what we know of the social organization of the
Pueblo Indians of today with the evidence from prehistoric times we may
postulate that an essentially democratic form of government existed in
this section of America long before the signing of the Magna Carta and
many centuries before the signers of the American Declaration of
Independence were born. It may be asked, what possible information can
be gained from ruins which would indicate a democratic way of life. In
all the ruins which have been examined all the living quarters were
essentially equal. Most anthropologists feel that had there been a
marked differentiation between classes, or if all power had been lodged
in the hands of a limited number of individuals this would have been
reflected in the dwellings. Certain leaders and priests undoubtedly had
authority, as they do among the Pueblo Indians of today, but there is no
evidence of an autocracy or a ruling class.

This is, obviously, a greatly simplified explanation of some of the many
techniques employed by archaeologists in seeking to reconstruct the life
of ancient times. No one approach will suffice, but by utilizing many
methods numerous scattered bits of information are obtained. These are
studied and correlated and at length it is possible to produce an
account which is at least a reasonable approximation of the truth.

CHAPTER II
THE MOST ANCIENT CULTURES

At least 25,000 years ago there were men in New Mexico who lived in
caves and hunted animals, many of which no longer exist. Over 10,000
years ago there were already distinct groups of people in the Southwest,
some of whom were primarily hunters and some of whom were largely
dependent on the gathering of wild foods. Since the most ancient
cultures of North America have already been covered in detail in a
previous book in this series,[130] only a very brief resume will be
given here.

Sandia

The earliest culture of the Western Hemisphere, about which we have any
information, is the _Sandia_,[64] so named because the cave whose
deposits showed that it had been occupied by men about 25,000 years ago
is located in the Sandia Mountains of New Mexico. In the bottom layer of
this cave were found fairly large, crudely flaked stone spear points
with a more or less leaflike shape and a slight basal inset on one side.
With these points were found bones of prehistoric horse, bison, camel,
mastodon, and mammoth, probably the debris from meals of ancient hunters
who lived in the cave. Space does not permit a detailed consideration of
the geological studies[9] which enable us to assign a date to this early
occupation, but above the layer in which the Sandia points were found
there were other layers which included one of calcium carbonate and one
of yellow ochre. Geologists can interpret the climatic conditions under
which such deposits were formed and they have correlated them with
geologic periods when such conditions prevailed. Great humidity, such as
is indicated by the Sandia Cave deposits, is characteristic of certain
areas during glacial stages and the lowest level of Sandia Cave has been
assigned to the period preceding the last major ice advance in the
Pleistocene Period or Ice Age. This glaciation is believed to have
occurred about 25,000 years ago.

Folsom

The most famous of the ancient cultures is the _Folsom_ whose name is
derived from the town of Folsom, New Mexico, near which the first
generally accepted American discovery of man-made objects associated
with the bones of extinct animals was made.[25] Prior to this find,
which was made in 1926, it had been believed that man had not reached
the New World more than a few thousand years before the beginning of the
Christian era. At the Folsom site, however, were found finely flaked
projectile points in clear association with the articulated bones of a
type of bison known to have been extinct for many thousands of years.
These were fluted or grooved points characterized by the removal of
longitudinal flakes from either face. Geological evidence from the
Lindenmeier Site in Colorado, which was a camp site of the makers of the
grooved points, indicates that the Folsom people lived between 10,000
and 25,000 years ago.[11] This conclusion was reached by correlating the
valley bottom in which the site occurs with river terraces and moraines,
which in turn could be related to glacial stages. A number of important
discoveries of fluted points have been made in the Southwest. Two
notable sites are the one near Clovis, New Mexico, and Burnet Cave in
the Guadalupe Mountains.[65]

[Illustration: Fig. 2—Map of the Southwest showing sites referred to
in Chapter II.]

1. Burnet Cave
2. Clovis
3. Cochise sites
4. Folsom
5. Gypsum Cave
6. Lindenmeier Site
7. Sandia Cave
8. San Jon
9. Tabeguache Cave
10. Yuma

San Jon

Probably contemporaneous with the Folsom people were others who made
thick, roughly flaked, square-based points with parallel sides. These
points were first found near the town of San Jon, New Mexico, and are
named after it.[114]

Yuma

From a somewhat later period we have evidence of ancient hunters who
made some of the most beautifully flaked stone projectile points that
have ever been created. These points, which were first found in Yuma
County, Colorado, are known as _Yuma_ or _Parallel Flaked Points_. They
are of two types.[130] One is marked by the removal of long narrow
spalls running obliquely across the blade and the other is characterized
by the removal of shell-shaped spalls from either side which tends to
give the point a diamond shaped cross-section.

Gypsum Cave

Evidence of another early hunting culture of the Southwest was found in
Gypsum Cave, Nevada.[47] Here were found lozenge-shaped projectile
points, about two inches long, with small convex stems. They were
associated with the remains of now extinct ground sloth and llamalike
camels. The time of the first occupation of Gypsum Cave may have been
several thousand years B.C. One thing which makes this find of
particular interest is that, due to the protection afforded by the cave,
some normally perishable material was preserved. Painted dart shafts and
foreshafts were found and also a piece of basketry. Lacking direct
association with Gypsum Cave type points or extinct animal remains, it
is impossible to state with certainty that the basketry belonged to this
ancient culture, but there is every reason to believe that it did, since
it was found under a stalagmitic growth and is of a type different from
that of later cultures.

Cochise

While hunters roamed the plains farther north there were other people,
with a different type of economy, living in what is now southeastern
Arizona and southwestern New Mexico.[118] This culture, to which the
name _Cochise_ has been given, is believed to have begun over 10,000
years ago and to have lasted until 500 B.C. or later. The chief
characteristic of the Cochise culture is the extensive use of grinding
stones which suggests that the people were primarily dependent on the
gathering of wild grains, nuts, roots, and similar foods. The finding of
some split and burned animal bones in the sites where they lived
indicates that they did hunt, but the lack of projectile points in the
earliest period and their scarcity until the most recent phase provides
additional evidence that the economy was based on food gathering rather
than on hunting.

[Illustration: Fig. 3—Projectile points of the most ancient
cultures. a. Sandia, b. Folsom, c. San Jon, d. Eden Yuma, e. Oblique
Yuma, f. Gypsum Cave.]

As may be imagined, we know comparatively little about the most ancient
inhabitants of this continent. However, when one considers the thousands
of years which have elapsed and how little of their material culture
could be preserved since they had neither pottery nor metals, it is
rather remarkable that we know as much as we do. At least we know
something of the tools and weapons which they used, the animals which
they hunted, and the conditions under which they lived.

Apparently the earliest Americans had a rather simple culture and did
not practice agriculture nor have fixed habitations. Little is known of
their physical appearance since only two skeletons have been found in
this country which are accepted as being of relatively great antiquity
by any considerable number of competent scientists.[69][70] What
evidence we have suggests that the first men to enter the new world were
sufficiently modern in morphological type to differ very little in
appearance from many present day Indians.

The question naturally arises: Where did the aboriginal inhabitants of
America come from? Man did not evolve on this continent; therefore he
must have come to this hemisphere from the Old World where he had
existed for many thousands of years. All evidence points to migrations
from Asia and the logical route is by way of Bering Strait where the two
continents are separated by only fifty-six miles of water broken by
three islands. Later migrants may also have arrived from Asia following
a route through the Aleutian Islands. It must be emphasized that it is
not believed that there was only one immigration. Actually there must
have been many and they apparently continued into relatively recent
times.

From the time of the earliest cultures until the early centuries of the
Christian era we have little knowledge of prehistoric life in America.
Work is being done and reports are expected which will eventually
clarify much which is now shrouded in darkness. It is not that the
Southwest was uninhabited at this period, it is just that we know very
little about it. It may readily be seen how difficult it is to assemble
evidence for this time. There was undoubtedly only a very simple
material culture with little save stone tools which would survive. Even
though we find implements of this period, however, how are we to assign
them to their proper chronological position? With the most ancient
cultures some approximation of age may be made on the basis of
association with the remains of extinct animals, the climatic conditions
indicated by deposits containing artifacts, and other geological data.
In the case of fairly recent cultures, the invaluable tree-rings come to
our aid and through stratigraphic studies the chronological positions of
the cultures immediately preceding them can be established. For the
intermediate period only stratigraphy can help us very much and
stratigraphic evidence is hard to find. In the Cochise Culture, a
sequence lasting until about 500 B.C. has been worked out and the report
on Ventana Cave in Arizona, when it is published, will undoubtedly give
us much additional information.

[Illustration: Fig. 4—Folsom diorama in the Museum at Mesa Verde
National Park. (Courtesy Mesa Verde National Park.)]

Tabeguache Cave

In the Tabeguache drainage of southwestern Colorado have been found
caves containing stratified deposits, the lowest of which are believed
to be quite old although considerably more recent than the really
ancient cultures previously discussed.[66][67] These deposits contained
lined and unlined firepits and there were little holes, dug in the cave
floor, filled with ashes and charcoal. These are thought to have been
too small to have served any utilitarian purpose and it has been
suggested that they may have been ceremonial in nature. Also found were
grinding stones and a distinctive type of long slender projectile point
with side notches to which the name _Tabeguache Point_ has been applied.
There was no pottery.

Obviously, a great deal of work will have to be done and probably many
years will elapse before we have any clear picture of what was happening
in various parts of the Southwest prior to the time to which we assign
the letters A.D. If only all the descendants of the first people had
stayed in the same place and placed their cultural remains neatly on top
of those of their ancestors, archaeologists would find everything more
simple, though probably rather dull.

CHAPTER III
THE ANASAZI CULTURE

GENERAL REMARKS

Once we pass on to a time which is separated from our own by hundreds
instead of thousands of years we are on firmer ground. Two main _basic
cultures_ have been differentiated by archaeologists and it now seems
probable that two more may be recognized. The best known and the first
to be considered is often called the Anasazi. This is a Navajo name for
the “ancient ones” and is applied to the prehistoric inhabitants of the
plateau area of the Southwest which includes the drainages of the San
Juan, Little Colorado, Rio Grande, Upper Gila and Salt Rivers, much of
Utah and some of eastern Nevada. The term _plateau_ must not be
interpreted as referring to a plain. Actually, it is a vast expanse of
territory with a greater elevation than the surrounding areas, but with
many drainage sources which have formed gorges in the tableland. It
contains prairies, mountains, and terraced mesas.

The Anasazi cultural sequence is a continuous one but can be divided
into successive horizons: the earlier of which are called _Basketmaker_
and the later ones, _Pueblo_. The end of the Basketmaker era is placed
at approximately 700 A. D. in most areas, but it is as yet impossible to
give any beginning date for it. The earliest date provided by tree-rings
for wood from a Basketmaker site is 217 A.D.,[122] but the culture was
well established by that time. Some charred wood found in a primitive
Basketmaker site near Durango, Colorado, has yielded information which
is still considered tentative but which seems to indicate occupation
well before the birth of Christ.[95]

The beginning date for the Pueblo era coincides with that given for the
end of the Basketmaker period which preceded it. No terminal date may be
given, for Pueblo Indians still live in New Mexico and Arizona.

THE BASKETMAKER PERIOD[1]

The first evidence of the Basketmaker people was discovered in 1893 when
ninety bodies accompanied by a great many finely woven baskets were
found in a cave in Butler Wash in southeastern Utah. It was apparent
that these people were older than the builders of the cliff houses, and
of a different culture, and the profusion of baskets led to the term,
Basketmakers, being applied to them to differentiate them from the later
people. The name soon found its way into scientific literature and has
continued to be used. It soon became apparent, however, that all the
Basketmakers were not of the same age, and archaeologists found that
they had to have names to distinguish the different cultural periods.

[Illustration: Fig. 5—Map of the Southwest showing sites, towns, and
areas referred to in Chapter III.]

1. Ackmen
2. Alkali Ridge
3. Allantown
4. Aztec
5. Betatakin
6. Butler Wash
7. Canyon de Chelly
8. Canyon del Muerto
9. Chaco Canyon
10. Durango
11. El Paso
12. Flagstaff
13. Gallina Creek
14. Governador Wash
15. Hopi Villages
16. Kayenta
17. Keet Seel
18. Kiatuthlana
19. Kinishba
20. La Plata River
21. Largo River
22. Lowry Ruin
23. Mesa Verde
24. Pecos
52. Piedra River
26. Puye
27. San Juan
28. Santa Fe
29. Taos
30. Tyuonyi
31. Village of the Great Kivas
32. Zuñi

In 1927 the leading archaeologists of the Southwest gathered at Pecos,
New Mexico, and worked out a system of terminology.[74] An early stage
characterized by a nomadic life with no knowledge of agriculture had
been postulated although no direct evidence had been found. This
hypothetical period was named _Basketmaker I_. The early
semi-agricultural, semi-hunting culture which produced fine baskets but
no pottery, and for which there was evidence, was called _Basketmaker
II_. To the third and final phase, when pottery was made, the term
_Basketmaker III_ was assigned. Clear-cut evidence for Basketmaker I has
been lacking and the term is little used although the finds in the
Tabeguache Caves may be attributed to this period. A simpler terminology
than that proposed at the Pecos Conference has since been suggested and
it will be used in this book.[110] The term _Basketmaker_ is applied to
the people formerly assigned to Basketmaker II and their immediate
successors are called _Modified Basketmakers_.

The Basketmakers were widespread over the Southwest and remains of their
culture have been found in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. We
know them best from the San Juan Drainage. It is probable that they
really reached their highest development here, but we must also take
into consideration the fact that here we have ideal conditions for the
preservation of much normally perishable material, and this gives us far
more information than is available for many sections of the country.

Many Basketmaker remains are found in caves along cliff faces. The term
cave, although widely used, however, is perhaps misleading, for it has a
connotation of darkness and of deep enclosed places. Actually the
so-called Basketmaker caves are fairly shallow rock shelters, worn in
the rock by the action of water and wind, and open to the sun. In them
are found ash and dust deposits which contain the bodies of the ancient
inhabitants and their possessions.

Many references are found to Basketmaker “mummies”. It is quite true
that, due to the aridity of the climate and the protection offered by
the shelters, which make it difficult for the bacteria of decay to
survive, many of the bodies were “mummified” with the dehydrated flesh
still on the bones and the hair looking much as it did in life. These
must not be confused with Egyptian mummies, however, which were
preserved by artificial means and highly specialized techniques. It is
simply a happy accident that these people buried their dead in places
which permitted the preservation of their bodies.

[Illustration: Fig. 6—Basketmaker mummy. (Courtesy Peabody Museum,
Harvard University.)]

Probably, though, in the Southwest as in ancient Egypt, belief in a life
after death is shown by the mortuary offerings placed in the graves.
With the bodies are found baskets, food, weapons, and various personal
possessions. With almost every corpse is found a pair of new, unworn
sandals. This would suggest that they were not a possession of the
deceased but a special offering which, it is logical to assume, was
designed for use in a later life.

We may now return to the Basketmaker culture as archaeologists have
reconstructed it from the evidence which they have painstakingly dug out
of the dust and ashes of rock shelters which had not echoed with the
sound of human activity for many centuries. The problems which these
ancient people faced stagger the imagination of modern man. They had no
metal, no pottery, no cotton or wool, no draught animals. Really all
they did have was their own ingenuity to wrest the necessities of life
from a none too favorable environment. It is remarkable how, by
utilizing wood, bone, stone, plant fibers, and even their own hair, they
not only produced all that they needed to survive, but also provided a
base from which arose the high culture which culminated in the great
communal dwellings of later times.

Were we able to project ourselves back into the time of the Basketmakers
and watch the people of that day we should find men and women not too
different from many Indians of today. The Basketmakers were rather
short. They had coarse, black hair which, while straight, had slightly
more of a tendency to waviness than that of present day Indians. Their
skins were brown and they had little body hair.

What clothing the Basketmakers wore, besides sandals, is not certain.
Woven bands, sometimes referred to as “gee strings,” have been found in
a number of sites but no mummy has ever been found buried with any loin
covering. Many little “aprons”, consisting of waist cords to which was
attached a fringe of strings of cedar or yucca fiber, have been found.
Some of the longer ones, usually of cedar bast, were used as menstrual
pads, but there are also a few shorter, finely woven, little aprons
which probably served as skirts for women. Their scarcity, however,
would suggest that they were not considered essential garments. Since
the country in which these people lived is cold in the winter and can
become quite chilly after nightfall even at other seasons of the year,
they undoubtedly had some covering to give them warmth. Almost every
body is found wrapped in a blanket made of fur and it is probable that
these served as wraps and blankets for the living as well as shrouds for
the dead.

The manner in which these coverings were constructed is most ingenious.
Strings were made of yucca fibres, then narrow strips of rabbit fur were
wrapped around them. These fur covered strings were then tied together
in close parallel rows, producing a light warm blanket. Sometimes they
were ornamented with borders made of cords which had been wrapped with
strips of bird skins. Some mantles of tanned deerskin were also made and
it may be that there were some woven robes, for a few fragments of woven
cloth have been found. These fragments bear patterns similar to those
shown on the chests of individuals depicted in Basketmaker paintings on
cliff faces, and they may have been parts of shirts or ponchos. It is
also possible, however, that the designs shown in pictographs simply
indicated body painting.[38]

[Illustration: Fig. 7—Basketmaker diorama in the Museum at Mesa
Verde National Park. (Courtesy Mesa Verde National Park.)]

[Illustration: Diagram showing the method of making a fur-cloth
blanket. The upper figure shows the construction of a fur strip; the
lower shows the manner in which the strips were held together.]

The major item in the limited Basketmaker wardrobe was sandals. Anyone
who has walked much in the canyon country of the Southwest can readily
see how vital such equipment would be, and apparently the Basketmakers
devoted much time and energy to keeping themselves shod. Sandals were
woven of cord made from the fibers of yucca and apocynum, a plant
related to the milkweed. They were double-soled, were somewhat cupped at
the heel, and had a square toe which was sometimes thickened, but was
usually ornamented with a fringe of buckskin or shredded juniper bark.
To attach them to the foot there were heel and toe loops with a cord
passing between them. These cords were often made of human hair. Hair
was also sometimes used to provide the secondary warps in the sandals
themselves. A few pairs of large coarse sandals have been found coated
with mud and it is thought that they may have served as overshoes for
wear in bad weather.

[Illustration: Fig. 8—a. Basketmaker sandal. b. Modified-Basketmaker
sandal.]

Whatever the Basketmakers may have lacked in clothing, they compensated
for with jewelry and ornaments. Our information is derived not only from
mortuary finds but also from pictures painted on cliff faces by the
Basketmakers themselves. Hair ornaments were widely used. Most of them
consisted of bone points tied together to form comblike objects and
topped with feathers. Feathers have also been found made into little
loops and worn as pendants. Beads of all sorts were among the favorite
means of decoration. They were used in making necklaces and as ear
pendants. Some were of stone, carefully ground and polished, some of
bone, sometimes engraved. Seeds and acorn cups were also used to make
necklaces. Shells were very widely used, and it is interesting to note
that many of them were olivella or abalone which can have come only from
the Pacific coast.

It seems unlikely that either the Basketmakers or their contemporaries
along the coast were much given to transcontinental tours when their
only means of transportation was their own sandal-shod feet, but the
shells prove some sort of contact. Probably it was a contact by trade
carried on through the peoples who inhabited the country between the two
locales.

This preoccupation with ornamentation might suggest some degree of
vanity, and it is probably true that Basketmaker men gave a good bit of
time and thought to their personal appearance. Basketmaker women,
however, seem to have been a practical lot, far more concerned with
material for their weaving than with their own appearance. The hair of
female mummies is hacked off to a length of two or three inches. Of
course cutting with a stone knife could hardly be expected to provide a
particularly glamorous hair-do, and the fact that strands of hair seem
to have been cut off at different times, presumably as the need for
weaving material arose, added nothing to the general effect. While
Basketmaker women would hardly furnish “pin up” material according to
our standards, they presumably seemed attractive to Basketmaker men
which, after all, was far more to the point.

Basketmaker men usually wore their hair long and formed into three bobs
tied with a string, one on either side of the head and one in the back.
In some cases the hair was clipped away to form an exaggerated part and
tonsure, and from the hair at the top of the head was formed a queue
about the thickness of a pencil, which was wound with cord for the
entire length. The reason for this variation in hair dressing is not
known. Perhaps the rare form with the clipping and the queue had some
ceremonial significance, or was a mark of rank. Brushes made of yucca
fibers have been found, which we know were used for the hair. Human hair
is found clinging to them and they are a form still used by some modern
Indians.

Having determined how these people looked we may now turn to the
consideration of how they lived. For a great many years lack of evidence
of house construction, coupled with the fact that most Basketmaker caves
do not contain any great amount of ash and refuse, led to an acceptance
of the belief that the Basketmakers either had no dwellings, or perhaps
erected flimsy brush shelters which had since disappeared. Recent
excavations near Durango, Colorado, however, have yielded evidence of
well developed Basketmaker houses. Dates, tentatively assigned, fall in
the early part of the fourth century. Doubtless, in other parts of the
Anasazi province there were many other Basketmaker houses which have
been destroyed by erosion, root, and frost action. Some of those found
in the Durango area were in a cave and others on a terrace which had
been made by cutting into the talus and removing the earth until a level
surface large enough to accommodate the intended dwelling was produced.

“The house floors ranged in diameter from eight to thirty feet. They
were saucer-shaped, formed of adobe mud not too smoothly spread over the
surface of the excavation. The rim of the saucer was plastered against a
series of short horizontal foot logs, laid to conform to the arc of the
circle. These served as the foundation of the wall, the construction of
which may be characterized as wood-and-mud masonry. Sticks and small
timbers were laid around horizontally, and the interstices were crammed
full of adobe to produce a strong, tough shell. The wall leaned somewhat
inward as it rose to a convenient head height. Roofs were cribbed. Since
the roof rested directly on the wall there was no necessity for stout
vertical supporting timbers such as have been found in dwellings of the
succeeding period.

“In no instance did a room boundary remain to a height sufficient to
reveal the position, size, or shape of the entrance. At the approximate
center of each floor was a heating pit (heating pit is used advisedly,
because fire does not seem to have been maintained in the pits).
Metates, varying from basin to trough shape, were a normal feature of
each living surface. Interior storage devices occurred with great
frequency. Some were merely slab-lined pits dug into the floor. Others
were mud domes built entirely above the floor. The most common variety
consisted of a combination of the two—a sub-floor, slab-lined basin
surmounted by a mud dome with an opening in the top.”[96]

Even before these discoveries were made it had been known that the
Basketmakers had some knowledge of construction. In the caves or
shelters they built cists which provided storage space for corn and
which often served a secondary purpose as a final resting place for the
dead. Some were lined with grass and bark and may have been used as
temporary sleeping places. The cists were oval or circular pits, usually
dug in the cave floor. The average diameter was between three and five
feet and the average depth about two feet. There were also larger cists
which reached a diameter of over eight feet and were four feet deep.
Some were divided into bins by slab partitions. Cists were sometimes
simply pits but in other cases they were lined with stone slabs and
reinforced with adobe. Covers were usually provided. For the smaller
cists they were normally only sandstone slabs. The larger cists often
had more elaborate roofs of wood and plaster and some even had
above-ground superstructures of poles, brush, and bark, sometimes capped
by adobe.

Clothing and shelter are, of course, subordinate to man’s main physical
need—the need for food. In the period in which we first find evidence of
the Basketmakers they were no longer solely dependant on hunting and the
gathering of wild foods but had two cultivated crops, corn and squash.
Where the Basketmakers gained their knowledge of agriculture is not
known with certainty. Everything seems to point to the first
domestication of corn far to the south in Central[126] or South America
and it Is believed that knowledge of corn and its cultivation spread to
the north by diffusion.

Most of the corn cultivated by the Basketmakers was a tropical flint
with small ears. Agricultural implements were so primitive that a modern
farmer would be appalled at the thought of using them, even under the
most favorable climatic conditions. They consisted simply of digging
sticks of hard wood some forty-five or more inches in length. In most
cases two thirds of the stick was round and the remainder was worked
down to form a thin blade a few inches wide, with a rounded point and
one sharp edge. Others had plain flattened points instead of blades.

The implements available, as well as climatic conditions, naturally
influenced planting techniques which remained unchanged for many
centuries. Probably several kernels were placed in a hill at a depth of
a foot or more. This type of planting gives the seeds access to the
subsurface water on which they must depend to a great extent in a
climate like the Southwest’s. Fields were usually in the flood plains of
intermittent streams, and if there was any irrigation it was of the
flood type.

Corn was undoubtedly stored for the winter and for emergency use in case
of crop failures. Shelled corn found in skin bags and in baskets
suggests that selected seed may have been kept for the following year’s
planting. Squash plants were apparently grown not only to provide food,
but the fruit, when hollowed out, served as vessels. Other vegetable
foods were provided by nature and included roots, bulbs, grass seeds,
sun flower seeds, pinyon nuts, acorns, berries, choke cherries, and
probably yucca and cactus fruit. The suggestion, that cactus fruit
served as food, stems from a find which shows clearly the detective
methods which archaeologists employ to gather evidence from tiny clues.
No cactus fruits have been found in Basketmaker refuse, but a cactus
seed was found in the decayed molar of a skull.

Meat was undoubtedly an important component of the diet and quantities
of animal bones are found in all sites. Many smaller animals such as
rabbits, prairie dogs, gophers, badgers, and field mice, and some birds
were snared or netted. The Basketmakers developed some remarkable snares
and nets. One particularly interesting net, found at White Dog Cave near
Kayenta, weighed twenty-eight pounds, and contained nearly four miles of
string.[38] It was two hundred and forty feet long, over three feet
wide, and somewhat resembled a tennis net. It is thought that such a net
was placed across the mouth of a narrow gorge or canyon and that animals
were driven into it and shot or clubbed. The specimen from White Dog
Cave had two sections, one nine and one six feet long, woven of a hair
and apocynum mixture which gave them a darker color. It is thought that
this may have been done to produce the effect of an opening toward which
a frightened animal would rush. Various ingenious snares, many made of
human hair, were also used.

Larger animals, including deer, mountain sheep, and mountain lion, were
also hunted, and their bones and skins utilized as well as their flesh.
These animals were shot with darts propelled by atlatls. An atlatl is a
rather remarkable weapon which gives great propulsive force to the
missile and which produces the same effect as would lengthening the arm
of the individual throwing the dart. It consists of a throwing stick
about two feet long, two inches wide and half an inch thick, with a
prong in one end into which was fitted the hollow butt of a spear or
dart. Near the middle were two loops through which the fingers of the
thrower passed. The spear portion consisted of two parts, a feathered
shaft five to six feet long and about half an inch in diameter with a
hollow end which fitted into the prong on the atlatl and a foreshaft of
hard wood, some five or six inches long, tipped with a stone point. It
was set into a hole in the end of the main shaft. This foreshaft was
probably used to prevent the loss of the entire spear or dart while
removing it when the fore part was buried in an animal’s body. Also, if
a wounded animal ran away the shaft proper would shake loose from the
imbedded foreshaft and fall out.

Polished stones are often found lashed to the under-sides of atlatls. It
may be that they were designed to act as weights to give proper balance
to the weapon, but another possibility, suggested by their unusual
shapes and careful finish, is that they were charms or fetishes and
served no utilitarian purpose.

[Illustration: Fig. 9—a. Atlatl, b. Reverse side of atlatl showing
stone, c. Dart showing shaft (mid-section removed), foreshaft, and
point, d. Method of using atlatl, e. Grooved club.]

Often found associated with atlatls are curved sticks two to three feet
long, marked by longitudinal grooves, extending from the handle to the
top and usually with one or more interruptions in the lines. These are
sometimes referred to as rabbit-sticks and it was first thought that
they represented a form of non-returning boomerang such as is used in
hunting rabbits by the Hopi Indians. Now, however, they are believed to
be “fending sticks” such as were used by the Maya for defense against
the atlatl.[95] A dart or spear thrown with an atlatl moves fairly
slowly and could be deflected by the skillful use of such a club. They
could also serve as weapons in close fighting. There is not much
evidence of violent death among the Basketmakers, but there is some and
the atlatl must have been used to kill men as well as animals. Although
the Basketmakers did not use the bow and arrow, they apparently were in
contact with people who did. In Canyon del Muerto in Arizona evidence of
a massacre of Basketmakers was found. Among the bodies which had been
allowed to decay before burial was that of an old woman with an arrow
foreshaft between the ribs and skin of her left side.[92]

Once the Basketmakers had acquired their food, there naturally arose the
question of cooking it. Meat presented no real problem, for it could be
baked or roasted without culinary vessels or could even be eaten raw.
Dried corn, however, which comprised so important a part of the
Basketmaker diet, was something else again. From the grinding stones
found in Basketmaker sites we know that corn was ground, as it is by
Indians even today. To grind corn only simple implements are needed. The
dry corn is placed on a flat stone, known as a _metate_. The kernels are
then pounded and rubbed with a stone, of a size which can be held
easily, called a mano. Once the corn is made into meal it can be
moistened and formed into little cakes to be baked on hot stones.

Probably, even without having any utensils which would seem suitable for
cooking to us, it was possible for the Basketmakers to cook a variety of
foods by boiling or stewing. To speak of boiling foods when the only
available container is a basket may seem incredible but it can be done.
The Basketmakers, as their name implies, made many baskets. These were
remarkably fine and often so closely woven as to make suitable
receptacles for liquids. Even though the baskets could hold water,
however, the problem remains as to how they could be heated, since the
baskets obviously could not be subjected to fire. The technique employed
by other people faced with the same problem has been to drop hot stones
into the liquid, replacing them with other hot stones as they cool,
until the necessary temperature is achieved. Skin receptacles can also
be used in the same way. In Basketmaker sites are found scooplike wooden
objects, charred, and with worn edges. They are excellent digging
implements and were probably used in digging cists, but the charring
suggests that they may have been used in pairs to lift hot rocks from
the fire and drop them into baskets or skin bags in which food was being
stewed.

The most distinctive feature of the Basketmaker culture, as is implied
by the name, was the making of basketry. Most baskets were made by the
coiled technique in which a basket is built up from the base by a
growing spiral coil. As the basket progresses, each coil is sewed to the
one below with a thin splint. The coil itself consists of two rods,
usually willow, and a bundle of fibrous material. In sewing the coils
together a bone awl is used to pass the splint through the fiber bundle.

[Illustration: Fig. 10—Weaving techniques. a. coiling, b. twining,
c. twilling.]

The most common basket forms were shallow trays anywhere from three
inches to three feet in diameter. Smaller baskets tended to be deeper
than the larger models. There were also bowl forms, with steeply flaring
sides and flat bottoms, which may have been used for cooking. Small
baskets with restricted openings, which are called trinket baskets, were
probably used to store seeds and small objects. Two distinctive forms
are carrying and water baskets. Both are large, with flaring sides and
pointed bottoms. Water baskets had smaller constricted openings,
presumably to keep the water from splashing out. They were lined with
pitch made of pinyon gum. Some of the other baskets are so tightly woven
as to hold water, but these specialized forms were specially treated,
possibly because water was kept in them for a sufficiently long time
that, without the protection of the pitch, they would have become
water-logged and lost their usefulness.

Both the carrying and water baskets are so shaped as to fit against the
shoulders and it is believed that they were carried on the back,
probably with a tump strap running from the basket over the forehead of
the bearer. This type of woven strap, which is commonly found in
Basketmaker sites, is a device which helps to support and keep in place
a burden carried on the back while leaving the hands free. It would be
particularly useful in cases where there were cliffs to be negotiated
and it was essential to be able to utilize hand holes pecked in the rock
faces. Some of the water baskets are nearly two feet high and could have
held some two or three gallons of water. Since all the water used in the
caves would have to be carried up from streams below, or brought down
from mesa tops where rain water had accumulated in natural basins or
depressions, supplying the needs of a household would be no light chore,
and the Basketmakers must have needed all the help which their tump
straps provided.

[Illustration: Fig. 11—Basketmaker coiled baskets. (Courtesy Peabody
Museum, Harvard University.)]

Although baskets and carrying straps were utilitarian objects, their
decorative possibilities were not overlooked. Many of the baskets had
red and black designs formed by dyeing the sewing splints.

Another technique which was employed, primarily for the production of
bags and to a limited extent in the making of baskets, was twining. In
twining, splints or threads are intertwined around a foundation of
radiating rods or threads. Twined bags are very characteristic of the
Basketmaker culture. These are soft, seamless sacks which vary in size
from a few inches to two or more feet in length. They are egg-shaped
with slightly pointed bottoms and somewhat constricted necks. Usually
they were made of the fiber of apocynum, but some yucca fiber was also
used. Most of the bag was of the warm yellowish brown of the undyed
fiber but decoration was provided by dyeing some of the threads red or
black and weaving in designs in horizontal bands. There was no
introduction of specially dyed elements. When a change in color was
desired, weft threads were simply rubbed with color. Possibly the
finished article was treated in some way to fix the dye. Burden or tump
straps and narrow sashes were also twined-woven and similarly decorated.

[Illustration: Fig. 12—Basketmaker carrying basket, with tump strap.
(Courtesy Peabody Museum, Harvard University.)]

A few examples have been found in which the designs were painted on
finished bags. These painted designs were placed on the bag interior as
well as on the exterior and ingenious markers were woven into the fabric
to serve as guides for duplicating the pattern on the reverse side.[37]
The smaller bags have been empty when found. Medium sized ones have been
found containing corn meal and something resembling dried fruit. The
largest ones were often split and used for mortuary wrappings,
particularly for children. Other bags were woven of cedar bast. They had
a large mesh and could have contained only large objects.

Another type of bag represented in Basketmaker sites is made of skin.
Most of these were formed from the skins of two small animals, usually
prairie dogs. The animals were skinned forward from the back legs to the
nose. The two skins were then sewed together with the neck of the bag
formed by the two heads. They are usually found to contain oddly-shaped
stones or other objects thought to have some ceremonial significance.

[Illustration: Fig. 13—Basketmaker twined-woven bags. (Courtesy
Peabody Museum, Harvard University.)]

Although the Basketmakers did not have true pottery, they did have some
sun-dried clay dishes. These usually contained a vegetable temper or
binding material, such as cedar bark, to prevent cracking, and were
molded in baskets. It is not known whether the idea of pottery, but not
the technique for producing it through firing, had reached the
Basketmakers from some other people, or if the idea of making the
sun-dried dishes was one which they developed themselves. Most
archaeologists believe that the whole concept of clay containers came
from other people, but it is not impossible that the idea developed from
the practice of putting clay in baskets while constructing cists.[93]
[95] If clay were left for some time in a basket it would naturally
harden and, if the center portion had been scooped out, the hardened
residue in the basket would produce a vessel of sorts. Toward the close
of the Basketmaker period some vessels were made without molds, and sand
began to replace vegetable fibers as a tempering material.

Most of the information we have about the Basketmakers we owe to their
burial practices and to their habit of placing extensive mortuary
offerings with their dead. There may have been some graves in the open,
but these have not been found. Those we know are from caves. Where cave
floors were covered with rocks, bodies were sometimes placed in
crevices. Usually, however, they were placed in pits or cists which had
originally been constructed for storage. There were many multiple
burials and up to nineteen bodies have been found in a single grave,
although two or three is the normal number. Usually all the bodies seem
to have been buried at the same time and, since there is rarely any
indication of violence, we may assume that epidemics must sometimes have
occurred. It is rare that the cause of death can be determined, but in
an occasional case, it is possible. The body of one young man was found
with a bladder stone, large enough to have caused death, lying in his
pelvic cavity.[37]

The bodies were tightly flexed, with the knees drawn up almost to the
chin. This must have been done soon after death occurred and before the
body had stiffened. Bodies were usually wrapped in fur blankets, but
occasionally tanned deer skins were used. In some cases a large twined
bag split down one side provided an inner covering. A large basket was
usually inverted over the face. In addition to these and other baskets,
mortuary offerings included sandals, beads and ornaments, weapons,
digging sticks and other implements, and cone-shaped stone pipes. It is
not known what was smoked in these pipes, but some form of wild tobacco
may have been used. It is unlikely that they were smoked for pleasure.
More probably the blowing of smoke had some ceremonial significance, as
it does with many living Southwestern Indians who connect smoke clouds
with the rain clouds which play such an important part in their lives
and which are accordingly represented in their religious rites. Bodies
were sometimes incased in adobe, but this was rather rare. Usually the
pit was lined with bark, grass, or fiber, and the body covered with the
same material.

Some quite unusual graves have been found.[37] One contained the mummy
of a man wearing leather moccasins, the only ones ever found in a
Basketmaker site. This individual had been cut in two at the waist and
then sewed together again. Another interesting burial was that of a girl
about eighteen years old and a young baby.[76] Under the shoulders of
the girl’s mummy was the entire head skin of an adult. The scalp and
facial skin had been removed in three pieces, dried or cured in some
way, then sewed back together again. The hair was carefully dressed, and
the face and tonsure part of the scalp painted with red, white, and
yellow. It had apparently been suspended around the girl’s neck and may
have been some sort of a trophy.

There was a high mortality rate for children and infants. Their burials
were handled somewhat differently from those of adults. Young children
were sometimes buried in baskets, sometimes in large bags. Babies were
usually buried in their cradles. These were ingeniously constructed with
a stick bent to form an oval and filled with a framework of rods placed
in a criss-cross arrangement and tied. The cradles were padded with
juniper bark and covered with fur-cloth blankets, often made of the
white belly skins of rabbits. Babies were tied in the cradle with soft
fur cord. The cradle could be carried on the mother’s back, hung on a
branch, propped against a rock or tree, or laid on the ground. Diapers
were made of soft juniper bark. Pads were used to prevent umbilical
hernia. These were made of wads of corn husks or grass or a piece of
bark, wrapped in a piece of prairie dog skin and tied in position with a
fur cord. The umbilical cord was dried and tied to a corner of the outer
blanket used in the cradle.

The only domesticated animal which the Basketmakers possessed was the
dog, and two burials have been found where dogs were interred with
people.[38] One large dog resembling a collie was buried with a man, and
a smaller black-and-white dog which looked rather like a short haired
terrier was found with a woman. Since these dogs are not related to
coyotes and other doglike animals found in America, it is believed that
they must have been domesticated in the Old World and accompanied their
masters when they came to this hemisphere. Probably the dogs were pets,
for the scarcity of their bones in refuse heaps indicates that they were
not eaten. Some dog hair was used in weaving, but not to a sufficient
extent to make it seem probable that dogs were kept entirely for the
purpose of providing material.

The exigencies of survival cannot have left the Basketmakers too much
leisure, but all of their time cannot have been taken up by work.
Undoubtedly religious ceremonies occupied them to some extent. Rattles
made of deer hoofs and bone were probably used to set the rhythm of
ceremonial dances. These may have been worn around the waist or ankles
or mounted on handles. Whistles have been found made of hollow bird
bones. There is reason to believe that the Basketmakers were not
unfamiliar with gambling. Gaming sticks and bones, similar to those used
by modern Indians, have been found in Basketmaker sites. The sticks are
of wood, about three inches long, flat on one side and convex on the
other, and marked with incised lines. The gaming bones are lozenges
about one inch long and roughly oval in shape. Doubtless even in that
far off time the canyons sometimes echoed with the prehistoric version
of “Seven come eleven, baby needs some sandals.”

[Illustration: Fig. 14—Mummies of two varieties of Basketmaker dogs.
(Courtesy Peabody Museum, Harvard University.)]

On cliff faces are found pictures, sometimes incised but more usually
painted, which are attributed to the Basketmakers. These usually show
square-shouldered human figures or hand prints. The latter were normally
made by dipping the hand in paint then placing it against the surface to
be marked, but in some cases they were painted. The significance of
these and later pictographs is not known, although there are innumerable
theories. The most probable explanation seems to be that they had some
religious significance but it is also possible that they were records,
were designed to give information, or were done for amusement.

[Illustration: Fig. 15—Modified-Basketmaker diorama in the Museum at
Mesa Verde National Park. (Courtesy Mesa Verde National Park.)]

THE MODIFIED-BASKETMAKER PERIOD[1]

During the succeeding period, there was a continuation of the same basic
culture, but there was great development and sufficiently important
changes occurred to warrant recognition by the application of another
name. The later phase is known as the _Modified-Basketmaker period_ or
as _Basketmaker III_. Some archaeologists believe that the cultural
changes were so great that it would have been better if the term
“Basketmaker” had not been applied to both periods.

The Modified Basketmaker period is marked by the beginning of a
sedentary life and the establishment of regular communities. The
essential continuity of the culture makes it difficult to assign
specific dates to the period. A typical Basketmaker site is readily
differentiated from a Modified Basketmaker site, but it is difficult to
give a precise year for the time when the transition from one to the
other occurred. The beginning is usually placed between 400 and 500 A.
D. The earliest date yet established by tree-rings for a
Modified-Basketmaker site is 475 A. D.[87] There is general agreement
that, in most places, the Modified-Basketmaker period ended about 700 A.
D., but some archaeologists place the terminal date as late as the ninth
century for certain areas.

One difficulty in trying to establish fixed dates for cultural phases is
that change and development were not equal in all areas. Dates which may
be correct for the main, or nuclear, area may be entirely incorrect if
applied to peripheral regions where development was slower and fewer
changes were made. During Modified Basketmaker times the San Juan
drainage was still the nuclear area, but the culture was quite
widespread and extended north into Utah, as far west as southwestern
Nevada, and south to the Little Colorado in Arizona, and beyond Zuñi in
New Mexico.

The Modified Basketmakers usually lived in villages made up of
irregularly grouped houses with granaries clustered about them. In some
cases there were only a few dwellings, in others there were as many as a
hundred. Houses were usually of the pit variety, sometimes built very
close together but not contiguous. The earliest structures were
circular, but later they became more oval and eventually a rectangular
form prevailed. At first houses were entered through a passageway
leading from the ground outside. Sometimes there was a small antechamber
at the outer end of the entrance passage. The pit depth varied from
three to five feet and the diameter of the structures ranged between
nine and twenty-five feet. The pit walls were sometimes plastered, but
more often they were lined with stone slabs. Occasionally a few rows of
adobe bricks were placed over the slabs. In some cases a combination of
slabs and plaster was used, in others, poles or reeds covered with mud
formed the wainscoting.

[Illustration: Fig. 16—Modified-Basketmaker house after excavation.
(Courtesy Mesa Verde National Park.)]

The pit was covered by a conical or truncated superstructure with a hole
in the center, designed to permit smoke to escape from the fireplace on
the floor below. Later in the period the entrance passageways were so
reduced in size as no longer to permit the passage of a human body, and
entrance to the houses seems to have been through the hole or hatchway
in the roof in which was placed a ladder leading to the room below. The
roof surface may, in some cases, have provided extra living space since
metates, manos, and pottery, have been found overlying roof timbers.
Usually the basis of the superstructure was formed by four posts,
imbedded in the floor, and supporting a platform of horizontal timbers.
Smaller timbers or poles, set into the ground, leaned against the
platform and others were laid horizontally across it. The whole was
covered with mats or brush, then topped with a layer of plaster and
earth reinforced with twigs, grass, and bark.

[Illustration: Fig. 17—Postulated method of Modified-Basketmaker
house construction. (After Roberts,[105] Courtesy Smithsonian
Institution.)]

The side entrance was retained in a reduced form, apparently to provide
ventilation. An upright slab, often found standing between the fire pit
and the passage opening, is believed to have served the purpose of
keeping the inrushing air from putting out the fire, and is known as a
_deflector_. There was often a bench or shelf running around the inside
of the house. This was sometimes omitted along the south side. Some
storage bins were built against the walls of the house.

Floors were usually of hardened clay, but in a few cases they were paved
with stone slabs. A basinlike fire pit with a raised rim lay near the
center of the floor. Extending from the south side of the pit to the
walls there were often ridges of mud. These were later replaced, in some
areas, by partitions, sometimes several feet high, made of slabs or
adobe. Metates are commonly found in the southern section, and it has
been suggested that this may have been the women’s part of the house. A
short distance on the other side of the fire pit is a small hole, known
as the Sipapu. Similarly placed holes in present day ceremonial
structures of the Pueblo Indians represent the mythical place of
emergence from the underworld from which the first people came to the
earth. The partitioning of the Modified-Basketmaker houses may have
served to segregate religious from secular activities. It is believed
that originally each house had its own shrine. In later times highly
specialized structures were built for ceremonial practices. This is
foreshadowed in the Modified-Basketmaker period for one site belonging
to this horizon has been found which contained a larger structure,
similar to the houses, but apparently not used as a dwelling place.[105]

Toward the end of the period in some areas, particularly in Southwestern
Colorado, some surface houses were built which presaged the type of
structure found in the next period. Villages have been excavated in
which separate pit houses were still used for living quarters, but there
were also some dwellings which were above ground and had contiguous
rooms.[83][95]

Another important development in this period was the manufacture of true
pottery. Some unfired forms were still made. Sometimes they were molded
in baskets and in other cases they were started in baskets and finished
by a coiling technique. To produce a vessel by this method, a thin rope
of clay is formed, then wound around in a circle with each row or coil
being attached to the one preceding it. Each added ring adds to the
height of the vessel wall. If a smooth surface is desired, the
depressions which mark the joining of the coils are obliterated. The
Anasazi achieved this by scraping with a thin gourd or wooden implement,
or sometimes with a piece of broken pottery. The principle of the
potter’s wheel was never discovered in the Southwest.

At one time it was felt that pottery making might have been a local
development of the Modified Basketmakers, but this theory has been
largely abandoned although it has not really been disproven. The belief
most generally held is that knowledge of pottery manufacture, as well as
maize, originally spread from Middle America to the Southwest by
diffusion. Some archaeologists now believe that the Modified
Basketmakers may have learned about pottery from people living in
southwestern New Mexico who were making pottery at an earlier date.

The first Modified-Basketmaker pottery was crude and limited in form
with many globular shapes somewhat reminiscent of those of gourds or
baskets. Perforated side lugs were very characteristic. The dominant
ware was a light to medium gray with a coarse granular paste tempered
with quartz. This occasionally became black from smoke carbon. Exteriors
were often marked with striations, suggesting that the vessels were
rubbed with a bunch of grass while still wet. There were some bowls with
interior decorations applied with black paint. The paint is believed to
have been made by boiling the juice of some plant, such as bee weed,
which still provides pigment for Indian potters. Brushes were probably
made by chewing the end of a yucca splint until the fibers separated and
were soft and flexible. Designs appear to have been taken, to a great
extent, from basketry. They usually consist of bands or ribbonlike
panels and the most common design elements are dots, small triangles,
rakelike appendages, and crude life forms.

No kilns were used and pottery was probably fired with a conical pyre of
firewood placed around the vessels. When the air is kept out and there
is no excess of oxygen in the atmosphere in which pottery is fired, a
white or gray colored background, such as is found in Basketmaker wares,
results. Such pottery is said to have been fired in a _reducing
atmosphere_. When air is allowed to circulate and there is an excess of
oxygen in the atmosphere, red, brown, or yellow pottery is produced, and
the vessels are characterized as having been fired in an _oxidizing
atmosphere_.[15]

In a few sites there has been found a highly polished red ware,
sometimes plain and occasionally with designs in black, and a pottery
with red designs on a brown or buff background.[95] These wares are much
better made than those previously described and this, coupled with their
rarity, indicates that they were foreign to the Modified-Basketmaker
culture. It has been suggested that they may have been imported from the
south and that the red pottery, which owes its red color to firing in an
oxidizing atmosphere, may be the product of the Mogollon people, of
southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona, who will be discussed
in a later section. Certain Modified Basketmaker vessels were covered
with a wash of red pigment which was applied after firing and which was
impermanent. This is known as _fugitive red_. The theory has been
advanced that this may represent an attempt on the part of the
Basketmakers to produce red pottery without knowing the firing technique
which was responsible for it.[7]

[Illustration: Fig. 18—Modified-Basketmaker figurine and
nipple-shaped object.]

There are two other classes of articles made of clay, sometimes lightly
fired but more often unbaked. These are human figurines and
nipple-shaped objects believed to be cult objects with no utilitarian
purpose. The figurines almost invariably represent human females. Faces
are indistinct except for the nose, which, like the breasts, is clearly
marked. Arms, if shown at all, are sketchily indicated. Legs are
scarcely ever shown. Necklaces and pendants are indicated by punctures
and incised lines. The nipple or funnel-shaped objects are hollow
cornucopias, about two inches long, decorated with punctations. They are
perforated at the base, which suggests that they were once tied to
something, possibly masks or clothing. There are many theories as to the
significance of these traits. It has been suggested that they may have
come with the introduction of maize and may be connected with fertility
rites.

Pottery did not entirely supplant basketry and many fine baskets
continued to be made. There was greater use of red and black designs
than in the previous period. Sometimes these were woven in and sometimes
they were painted. Sandals reached their highest level of development at
this time. They were finely woven of apocynum string over a yucca cord
warp. Fringing was abandoned, and the toe was marked by a
crescent-shaped scallop. The heel was puckered. Soles were double with
designs worked in colored cord in zones on the upper surface and raised
designs on the underside produced by variations in weave or by knotting.
Carrying bands continued to be very finely woven but twined bags
degenerated.

Fur blankets were still manufactured but the use of feather cord became
progressively more common. Some blankets were made partially of fur cord
and partially of feather cord. Strips of bird skin were no longer used
exclusively in the manufacture of the latter type. Small downy feathers
were employed, as well as heavier feathers from which the stiffer part
of the quill had been removed. Much turkey plumage was utilized, and it
is believed by some archaeologists that turkeys were domesticated at
this time,[87] although others do not think that domestication took
place until later. There is no agreement as to whether turkeys were kept
to provide food. It is most generally believed that they were not eaten.

At this time new varieties of corn were cultivated, which tended to be
somewhat larger than the earlier forms, and the people’s diet was
changed to some extent by the introduction of beans as a food crop. The
addition of beans to the daily fare may have been quite important for it
would increase the protein content of the diet. Such a crop also
indicates a more settled life, for, while corn may be planted and then
left for long periods of time, beans require almost constant attention.

Atlatls were still the principal weapons, but late in the period the bow
and arrow came into use. This new and superior weapon may have been
brought by small groups of newcomers to the Southwest or, perhaps,
simply the idea spread to the Anasazi from neighboring people. In any
case, the bow is believed to have been introduced from some other area.
Two new implements which also appeared at this time were grooved mauls
or hammers and axes notched for hafting. Before the introduction of axes
it is believed that timbers for house construction were felled by fire.

Much of our information about these people still comes from burials.
These were more often single interments than was the case in the
preceding period. There were no definite cemeteries in the villages, and
bodies were placed wherever it was most convenient, often in refuse
heaps where digging was easiest. In caves the dead were commonly laid in
abandoned cists or in crevices. Baskets were still the chief mortuary
offerings, but some pottery was placed with the dead, as well as a
variety of other objects including ornaments, pipes, food, gaming sets,
and flutes. The latter are of particular interest, for they indicate
some knowledge of music. In the grave of one old man, believed to have
been a priest or chief, were four finely made flutes. They could still
be played when they were excavated and had a clear, rich tone. A
characteristic offering, found in almost all graves, is a pair of new
unworn sandals. Ornaments interred with the dead show that turquoise was
now being used for beads and pendants. It was sometimes employed with
shell pieces for mosaic work set in wood. In other cases it was combined
with whole shells, as in one magnificent cuff, found on the wrist of an
old woman, which was five inches wide and consisted of hundreds of
perfectly matched olivella shells with a fine turquoise in the
center.[2]

One of the most interesting of all interments was the famous “burial of
the hands” in Canyon del Muerto in Arizona.[92] This find consisted of a
pair of hands and forearms lying side by side, palms upward, on a bed of
grass. Wrapped around the wrists were three necklaces with abalone shell
pendants, one of which was as large as the hand itself. An ironical, yet
strangely pathetic offering, consisted of two pairs of some of the
finest sandals which have ever been found. Over the entire burial lay a
basket nearly two feet in diameter. Doubtless a fascinating story lies
behind this strange grave, but what it was we shall never know. Of all
the theories which have been advanced the one which best explains this
remarkable occurrence is that the individual may have been caught under
a rockfall and that only the hands and forearms could be released and
given suitable burial; but of course all this is pure conjecture.

SUMMARY

In summarizing the Basketmaker horizon as a whole, we may say that the
culture was fully established in the San Juan drainage in the early
centuries of the Christian era, and it may have been developing for
quite some time. Later it spread to include a larger area. This part of
the Anasazi sequence ended, in most places, at the beginning of the
eighth century.

The earliest people were dependent on both hunting and agriculture. The
only propulsive weapon used was the atlatl or dart-thrower. Squash and
corn were the only two crops produced. Houses had saucer-like floors of
adobe, wood-and-mud masonry walls with a log foundation, and cribbed
roofs. These people made beautiful baskets and sandals, produced some
exceptionally fine twined-woven bags, and made blankets of fur-covered
cord. Fired pottery was not manufactured but some unfired clay vessels
were produced.

In the second part of the period the culture was more widespread and
developed, and was modified in various ways. Several types of corn were
grown, and beans were added to the list of cultivated foods. Pit houses
were the usual form of dwelling, and village life began. Baskets were
still widely made. Sandals reached their highest point of development,
but twined-woven bags degenerated. Cord used in the making of blankets
came to be more commonly wrapped with feathers. Fired pottery was
manufactured, and the bow and arrow came into use. This was a most
important period, for it provided the foundation for the later culture
which, some centuries later, achieved a golden age that marked one of
the high points of aboriginal development in North America.

THE DEVELOPMENTAL-PUEBLO PERIOD

Following the Basketmaker era comes the Pueblo horizon, the second major
subdivision of the Anasazi culture. The name comes from that given to
the village Indians by the Spaniards. “Pueblo” is simply the Spanish
word for a community of people, but in the Southwest it has come to have
a definite connotation and is used to refer to communal houses and towns
and to the inhabitants, both prehistoric and modern.

The Pueblo period, like the Basketmaker, is divided into various phases.
Under the classification decided on by archaeologists, meeting at the
conference at Pecos in 1927, five phases were recognized. The earliest
was called _Pueblo I_ and was defined as “the first stage during which
cranial deformation was practiced, vessel neck corrugation was
introduced, and villages composed of rectangular living-rooms of true
masonry were developed.” The next was named _Pueblo II_ and was
characterized as “the stage marked by widespread geographical extension
of life in small villages; corrugation, often of elaborate technique,
extended over the whole surface of cooking vessels.”[74]

At the present time many archaeologists group both phases under the name
_Developmental Pueblo_.[110] This term, which is used in this book,
seems apt, for this was a period of transition which led to the classic
Pueblo era. In many ways the culture was still a generalized one, as was
the one which preceded it, but specialization, which was to become so
marked later, was already beginning. Sites belonging to this phase are
found throughout the Plateau area.

[Illustration: Fig. 19—Developmental-Pueblo diorama in the Museum at
Mesa Verde National Park. (Courtesy of Mesa Verde National Park.)]

Assigning dates to this period is rather complicated. It might be
thought that in dealing with somewhat more recent sites, where tree-ring
dates are more commonly available, it would be easy to say that a
specific period began at a definite time and ended at another. Actually,
such is not the case, for development was far from uniform in all
places. In some sections the period which we define as Developmental
Pueblo began toward the end of the seventh century; in other areas the
earliest date which can be given is in the middle of the ninth century.
Terminal dates are equally variable. In some regions this period had
ended and the next phase of development had begun by the middle of the
tenth century, and in others this change did not take place until the
twelfth century. In general, the dates 700 to 1100 A. D. may be assigned
to the Developmental Pueblo phase, but this represents a simplification
of a very complex situation.

For many years it had been thought that the people of Basketmaker and
those of Pueblo times were of entirely different physical types. The
Basketmakers were considered dolichocephalic, or long-headed, and the
Pueblos were believed to be brachycephalic, or broad-headed. The first
appearance of the latter was thought to mark the advent of an entirely
different racial group which became dominant and caused the
disappearance of the earlier inhabitants of the region. It was not
believed that the Basketmakers were entirely exterminated, but rather
that many were assimilated and absorbed by the new group while some were
killed and others driven into peripheral areas. Some archaeologists and
anthropologists still hold this theory.

Recently, however, a long and detailed study of fairly large groups of
crania of both people has been made.[119] The results of this
investigation suggest that, while there are some differences between the
two series, they are not of great significance and that, therefore, the
Basketmakers and the Pueblos were basically the same people. This is
confirmed by cultural evidence, for, although changes occurred, there is
a strong continuity of development from Basketmaker to early Pueblo
times. Possibly there was some coming in of new people, who introduced
new ideas which gave impetus to the cultural development; but it is now
difficult to accept the theory of a mass invasion by a racially
different group and of a radical change in physical type. In the light
of this new evidence some archaeologists feel that the term “Anasazi”
should be dropped, and the entire culture, including the Basketmaker and
Pueblo phases, should be called “Pueblo” or “Puebloan.”[7]

One factor which tended to make the Pueblo people seem extremely
broad-headed was the habit of deforming the skull posteriorly, a
practice which became almost universal in Pueblo times. A skull markedly
flattened in back inevitably appears broader than one which is
undeformed. This effect is believed to have been produced by strapping
babies against hard cradle-boards or by using a hard head-rest. The soft
skull of the infant was flattened by pressure in the back and, as the
bones grew and hardened, this deformity became permanent.

[Illustration: Fig. 20—a. Undeformed skull, b. Deformed skull.]

The question naturally arises: Why did people wish to have deformed
skulls? We cannot be sure of the answer, of course, but it seems
possible that it represents nothing more than a matter of fashion and a
change in ideals of beauty. Even in our own society there are fashions
in physical appearance as well as in clothing and adornment. One need
only compare the corn-fed curves of the Floradora sextette with the
emaciated lines of “flappers” of the 1920’s to realize that we have
little eccentricities of our own which might seem incomprehensible to a
prehistoric Indian.

Important changes which mark the transition between the Basketmaker era
and Pueblo times occurred in the realm of architecture. There are also
differences between the first half of the Developmental Pueblo period,
sometimes known as “Pueblo I,” and the second half which is sometimes
called “Pueblo II.” In a general way we can trace the evolutionary
development from pit houses, with associated granaries, to the fairly
complex surface domiciles and subterranean ceremonial chambers of the
final phase of the period.[113] Progress did not follow the same pattern
in all places, however, nor did all similar changes occur at the same
time.

As was noted in the preceding section, a few surface houses were built
in the Modified-Basketmaker period, but this type of architecture did
not become well established until Developmental-Pueblo times. In the
beginning of the period, in most areas, pit houses were still the usual
form of dwelling. To the west and north of these houses, granaries were
built with superstructures in the form of truncated pyramids. Sometimes
stone slabs and sometimes crude masonry were used in their construction.

Later, jacal structures as well as pit houses served as dwellings. The
name _jacal_ is applied to a type of construction in which walls are
made of poles set at short intervals and heavily plastered with adobe.
At first, walls sloped inward, as they had in the superstructures of the
earlier granaries from which it is believed that this type of house was
derived. Later, walls were perpendicular and the jacal construction was
sometimes combined with masonry. Still later, masonry was used almost
exclusively. As time went by, floors became progressively less
depressed. In early forms, rooms were not connected, but eventually
contiguous rooms became the rule, and, in the course of time, there
arose multiroomed structures, sometimes called _unit houses_. Associated
with these were highly specialized subterranean structures, used for
religious purposes, but apparently derived from the old domiciliary pit
house.

It cannot be stressed too strongly that these are all general
statements, designed solely to show evolutionary trends during this
period. Actually the situation is far more complex than this would
indicate. In some sections, big pueblos were built very early in the
period.[7] In peripheral regions, pit houses continued to be used as
dwellings long after they had ceased to serve such a purpose in the main
area, and, even in the nuclear portion, the rate of progress was by no
means constant, nor was it always in the same direction. For a somewhat
clearer picture, it is best to consider some of the different places
where excavation of Developmental-Pueblo sites has been undertaken.

At Kiatuthlana, Arizona,[107] forty miles southwest of Zuñi, pit houses
and jacal structures were contemporaneous during early Pueblo times. The
latter were flat-roofed, four-sided buildings, trapezoidal, rather than
rectangular, in outline. Some were single rooms, and others had three or
four chambers.

In the Piedra district of southwestern Colorado[106] are found jacal
buildings in clusters of from three to fifteen. The different structures
were often close, but did not touch. A number of clusters, laid in a
crescent shape around a circular depression, comprised a village. These
depressions are thought by some to have served as reservoirs, or
possibly sometimes as plazas or dance courts. Others hold the opinion,
based on the results of more recent excavations in other areas, that
they may contain pit houses.[41] The earliest houses were pits with
sloping jacal walls. Later the floors were merely depressed, and walls
were perpendicular. This type was eventually combined with two-room
storage buildings of crude masonry. Next, the jacal construction
disappeared and the rooms made of masonry were enlarged and became
dwellings instead of storerooms.

In the nearby region of the La Plata drainage,[95] houses in the
beginning of the period differed little from those of Basketmaker times,
except that they were somewhat more massive and more masonry was used.
There was some jacal construction, but usually a variant form was
employed in which only a few widely spaced wooden supports were used.
Sometimes the entire wall consisted of clay pressed into position with
the hands, and the posts were absent. Stones were sometimes added to the
clay, and some crude coursed masonry has been found. Stone slabs
commonly formed the wainscoting. Houses were usually grouped in a
crescentic form along the north and west sides of a depression
containing a subterranean chamber. No dance courts or plazas have been
found.

During the latter part of Developmental-Pueblo times in the La Plata
area, jacal and slab construction were replaced by stone and adobe, and
walls became more massive. At first the adobe was considered the
important mass and only a few stones were incorporated, but, as time
went by, the ratio changed and stone predominated with mud serving only
as a mortar. Crescent-shaped room-placement changed to a rectangular
structure.

In the Ackmen-Lowry region[82] of southwestern Colorado most early
Developmental-Pueblo sites consisted of one or two above-ground rooms
associated with a pit house which may have served as a domicile as well
as provided a place for the celebration of ceremonies. The surface
structures were of slabs topped by masonry, or were of jacal
construction. Later houses were built of coursed masonry and usually
contained from four to six rooms. The associated pit houses seem to have
been used exclusively as ceremonial chambers. Also found in this area
was a good-sized Pueblo, known as Lowry Ruin, which was occupied late in
Developmental-Pueblo times as well as during the succeeding period.
Thirty-five rooms have been uncovered, but there is evidence that the
pueblo was modified six or seven times, and it is estimated that
probably no more than fifteen or eighteen rooms were occupied at any one
time.

At Alkali Ridge in southeastern Utah,[7] thirteen sites have been
excavated which have yielded valuable information about architectural
development. Ten of these contained Developmental-Pueblo structures. In
this area, even as early as the eighth century, pueblos with as many as
three hundred above-ground storage and living rooms were being built in
association with large and small pit houses. These pueblos consisted of
long curving rows of contiguous rooms with the larger dwelling units in
front of the small chambers used for storage. A variety of wall types
was used, often in combination. They include upright stone slabs, jacal,
and some coursed masonry.

During the latter half of Developmental-Pueblo times in this area there
were buildings made of jacal with stones imbedded in the adobe. Those
found range in size from one to twelve rooms, and some may have been
larger. There were also structures of coursed masonry. Some of these
contained only one or two rooms but others may have been fairly large.

In excavations near Allantown, in eastern Arizona,[112] the evolution
from simple masonry granaries to multi-roomed houses, and the
development from simple, partially subterranean houses to highly
specialized kivas, or ceremonial buildings, is clearly shown. There the
change from domiciliary pit house to unit house seems to have occurred
in the period between 814 and about 1014 A. D. This, however, was a
slower development than in other areas. In the Chaco Canyon area of New
Mexico, for example, great communal houses, with several stories and
hundreds of rooms, of which the unit-type house seems to have been the
forerunner, apparently were started by 1014.

Unit houses, which were commonly built in the second part of
Developmental-Pueblo times and in the following period, were
above-ground structures built of stone and adobe. They were one story in
height and usually contained from six to fourteen rooms. These rooms
were sometimes placed in a long row, sometimes in a double tier, and, in
other cases, were arranged in the shape of an “L” or rectangular “U”.

Unit houses are occasionally referred to as _clan houses_, for some
archaeologists believe that they may have been occupied by single family
groups. Present day social organization in the western pueblos is based
on clans, and it is believed that this is of long standing and probably
extends far back into prehistoric times. Descent is traced in these
pueblos in the maternal line. In such villages a clan is a group made up
of individuals descended from the same female ancestor. Houses belong to
the women, and a family group which lives together usually consists of a
woman and her daughters and their families. The husbands belong to other
clans. They live with their wives’ groups, but their religious
affiliations are with their own clans. The kivas, or ceremonial
chambers, belong to the men of the clan and serve as club rooms as well
as providing a place where secret religious rites may be performed.

In Developmental-Pueblo times, kivas were very similar in form to those
used at the present time in the eastern pueblos. They were circular,
subterranean structures which lay to the south or southeast of houses.
Walls were of masonry, and there were encircling benches in which
pilasters were often incorporated. Roofs were normally cribbed, and
entrance was usually through the smoke-hole in the center; although, in
some unit-type sites in southwestern Colorado, stone towers are found
containing manholes which led into tunnels connecting with kivas.[83]

It is interesting to note the apparent derivation of kivas from the old
domiciliary pit houses which had, at least in a rudimentary form, all of
the features of the later religious structures and which also lay in the
same position in relation to the surface masonry structures. It is
believed that originally each house had its own shrine. When special
structures came to be built exclusively for the performance of religious
rites, the people clung to the old form of building, although their
dwellings were developing in a different direction. There is an innate
conservatism and traditionalism in religion which is well represented in
architecture. In our own cities, where we erect medieval cathedrals and
sky scrapers, we can see a lag of from four to seven centuries between
religious and secular architecture.

In some parts of the Southwest, kivas were not the only places available
for the performance of religious rites. At Allantown[112] was found a
great circular area, paved with adobe and enclosed on three sides by
upright stone slabs, which is believed to have been a dance court. On
the north side is a platform or dais. Probably in that long ago time
there were many days and nights when moving feet beat out the intricate
rhythms of the dance against the hard packed adobe, as the gods were
importuned to bring life-giving rain for the crops.

[Illustration: Fig. 21—Interior view of a kiva showing distinctive
features. Note the ventilator, deflector, fire-pit, sipapu, bench,
and pilasters.]

In addition to the houses, kivas, and dance courts, there were also
brush shelters with firepits, ovens and storage places. These probably
provided outdoor cooking facilities during the summer.

In the field of pottery, important changes were taking place, and
specialization was increasing all through the Anasazi area.
Developmental-Pueblo pottery had a finer paste and was better made than
that of Modified-Basketmaker times. Some tempering was done with
pulverized potsherds. More different types were represented. Plain gray
ware was still made. Pottery with black designs on a white background
was very common, except in the Alkali Ridge[7] area of southeastern Utah
where early Developmental-Pueblo painted pottery had a pinkish-orange
ground color with designs in red paint. In referring to painted pottery
it is customary to mention first the color of the design and then the
color of the background, as, for example, _black-on-white_ or
_red-on-orange_ ware. Minor types of Developmental-Pueblo times included
a lustrous black-on-red ware and bowls with more or less polished black
interiors and brownish or reddish exteriors. The differentiation between
culinary and non-culinary pottery became more marked. The former came to
be characterized by corrugations in the clay, and the latter chiefly by
painted designs.

[Illustration: Fig. 22—Corrugated Pottery. (Courtesy National Park
Service.)]

Specialization in particular areas is best shown in the black-on-white
wares. There are two main groups—an eastern one which centered around
the Chaco Canyon area of New Mexico, and a western one which centered
around the Kayenta region of Arizona.[110] Both extended far beyond
these nuclear areas. The former was characterized by a wide use of
mineral paint. Designs stand out from the background. Possibly they were
applied after the vessel had been polished. In the western form, designs
were usually applied with a paint made from plant juices and they seem
to fade into the surface of the vessel. This may be due in part to the
application of paint before the polishing of the vessel had been
completed.

In all sections there was a greater variety of forms and designs than in
the preceding period. Designs were no longer confined to the interiors
of bowls and ladles but were placed on all kinds of vessels. Basketry
patterns were still used, but others were taken from textiles, and still
others seem to have been developed only for the medium of pottery.
Designs show a certain lack of skill in execution, but they were
elaborate and boldly conceived. There is every evidence of people still
experimenting with a new medium. The principal elements were parallel
lines, sometimes straight and in other cases stepped or wavy; zig-zags,
triangles, checkerboards, and interlocking frets. Both curvilinear and
rectilinear designs were used. In the latter part of the period parallel
lines were scarce, and elements became broader and heavier.

[Illustration: Fig. 23—Black-on-white pottery. Developmental-Pueblo
period.]

[Illustration: Fig. 24—Neck-banded vessel. Developmental-Pueblo
Period. (Courtesy National Park Service.)]

Techniques of production and finishing differed from those of
Modified-Basketmaker times. The practice of using slips developed. A
slip is a coating of very fine, almost liquid, clay which is smeared on
a finished vessel before firing to give a smooth even finish. In the
second part of the period, spiral coiling began. In the earlier forms,
short clay fillets, which made only one turn around the vessel, were
used. With the spiral technique, longer rolls of clay were used and each
made several circuits around the vessel. During the first half of the
period, vessels were either entirely smoothed or, in the case of many
culinary vessels, the bottom was smoothed while the neck portion was
characterized by flat, relatively broad, concentric clay bands. These
neck-banded jars are quite characteristic of early Developmental Pueblo.
During the second part of the period corrugated ware appeared. This is
pottery in which the alternate ridges and depressions resulting from a
coiling and pinching technique of manufacture have not been obliterated.
Sometimes the corrugations were embellished by indentations produced by
pinching the clay between the fingers or by incising them with the
fingernail or some small implement. In this way simple patterns were
formed. The use of this type of pottery for cooking may stem from the
fact that this is the only type of decoration which would not soon be
obliterated by soot. Objects made of clay also included tubular pipes or
cloud-blowers. Stone and wood were also sometimes used in making these
objects.

Baskets continued to be made, although pottery vessels were used for
many purposes for which baskets had formerly been employed. The number
of baskets made undoubtedly diminished, and the large flat trays so
characteristic of Basketmaker times seem to have almost entirely
disappeared. The great decrease in number of baskets made, however, may
be more apparent than real, for most Developmental-Pueblo sites are in
the open and little perishable material remains. Examples which have
been found indicate that the coiling technique continued and designs
became more elaborate. Twilled baskets were also manufactured.

[Illustration: Fig. 25—a. Developmental-Pueblo sandal, b.
Great-Pueblo sandal.]

Sandals of fine string, with coarse patterns on the under side, were
still being woven. They had rounded toes. A new material and new
techniques in weaving appeared with the introduction of cotton at this
time. Cotton was grown and used to produce thread which was woven into
fabrics with looms. Fur and feather blankets, primarily the latter, were
still being made, but light cotton blankets were probably also worn. It
is thought that kilts and breech cloths were made of the same material.
Various ornaments, including beads, pendants, and bracelets, were worn.
The former were largely of colored shales, turquoise, and alabaster.
Some bracelets were of glycymeris, a shell which must have been imported
from the Gulf of California.

Cotton was the only addition to the list of cultivated plants, but
squash and beans continued to be grown. Corn was still the staple food.
It was ground on scoop-shaped trough metates. In one case three graded
manos, of varying degrees of roughness, were found with one metate. This
foreshadowed the later Pueblo practice of having mealing bins with
series of metates ranging in texture from relatively coarse to very
fine. Corn was first coarsely ground on the roughest metate, or with the
roughest mano, and then worked over with progressively smoother stones
until a very fine meal resulted. Crudely flaked hoes began to be used in
cultivating the crops. Some were hafted, but many were not.

Meat continued to be included in the diet. Bear, elk, buffalo, wolf,
mountain sheep, deer, and rabbits were among the animals hunted. The bow
and arrow were almost universally used. Arrowheads were well flaked,
usually long and narrow, with long, sharp barbs. Late in the period a
new type appeared which became increasingly numerous later. These points
were short, broad, and notched at right angles.

Dogs and turkeys were the only domesticated animals. One reason for the
belief that they were not kept to provide food is that they have been
found buried with mortuary offerings. Corn was provided for the turkeys
and bones for the dogs which were buried. There was also pottery,
sometimes miniature vessels, sometimes sherds rubbed down to form
shallow vessels.

Axes are relatively scarce, but are found in this period. Edges were
smoothed by grinding. On the whole these were not very efficient cutting
implements, for the edges were quite dull.

Human burials varied widely according to locality. For the most part
they are found in refuse heaps. These characteristic mounds, as the name
indicates, were formed of the refuse thrown away by the inhabitants of a
village and are composed of ashes, dirt, broken pottery, and general
debris. There was no disrespect for the dead in burying them in such a
place; it was simply that, with the primitive implements available, it
was desirable to make interments where digging was easiest. The
difficulties of excavation also led to the placing of bodies, in some
cases, in abandoned storage pits or houses. Children are often found
buried under floors near firepits, possibly because mothers felt that
the dependence of an infant extended to the soul and they wished to keep
it near.

Bodies were inhumed in a more or less flexed position. There was no
fixed orientation, as there was in later periods. Undoubtedly there were
some mortuary offerings of a perishable nature, but these have not
survived. Pottery was placed in graves in many cases. At
Kiatuthlana[107] there was a strong degree of consistency in the
offerings. Each grave contained a culinary jar covered by a bowl with a
blackened interior, and a black-on-white bowl. Certain graves contained
more than three pieces of pottery, but they were in multiples of three,
with an equal number of each type.

There are some very puzzling features about the disposal of the dead in
Developmental-Pueblo times. In most of the San Juan area and in the
Kiatuthlana region the number of graves found is about what would be
expected on the basis of the population indicated by habitations. In
other places, however, and particularly in the La Plata region,[95] only
a very few burials have been found and they undoubtedly represent only a
fraction of the deaths which must have occurred. What happened to the
remaining bodies is a question which has not been answered. Some
particularly baffling finds are: skulls buried without bodies, and
bodies buried without heads. In the case of skull burials it has been
suggested that warriors may have been killed some distance from home.
Bringing the entire body back would have been impracticable, and only
the heads were returned to be given suitable burial among the kinsmen of
the dead individual. This, however, does not explain the headless
skeletons which are also found, for it seems unlikely that the body of
an enemy which had been left behind, after the head had been removed,
would be given burial.

At Alkali Ridge[7] there was the usual baffling scarcity of burials in
early Developmental-Pueblo times, and no evidence of cremation. A number
of burials were found in the later horizon, however, and they provide an
interesting example of how much we can learn of how people lived from a
study of their physical remains. Evidence of various bone diseases
indicates that the Alkali Ridge people suffered from malnutrition and
vitamin deficiencies. The fact that one individual, so badly crippled
that she could not have been a productive member of the community, lived
to be sixty years old or more, tells us that these people were willing
to care for handicapped members of their group. The communities must
have been subject to hostile attack. Two individuals appear to have died
from blows on the head. One of these men had also been shot by an arrow,
and scratches on his head indicate that he had been scalped. Evidence of
local inbreeding is provided by the finding of three people with fused
ribs, a very rare abnormality not likely to appear so frequently except
in a highly inbred group.

Peripheral Areas

Outside of the central area of the Anasazi region there were other
developments during this period. In marginal areas, certain phenomena
are almost invariably present. There will be some lag in the diffusion
of new traits, and in some ways the culture of the marginal section will
be less advanced. Early elements may survive for a long time. Traits
which are chronologically distinct in the main area may arrive together
in the outlying sections. Other features may not spread or may be
rejected by the people of the peripheral area. In general, there is a
progressive fading of the basic pattern as one goes farther away from
the nucleus. Certain traits may have been acquired from other cultures,
and there is usually also a tendency to develop new traits and to modify
and adapt those which have been imported, in accordance with local
needs.

All of these characteristics are to be found in the region north and
northwest of the Colorado River which is known as the _Northern
Periphery_ of the Southwest. During Developmental-Pueblo times a number
of early traits persisted in the Northern Periphery after they had
disappeared in the San Juan country. People continued to live in
earth-covered pit houses and lodges after these had been replaced by
surface masonry structures farther south. In some cases the side passage
still served as an entrance instead of being reduced in size for use as
a ventilator. Slab cists, identical with Basketmaker structures, were
quite common. In the south and east of the periphery some unit houses
were built during late Developmental-Pueblo times, but they were far
inferior to those of the main district. Much crude, gray pottery was
produced, and fugitive-red paint was widely used. Clay figurines and
nipple-shaped objects, characteristic of the Basketmaker culture,
continued to be widely made in the north long after they had disappeared
in the nuclear area. Gaming bones are among the most common artifacts.
Throughout, there is an amalgamation of traits which were separate
elsewhere. In some cases early pottery types are found associated with
houses of a later type; in others it is the pottery which is more
advanced than the houses.

Certain features characteristic of the main Pueblo culture either did
not reach the Northern Periphery, or were not accepted by the
inhabitants. North of the San Juan drainage, sandals and cotton cloth
were not produced. The turkey was not domesticated. There were no
grooved axes and mauls. True kivas have not been found, although there
are some structures which are believed to have been used for ceremonial
purposes.

Other features, which are characteristic of the Northern Periphery, are
not found farther south. Many of these are clearly shown in sites found
in the drainage of the Fremont River of Utah.[97] Here leather moccasins
replaced sandals. These were made of mountain sheep hide with the hair
left on. The portion of the hide containing the dewclaws of the sheep
was attached to the sole in such a way that the dewclaws served as
hobnails. Clay figurines, most of which depicted human females, were
quite elaborate. Also characteristic of the culture, were remarkably
fine rock paintings and pecked drawings of Katchinas or supernatural
beings. In the field of pottery, traits which characterize northern
peripheral wares include raised or appliquéd ornaments and punched
designs. Another distinguishing feature is a unique form of grinding
stone, sometimes called the _Utah-type_ metate. This is a shovel-shaped
stone with a deep trough and a platform at one end containing a
secondary depression.

Although the culture of the Northern Periphery is basically Southwestern
in character and is largely of Modified-Basketmaker and early
Developmental-Pueblo origin, it seems probable that the Anasazi was not
the only influence and that there was some immigration and diffusion of
ideas from the east and the north. People living farther to the north
may also have affected the life of the inhabitants of the Periphery in
other ways. At approximately the end of Developmental-Pueblo times, most
of the marginal area was abandoned. Some archaeologists think that this
was due to pressure from northern nomadic tribes. Only along the
Colorado River, did northerly sites continue to be occupied during the
following period.

Anasazi traits also penetrated to other peripheral areas. Evidence of
Anasazi influence is found in southwestern Texas sites, particularly
those of the Big Bend area, occupied after about 900 A.D. Modified
Basketmaker and Pueblo traits are also found in sites in the valleys of
the Muddy and Virgin rivers in southeastern Nevada. In the Nevada
sites[46] both pit dwellings and above-ground houses with many rooms
have been found. Most of the painted pottery is black-on-gray but some
black-on-white and black-on-red wares also occur. Culinary ware was
corrugated. As in Utah, there were no axes, and the turkey does not
appear to have been domesticated.

[Illustration: Fig. 26—Rosa pit house after excavation. (Courtesy
Columbia University Press.)]

One of the most interesting marginal manifestations is known as the
_Rosa Phase_.[41] Rosa sites have been found in the drainage of the
Governador Wash which lies between the towns of Aztec and Dulce in
north-central New Mexico. Between about 700 and 900 A.D. this region was
occupied by people who lived in very large pit houses. They were also
familiar with surface construction and had above-ground granaries, made
of adobe, which sometimes contained several contiguous rooms. Houses and
granaries were surrounded by stockades made of posts interlaced with
brush. Pottery was not very well made, and consisted to a great extent
of undecorated ware. Many of the vessels were started in baskets. The
small amount of decorated pottery which was produced seems to represent
imitations of other already developed types.

The bones of a great many dogs and turkeys are found in the rubbish
heaps and it is thought that they may have been an important element in
the diet of the people. Dogs, however, probably had some significance
other than as a source of food, for some were so old and toothless that
they may have died of old age. Also, dogs were found buried in every
grave.

Burial customs differed from those of other areas. In some cases, bodies
seem to have been exposed and allowed to decompose, at least partially,
before the bones were buried. There was no deformation of the skull in
any of burials uncovered.

SUMMARY

Returning to the subject of the Developmental-Pueblo period in the
nuclear portion of the Anasazi region, we may summarize by saying that
this was a time of transition. Pit houses were first used as dwellings,
and then, becoming more highly specialized, were used as ceremonial
structures. Surface granaries gave rise to above-ground houses. Walls
were first predominantly of poles and adobe, later of masonry. Large
structures with numerous contiguous rooms became increasingly common.
Pottery improved in quality and an increasing number of wares were
represented, including corrugated cooking ware. Axes and hoes were added
to the assemblage of implements. Cotton began to be grown, and fabrics
were produced by loom weaving. These statements, however, only indicate
general trends, for there was no real uniformity of cultural
development. There were differences between various sections of the
country, and there were also variations within the same area. With the
end of Developmental-Pueblo times, however, all of the basic Pueblo
traits were established, and the stage was set for the flowering of the
high culture of the next period which has been called the “Golden Age”
of the Anasazi.

THE GREAT-PUEBLO PERIOD

The phase which followed Developmental-Pueblo times is the one best
known to the general public, for it was during this time that there were
built the great communal houses, whose impressive ruins in our National
Monuments and Parks draw thousands of fascinated visitors every year.
This is the period of the Cliff Dwellers who built the remarkable
structures of Mesa Verde and then, apparently, disappeared into the
mists of time. Much of the mystery which surrounds these people in the
public mind is unnecessary, but there is still enough of the remarkable
in their achievements, and in their disappearance from their old haunts,
to intrigue the imagination.

This period is also known as _Classic Pueblo_ or _Pueblo III_, but is
now aptly called the _Great-Pueblo_[110] period, for it marks the time
when this culture reached the pinnacle of its development. Its general
characteristics were summarized in the Pecos classification which
defined Pueblo III as: “the stage of large communities, great
development of the arts, and growth of intensive local
specialization.”[74]

There is some disagreement as to the date which should be assigned to
the beginning of Great-Pueblo times, for cultural development was not
equal in all sections of the Plateau. In some areas, people were still
living as they had in Developmental-Pueblo times, while, in others,
Great-Pueblo traits were well established. Since specialization became
so marked that various cultural centers must be considered separately,
it is best, in most cases, to give dates for this period in terms of
specific areas. There is, however, some agreement as to the ending date.
In general it may be said that Great-Pueblo times began, in most places,
about 1050 A.D. and lasted until the end of the thirteenth century, when
the whole northern portion of the Plateau was abandoned.

The greatest change from the preceding period was in the realm of
architecture. There were a great many unit houses, in which a fairly
large percentage of the population lived, but big “apartment houses,” up
to five stories in height and containing hundreds of rooms, were also
built. This change naturally affected not only the living conditions of
the people, but influenced their whole life, for people living together
in a closely-knit community will develop differently from the way they
would in widely scattered settlements.

[Illustration: Fig. 27—Great-Pueblo diorama in the Museum at Mesa
Verde National Park showing Spruce Tree House. (Courtesy Mesa Verde
National Park.)]

When a population is broken up into small independent units and
scattered over a wide area, there is not likely to be any need or desire
for overall government, and authority is usually vested in the person of
the head of the family or clan. As the size of the group increases and
life becomes increasingly complex, some centralization of power is
inevitable. Cooperation between individuals and groups of individuals
becomes not only desirable but essential. In such an undertaking as the
building of a huge structure, containing hundreds of rooms, there must
be cooperation. With the occupation of such a building, when as many as
a thousand people may be living under one roof, the need for working
together continued. With greater cooperation, leisure is likely to
increase, although sometimes this greater freedom is limited to a ruling
caste which makes great demands on the time of other individuals. This
does not appear to have been the case among the ancient Pueblo people as
they seem to have had an essentially democratic form of government.

With added leisure, there is usually increasing development in the arts
and in religion. As more time can be devoted to religious practices,
ceremonies tend to become more elaborate and more formalized. Often a
priestly caste will arise which, as in the case of the concentration of
secular power, may result in autocracy. The Pueblos seem to have avoided
this danger too. The many kivas suggest that religion and its ceremonial
expression must have played a strong part in their daily lives, as it
does today. Undoubtedly there were priests who were figures of
importance in the community, but there is no evidence that they wielded
an autocratic power which gave them great material advantages over other
members of the group.

Community living will have other far-reaching influences. When only a
small family group is living together, it must be almost entirely
self-sufficient and must produce practically everything which it uses.
As the group increases in size, specialization also tends to increase.
For example, a woman who makes exceptional baskets, but is not a
particularly skillful potter, may come to specialize in the making of
baskets which she can exchange for pottery made by someone who produces
a finer ware. Familiarity with the work of others will also stimulate
development, for new ideas will have a wider distribution and
competition will serve as a stimulating factor.

There was no basic change in type of structure, for the great houses
were, in a sense, much enlarged and modified unit houses. The great
change lay in the joining together of great numbers of people. It must
not be thought, however, that all of the people lived in huge communal
dwellings such as those of Mesa Verde or Chaco Canyon. Actually many
groups continued to live in unit houses at a considerable distance from
the main centers, and many of the so-called great houses contained only
a small number of rooms. The really big houses were in the minority and
would appear to have been capable of sheltering only a small fraction of
the total population.

There was undoubtedly a general trend toward a coalescence of the
population, however, and it is interesting to speculate on the reason
for this tendency. The fact that the great houses were admirably suited
to defense has given rise to the theory that the people began to move
together for protection against an outside enemy. There can be no doubt
that the need for defense was taken into consideration in the building
of the big structures, but this cannot be the whole answer. There is
some evidence of violence, but not a great deal. The utmost care was
taken in the construction of the great houses, and much time-consuming
work went into decoration. When danger threatens, speed becomes the
primary consideration, and the amenities of life are sacrificed. There
were many small houses in which a good portion of the population lived,
and these were not always in locations suitable for defense. Since
defense obviously was a consideration in the minds of the builders of
the great houses, and since there is some evidence of violence and
bloodshed, we cannot discount the role which warfare may have played in
architectural development, but it seems certain that this was not the
only factor which influenced this development.

Another interesting theory has been proposed.[81] It is based on the
fact that, not only was there great building activity during this
period, but also that there was much restlessness and moving about.
Walls were torn down and rebuilt, and many buildings were abandoned and
new ones erected, without any reason that is apparent from
archaeological evidence. It has been suggested that this restlessness
and the intensity with which building activities were pursued may have
been an outlet for the repressions and inhibitions of a group which had
a cultural pattern with set rules against violence and excess. There is
great variation among the different groups which make up the Pueblo
Indians of today, but, in many cases, they have a cultural pattern that
upholds the golden mean and discourages all extremes.[4] Such a way of
life might well produce certain repressions which would result in a
general restlessness and desire for change and activity.

The chief objection to this theory lies in the defensive character of
the great houses, which would suggest that violence was not unknown. In
times of war, desire for change and action is readily satisfied, and
socially approved reasons are provided for breaking away from many of
the established rules of society. Undoubtedly, though, the urge which
resulted in the creation of great community dwellings which were in
essence city-states, came to some extent from within the people
themselves and was not entirely the result of outside influences. Many
factors undoubtedly played a part, but the building of the big houses
must, in some measure, be regarded as an architectural vogue which, to a
great extent, stemmed from the desires as well as the needs of the
people.

The causes which led to the abandonment of the great houses and which
resulted in the end of this phase of Pueblo development are just as
difficult to understanding as are those which led to their being
constructed in the first place. By 1300 A.D., the entire northern
section of the Plateau had been deserted. This was not the result of a
single mass migration, but rather of a wide general movement. First one
big center and then another was deserted. Even in these centers
themselves, all the inhabitants did not leave at the same time; rather
it seems that small groups drifted away, a few at a time. Eventually,
though, the entire northern frontier was deserted, and no living person
who had contributed to the growth and flowering of the culture remained.
Naturally, this strange departure has given rise to much conjecture. It
would be pleasant to be able to say that such and such a cause produced
this result. Unfortunately, anything connected with the human race is
rarely quite so simple.

The invaluable tree-rings have not only provided us with dates for
various events, but have given us information about climatic conditions
which undoubtedly had a tremendous effect on the movements of the people
with whom we are concerned. From tree-ring records we know that during
the centuries when the hopes and fears of the prehistoric Pueblo Indians
were centered on their crops there were bad years as well as good ones.
We know of periods when rainfall was below normal, and of others when
there were real droughts. Most of these were of short duration, however,
until the disastrous period between 1276 and 1299 when there was
practically no rain, and the Southwest suffered an extremely severe
drought. It was during this period that the northern frontier was
finally abandoned, and the people moved to new localities. Some
archaeologists have felt that the disappearance of the Pueblos from
their old homes can be traced entirely to this disastrous drought. If
all the communities had been abandoned at the same time, this would be a
logical assumption. Actually, the time of the abandonment of all of the
main centers does not fall between these two dates. Some were deserted
prior to the beginning of the great drought and a few continued to be
occupied after the dry period had begun.

One of the most interesting theories yet advanced is based on the
suggestion that a really severe drought was not necessary to upset the
economy of the Pueblo farmers.[10][39] Some dry farming was practiced
and there was some ditch irrigation, but the greatest dependence seems
to have been on flood-water farming in valley bottoms. This is a system
whereby water is simply diverted and distributed through the fields when
floods come down the valley. During periods when rainfall is deficient,
although not sufficiently so to warrant the use of the term drought,
steep channels, known as _arroyos_, are cut into flood plains; the
water-table is lowered, and flood-water fields become useless. Not only
may the fields themselves be dissected by the arroyo cutting, but water
can no longer be diverted for flood irrigation. If, as seems probable,
the great drought was only the climax of a period of increasing dryness
when much farmland was lost through arroyo-cutting, it is not hard to
understand why the Pueblo farmers might move on to more favored
localities.

Another theory advanced to explain the departure of the ancient
agriculturists, and one which has enthusiastic supporters, is that they
were driven from their homes by fierce nomadic tribes who were attracted
by the wealth of food stored in their granaries.[73] Much of this
thinking is based on what we know of nomadic raids in general, and the
records of the terrible Navajo and Apache depredations from the middle
of the seventeenth century until their comparatively recent subjugation
by the United States Army. For years it has been the practice simply to
accept the belief that fierce warlike tribes had preyed on the peaceful
Pueblos for centuries. More recently, however, some searching questions
have been asked, and this theory is under close scrutiny.[80]

It is granted that the type of construction employed in the Great-Pueblo
era indicates some need for defense, but it does not show against whom
the defense was needed. Assuming that there were nomadic tribesmen,
ready and anxious to carry away the patiently accumulated wealth of the
Pueblos, we must ask ourselves what advantage they would have had over
their victims which would have enabled them to carry out their
depredations. If the nomads had been mounted, as they were in later
times, they would have had the advantages of speed and mobility which
are essential for surprise attacks—the only type which would be of much
avail against a heavily fortified structure. Only much later, however,
were horses introduced into the Southwest; and at this time the
attackers would have had to travel on foot.

Greater numbers, or superior organization, might have given them an
advantage, but we can hardly believe that the nomads were as numerous or
had as good an organization as that of the people of the Pueblos. The
region in which they presumably lived would certainly not support a
large population, and particularly one with an essentially parasitic
economy which did not produce. With such an economy, people cannot live
too close together without exhausting the available resources, and a
thinly spread population is unlikely to be highly organized.

Great physical superiority may be another factor in the winning of
battles between people who have not yet become so civilized as to have
machines which will enable one individual to kill thousands of his
fellow men. Any physical superiority, however, would seem to rest with
the sedentary people who had an assured food supply. Moreover, their
life was still sufficiently rugged so that there can hardly be any
question of their having been greatly weakened by soft living.

Doubtless, there were sporadic raids by nomads, and these may have had a
cumulative effect in upsetting Pueblo economy. The role played by
periods of arroyo-cutting and by droughts can certainly not be
overlooked. These may well have done more than reduce the food supply.
When food is scarce, raids are more likely to occur, and it is entirely
probable that the relationship between various groups deteriorated as
prosperity decreased. Toward the end of Great-Pueblo times we find
increasing signs of warfare in the form of burned buildings and unburied
bodies, many of which show evidence of violence. The latter are of the
characteristic Pueblo type, however, and would seem to indicate warfare
between people of the same blood.

[Illustration: Fig. 28—Types of Great-Pueblo masonry. a. Chaco, b.
Mesa Verde, c. Kayenta.]

The most logical theory seems to be that many factors contributed to the
great change which occurred in the Anasazi province. Doubtless, climatic
conditions were the great underlying cause, but there may have been
others. We cannot afford to confine our attention entirely to material
causes, but must take into consideration even the possibility that
fears, engendered by religious beliefs, may have played a part. All
this, however, is largely in the realm of conjecture, for, with no
written records, there can be no first hand information.

Whatever the causes, the end of the Great-Pueblo period was marked by a
redistribution of population and a general trend toward concentration in
places where conditions were most favorable. While the chief movement
was from the north, there was also some withdrawing from the south. By
the beginning of the following period, which is sometimes known as the
_Regressive-Pueblo_ phase, much territory throughout the Plateau area
was deserted. Main population centers were confined to the central area
of the Plateau. This includes the Little Colorado drainage, particularly
the section in the vicinity of the Hopi mesas and the Zuñi region, and
the Rio Grande drainage.

Although there were certain traits which characterized the culture as a
whole during the Great-Pueblo period, there was a somewhat different
development in each of the three main culture centers which flourished
at this time. In each of these there was an intense local specialization
in architecture and in pottery making.

The latter, in fact, became so highly specialized that products of the
various areas may be identified no matter where they may be found. No
two pieces of pottery of each kind will be exactly alike, but they all
conform to a common ideal. It must be stressed that, by _culture
center_, we do not mean an entirely restricted area, but rather a
nuclear section in which specialization was most intense and from which
influence spread, often over a large area.

The oldest settlement, and one which continued to be a cultural leader
with far-reaching influences for centuries, lies in the Chaco Canyon of
New Mexico.[61][73][95] The Chaco River is a tributary of the San Juan
which flows through northwestern New Mexico. Within the canyon are found
twelve large ruins, which include some of the most spectacular of the
ancient buildings erected in North America, and innumerable smaller
ruins. The twelve great communal buildings were more or less
rectangular, oval, or D-shaped structures, with up to four stories on
three sides, and a single-storied row of rooms which bowed out to the
southeast. Within the walls was a great open court or plaza which
contained numerous kivas. Other kivas were incorporated within the
building mass. It is interesting to note that the traditional
underground character of the ceremonial chamber was preserved through
filling in the space between the circular walls of the kiva and the
straight walls of the other rooms.

[Illustration: Fig. 29—Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon National
Monument, New Mexico. (Courtesy National Park Service.)]

One of the largest and most famous Chacoan structures is called Pueblo
Bonito.[71] It was a town, consisting of a single building, which
covered over three acres of ground and contained at least eight hundred
rooms. It has been estimated that it could have sheltered 1200
inhabitants, and it was the largest “apartment house” in the world until
a larger one was erected in New York in 1882. Building had begun at
Pueblo Bonito as early as 919 A.D., but it did not reach its final form
until 1067 A.D. or later. It is believed that the more definitely
planned settlement may have been the work of new and more progressive
people who moved into the area.

Pueblo Bonito, as it stands today after archaeologists have cleared away
the dust of centuries and exposed it to view, is truly a remarkable
structure. Even in ruins, it is not too difficult to picture it as it
must have been during those long ago times when it was one of the great
cultural centers of the Southwest. On three sides of the center court
was the main building, terraced back from a one-story level in front to
four stories in the rear. With each succeeding row of rooms the height
was increased by one story. Extending from the ends and enclosing the
side to the south was a one-story row of rooms. Outside of this single
tier was the rubbish heap around which retaining walls were built. The
center court contained numerous kivas, and others were incorporated in
the building mass.

In addition to the regular kivas, whose diameter rarely exceeded
twenty-five feet, there have also been found in Chaco Canyon, Aztec, and
other sites with Chacoan architecture, big circular structures with
diameters of from forty to sixty feet ringed by a concentric row of
small rooms. These are known as _Great Kivas_. They are thought to have
been religious edifices which served an entire community, while the
smaller kivas probably belonged to various clans or societies. Great
Kivas, though in a simpler form, were apparently present as far back as
Modified-Basketmaker times when most rites were performed in dwellings,
but a larger place was needed for ceremonies in which the people of a
whole community or district participated.

Architecture in general reached its highest development in Chaco Canyon,
and there was real beauty as well as solidity of construction. The walls
were massive, although there was a decrease in thickness with succeeding
stories, as the weight resting upon them was reduced. The most
distinctive type of masonry consisted of a center portion of stone and
adobe or rubble, faced on two sides by a veneer of horizontally laid
thin, tabular stones. These are so perfectly fitted together that a
knife blade can scarcely be inserted between them. Sometimes this
particular type of stone was not available and it was necessary to use
more massively bedded stones which had to be dressed to the proper
shape, but the masonry was uniformly good. Great beams, stripped of bark
and beautifully dressed, were placed across the chambers. Small poles,
which were finished with equal care, were placed at right angles to the
main beams and so spaced as to form patterns. Over these lay carefully
fashioned mats of peeled willow, followed by a cedar splint layer. A
thick coat of earth overlay the entire mass, forming a floor for the
room above as well as a roof for the one below.

The use of big logs, which do not bear the scars indicative of
transportation over a long distance, and the common use of willow, which
must have been abundant, suggest conditions different from those of
today. It is not known with certainty whether there has been a real
climatic change. Many believe that, when hoofed animals were introduced
by the white man, the grass cover was destroyed, and that this led to
the cutting of arroyos which carried off flood waters and lowered the
underground seepage and as a result the land became progressively drier,
but others believe that there were earlier periods of arroyo-cutting.

Although severe erosion did not occur until a later time, it was a
process with which the ancient inhabitants of Pueblo Bonito were
familiar. Overlooking the Pueblo was a tremendous rock with an estimated
weight of 30,000 tons, detached from the cliff and seeming so
precariously balanced as to threaten the building. At the foot of the
rock the prehistoric inhabitants erected a brace of wood and stone
masonry. At first glance it seems a rather pathetic effort, but actually
it may not show any ignorance on the part of the ancient Bonitians, but
rather a familiarity with certain engineering principles which suggested
that protecting the base of the rock would curtail erosion and help to
prevent the threatened disaster. The fears of the prehistoric
inhabitants were never realized in their time, for it was not until
January 22, 1941, that the threatening rock finally fell. It damaged one
hundred feet of the back wall of the pueblo and twenty-one adjacent
rooms.

Rooms in Chaco-Canyon structures were relatively large and high
ceilinged, with plastered walls. The inner rooms, which lacked light and
air, were used for storage. Household activities were not confined to
the rooms, for the roofs of the lower tiers provided additional living
space, and much work, such as the preparing of food, the making of
pottery, and the flaking of arrowheads, probably took place in the open.
Fire places are rare in the rooms, and it seems likely that much of the
cooking was done outside—in the courts and on the roofs. At first there
were doorways and high windows in the outer wall, but these were later
blocked off with masonry. The single gateway in the front of the pueblo
was first greatly narrowed and then entirely closed, so that the great
house could be entered only by means of a ladder which, if necessary,
could be withdrawn. This is some of the best evidence of the fear of
attack which must have existed.

[Illustration: Fig. 30—Chaco black-on-white pottery of the
Great-Pueblo period. (Courtesy The American Museum of Natural
History; Taylor Museum photograph.)]

In its own way, pottery reached as high a point of development as did
architecture. The main wares were black-on-white and corrugated. The
former was thin and hard, usually a good white, but sometimes a light
gray. Designs were, for the most part, hatchured patterns with the thin
filling lines surrounded by heavier boundary lines. Band decorations
were widely used. Bowls, pitchers, and ladles were the most usual
shapes, but cylindrical vases and effigy pots with human figures were
not unknown. The cooking ware was corrugated and usually consisted of
large jars with wide mouths. This pottery was very well made, with
attractive patterns produced by making sharp, clear-cut, indentations in
the corrugations. Some red pottery has also been found.

Neither the architecture nor the pottery which we refer to as being of
the Chaco-Canyon type was limited to the narrow confines of the canyon
itself. They are also represented in such places as the great ruin at
Aztec, New Mexico,[94] and at various other sites in the San Juan area.
In some cases, particularly in northeastern Arizona, architecture was
Chacoan in character, but pottery was not.

At Chaco Canyon, and in other Great-Pueblo centers, various minor arts
also flourished. Feather cloth continued to be made, and still provided
robes and blankets for the living and wrappings for the dead. Flocks of
domesticated turkeys were kept to provide feathers, and parrots and
other brilliantly colored birds were brought from the south. Cotton
fabrics were steadily increasing in importance. Some large blankets were
woven which must have required the use of an upright loom. Colored yarns
were used, and there was some painting of finished fabrics. Variations
in weaving also provided decoration. There is no evidence that the
people wore any tailored garments, but the remains of a poncho with a
slit for the head has been found. There were also some garments of
dressed buckskin, in addition to those of feather and cotton cloth.

Some sandals with notched toes were woven of fine cord, but this art had
degenerated and decoration was less elaborate, both as regards colored
and raised patterns. Most sandals were of plaited yucca leaves, and many
had square toes. Twined-weaving does not seem to have survived. Coiled
baskets were still produced, but they were not plentiful. They were of a
finer weave than those of the preceding periods but had fewer colored
designs. Yucca ring baskets were extremely common. These were made by
fastening the outer edges of a bowl-shaped mat, made of twilled yucca
leaves, over a wooden ring. Twilled mats of rushes or reeds, were made
in quantity and were widely used as floor and roof coverings. Tubular
pipes were made of both clay and stone. These are rarely found whole,
and it is thought they may have been intentionally broken—possibly to
avoid profanation after use in sacred rites.

It was in the field of ornaments that the minor arts of the Chaco people
reached their highest development. Olivella-shell beads were still
widely used, and there were also stone beads and stone and shell
pendants carved into the form of birds and animals; but it was turquoise
which provided the material for the finest ornaments. Some beautiful
mosaics were made of turquoise, and it was also used in the making of
beads. One incomparable necklace found at Pueblo Bonito contained
twenty-five hundred beads and four pendants of magnificent sky blue
stones.[71] All were shaped and polished with a skill that would do
credit to a modern jeweller with all his highly specialized tools. An
unbelievable amount of work must have gone into the production of such
an ornament when only stone tools were available. Unfortunately we do
not have many such specimens—due to the mystery which surrounds the
final disposition of the remains of the ancient inhabitants of Pueblo
Bonito.

Although burials are commonly found in the refuse heaps associated with
the small dwellings of Chaco Canyon, the majority of the dead of the
great communal houses have never been found. Occasional burials have
been found but not enough to account for even five per cent of the
deaths which must have occurred during the period of occupation. Many of
the graves which have been found in abandoned rooms had already been
looted by pre-archaeological grave robbers. The few undisturbed
interments which have been discovered suggest that grave offerings were
extremely rich, and, with such an incentive, archaeologists have
searched far and wide for the ancient cemeteries, but, as yet, without
success. There is no indication that cremation was practiced, so there
is still hope that some day we may find the spot where the ancient
people laid the dead to rest, and so learn more of their arts and
crafts.

Some idea of the remarkable finds which may yet be made may be gained
from a burial found in Ridge Ruin, a Great-Pueblo site about twenty
miles east of Flagstaff, Arizona.[88] Here was found the body of a man
interred with over six hundred articles, many of which show the most
remarkable workmanship. They included pottery, beautiful baskets, fine
turquoise mosaics, stone and shell ornaments, and hundreds of finely
flaked arrowheads. This was of course an unusual burial, and many of the
offerings were ceremonial objects such as would be placed in a grave
only under extraordinary circumstances, but it gives some idea of the
wealth of material which may yet be found and which will contribute to
our knowledge of the ancient Pueblo culture.

The great dwellings of Chaco Canyon apparently were abandoned in the
twelfth century, and there is no doubt a fascinating story connected
with the abandonment of these huge buildings which were erected with so
much labor and finished with such care. It is a story which we do not
yet fully understand, and, to a great extent, we can only guess at the
causes which underlay the migration. It was probably the first phase of
the general movement which eventually involved the entire population of
the northern part of the Southwest, but it is even more difficult to
account for than some of the later migrations, for there were no
particularly severe droughts at this time. There were some dry years,
however, which may have led to disastrous arroyo-cutting.

Some of the most famous of all buildings of this period are those of
Mesa Verde,[73][95] whose location in high cliffs has led to the use of
the name “Cliff Dwellers” for the people who lived here from the middle
of the eleventh century until the latter part of the thirteenth. Mesa
Verde is a large plateau in the drainage of the Mancos River in
southwestern Colorado. Here in great, high caves, protected by massive
sandstone overhangs, but open to the sun, were built huge houses which
were really cities. These pueblos were in many essentials like those of
Chaco Canyon and other open sites, but they seem to have grown by
accretion rather than according to a fixed plan, and the shape of the
structures was largely determined by that of the caves which sheltered
them.

There are certain unmistakable differences between the architecture and
pottery of Chaco Canyon and of Mesa Verde. As in the case of the Chaco
culture, Mesa Verde traits were not confined to the type locality, but
had a far-reaching influence. Numerous ruins with the same basic
characteristics, but not necessarily in caves, are found along the
Mancos River and for some distance to the east and to the west. After
the abandonment of the Mesa Verde proper, the influence became quite
important in the south.

At Mesa Verde walls were thinner than in the Chacoan houses. This can
probably be traced to the material used, as well as to the fact that the
cave ceilings somewhat limited the height of the buildings, and with the
reduced strain, thick walls were not needed. Flat tabular stones were
not available, and walls were constructed of massive stone which was
shaped into large, loaflike, blocks by pecking. Walls were of solid rock
with no center fill of rubble or earth, and little mortar was used.

[Illustration: Fig. 31—Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park,
Colorado.]

Of the many ruins in Mesa Verde National Park the most famous, and also
the largest, is Cliff Palace.[125] With its many rooms and great stone
towers it does give the impression of a palace, but this is of course a
misnomer. Far from being the palace of a ruler, it was the home of
hundreds of farmers and their families. Cliff Palace is a terraced
building reaching to four stories in height in some places and
containing over two hundred rooms and twenty-three kivas. The rooms were
small, often irregularly shaped, and had low ceilings. Not all of them
were used as living quarters. Some were used for storage. Storage must
have been of great importance, since grain designed for winter food, as
well as seed corn, had to be preserved. Also, it is probable that these
ancient farmers accumulated large reserves to tide them over years when
the crops failed, as do their present-day descendants. Other rooms
contained boxlike structures of stone slabs which held metates, and
these are thought to have been milling rooms in which the corn was
ground. The living rooms, each one occupied by one family, were small
and probably none too comfortable.

Some rooms were entered through the roofs but others had doors and
windows. Even when doors were present, they were small and high above
the floor and were probably reached by ladders. Few of the rooms
contained fireplaces. The smoke from a fire in a small room with
inadequate ventilation would present a definite problem, but life in the
winter in an unheated room in a high canyon would not seem particularly
appealing to present-day Americans. The walls of the houses were neatly
plastered, sometimes colored and sometimes embellished by well painted
designs.

The small size of the rooms has often given rise to a belief that the
inhabitants were abnormally small. Actually the people were of normal
size, but they probably did not spend much time in the rooms. Much of
the life of the great house must have centered about the open courts and
terraced roofs. When the men were not working in the fields or hunting
on the mesa tops, they must have spent much time in their kivas, which
may have served as habitations for the unmarried men and general meeting
places, as well as providing a setting for the religious rites. While we
cannot be sure what these ceremonies were, it seems certain that they
were concerned with the well-being of the crops, which must be the first
concern of all farmers, and that their form and content must have been
greatly influenced by the ever present need of water which has always
dominated life in the Southwest.

Most of the kivas were small circular structures, about thirteen feet in
diameter, with the wall set back a foot or more, some three feet above
the floor, to form an encircling bench. On this bench were six masonry
pilasters which helped to support a cribbed roof. The spaces between
pilasters formed recesses. The one to the south was the deepest and
contained the ventilator flue. The deflector, which stood between it and
the center fire pit, was usually of masonry, but sometimes of wattle
work. In addition to these circular kivas, which were the normal type,
there were also circular or rectangular rooms with rounded corners which
seem to have had a ceremonial nature, although they lacked the usual
kiva features and were not subterranean, though surrounded by high
walls. For the most part kivas lay in the front of the cave, but there
were also some in the rear.

In addition to the various rooms and kivas there were also towers,
sometimes incorporated in the building-mass of the great house, and
sometimes built separately. They had various shapes, including round,
oval, D-shaped, and rectangular. Some were two stories high. There were
doorways in the side, but no windows. There are many theories as to the
use of these towers, but there are some objections to all of them. One
is, that they were designed as observation posts to watch for enemies,
or as fortresses. They are usually loop-holed and, when found at a
distance from the dwelling, are often on easily defended points which
command a good view of the adjoining terrain. This, however, is not
invariably the case, for some of the isolated towers are so placed that
there would be little visibility, and defense would be extremely
difficult. Many are far too small to have served as fortresses. Another
theory is that they may have had some ceremonial use, and may have
served as solar observatories to obtain calendrical data essential in
the planting and harvesting of crops and fixing of dates for religious
rites connected with these activities. Some, however, are located in
spots not suitable for making such observations.

Across the canyon from Cliff Palace is a remarkable surface-structure
known as “Sun Temple”, which some archaeologists consider an elaborate
form of tower. This is an unroofed D-shaped building with double walls
over twelve feet high. The space between the walls is divided into small
rooms, and there are ten other rooms at the west end of the building.
There is one kiva in this western section and two others in the big
center court enclosed by the walls.

Life in Mesa Verde, as in all the Pueblo area, depended on agriculture.
There was dry farming on the mesa tops, but irrigation was particularly
well developed here.[7] A broad, shallow ditch, some four miles long,
and with a very regular gradient has been found on the Mesa Verde.
Apparently water was turned out on the cornfields from this ditch. There
were also check dams which caught the run-off of heavy summer rains and
made it available for the crops. They served a further purpose in
conserving soil which might otherwise have been washed away. Reservoirs
were present and must have also provided water for the fields, but they
have not yet been studied sufficiently for us to have much information
as to their construction or use.

Mesa Verde pottery is as distinctive as its architecture. Fine
corrugated vessels were made, and a small percentage of imported red
pottery was present, but the outstanding ware was black-on-white. This
pottery has certain distinctive features which make it easy to
recognize. The walls are fairly thick, and rims tend to be square and
flat. The background is a pearly white with grayish undertones. Most
vessels have been so carefully polished that they have a glossy surface
which sometimes almost gives an impression of translucence. The
decoration, applied with black paint, is usually in the form of
geometric patterns, although a few bowls show life-forms in their
designs. Band patterns were extremely common, and many large solid
elements as well as hatchured patterns were used. The latter tend to be
much coarser than those on Chaco pottery. The most distinctive forms
were flat-bottomed mugs, which resemble beer steins, and “kiva jars.”
The latter are vessels in the form of a somewhat flattened sphere, with
fitted covers resting on an inner rim, as do those of modern sugar
bowls. There were also many bowls, ollas (water jars), ladles, canteens,
and seed jars.

[Illustration: Fig. 32—Mesa Verde black-on-white pottery of the
Great-Pueblo period. (Courtesy Mesa Verde National Park.)]

The minor arts of Mesa Verde seem to have been much like those of Chaco
Canyon, but neither material nor craftsmanship appears to have been as
good. Again, the scarcity of burials has reduced the chances of
obtaining much valuable information. In open sites they have been found
occasionally in refuse heaps, but more often they occur in pits under
floors of houses which continued to be occupied, or in abandoned rooms.
At Mesa Verde a few burials have been found in refuse heaps behind the
houses, a few under the floors of abandoned rooms, and others in the
cracks and crevices of the talus slope in front of the caves. There is
also some evidence of occasional cremations.[24] On mesa tops, have been
found a few stone rings overlying calcined human bones, and one room in
Cliff Palace was found to contain ashes and human bones. There is no
evidence, however, that cremation was widely practiced, and the few
graves which have been found would account for only a small fraction of
the deaths which must have occurred during the period of occupancy. It
is believed probable that most burials may have been in the refuse heaps
in front of the caves and that they have weathered away.

The last building date we have for Mesa Verde is 1273, but it is
possible that the great houses may have been occupied for some time
after this. The final date of departure probably falls within the period
of the disastrous drought of 1276 to 1299, when the farmers of Mesa
Verde must have been fighting a losing battle against overwhelming odds.
The departure seems to have been an orderly one, for the people took
most of their possessions with them. There does not seem to have been
any one, great migration. Rather it appears that first one section, and
then another, was abandoned as one or more small groups moved on. The
abandonment of the cliff houses has given rise to many fantastic
stories, and there has grown up a certain belief that the “Cliff
Dwellers” more or less disappeared into thin air. Certainly there is
enough mystery connected with this strange departure, but great numbers
of people do not simply vanish. Actually, they moved farther and farther
south, and perhaps to the southeast and southwest, looking for more
favorable locations. As they mingled with other groups they lost their
identity, but doubtless there is still a strain of Mesa Verde blood in
the present Pueblo Indian population. Perhaps the Indian, whom we see
selling jewelry in the lobby of some modern Southwestern hotel, had
ancestors who helped build the ancient city which we know as Cliff
Palace.

In addition to sites which were occupied by people with a Chacoan
culture and those inhabited by people with Mesa Verde affiliations,
there are others which show both influences at different periods. Lowry
Ruin,[81] not far from Mesa Verde in southwestern Colorado, contains a
Pueblo and a Great Kiva with Chacoan Masonry. The early pottery was not
entirely like that found in sites in the Chaco Canyon itself, but
closely resembled it. It must be emphasized that _Chacoan_ is simply a
term which refers to a generalized culture, and not just to the sites of
the type locality. In the top portion of the fill of some rooms at Lowry
Ruin is found Mesa Verde black-on-white pottery. It is not known whether
this indicates the presence of Mesa Verde people, or if only the
pottery, or perhaps even the technique, was introduced. We do know,
however, that Lowry Pueblo was occupied, abandoned, and then reoccupied
a number of times from the time when it was first built, late in the
eleventh century, until it was finally deserted, about the middle of the
twelfth century. This is one of the sites which does much to upset
certain theories as to the causes of the abandonment of the northern
frontier. It was not prepared for defense, and had entrances on the
ground level, and there is no indication of any violence. Final
abandonment came long before the great drought of 1276 to 1299.

An even more famous site is that of Aztec,[94] now a National Monument,
which lies one mile north of the town of Aztec, New Mexico. Here were
built a big communal house and Great Kiva with Chacoan masonry. The
ground plans were almost identical with those of Chettro Kettle, one of
the important structures of Chaco Canyon. The main building was in the
shape of a square “U”, with an arc-shaped row of rooms in front. More
famous than the Pueblo itself is the “House of the Great Kiva.” This
remarkable structure was essentially circular, and consisted of a large
kiva surrounded by a concentric ring of arc-shaped surface-rooms. The
kiva, which was encircled by two benches or shelves, was forty-one feet
across at floor level and forty-eight feet in diameter at the level of
the second bench. In the floor were two large, masonry-lined, sub-floor
vaults and a masonry box, midway between the south ends of the vaults,
which is believed to have been a fire altar. The twelve rooms
surrounding the kiva are not stained and littered, as are the usual
living quarters, so it seems certain that they were strictly ceremonial
chambers. On the south side is an alcove, opening directly into the
kiva, which is thought to have been a shrine room. A rectangle of
masonry in the center of the alcove was presumably a permanent altar.

[Illustration: Fig. 33—Betatakin, Navajo National Monument, Arizona.
(Courtesy National Park Service.)]

Some of the living rooms in the pueblo bear evidence of Mesa Verde
workmanship, and almost 95% of the pottery is of the Mesa Verde type.
This gave rise to the belief that Aztec was a hybrid settlement of
people of both cultures. Excavation proved that the explanation was not
quite so simple. The original builders of the Pueblo and Great Kiva had
Chacoan connections. They occupied the Pueblo for many years, then,
taking their possessions with them, they moved away. Why they left, or
where they went, we do not know. For a long time the Pueblo was
abandoned, then a group of Mesa Verde people arrived and moved in. They
changed and modified many of the rooms in accordance with their own
customs. The rooms which they built were smaller and the masonry was of
the typical Mesa Verde type, as was the pottery. After this immigration
the great house was occupied for a long time. At first the people were
quite prosperous, but eventually there came a period of depression and
disintegration. Building techniques became progressively worse, and
there was an equal deterioration in pottery making. Living quarters were
no longer cleaned. Many women and children died, and, when they were
buried few, if any, mortuary offerings were placed with them. The end
came when the pueblo was intentionally fired and destroyed. Whether this
was done by the people themselves, or by enemies who attacked them when
they were no longer able to defend themselves, we do not know.

In the vicinity of Kayenta, Arizona, which lies to the south of the San
Juan and west of both Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon, was a third cultural
center with far-reaching influences.[3][73] Here are found both cliff
houses and pueblos in the open. Two of the largest and most famous cliff
dwellings are Keet Seel and Betatakin. These were among the last of the
great houses of the San Juan area to be occupied. Tree-ring dates for
Betatakin range between 1260 and 1277, and those for Keet Seel between
1274 and 1284. By the latter date the remainder of the northern frontier
had been almost entirely deserted.

The masonry throughout was quite inferior. It was somewhat better in the
open sites, which were characterized by loose aggregations of houses,
than in the cliff houses. On the whole, masonry was marked by the use of
irregularly shaped stones, inaccurate coursing, and the use of great
quantities of adobe mortar. Also, wattlework walls, that is, walls
formed of upright poles through which were interwoven smaller sticks,
were quite common. One of the chief differences between the Kayenta area
and other cultural centers lies in the kivas. In open sites and in some
cliff houses, of which Bat Woman House is a good example, only circular
kivas are found, but they lack the pilasters characteristic of such
structures in other sections. At Keet Seel there are some kivas, but
many of the ceremonial structures are of another type, sometimes called
_kihus_. These are square above-ground chambers which contain the
characteristic fire pits and deflectors of kivas, but have a door
instead of an air shaft. At Betatakin this is the only type of
ceremonial room.

Pottery from this area differs in many respects from that of the eastern
sites. Corrugated pottery was made, but it displays poorer workmanship
and less graceful shapes than examples from Chaco and Mesa Verde.
Black-on-white ware was excellent, with a good paste and a clear slip.
The decoration is fine and quite distinctive. Elaborate patterns,
primarily interlocking keys, frets, and spirals, were used. The
elements, painted in black, are so close together and so heavy that
little of the white background shows and a negative design results,
giving the impression of a white design on a black background. What
little of the white background does appear is often hatched or
cross-hatched, giving what has been described as a “mosquito bar”
effect. The principal forms were ollas, bowls, and ladles. Seed jars and
small handled jugs were also made, but they were not as common. An
important form was the colander, a type of utensil which was confined to
this culture.

[Illustration: Fig. 34—Black-on-white pottery from the Kayenta area.
Great-Pueblo period. (Courtesy Museum of Northern Arizona.)]

The most distinctive Kayenta pottery was a polychrome ware on which, as
the name implies, multiple colors were used. The base color was orange
or yellow, and designs were applied in black, red, and white paint.
There was a wide use of broad, red bands outlined in black or in black
and white. Coarse hatchures divided into groups, with other design
elements between the groups, were quite common. There was an abundance
of this ware, although bowls and small handled jugs were the only forms
represented.

Very few burials have been found in the cliff houses. A small number
have been uncovered in unoccupied sections of the caves, in the talus
slope in front, and in small shelters nearby. In open sites closely
flexed bodies accompanied by mortuary pottery have been found in oval
pits dug in the rubbish heaps.

Although attention is naturally centered on the San Juan region, where
the Great Pueblo culture had its most spectacular development and where
the most extensive excavations have been carried on, the remainder of
the Plateau Province cannot be overlooked.

Sixteen miles from Zuñi, in the Little Colorado drainage, is a famous
site, known as the “Village of the Great Kivas.”[108] Here were found
three communal dwellings and two Great Kivas. Of the latter, only one
has been excavated. It was bordered with rooms but had no true
peripheral chambers. Both are larger than the Great Kiva at Aztec. The
one which has been excavated is fifty-one feet in diameter, and the
unexcavated one is seventy-five feet across. In addition to these
structures and some small kivas associated with the largest building,
there were two rectangular rooms with kiva features. These are similar
to the fraternity chambers used in Zuñi at the present time. The
construction of the village was begun in the eleventh century by people
with a Chacoan culture. After a time, due to the arrival of new people,
the community increased in size. It is thought that these people came
from the south, possibly from the Upper Gila region.

To the west, in what we now know as the Hopi country, good-sized Pueblos
were being constructed. There was much black-on-white and gray
corrugated pottery and, in the latter part of the period, fine pottery
with black designs on an orange background was made. Kivas were
rectangular or D-shaped. To the south and east of this region a
particularly fine polychrome ware was being made. Black and white
designs were applied on an orange-red background.

Still farther south, in the vicinity of Fort Apache, Arizona, is
Kinishba, a Great-Pueblo site occupied between 1050 and 1350 A. D. It
combined three pueblos, of which two have been excavated. The main
building is an irregularly rectangular structure, built around a big
central court, which seems to have grown by accretion rather than
according to fixed plan. The masonry was not particularly good. The
stones were not carefully shaped, and there was an extensive use of
mortar. Many fine ornaments were made. Kinishba appears to have been
something of a trade center, and pottery characteristic of many
different areas is found here. One distinctive type of pottery which was
made locally was a polychrome ware with red and black designs on a buff
background.

The Rio Grande drainage, to the east, did not become a very important
province until the following period, but there is evidence of the
presence of a scattered population as far back as Developmental-Pueblo
times. Eventually, migrations from the north brought in many new people.
Prior to that time architecture was not highly developed. There was
little coursed masonry, but extensive use of adobe. Some rather inferior
black on white pottery of a generalized type and a poor corrugated ware
were manufactured, and a little black-on-red pottery was imported.

In the Mimbres drainage of southwestern New Mexico, lived a group of
people who, during the Great-Pueblo Period, made some of the most
remarkable pottery that has ever been produced. Although they are often
considered as part of the Anasazi, much of their development was due to
two other cultures as well. Because of this, discussion of the Mimbres
people and their achievements will be postponed until the other cultures
have been considered.

The Largo-Gallina Phase

In the Largo drainage of north-central New Mexico some extremely
interesting remains of a Pueblolike people have been found.[91]
Chronologically they fit into Great-Pueblo times, but they are not
entirely Anasazi in culture. The name _Largo_ has been given to this
cultural phase. Tree-ring dates have been obtained in Largo sites, and
it is possible to place the period of occupation as extending from the
beginning of the twelfth to the middle of the thirteenth century.

The inhabitants of these sites lived in both pit and surface houses.
These structures are relatively large. The latter have massive walls of
uncoursed masonry up to four feet thick. All dwellings contained
low-walled storage bins. Although more evidence will be needed before
definite conclusions may be reached, it seems possible to show a
definite architectural development from pit houses to the thick walled
surface houses of uncoursed masonry which were followed by others with
coursed masonry walls. Other, presumably later, structures may be
described as small pueblos, but these have not yet been thoroughly
investigated.

[Illustration: Fig. 35—Largo surface house.]

[Illustration: Largo artifacts, a. pointed-bottomed pot, b. axe, c.
arrow-shaft smoother. (Courtesy Laboratory of Anthropology.)]

Black-on-white pottery, which was Puebloan in character, was made, but
most of the utility ware was unlike anything made elsewhere by the
Anasazi. These vessels had pointed bottoms and were decorated with
fillets at the rim or just below. They were not scraped, but were
smoothed by holding a mushroom-shaped object inside the vessel, while it
was still plastic, and striking the exterior with a wooden paddle. This
is known as the _paddle-and-anvil_ technique. These vessels resemble
Woodland pottery from the eastern United States and Navajo cooking pots.

Other distinctive artifacts included axes of a triple-notched type which
required a T-shaped hafting, arrow-shaft smoothers, and elbow-shaped
pipes. The smoothers are large pieces of fine grained rock with deep
grooves in which arrow shafts were rubbed in the process of shaping
them. On the bowls of the pipes were two little leglike projections
which served to provide a base when they were not in use. There was an
extensive use of antler.

To the east of the Largo country and on the other side of the
continental divide are found similar sites which represent the same
culture. This phase has been called the Gallina.[63] Both phases are
often considered together and referred to as the _Largo-Gallina_.

In the Gallina country there is the same combination of pit houses and
surface structures as in the Largo sites. Most sites are in good
defensive positions, but this is not true of all of them. Sites usually
consist of three or four house units grouped together, although single
houses also have been found. Most of these dwellings are towerlike
structures, square in outline but with rounded corners. They range from
eighteen to twenty feet in diameter and have walls still standing to a
height of from twelve to seventeen feet. These walls were
extraordinarily massive, being in some cases as much as six feet thick.
House interiors were characterized by flagstone floors and the wide use
of storage bins with sandstone covers. The bins were usually on the
south side. In most houses, there was an adobe bench encircling the
northern part of the room. Fine murals had been painted above the bench
in one house. On the whole, these structures resemble square kivas to
which bins have been added, although they were used as homes and not as
ceremonial chambers. Roofs consisted of a pole and adobe foundation with
flagstones providing a shingled effect. Entrance appears to have been
through the roof which, due to the great height of the buildings, must
have been reached by ladders or platforms. In addition to the towerlike
buildings there are also pit houses which are found in conjunction with
them.

Anasazi traits include twilled yucca sandals, coiled basketry,
feather-cloth, twined-bags, and black-on-white pottery. Axes,
shaft-smoothers, and pipes, resemble those found in Largo sites and the
cooking pots with the pointed bottoms are the same. Chisel-like objects
made of deer and elk antler and unusual stone knives were also found.
The latter were leaf-shaped blades with notches in the sides close to
the center. One end was pointed and the other somewhat blunted. It is
the latter end which seems to have been used while the pointed end was
hafted.

In general, the Largo-Gallina seems to be a Pueblo phase, probably
derived from the Rosa phase[41] of the Governador area, which was
subjected to foreign influences, probably from the north. Similarities
between Largo-Gallina and Navajo utility vessels may indicate some
relationship.

Athapaskan People

We may next consider the problem of the Navajos and Apaches who figured
so prominently in Southwestern history. They are relative newcomers in
the area and it is only within recent years that they have stirred the
interest of many archaeologists, although the Navajos have been
literally haunted by ethnologists for a long time.

Both Navajos and Apaches speak dialects of the Athapaskan language which
is spoken by many groups in northwestern Canada. At some time in the
relatively recent past, groups of Athapaskan-speaking people left their
northern homeland and drifted southward, some going along the coast and
others wandering farther east. Some reached the Southwest and the
descendants of these migrants are the Indians whom we know as Navajos
and Apaches.

There are many theories as to the route which they followed. Recent
finds, in the Colorado Rockies, of circular structures of dry-laid
masonry which are non-Pueblo in character and which resemble certain
Navajo houses or hogans, suggest that at least some of the migrants may
have followed the main mountain ranges.[68] It is also possible that
they may have moved south through the Great Basin west of the Rocky
Mountains, or along the High Plains east of the mountains. Pottery finds
give 1100 A. D. as the earliest date for the hoganlike structures in the
Colorado mountains. It is not certain that these houses were built by
Athapaskan people, however, and there is no definite knowledge as to
just when the Athapaskans reached the Southwest and first came into
contact with the Pueblo Indians. The earliest tree-ring date yet
obtained in the Pueblo area from any site which we may be sure is Navajo
is from the Governador area and falls in the middle of the sixteenth
century.[40] If the Navajos arrived as early as 1200 A.D. they may have
influenced the Largo-Gallina people and have been influenced by them,
but this is still a moot question. A relatively early arrival might also
aid in explaining the withdrawal of the Pueblos from the northern area.

SUMMARY

We may summarize the Great-Pueblo period as follows. It was the period
in which the Anasazi culture attained its highest development, and it
was marked by intense local specialization. Most of the basic aspects of
the culture had already been well established, but there was tremendous
improvement and amplification. Unit houses continued to be occupied
throughout the period but there was a general coalescence of the
population. The trend was toward concentration in great, terraced
communal houses, up to five stories in height, and large enough to
shelter hundreds of people. Some were built in the open and others in
large natural caverns in cliffs. Small kivas, presumably used by small
groups such as clans, were incorporated in the houses or placed in the
central court. There were also Great Kivas, larger and more elaborate
structures, believed to have served an entire community. There was local
variation in architectural details, both as regards masonry types and
house structures.

Pottery was remarkably fine and designs were often quite elaborate.
There was such specialization that the products of various centers are
readily distinguished. Culinary ware was corrugated. Among the decorated
types, black-on-white predominated but there was some black-on-red ware
and some black bowls with red interiors, and in the Kayenta district and
farther south polychrome pottery was widely made. Late in the period
black-on-orange wares became important in the Little Colorado drainage.

Much progress was made in the weaving of cotton cloth. Ornaments were
highly developed and turquoise was widely used. Remarkable mosaics as
well as beads and pendants were manufactured. Some coiled baskets were
still made but yucca ring baskets were the leading type.

Although it is only in the realm of material culture that we have
concrete evidence, there can be little doubt that the heights reached in
the production of material things must have been reflected in the whole
life of the people. There is every reason to believe that an essentially
democratic form of government prevailed, but communal living must have
required a high degree of organization. Doubtless religion played a
great part in the life of the community and had far-reaching influences.

In the latter part of the thirteenth century, the Southwest seems to
have had a dry period, marked by arroyo cutting that destroyed farmland,
which was followed by a disastrous drought. These factors, with possible
raids by nomadic warriors, internal discord, and probably others of
which we are ignorant, led to a general withdrawal of population from
many areas and a concentration in the central portion of the Plateau.

THE REGRESSIVE AND HISTORIC-PUEBLO PERIODS

The period which followed the Great-Pueblo era and which lasted until
historic times was called _Pueblo IV_ under the Pecos Classification. It
was defined as “the stage characterized by contraction of area occupied;
by the gradual disappearance of corrugated wares; and, in general, by
decline from the preceding cultural peak.”[74] At the present time it is
often referred to as the _Regressive-Pueblo_ period.[110] This term is
not really satisfactory. Admittedly, the latter part of the thirteenth
and the beginning of the fourteenth century was a period of great
instability, migrations occurred, and centers of population shifted.
Once the shift had been made, however, important new communities
developed in the drainages of the Little Colorado and the Rio Grande,
and a renaissance began. It seems entirely possible that the Pueblo
people might have achieved another remarkably high cultural stage had it
not been for the arrival of the Spaniards in 1540.

Even after Europeans arrived in the Southwest, the native culture was
far from being completely submerged, and, while aboriginal progress was
retarded, it was not entirely stopped. Since the first advent of white
men in the Southwest until the present day, the Pueblos have fought what
sometimes appears to be a losing battle against the encroachment of
European, and later, of American culture. Actually the battle has not
yet been entirely lost. We shall never know how the Pueblo people might
have developed, and what heights they might have reached had they been
left to their own devices. At least, though, they have not been entirely
assimilated by the civilization which has engulfed them, and they have
succeeded in retaining some of their old way of life.

It might seem that as soon as written records become available for a
period it should be classed as historic rather than prehistoric. The
Pueblo Indians, however, were sufficiently successful in withstanding
outside influences that the terminal date for the Regressive-Pueblo
period is usually given as 1700, and only the period from 1700 to the
present is called the _Historic-Pueblo_ period.

The trend during Regressive-Pueblo times was toward larger houses. In
the Hopi area the early houses were characterized by fine masonry and
covered about an acre of ground. Later they became much larger and, in
some cases, covered from ten to twelve acres of ground. These houses
were sometimes made up of long rows of buildings with plazas between
them. Kivas were rectangular, with a niche at one end of the room
containing a bench. The normal size was about ten or fourteen feet
square. On the floor, which was usually paved with stones, are found
loom blocks. These are sandstone blocks with depressions designed to
hold poles on which the warp threads are wound. The finding of these
loom blocks in prehistoric kivas is most interesting, for, among the
Hopi even today, the weaving is done by the men in the kivas. The use of
commercially woven fabrics for most clothing has naturally curtailed the
practice of this craft, but ceremonial clothing and fine white blankets
which serve as wedding robes are still woven in the kivas.

The early pottery was largely black-on-yellow, but some polychrome ware
was made, and there was also plain cooking pottery and some corrugated.
The latter became progressively less widely used, and later cooking ware
is almost entirely plain. In some later sites some of the
black-on-yellow ware is marked by a distinctive stippling technique as
black paint was splattered over the yellow background. During the period
from 1400 to 1625 some of the most beautiful pottery ever made in the
Southwest was being produced in the Hopi country. This is a polychrome
ware which bears exceptionally fine designs, which include geometric and
life forms and particularly graceful patterns, applied in red and black
paint on a yellow background. Over forty years ago, archaeologists were
excavating ancient villages in the Hopi country and finding examples of
this beautiful ware. A woman of the village of Walpi, named Nampeyo, was
the wife of one of the workmen employed by the expedition. She was
already a fine potter, and she recognized the great artistry represented
by these ancient vessels. She began to use similar designs and continued
to produce remarkably fine pottery for over thirty years, although, for
much of that time, her sight was failing and eventually she became
blind, and the final painting of the graceful vessels which she had
shaped had to be entrusted to others. The influence of this talented
woman can still be seen in the fine pottery made by Hopi women of the
First Mesa.

[Illustration: Fig. 36—Cavate dwellings and talus houses at
Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico. (Courtesy National Park
Service.)]

In the Zuñi district houses and kivas were much like those of the Hopi
country. Pottery in this area was largely decorated with glaze paints.
These are vitreous mixtures obtained by the use of lead in the paint.
Glaze paints were difficult to apply and had a tendency to run or settle
in masses. As a result, designs were poor, but the use of glazes was
confined to decorations and entire vessels were not covered.

In the Rio Grande drainage, people with an earlier Pueblo culture were
just beginning to come together into large communities when this period
began. Doubtless, the advent of people from other parts of the Plateau
province did much to intensify this trend. As time went by, houses
became larger and fewer in number. Tuff blocks and adobe were widely
used in their construction and there was some use of _cavate_ dwellings.
These are rooms, excavated into the back walls of caves, which have
porchlike chambers in front.

Two famous Regressive-Pueblo sites in this region, which are known to
many tourists, are Puye,[62] on the Pajarito Plateau, and Tyuonyi in El
Rito de los Frijoles.[60] Beams from Puye have yielded tree-ring dates
ranging from 1507 to 1565. This settlement, perched on a huge mass of
yellowish gray tuff, consists of two aggregations of buildings. Forming
a quadrangle on top of the mesa, were four, terraced community houses
built around a court. There were also houses built in and against the
cliff walls, usually at the top of the talus slope. At Tyuoni, whose
dates range between about 1423 and 1513, there is a great communal house
which was, in part, two stories high and roughly circular in form. It
was made of tuff blocks. Three small kivas were built in the center
court or plaza. A few hundred yards to the east of the ruin lies a large
kiva. For a little over a mile along the canyon wall were cave rooms dug
into the cliff and rows of small houses built of tuff blocks. Some of
the cave rooms had porchlike structures erected in front of them, but
others did not.

The largest and strongest pueblo during this period was Pecos, which lay
at the headwaters of the Pecos River in northern New Mexico.[73] The
first buildings were erected shortly before 1300, and final abandonment
did not come until 1838. Such a long record is, of course, of tremendous
archaeological importance, and it is indeed fortunate that some of the
most extensive and painstaking excavations ever undertaken in the
Southwest were at this site. There was evidence of at least six distinct
towns. Great masses of pottery have been excavated, with careful
attention being paid to stratigraphy, and very detailed studies have
been made.[75][77] Well over a thousand skeletons have been obtained and
given careful study.

[Illustration: Fig. 37—Tyuonyi, Bandelier National Monument, New
Mexico. (Courtesy National Park Service.)]

Throughout the Rio Grande area, glazed wares were widely made. The
earlier forms had glazed designs applied on red vessels. Later, light
colored vessels were used. A series of six different types of glazed
wares, which were chronologically sequent, have been identified. By 1540
decorations were very carelessly applied and glazed wares were not of a
high quality. It was not, however, until the latter part of the
seventeenth century that they disappeared altogether and were replaced
by light colored vessels, with designs in dull red and black paint, much
like those made by the many present-day Indians.

[Illustration: Fig. 38—Glazed ware from the Rio Grande area.
Regressive-Pueblo period. (Courtesy School of American Research.)]

In the northern Rio Grande area black-on-white pottery died out to a
great extent and was largely replaced by what we know as Biscuit
Ware.[90] This name is derived from the resemblance of this pottery to
china in the “biscuit stage” of manufacture. Biscuit ware is a thick
pottery with a soft crumbly paste tempered with volcanic tuff. The
background is a light gray or tan, and somewhat coarse designs are
applied in black paint. Corrugated culinary ware was replaced by plain
black pottery.

In southeastern New Mexico, and extending into Texas, a distinctive ware
made during this period is found. This has a brown slip. Bowl exteriors
are undecorated, but the interiors have designs applied in red and
black. Associated with it, is a plain brick-red ware.

The story of the Spanish conquest of the Southwest, which was
interrupted by a revolt of the Pueblos in 1680, is as dramatic a tale as
history can produce. Although 1540 is the date usually given for the
first meeting between the Pueblo Indians and the Spaniards, it was
actually in 1539 that the first contact occurred. In that year a
Franciscan monk, Fray Marcos de Niza, accompanied by a Moor named
Esteban, started north from Mexico to investigate tales of large and
wealthy cities which were rumored to lie in that direction. Esteban went
on ahead, and, reaching what is now New Mexico, was slain by the
Indians. Fray Marcos did not dare to proceed, but caught a glimpse of
one of the pueblos of Zuñi from a distance, and returned with tales of
great cities.

[Illustration: Fig. 39—Biscuit ware from the Rio Grande area.
Regressive-Pueblo period. (Courtesy School of American Research.)]

In 1540 an expedition was organized under the leadership of Francisco
Vasquez de Coronado to search for the fabulous “Seven Cities of Cibola”
in the north. After a long and difficult journey the expedition reached
Hawikuh, one of the Zuñi villages. The disappointment of the adventurers
may well be imagined, for here was no city of gold, ready to yield its
wealth to the invaders, but a community of simple farmers who, not only
had no riches, but had little conception of the role that wealth could
play in society. Later, Coronado moved his forces to Tiguex on the Rio
Grande, another Pueblo town. Trouble soon developed, and the Indians
were massacred. The Spaniards then moved on to the Pueblo of Pecos, and
there followed an expedition into the Plains as the search continued for
the fabulous and mythical golden cities. In 1542, Coronado and his men
withdrew to New Spain, and the Pueblos were left in peace for forty
years. After 1580, various expeditions entered the Pueblo domain, and in
1598 it became a part of the Spanish dominions. In 1609 the city of
Santa Fe was founded.

From the beginning there was a clash between the two cultures. The
Pueblos resisted as best they could, but they were no match for the more
highly organized Spaniards with their superior weapons and their
inestimable advantage of being mounted. The colonizers and missionaries
who entered the country looked upon the Indians as a subject people;
there were abuses and many excesses, and the Indians were shamefully
exploited. Corn, the all-important staple of the Indians, was
requisitioned, and Spanish horses trampled Pueblo corn fields. Every
effort was made to break down the prevailing form of government.
Missionaries were determined to destroy the old religion and make
converts among the natives. The principle, that the end justifies the
means, was developed in its most pernicious form. There were floggings
and hangings, and Indians were sold into slavery. All in all, it is a
disgraceful page in history. Even the most cursory glance at our own
record of dealings with various Indian groups, however, suggests that we
are hardly in a position to “cast the first stone.” Under the
circumstances, even the smallest pebble would be excessive.

The presence of the Spaniards had other far-reaching and disastrous
effects on the Pueblos. They had no immunity to European diseases, and
many died. Worst of all, however, was the increasing pressure of fierce
nomadic tribes. Tribes, such as the Utes, the Comanches, the Navajos and
the Apaches, had been something of a menace before, but, as they
acquired horses, stolen from the Spaniards, their mobility was greatly
increased, and they became a scourge, sweeping over the Southwest,
killing, pillaging, and destroying.

In 1642, there was a mild revolt of the Pueblo Indians against the
Spaniards in which the Governor of the territory was killed, but they
were not well organized and the revolt was soon put down. It was not
until 1680 that a successful revolt took place. This dramatic episode in
Southwestern history has been called “the first American Revolution.”
The success of the undertaking was largely due to Popé, an old medicine
man of the Pueblo of San Juan. When the Spaniards first appeared there
were some seventy villages. By 1680 the number had been greatly reduced.
Added to the difficulties imposed by the lack of a common language, was
the separation of the Pueblos, not only as regards distance, but in
another and more important sense. As has already been pointed out, each
of the pueblos was essentially a separate city-state with its own
government, and, to some extent, its own culture. Popé, however,
succeeded in interesting the people of the scattered communities in the
common cause. First, the people of Taos were enlisted and then, one by
one the other pueblos were added to the list, until all were united,
including even the far off and peaceful Hopi.

At last, all was in readiness and a knotted cord was sent throughout the
Pueblo domain, each knot representing one day which was to elapse before
the warriors were to arise and cast out the invaders. Somehow the
Spaniards learned of the plot, and the revolt took place a little
earlier than had been planned. None the less, some four hundred people
were killed, and the survivors fled to the garrison at Santa Fe. Santa
Fe continued under siege until supplies and water were exhausted. When
the town could no longer be held, troops and civilians marched away,
without opposition from the Indians, and took refuge in the vicinity of
what is now the city of El Paso, Texas.

For twelve years the Spaniards were kept out of the Pueblo country,
although various attempts were made to retake the area. Even with the
removal of the hated Spaniards, these were not happy times for the
Pueblos. Mounted nomads as well as Spanish troops were a constant
threat, and many groups were forced to move to mesa tops where defense
was somewhat easier. As if all this were not enough, there came a severe
drought which, to such people, can mean only suffering and starvation.
At last in 1692, the land of the Pueblos again became a part of the
Spanish domain. This time the conquest was bloodless. Don Diego de
Vargas accomplished this remarkable feat largely by a display of force,
coupled with a policy of turning the suspicions of the Pueblos against
each other. United they had been able to drive out the invaders; divided
they were powerless to prevent their return. It is a story to ponder
carefully in these times.

[Illustration: Fig. 40—Hopi maiden. Similar hair dresses are shown
on figures in Developmental-Pueblo pictographs and on Mimbres
pottery. (Courtesy Museum of Northern Arizona.)]

Some Indians refused to accept Spanish domination and moved to the
almost inaccessible Governador country of northern New Mexico where they
lived among their traditional enemies, the Navajo, for some fifty years.
Many Pueblo traits which appear in Navajo culture may stem from this
contact. Other refugees joined the Hopis who were never reconquered. The
reconquest did not by any means mark the end of all trouble. There
continued to be periodic uprisings in the Rio Grande area, and the
Spaniards did not have an easy time. In addition to their troubles with
the Indians of the Pueblos, there was a constant threat from various
wild predatory tribes. There was also much internal dissension as a
result of a conflict between church and state. In 1821 the Pueblo
homeland became part of the Republic of Mexico, and then, in 1848, New
Mexico became a territory of the United States.

Throughout the period from 1540 until the present day, the Pueblos have
been subjected to the influences of alien cultures. Some traits of these
cultures they have accepted, others they have rejected. They have
learned to keep livestock, they cultivate many fruits and vegetables
unknown to their ancestors, they use metal tools and machinery.
Machine-made fabrics are widely used, and there is an ever increasing
trend toward wearing the white man’s apparel. Pottery is still made, and
interesting new wares have been developed, but it is made to be sold
and, in Indian homes, most of the beautiful old vessels have been
replaced by metal and china containers.

Nominally the people of the Pueblos are Christians, and there is no
village without a chapel in which the people worship. There are kivas
too, however, and sometimes openly, sometimes secretly, the old rites
are practiced and the old gods are worshiped. Houses may have windows
and galvanized roofs, but basically the architecture is the same. There
is some dissension in various villages, but in many there is still a
remarkable group unity. On the surface, there is an ever growing
tendency for the Pueblo Indians to become more like the white neighbors
who surround them, but it would be naive to believe that the old culture
has disappeared completely. Perhaps some day it will, but the end is not
yet. Those who know and understand the way of the “ancient ones” admit
the inevitability of change, but they feel that there is much to be
learned from the old way of life.

CHAPTER IV
THE HOHOKAM CULTURE

GENERAL REMARKS

While the inhabitants of the Plateau were developing the culture
described in the previous section, other groups in other parts of the
Southwest were evolving along somewhat different lines. The next basic
culture to be considered is that of the Hohokam, the people of the
Desert Province whose center lies in the Middle Gila Basin and which
includes the drainages of the Salt and Gila Rivers of southern Arizona.

_Hohokam_ is a Pima word which means “those who have vanished.” The
ancient agriculturists, to whom this name has been given, lived in this
semi-arid land for many centuries, and, through the use of canals, made
a remarkable adjustment to an unfavorable environment. For a long time
it was thought that they represented a regional variation of the Pueblo
pattern, for the more spectacular ruins contained great communal houses
of Pueblolike construction. Associated with these were small crude
houses of wattle and daub construction. The large Pueblo houses were
thought by some archaeologists to be temples or palaces, and the small
houses were believed to be the homes of serfs or peons. When it was
noted that different kinds of pottery were associated with the different
types of houses, it became apparent that the situation was more complex
than had been thought. Archaeological excavations finally brought the
true explanation to light. During the first part of the fourteenth
century, Pueblo people moved into the homeland of the Hohokam, bringing
with them the techniques and traditions of their own culture which
differed in many respects from those of the original inhabitants. The
two groups lived together, but, to a great extent, each preserved the
elements of its own culture.

There were certain similarities between the culture of the Hohokam and
that of the Pueblos, but there were many differences. Both were
agricultural people, but they used different types of corn and
beans,[12] and there were certain differences in their farming
techniques. Pottery was widely made in both societies but there were
marked differences in manufacturing techniques and in color.
Architectural development was entirely different. There were many
differences in minor arts; for example, shell work was very highly
developed among the Hohokam, and bone was used for tools much less than
by the Pueblos. Probably there were physical differences between the two
people, but our information on this subject is very scanty, for the
Hohokam did not bury their dead, as did the Anasazi, but practiced
cremation.

There is a strong possibility that the Hohokam developed from the
ancient food-gathering culture, known as the _Cochise_, which had
flourished in this same general region for many centuries.[54] The
possibility has also been mentioned that the Hohokam may have come to
southern Arizona from the east with an already established pattern.[27]
Of course, the culture continued to evolve, but almost all of the basic
traits which characterize it were present in the earliest times of which
we have any record.

[Illustration: Fig. 41—Map of the Southwest showing sites referred
to in Chapter IV.]

1. Casa Grande
2. Grewe Site
3. Los Muertos
4. Roosevelt 9:6
5. Snaketown
6. Tonto National Monument

The question of dates for the Hohokam is, unfortunately, far more
complicated than in the case of the Basketmakers and Pueblos. The wood
available for house construction was usually cottonwood or mesquite,
woods which are not suitable for tree-ring dating. Through stratigraphic
studies it has been possible to find the chronological place of various
phases in relation to each other, but the establishment of an absolute
chronology in terms of the Christian calendar is quite difficult, since
it must be based almost entirely on cross-checking of pottery between
Hohokam and Anasazi sites. There is a considerable divergence between
the dates suggested by different archaeologists, or even by the same
archaeologist at different times. There is nothing to criticize in the
fact that an archaeologist may give one date at one time and an entirely
different one at another. Archaeologists, like all scientists, are
seeking for the truth, and as new evidence is uncovered old estimates
must often be changed and new ones made. First estimates placed the
beginning of the culture in Arizona at about 300 B. C.[27] Later this
date was revised upward by 900 years.[28] According to the most recent
publication on the Hohokam, which contains approximate dates which will
be used throughout the following discussion, this culture in the Gila
Basin is believed to date back to about the beginning of the Christian
era.[57]

There were several stages of development in the Hohokam, just as there
were in the Anasazi culture with its six principal stages, ranging from
Basketmaker to Historic-Pueblo times. The first is known as the
_Pioneer_ for this was the formative stage of the culture. The
_Colonial_ period which followed was, as the name implies, one in which
colonies were established. During the next period, to which the name
_Sedentary_ has been given, the culture was fully developed. The term
_Classic_, which is applied to the following period, is really a
misnomer, for the cultural peak of the Hohokam had passed. It was,
however, a time of high cultural development during which Pueblo and
Hohokam people lived side by side in the Desert Province. Little is
known of the Hohokam following the end of the Classic period when, about
1400 A. D., the Pueblo people moved away, but it is possible that the
present Pima Indians may be descendants of the ancient Hohokam or that
at least some Hohokam blood flows in their veins. A people with a
variant form of the Hohokam culture who lived farther south may have
been the forerunners of the present Papago Indians.

THE PIONEER HOHOKAM

The Pioneer period, according to recent estimates, began about the time
of Christ and lasted for some five or six hundred years. It is possible,
however, that these dates may have to be revised again, as more
information becomes available. At present, unfortunately, this earliest
period is known from only one site. This is a large site, called
Snaketown,[27][28][31] which lies in the Gila Indian Reservation twelve
miles southwest of Chandler, Arizona. It was occupied from Pioneer until
Sedentary times, and has yielded a tremendous amount of information. It
is extremely fortunate that this important site has been excavated with
exceptional care and has been splendidly reported upon.

The Snaketown area is more arid than most other places occupied in
prehistoric times and contains a stream that is now only intermittent,
although it was probably perennial during the prehistoric period.
Lumbering in the mountains and overgrazing have doubtless contributed
materially to the desiccation of the region, but even in prehistoric
times it must have been extremely dry. There is no evidence of the
construction of irrigation canals which were so characteristic of later
phases, but it seems possible that they may have existed at this time,
although in a less well developed form, for without irrigation it would
have been almost impossible for prosperous villages to arise in such a
poor environment. Little is known, however, of the agricultural
attainments of the people at this time. In fact, no corn has yet been
found which may be attributed to this period, although it is certainly
reasonable to suppose that it was being cultivated. The scarcity of
bones of food animals indicates that meat did not play a very important
part in the diet. Turkey bones are extremely rare. It is believed that
turkeys were never domesticated by the Hohokam.

All Hohokam houses were earth lodges with much the same general plan.
They were single-unit structures, usually with depressed floors.
Entrance was through a covered passage or vestibule, normally in the
middle of one side. Walls were constructed of poles, brush, and mud. The
roofs, which consisted of rafters overlaid by smaller timbers, were
supported by upright posts set in the floor. During Pioneer times houses
were larger than in any other Hohokam period and in some cases were up
to thirty-five feet square. Some archaeologists believe that the largest
houses may have been occupied by more than one family.[31]^c Others feel
that it is more probable that they were ceremonial structures.[30]
During most of the time, four or five roof supports were employed, but
there was one phase early in the period when a great many posts set in
rows were used and it is hard to see how such a house could have been
lived in at all. So much skill was required to erect these houses that
they certainly must not represent the people’s first attempt at
housebuilding, and there was undoubtedly an earlier phase for which
evidence has not yet been found.

No material has been found which may be attributed to a pre-ceramic
period, unless the Cochise culture proves to be ancestral to the
Hohokam. Pottery is found in even the earliest Pioneer levels. The
Hohokam did not have any corrugated pottery. All their wares were smooth
and were produced by the paddle-and-anvil technique. When this method is
used to shape and finish a piece of pottery, a round or mushroom-shaped
object, known as an anvil, is held inside the vessel to receive the
force of the blow, while the exterior is struck with a wooden paddle.
Air was permitted to flow over the pottery while it was being fired,
producing an oxidizing atmosphere.

There are important differences between the pottery making methods of
the Hohokam and those of the Anasazi. As has been previously noted,
among the Anasazi, the final step in the finishing process was to shape
and smooth the vessel through scraping with a gourd or pottery spoon,
and most pottery was fired in a reducing atmosphere.

The earliest Hohokam pottery found is simple but well made. At first
only plain undecorated wares in gray, brown, or red were produced. The
temper contained flecks of mica which show through the surface. Bowls
were usually red. Jars, which had a capacity of about two gallons, were
normally gray or brown. Before long, painted decorations began to be
applied. Designs were simple rectilinear or curvilinear forms. Hatching
was widely used. Decoration was in a maroon-red paint on a grayish
background, and the red portion was sometimes polished. As time went by,
the background became a buff color rather than a gray. Because of this
distinctive color combination, the term _Red-on-Buff_ Culture was
originally applied to the Hohokam.[32] During Pioneer times, some
polychrome ware was made and it is believed that this may mark the first
appearance of the use of multiple colors in the Southwest. This pottery
has red and yellow designs on a gray background. In many cases grooves
were incised on bowl exteriors before the paint was applied. Even after
painted pottery was introduced, it never made up more than twenty per
cent of the total pottery of the Pioneer era.

Figurines, depicting human beings, as well as bowls and jars, were made
of clay. These are known from the earliest times. They are quite similar
to those of the Mexican Plateau, and it is thought that they may have
been introduced from there, together with the knowledge of the
cultivation of corn. These figurines have ridgelike noses pinched up
from the base, and eyes and mouths represented by slits and dots. These
were always modelled rather than made in molds. Some have funnel-shaped
heads and may have served as containers. Figurines were usually fired,
but this was not invariably the case.

Even from the earliest times the Hohokam appear to have cremated the
dead, a practice which anthropologists always deprecate. These ancient
people could hardly know how much they would inconvenience certain men
in the twentieth century by their funerary habits, and undoubtedly they
would not have cared. Bones and ashes are rarely found in the Pioneer
period but some have been recovered from pits and trenches. The actual
cremation is not believed to have taken place here. There were offerings
of crushed burned pottery, and late in the period some stone objects
were used.

[Illustration: Fig. 42—Hohokam figurines. a. Pioneer period. b.
Colonial Period. c. Sedentary Period.]

From the earliest times the Hohokam were skilled workers in stone. Two
distinctive traits were: the manufacture of “palettes” and of stone
jars. The palettes have been so called, although we are not sure of
their actual function, because the center portions contain traces of
ground pigment and there is usually a slight depression which might have
resulted from grinding and mixing. They are the most common of Hohokam
funerary offerings. In Pioneer times, they were much simpler than in
later periods. At first they were plain stone slabs, but, by the close
of the period, they were being made with raised borders. The polished
stone vessels were sometimes plain, sometimes incised, and in one case
the incisions had been filled with paint. Late in the period carved
life-forms appeared. One effigy represents the figure of a man squatting
and holding a shallow basin. Other stone implements include manos and
metates, mortars and pestles, and highly polished grooved axes with
raised ridges on either side of the groove. As has been previously
noted, there was a scarcity of projectile points. Most of those which
have been found are light enough to suggest the possibility of the use
of the bow and arrow. There are also some heavy, stemmed points which
may have been dart-points or knives.

Some stone was used in the manufacture of ornaments, although shell was
more abundantly utilized for this purpose. Beads and pendants were
carved from stone, and there was some use of turquoise, particularly in
mosaic work. No ear plugs have been found in levels earlier than those
of the Sedentary period, but they are shown on Pioneer figurines, and it
seems reasonable to suppose that they may have been worn at that time.
Shells provided many ornaments. Whole shells were utilized as beads by
grinding off the ends to make it possible to string them; some disc
beads were made. Bracelets were made of shell. They were usually thin
and rather fragile and were not carved until late in the period.

Bone was much less widely used by the Hohokam than by the Anasazi, but
one distinctive type of object was made of this material. This is an
incised bone tube, usually decorated with rectilinear designs but
sometimes utilizing curvilinear patterns and occasionally life-forms.
There are some indications that these tubes were painted. Their use has
not been determined.

Pipes were not made by the Hohokam in any period. Since these people
were not as dependent on the vagaries of the weather as were the
Anasazi, who depended to a great extent on flood irrigation, it is
entirely logical that cloud symbols should not have been as important to
them.

THE COLONIAL HOHOKAM

The Colonial period, which lasted from perhaps 600 to about 900 A. D.,
is better known than the Pioneer, for it is represented at two other
excavated sites in addition to Snaketown. These are Roosevelt 9:6, at
Roosevelt Lake, Arizona,[48] and the Grewe Site which lies just east of
Casa Grande National Monument.[120] By the end of Colonial times all of
the distinctive traits which characterize the Hohokam were fully
developed, and some had even begun to decline. The most spectacular
accomplishment of this period, and for that matter of the whole culture,
was the construction of a great system of irrigation channels which
diverted water to the fields from the rivers.[57] At their first
appearance, the canals were so well developed that it seems impossible
that this marks the first attempt at such a project. Possibly the system
had been developed in Pioneer times, or, perhaps, it had been perfected
elsewhere first, but evidence to bolster either theory is still lacking.
By 700 A. D., the canal system was well established and became
increasingly bigger and more complex until the peak was reached between
1200 and 1400 A. D.

The whole project is really amazing when one considers the tremendous
amount of work which went into the construction and maintenance of the
canals. The latter must have required almost as much effort as the
original excavating, for silt was constantly being deposited. Canals
were up to thirty feet wide and ten feet deep, and in the Salt River
Valley they have been found to have an aggregate length of 150 miles. It
staggers the imagination when one stops to think that this tremendous
engineering feat was carried out with only the crudest of stone and
wooden tools. The scope of such a project and the end toward which so
much effort was directed tell us a great deal about the people who
planned it. Undoubtedly such an undertaking indicates strong leadership
and careful organization. Great numbers of people must have
participated, and it undoubtedly took much careful planning to direct
their labors. There must also have been some centralization of
authority, since the canals served various settlements and these groups
must have had some organization to direct their efforts toward the
common good.

Here, as among the Anasazi, however, there is no evidence of a ruling
class with a higher standard of living than that of their subordinates.
The scope of the canal project suggests comparisons with the erection of
the huge pyramids of Egypt or the great temples of the Maya. There is a
tremendous difference, however, in the ends toward which all this vast
human effort was directed. In Egypt, men slaved to construct tombs for
despotic rulers, and, in the land of the Maya, they labored to erect
temples, doubtless for the greater glory of the priesthood as much as
for the gods who were worshipped. In the arid reaches of the Hohokam
homeland, however, the canals, which were built and kept open with so
much labor, were for the benefit of the people.

[Illustration: Fig. 43—Hohokam house of the Colonial period.]

[Illustration: Large ball court at Snaketown, Colonial period.
(Courtesy Gila Pueblo.)]

The homes of the people continued to be simple structures consisting of
single units. They were much like those of the Pioneer period but were
smaller and rectangular with rounded corners. Usually they were
constructed over a shallow pit, but some had elevated floors supported
by stones. A fire pit lay in the floor just in front of the entrance. It
is not known whether there were smoke holes or not. Walls were formed of
slanting poles, and the interiors were lined with reeds. The roof rested
on a central ridge pole supported by two main posts. There is evidence
of outside kitchens, small brush structures containing a fire pit, much
like those still used by the Pimas.

Houses and kitchens were not the only structures which were erected at
this time, for ball courts made their first appearance during this
period. These were large unroofed, oval areas, oriented east and west,
and open at both ends. They were up to two hundred feet in length and
were surrounded by walls believed to have been between fifteen and
twenty feet in height and possibly higher. The earth banks, which formed
the walls, sloped and were about twenty degrees off the perpendicular.
The floor, which was well below ground level, was formed from smooth
caliche deposits. Two stones set in the ends and one in the center
apparently served as markers. They were very accurately placed and the
one in the middle lies in the exact center. These are very much like the
ball courts of the Maya, except that the latter had stone walls. There
are a number of theories as to where these courts first originated. They
may have been developed by the Maya and copied by the Hohokam, or they
may have reached the Maya from the Hohokam. A third possibility is that
both people received the idea from some still unknown source.

There is no way of knowing just what game was played by the Hohokam, but
it is reasonable to suppose that it was much like that played in the
courts farther south, and we know something of the rules from ancient
manuscripts. The game was played with one, two, or more players on each
side. The object was to knock a ball through rings set in the walls.
Hands and feet could not be used, and the ball could be struck only with
the knees, thighs, or buttocks. No rings have been found in the Hohokam
courts, but it is probable that they would have been made of wood or
some other perishable material, since the earth walls would hardly
support great stone rings such as are found in some of the Mayan courts.
It is quite possible that the game was connected with religious rites,
as it was among the Maya.

Much red-on-buff and plain brown or buff pottery was manufactured. Most
of the decorated vessels have designs formed by the repetition of small
elements. These are often enclosed by small circles, and there was also
a wide use of borders or fringes of short, oblique, parallel lines. The
small elements included both geometric and life forms. There was a
marked transition from the more rigidly formalized designs of the
Pioneer period to the freer designs of later times. The practice of
incising pottery declined and finally disappeared altogether. Firing
clouds, which result when vessels come in contact with fuel while being
fired, are quite common, and give the pottery a mottled appearance. Many
figurines were made. They almost always depicted females. Early in the
period they were made all in one piece, but later the head and body were
made separately. The heads became more true to life. Clothing, leg and
ankle bands, and, sometimes the eyes, were indicated by appliqué.

[Illustration: Fig. 44—Red-on-buff Hohokam vessel of the Colonial
period. (Courtesy Gila Pueblo.)]

Pottery and figurines served as offerings for the dead. Small sherds
were still common, but whole vessels also began to be used. There were
three types of cremations. Sometimes bones, ashes, and offerings are
found in pits dug into the caliche and it appears probable that the
actual burning took place there. In other cases they are found in
trenches. Sometimes burning took place elsewhere and later the burned
remains were placed in small holes close together. In addition to
objects made of clay, stone projectile points and palettes are usually
found in the cremations.

Palettes, which were the most consistent offering, were made of thin
schistose rock. There is a clear differentiation between the center
portion and the border which is ornamented with grooves. Some have
sculptured edges in the form of birds, snakes, and other animals. There
are also effigy types in which the outline of the palette is in a
life-form. Palettes were most numerous early in the Colonial period and
later declined in importance. One extremely interesting feature of many
of these objects is that on the mixing surface of heavily burned
palettes from cremations is found a vitreous substance which, on
analysis, proved to be a lead mixture. It is not certain whether the use
of lead ore was intentional or accidental, but in any case the Hohokam
never learned to exploit this as metal. It has been suggested that the
change in the lead mixture from a dull color to a brilliant red with
metallic globules may have been observed as the palettes burned on the
funeral pyres and that it came to have a ceremonial significance. It is
entirely possible, however, that the palettes had simply been used for
grinding a compound containing lead, which was used to provide pigment,
prior to the burning. They may have been used to mix facial or body
paint.

Some of the most remarkable stone work found in Hohokam sites consisted
of mosaic plaques or mirrors inlaid with angular pieces of iron pyrites
which had a reflecting quality. These were common funerary offerings,
and as a result most of the specimens obtained are badly damaged. None
the less, one can still appreciate the amazing work which went into
their construction. These plaques or mirrors range between three and
eight inches in diameter. On one surface are thin sheets of iron pyrites
crystals carefully fitted together. How these thin plates were obtained
is a complete mystery, for pyrites crystals are usually cubic and so
hard that they cannot be scratched with a knife. In some cases the
crystal encrustation covered the entire face, in others edges were
beveled. Edges and backs were sometimes decorated with something which
resembles cloisonné work, although the technique differed. First a base
coat of a gray material was applied, and then this was covered with a
thicker layer of some black substance. A design was cut into this with a
sharp implement, and then the sunken portion was half filled with thick
white paint. Next, paint in a variety of colors was added to fill the
depression, or, in some cases, was even built up slightly above the
level of the black background portion.

These mirrors are almost exactly like those found in sites in Central
America. It is thought that the best examples found in Hohokam sites
were imported from the south,[59] although it is possible that some
crude imitations may have been made by the Hohokam themselves. The
material necessary would have been available to them, for sizeable
pyrites crystals are found near Tucson.

Many stone vessels were made. They were usually carved in bas relief and
both realistic and life-forms were used. Desert reptiles were the most
common figures. Other objects made of stone included abraders for use in
shell work, metates which were not very precisely shaped, a few stone
finger-rings, and projectile points. These were long slender points
which were barbed and serrated.

[Illustration: Fig. 45—Hohokam carved stone vessel of the Colonial
period. (Courtesy Arizona State Museum.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 46—Hohokam ornaments of carved shell. (Courtesy
National Park Service.)]

Shell was very widely used. A few needles made of shell have been found,
but this was apparently not considered a utilitarian material and it was
most often used in the manufacture of ornaments. Shell beads and
pendants continued to be used, and many bracelets were made. These were
made of Glycymeris shells which are nearly circular and, when cut in
cross-section, provide a suitable arm band. Carving did not reach its
peak until the following period, but fine bracelets were produced.
Birds, snakes, frogs, and geometric forms furnished the designs. The
most frequent motif is a bird-and-snake combination. The snake’s head is
in the bird’s mouth and the body of the snake forms the band. This quite
probably had some special ceremonial significance. Carved rings, which
first appeared at this time, are usually in the form of snakes. They
were never as abundant as bracelets. There was some mosaic work with
shell, but this art did not fully develop until later. Birds and snakes,
often in combination, were the usual subjects for carving on bone.

THE SEDENTARY HOHOKAM

During the Sedentary period, which lasted from about 900 to 1200 A. D.
there was some withdrawal from the outlying districts and a greater
concentration of population in a smaller area, although there was also
some northward extension of the culture. There was some regional
specialization during the latter part of the period, for the inhabitants
of the upper or eastern portion of the Gila Basin developed somewhat
differently from those of the central area. This was possibly the result
of the influence of Pueblo people who lived in the Tonto Basin about one
hundred miles to the northwest, and it presaged the changes which were
to occur in the next period when some of these people moved into the
Hohokam area, bringing with them their distinctive culture.

Houses in the main area were roughly rectangular in outline, but the
ends were somewhat rounded and the sides slightly convex. Floors were
encircled by low, mud rims, six inches or less in height, which were
probably designed to keep water out of the houses. Some had
parallel-sided entrance ways, but others had a bulbous vestibule with a
low step at the end. Late in the period, in the eastern part of the Gila
Basin, there were some rectangular surface houses with walls of adobe,
containing sporadic stones, over a pole framework. In some cases,
villages were enclosed by walls and are referred to as _compounds_. This
name is taken from the term which is applied to the walled or fenced
enclosure of a house or factory in the orient.

The irrigation system was enlarged and improved. Ball courts were still
being built but they seem to have been considerably reduced in size by
the end of the period. They were oriented north and south and the ends
were closed. One interesting find, made in a Sedentary site with an
estimated date of 1100 A. D., was a rubber ball buried in a jar.[52]
Analysis showed the rubber to be of American origin, unvulcanized and
unrefined. There is no way of proving that this ball was used in playing
the game for which the courts were designed, but it seems entirely
possible that it was.

At this time some Hohokam people moved north into the Flagstaff area.
They introduced ball courts and other distinctive traits of their
culture.[86]

[Illustration: Fig. 47—Red-on-buff Hohokam jars of the Sedentary
period. (Courtesy Gila Pueblo.)]

In the field of pottery, forty per cent of all that was produced was of
the red-on-buff variety. There was a great elaboration of designs and
some appear to have been taken from woven fabrics. Panels, negative
designs, and patterns tied together by interlocking scrolls, were all
common. There was a great variety of shapes which included three and
four-legged trays. Jars increased tremendously in size, and a few had a
capacity of almost thirty gallons. Bowls were also quite large. Some
plain buff ware was manufactured, but it was not common. Less than one
per cent of the total pottery assemblage consisted of bowls with heavily
slipped and polished reddish brown interiors and mottled brown or gray
exteriors. From the eastern area come bright red bowls with
smoke-darkened, black interiors.

Figurines were of two types. For the most part they consisted of heads
which were apparently attached to bodies made of cord-wrapped fiber.
These have not survived, but their presence is indicated by impressions
in the clay of the heads. The faces are quite realistic and probably
represent an attempt at portraiture. Other figurines, made of buff clay
and painted with red, show full figures, seated, with hands resting on
the knees.

It is most unfortunate that practically none of the textiles produced at
this time have lasted through the centuries. A few fragments have been
found which give us tantalizing glimpses of a highly developed craft.
Apparently very fine cotton textiles with intricate weaves were
produced. No baskets have survived the passage of the years, but ash
casts have been found which show that the making of baskets was well
developed.

Cremation was still the accepted method of disposing of the dead,
although a few burials have been found. Apparently inhumation was tried
on a very small scale, but it did not supplant cremation. Bodies and
offerings were usually burned, and then the unconsumed portions gathered
together and put in small pits dug in the caliche. In some cases, bodies
and offerings were left in the pit in which they were burned, and the
pit covered with earth. In the eastern part of the Gila Basin,
unconsumed bones and offerings were placed in small pottery urns and
buried with a small bowl or sherd covering the mouth of the urn.

[Illustration: Fig. 48—Hohokam stone palette of the Sedentary
period. (Courtesy Arizona State Museum)]

Mosaic plaques or mirrors were still used. Palettes continued to serve
as mortuary offerings, but they had decreased in number and had greatly
degenerated. Raised borders disappeared and only incised lines remained
to differentiate the rim and the mixing surface. Some palettes have been
found in the area around Flagstaff in a site dated as late as 1278, so
the trait seems to have persisted in the north longer than in the
Hohokam province where it appears to have originated.

Stone vessels continued to be made, but they too were decadent. Carving
in relief was largely replaced by incising. Life-forms in relief, when
they do appear, are highly conventionalized. Many of the vessels are of
steatite. There were some effigy vessels, representing animals and
birds, which had shallow basins hollowed out of the backs. Metates and
mortars and pestles were well shaped. Some hoes first appeared during
Sedentary times, and it is thought that they may have been intrusive.
Stone projectile points were long and slender and beautifully flaked.
About half had lateral notches and the others were unnotched forms
characterized by deep serrations. Stone was widely used as a material
for ornaments. A great variety of disc beads were manufactured and the
first ear plugs are found in sites of this period, although, as has been
previously noted, they are seen on Pioneer figurines and quite possibly
had been worn since the earliest times. Some particularly interesting
finds include stone objects believed to have been nose-buttons or
labrets. Figurines do not show the use of nose-buttons, but they do show
ornaments just below the corners of the mouth and these may have been
worn through the fleshy part of the chin. Ornaments worn through the
nose or chin strike us as strange, for they have never won approval in
our particular society, but they have been quite common in other parts
of the world. In any case, a glimpse at a woman’s hat shop today offers
convincing proof that anything can become fashionable and socially
acceptable.

Shell work, already so well developed among the Hohokam, reached its
peak in Sedentary times. Mosaic work, in which both shell and turquoise
were used, achieved its highest development. The technique employed must
be described as overlaying, rather than as inlaying, for depressions
were not cut to receive the pieces which, instead, were laid on the
surface. Due to the placing of these mosaics in the cremation fires, we
know little of their composition beyond the fact that shell was usually
used to provide a base for the overlay. Individual pieces were cut in
the forms of animals or geometric figures. Disc beads, characterized by
large perforations, and pendants were widely made. For the latter, the
trend was away from life-forms and toward geometric figures. Many finely
carved bracelets were made. Shells with painted designs appear first in
Sedentary levels, but, due to the impermanent nature of the paint, there
is no assurance that this technique may not have been developed some
time before.

The most interesting treatment of shells is exemplified by those with
designs applied by an etching process. The Hohokam may have been the
first people to discover the technique of etching, for they were using
it about the eleventh or twelfth century and the earliest recorded use
of the process is on a coat of armor made in Europe in the 15th
century.[57] Among the Hohokam the process does not appear to have
continued beyond Sedentary times. It was probably never very commonly
used and the difficulty of controlling the medium may have contributed
to an early abandonment. Painting and etching were sometimes combined,
for an example has been found of a shell etched with geometric designs
and painted with red and green pigment.

[Illustration: Fig. 49—Hohokam etched shell. Sedentary period.
(Courtesy Arizona State Museum)]

Since shell is nearly pure calcium carbonate it is easy to see why
portions exposed to the action of acid would be eaten away, but we have
no way of being sure exactly what the technique used may have been.
Experiments conducted in the laboratories of Gila Pueblo, however, have
shown how such results could have been obtained with available
materials.[31] The problem of finding a suitable acid was first
considered. Obviously, for the ancient Hohokam, the problem could not be
solved by running down to the corner drugstore. For the purposes of the
experiment, a mild acetic acid solution was produced by fermenting juice
from the fruit of the giant cactus. Portions of a shell were covered
with pitch, a material which resists acid, and the shell immersed in the
acid for seventy-two hours. When it was removed, the pitch-covered
portion stood out in relief while the exposed parts had been partially
eaten away, duplicating the effect found on the prehistoric shells.

Bone tubes continued to be made, but they were plain and undecorated.
Other bone artifacts include daggerlike objects with carved heads, which
may have served as hair ornaments. Usually the carving represented the
heads of mountain sheep or a bird-and-serpent motif.

It was in the Sedentary level at Snaketown that the first objects made
of metal were found. These were little copper bells, pear-shaped and
split at the bottom, which very much resemble sleigh-bells. A great many
identical bells are found in Mexico and it seems probable that the
Snaketown examples were imported from there.[59] In the Anasazi area
many copper bells were imported from the south. Most of them are dated
at between 1300 and 1400 A. D., although some have been found which were
brought into Pueblo Bonito and Aztec at an earlier date.

THE CLASSIC HOHOKAM

The Classic period of the Hohokam, which lasted from about 1200 to 1400
A. D. or not long thereafter, was a remarkable era which has been
referred to as “the Golden Age of southern Arizona”. As has been
previously noted, however, _Classic_ is hardly an accurate designation
since we are no longer dealing with a pure Hohokam culture. It was
during this time that Pueblo traits and, later, Pueblo people themselves
entered the Hohokam homeland.

The newcomers, whose influence had been felt even before they themselves
arrived, were a group known as the Salado people. The Saladoans are
believed to have originated in the Little Colorado area, which they left
to move farther south into the Tonto Basin around 1100 A. D.[56] About
1300 they again moved farther south and entered the domain of the
Hohokam. They brought with them their own distinctive culture which
differed in some ways from the classic Pueblo of the San Juan area and
was far different from that of the Hohokam. They built thick-walled,
multi-storied communal houses of adobe, in walled compounds. Their
pottery included coiled and scraped polychrome wares in red, black, and
white. They practiced inhumation, or burial of the dead.

[Illustration: Fig. 50—Salado polychrome ware. (Courtesy National
Park Service.)]

The coming together of the Salado people and the Hohokam is really
remarkable. There is no evidence of an invasion nor of violence.
Instead, these two culturally different people seem to have come
together in a friendly manner and lived together in the same communities
in peace and amity. Each group, to a great extent, clung to its own way
of life, yet together they achieved a distinctive culture. It was during
this period that the canal system reached its highest development.
Doubtless the newcomers, who had had no real irrigation system before,
contributed their labor to the common project of building and
maintaining the canals which were built to serve their villages.

In the Hohokam culture proper there were certain changes. Pottery
included plain buff ware and a pebble-polished bright red ware, usually
in the form of bowls with black interiors, as well as the ubiquitous
red-on-buff. In the latter, the red paint was thinner and less
brilliantly colored than in earlier times. Jars and pitchers, the latter
an innovation of this period, were the commonest forms. Jars with a
capacity of over thirty gallons have been found. Painting was
characterized by poor brush work. Most designs were rectilinear and
practically no life-forms were used. A few figurines, representing both
human beings and animals, have been found at Los Muertos, a Classic
site, but they were too few to have been important in the culture. There
is, of course, the possibility that some were made of perishable
materials instead of clay and hence have not survived.

Most Salado pottery during this period was a polychrome ware with red,
black, and white. Red was sometimes used as a decorative color, and
sometimes formed a part of the background. Bowls and jars predominated,
but ladles and mugs were also made, and there were some effigy vessels,
usually in the form of birds. Some corrugated pottery was also made.

There was a definite decline in some of the arts of the Hohokam. Carved
stone vessels and palettes were no longer made. Pyrites mirrors are not
found in this horizon. Shell work continued to flourish, although
etching had disappeared. Heavy bracelets were made and true inlay and
ceremonial shell trumpets[5] made their first appearance. These were
west-coast conch shells with a hole ground into the tip of the spire.
Blowing into the shell through this hole produces a trumpetlike sound.

Axes, both single and doublebitted, were beautifully made, and
represented stone work at its peak. Projectile points were thin and well
made. Usually they were long and triangular. Most of them had notches
chipped at right angles but a few were unnotched. Edges were not
serrated, as they had been in earlier times. Stone implements,
presumably of Salado origin, were added to the complex. These included
adzes, picks, chisels, crushers, club heads, flakes with serrated edges
which served as saws, jar stoppers, pottery scrapers, and shaft
straighteners.

Ball courts were greatly reduced in size by Classic times and it seems
probable that the game played in them had lost much of its popularity.
This belief is confirmed by the absence of a ball court at Los Muertos,
one of the largest and most important villages. It seems likely that
provisions would have been made at such a settlement for a sport which
enjoyed much popular support. A ball court was found at Casa Grande,
another important Classic site, however, so this trait had apparently
not disappeared entirely.

It was in the realm of architecture that the greatest changes occurred.
Even in Sedentary times, in the eastern part of the Hohokam area, there
was a tendency for houses to become surface structures. During the early
part of the Classic period, surface houses, sometimes with contiguous
rooms, were built by the Hohokam. These changes were probably due to
Salado influence, although the people themselves had not yet arrived in
the area. Walls were still extremely thin and of typical Hohokam
construction, so houses were no more than one story high.

With the arrival of the Salado people, the building of multi-storied
houses with massive walls, enclosed in compounds, began. Two of the best
known of these are El Pueblo de Los Muertos. (The City of the Dead)[56]
which, before its destruction by farmers, lay a few miles south of
Tempe, Arizona, and Casa Grande,[26] a great ruin, now a National
Monument, which lies nine miles west of Florence, Arizona.

Los Muertos covered a large area and contained thirty-six communal
buildings and many small houses. It was a settlement which could not
have existed without irrigation, and ditches have been traced which
brought water to it from the Salt River. The largest single building was
a great rectangular house enclosed on all four sides by a massive wall
which reached a thickness of seven feet in some places. Some of the
outer walls of the big house achieved a comparable thickness. In
addition to the main structure, the compound contained plazas and small
house clusters. Another ruin contained two large house clusters. Here
some of the rooms had very thin walls, as do the Hohokam houses of
Sedentary and early Classic times.

At Los Muertos the Hohokam and the Salado people apparently lived side
by side, each clinging for the most part to their own traditions. This
divergence was particularly marked in the disposal of the dead. The
Saladoans usually buried their dead under house floors or in the plaza.
The body was normally extended, with the head to the east. Pottery,
jewelry, and some stone artifacts served as grave offerings. The Hohokam
continued to practice cremation. The dead were placed on wooden gratings
over shallow pits, and the grating was consumed with the body. The
unconsumed bones and ashes were placed in jars and buried in special
plots near the refuse heaps. There seems to have been some borrowing
between the two groups, for occasionally inhumations are found
accompanied by the red-on-buff pottery of the Hohokam, and a few
cremations have been found with Salado offerings or in polychrome
vessels. This borrowing, however, seems to have been sufficiently
limited to make it possible, on the basis of the numbers of burials and
cremations, to estimate what the comparative ratio of Hohokam to Salado
people may have been. On this basis, the Hohokam appear to have
outnumbered the foreign element by a ratio of three to one.

[Illustration: Fig. 51—Great House built by the Salado people. Casa
Grande National Monument, Arizona. (Courtesy National Park
Service.)]

The famous site of Casa Grande consists of a group of ruins made up of
house clusters surrounded by compound walls. Both thin-walled,
single-roomed houses and multiple-roomed structures with massive walls
are represented. Of the latter, the outstanding example is a building
known as the “Great House” which lies in an enclosure called Compound A.
The Great House is four stories high, but only eleven rooms are
represented. Originally there were five additional rooms on the ground
floor, but these were filled in to form an artificial terrace. The rooms
are arranged with one on the top floor and five rooms on each of the two
lower stories. Some rooms were entered by small doors, and others
through the roof. There were no windows. The walls of the Great House
now stand some thirty-four feet above ground level and are over four
feet thick. No forms were used, and the wall was constructed by a
process of piling up layers of stiff caliche mud. Each course was patted
into shape and then allowed to dry to receive the next course. The final
finish was obtained by plastering with a thin mud mixture made with
sieved caliche.

While the foregoing refers to the Hohokam who lived in the river
valleys, there was another group who lived farther to the south in the
desert region known as the Papagueria.[57] Here agriculture was more
limited, for the only form of irrigation was by ditches designed to
divert rain water to the fields. With a less favorable environment, the
standard of living was lowered and the reduction of leisure time
resulted in a poorer development of arts and crafts. Although the
material culture was not as rich as in the more favored river valleys,
any loss is more than compensated for, from the archaeological point of
view, by the fact that the greater aridity of this region has made
possible the preservation of much normally perishable material. The
ancient desert dwellers further endeared themselves to archaeologists by
forsaking cremation about the beginning of the eleventh century.

A remarkable site, known as _Ventana Cave_,[55] which lies in the Papago
Indian Reservation, has yielded great quantities of very fine material,
including some forty burials, and the final report of this valuable
discovery is eagerly awaited. Preliminary reports indicate that the
ancient inhabitants of this region strongly resembled the Papago Indians
who still occupy it. The early people were fine weavers and made cotton
cloth which, together with rabbit-fur blankets and sandals, provided
them with clothing.

[Illustration: Fig. 52—Child’s cotton poncho from Ventana Cave.
Desert Hohokam, eleventh or twelfth century. (Courtesy Arizona State
Museum.)]

One strong difference between the Hohokam of the river valleys and those
of the desert area lies in the fact that the Salado people did not
penetrate into the desert section and the culture of this region
accordingly remained relatively untouched. This isolation seems to have
been deliberately achieved by the desert dwellers who erected strings of
forts of rough laid stone on volcanic hills to protect their domain.
Environment may well have played a strong part in the reaction of the
two groups of Hohokam to new people. With their meager resources the
people of the Papagueria could hardly accept additions to the
population, while the more prosperous group to the north, blessed with
the water which means so much in the Southwest, could afford to be
friendly.

THE RECENT HOHOKAM

About 1400 A.D., the Salado people left the Gila country. It is thought
that some may have moved east as far as eastern New Mexico and southeast
into Chihauhua. Others from the Upper Gila may have drifted north into
the Zuñi area. We cannot be sure of the reason for their departure, but
one theory, which has been advanced, is that they may have been forced
out by the arrival of the Apaches.[27] What happened to the Hohokam
themselves we do not know. Possibly they remained in the same district
and eventually sites belonging to the period after 1400 may be found. It
is also possible that they may have moved to the inhospitable reaches of
the Papagueria which would have afforded greater protection against an
enemy.

Although there is a gap in our information, the belief is widely held
that the Hohokam may have been the ancestors of the present Pima Indians
and possibly the Papago, related tribes who speak mutually intelligible
dialects of the Piman language. The most convincing argument for this
theory is that the Pimas were well established in the Gila Basin, the
old Hohokam homeland, when they were discovered by the Spaniards in
1530. The Papago still occupy the desert region of the Papagueria. In
general, the way of life of these people was not too different from that
of the Hohokam. They were agriculturists, dependent on irrigation, lived
in one-room houses, and their pottery was somewhat similar to that of
the Hohokam. Quite possibly, other racial strains are present and other
groups contributed to the Pima and Papago culture, but it seems highly
probable that the Hohokam was one of the most important elements.

[Illustration: Fig. 53—Pima House in 1897. (Courtesy National Park
Service.)]

SUMMARY

We may characterize the Hohokam as follows: They were a prehistoric
agricultural people of southern Arizona who may have been the
descendants of the western branch of the ancient food-gathering people
of the Cochise Culture. They made an amazing adjustment to an
unfavorable environment through the use of an extensive canal system.
They lived in one-room houses of wattle-and-daub construction with
depressed floors and covered side passages or vestibules. Some big
houses built during the earliest period may have sheltered more than one
family or they may have been ceremonial structures. There were large
courts where it is thought that a ball game similar to that of the Maya
was played.

Pottery was made by the paddle-and-anvil technique and fired in an
oxidizing atmosphere. Undecorated plain ware was mostly buff, although
ranging in shade from gray to brown. Decorated pottery usually had
designs in red paint on a buff background. In an early period there was
a rare polychrome ware which had red and yellow designs on a gray
background. Figurines were also made of clay.

Stone work was well developed. Stone vessels, often with fine carving,
were widely made. Well carved palettes are a distinctive trait of the
culture. Mosaic plaques or mirrors, made of pyrites crystals, believed
to have been imported from the south, were often used as funeral
offerings.

Shell was widely used in the manufacture of ornaments, particularly
bracelets. It was usually ornamented by carving, but in a few cases an
etching technique was employed. Weaving was apparently well developed,
but only a few specimens have been preserved, so our information on this
point is scanty.

Disposal of the dead was by cremation. Funerary offerings were burned
with the body, and included pottery, figurines, palettes and pyrites
mirrors. Ashes, calcined bones, and offerings were gathered together
after the cremation and buried. Burial was at first in trenches, later
in pits or urns.

About 1300 A. D., Pueblo people moved into the Hohokam country and for
the next hundred years the two groups lived together. There was some
amalgamation of the two cultures, but in most important respects they
remained distinct in spite of the closeness of the association. About
1400 A. D. the newcomers moved away. We have no clear information as to
just what happened to the Hohokam after that time, but it is possible
that they may have remained in the same general vicinity and have been
the forerunners of the Pima and Papago Indians who occupied that
territory at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards.

CHAPTER V
THE MOGOLLON CULTURE

GENERAL REMARKS

Writing about the Mogollon Culture is rather like dealing with a time
bomb. It is impossible to ignore it, but one has the uncomfortable
feeling that whatever one does about it is likely to be wrong. In the
relatively few years which have elapsed since it was first suggested
that it was a separate entity[89] and not just a regional variation of
the Basketmaker-Pueblo pattern, there have come to be many
theories.[102] Many archaeologists are convinced that it must be given
the status of a basic culture comparable to that given to the Anasazi
and the Hohokam,[50][84] but there are some who feel that it should be
regarded as a variant of the Anasazi, and others who consider it the
result of an early fusion of Anasazi and Hohokam.[99] Unfortunately, too
few sites have been excavated to evaluate fully all the conflicting
theories. It has been said that “The Mogollon appears to be an
illegitimate whose paternity is still under scrutiny.”[1]

We do know that a group of people lived in west-central New Mexico and
east-central Arizona who were largely contemporaneous with the Anasazi
and the Hohokam and shared some traits with both cultures, particularly
the former. At least during the earliest periods, however, they had a
culture distinctive enough to cause many archaeologists to feel that it
is impossible to equate them with any other group.

Although the origins of the Mogollon are still shrouded in mystery, one
likely theory, which has been advanced by those who favor the belief
that the Mogollon is a basic culture, is that the Mogollon people may be
descendants of the eastern branch of the ancient food gatherers of the
Cochise Culture.[54] Their stone work is similar, and, while the
earliest Mogollon people did practice agriculture and hunting, they too
seem to have had an economy based to a great extent on the gathering of
wild plant foods. Apart from the problem of origins, there is the
further consideration of determining to what extent the early Mogollon
people were influenced by other people and to what extent they
influenced others. This is one of the most important questions with
which Southwestern archaeologists are struggling today.

Much further work will be necessary before even a partially satisfactory
answer is found. For the present, there are a few facts and innumerable
conjectures. In a publication of this nature, all that may be attempted
is to outline the available factual material and indicate some of the
theories to which it has given rise.

[Illustration: Fig. 54—Map of the Southwest showing sites referred
to in Chapter V.]

1. Bear Ruin
2. Cameron Creek Village
3. Galaz Ruin
4. Harris Village
5. Mattocks Ruin
6. Mogollon Village
7. Starkweather Ruin
8. SU site
9. Swarts Ruin

The name assigned to the culture was derived from the Mogollon range of
mountains which lies in the district in which many of the chief ruins
have been found. The principal sites which have been excavated lie in
the valleys of the San Francisco and Mimbres rivers in west-central New
Mexico, in the Forestdale Valley of Arizona, and in southeastern
Arizona. It is probable that, as further work is done, the geographical
range of the culture may be further increased. The area in which
Mogollon remains have already been found is a large one, equally as
extensive as the Basketmaker. Proponents of the theory that the Mogollon
is a basic culture point out that it is an important fact that it has
geographic substance.[59]

It would be pleasant to be able to divide the Mogollon into clear-cut
periods with established dates and full lists of the traits which
characterize each stage. Unfortunately, this cannot be done. It has been
possible to determine, in a general way, the stages of cultural
development in certain sites in New Mexico where there was some degree
of uniformity. In other areas, however, conditions were different, and
it is impossible to say that at any given time all the Mogollon people
had the identical type of culture, although there are enough points of
similarity to permit us to assign them all to the same general group. It
seems probable that, as further work is done, separate regional
chronologies will be worked out as has been done for the Pueblo sequence
where we recognize significant differences between cultural centers such
as Chaco, Mesa Verde, and Kayenta.[59] For the present these regional
variations add to the complexity of the problem. A further complication
arises from the fact that even those who recognize the Mogollon as a
basic culture feel that it is only during the earliest times that they
are dealing with a relatively pure culture, and that after 700 or 800 A.
D. the Mogollon Culture was beginning to be assimilated by the Anasazi,
and that there were also Hohokam influences.

Dates for Mogollon sites are very difficult to determine, for only a few
tree-ring dates are available. One find tends to suggest a considerable
antiquity for the culture. At Snaketown, in the earliest Pioneer level,
was found a polished red ware, which, through petrographic analysis, has
been shown to contain materials not used at Snaketown, but identical
with those of wares from Mogollon sites.[31]^d This pottery is better
made than the early Hohokam pottery and would suggest that the Mogollon
people had been making pottery for some time prior to the beginning of
the Christian era. Another possibility which has been suggested is that
both they and the Hohokam obtained pottery from some other source which
has not yet been identified.[99]

BLUFF RUIN[58]

The earliest dendrochronologically dated Mogollon site yet found lies in
the Forestdale Valley of Arizona. Tree-rings indicate that it was
occupied about 300 A. D. As far as it is possible to judge on the basis
of the very meager information available in publications at this time,
the people who lived at this site, which is known as Bluff Ruin, had a
very simple culture. They lived in round pit houses which were entered
through the side. The little pottery which has been found is plain brown
ware.

THE PINE LAWN PHASE[84][85]

At present the Mogollon in New Mexico is divided into four periods. To
the first has been assigned the name _Pine Lawn Phase_. It is known only
from one location, the SU site which lies about seven miles west of
Reserve, New Mexico. The site name was taken from a local cattle brand.
No wood suitable for dating has been found, so it has been necessary to
estimate the time of occupation on typological evidence. On this basis,
it is thought that the SU site was inhabited prior to 500 A. D.

Most of the inhabitants of the SU site lived in very shallow pit houses.
These were so irregular in shape, and there was such variation in size
and construction, that it has been suggested that the indications are
that house building was a relatively new trait. The greater number of
the pit houses were entered by inclined passageways opening to the east.
There were no deflectors such as are found in Basketmaker houses.

A few surface houses with wattle-and-daub walls have also been found.
They are similarly irregular in shape and size. House floors, both in
pit and surface structures, contained pits. There were usually several
of these and in one case as many as eight. The largest were over three
feet in diameter. Most were empty, and it is thought that they served as
storage spaces, but a few contained burned stones and bones and may have
been used for cooking. Few houses contained fire pits such as are
normally found in Anasazi dwellings.

Pottery consisted of three undecorated wares which, like all early
Mogollon pottery, were produced by a coiling and scraping technique and
fired in an oxidizing atmosphere. Included are a burnished buff to
reddish-brown ware, a thick unpolished brown, and a polished red. All
were made of the same type of clay and this argues against the polished
red pottery having been of foreign manufacture as has sometimes been
suggested.

Stone and bone artifacts were not very carefully worked, and many
materials seem to have been utilized without much modification. Stone
tools and implements strongly resemble ancient Cochise specimens. Many
grinding stones were found and quite a number of them were basin-shaped
types such as were used in the preparation of wild plant foods. There
were some simple paint-grinding stones. Little unworked bone was found
and this bears out the theory that no great amount of hunting was done.
Worked specimens were largely made from the long bones of deer. They
include pinlike objects and awls. Some of the latter had notches cut in
the side.

A total of forty-six burials has been uncovered. Some bodies were buried
outside of the houses and some within the walls. These were usually
flexed and most of them had been placed in pits. Only a few artifacts
were found with the skeletons, and it appears that the practice of
burying offerings with the dead was not well established. The skeletons
were poorly preserved and have not yielded much information. Deformation
of the skull was rare, and, when present, was very slight. It has been
suggested that the poor condition of the bones, as compared with animal
bones from the same site, may reflect deficiencies in the people’s diet.

The succeeding periods have been found best represented at Mogollon
Village,[50] about ten miles north of Glenwood, New Mexico; at Harris
Village,[50] a quarter of a mile east of Mimbres, New Mexico; and at
Starkweather Ruin,[99] three and a half miles west of Reserve, New
Mexico.

The excavation of these sites has yielded evidence of occupation by
prehistoric people who practiced agriculture but who were more dependent
on hunting than their neighbors to the north and west. Corn was
cultivated, but there is no evidence of beans or squash. They used the
atlatl or dart-thrower, as well as the bow and arrow. There is no
evidence that turkeys were domesticated, although bone remains indicate
that they were hunted.

THE GEORGETOWN PHASE

The earliest period represented at these sites is known as the
_Georgetown_. The estimated dates are from 500 to 700 A. D.[50] Some
archaeologists do not agree, and feel that 700 A. D. is the earliest
date which may be given for the first Mogollon settlements in New
Mexico.[99] During Georgetown times dwellings were small, roughly
circular, pit houses which were entered by inclined passageways. A fire
pit lay midway between the center of the room and the entrance. Roofs
were supported by a main pole in the center of the structure and
secondary poles along the walls. One larger pit house was found at
Harris Village which, it is thought, may have been used for ceremonial
purposes. It did not contain the deflector, sipapu, or benches which
characterize most Pueblo kivas. It differs from the Georgetown
domiciliary structures not only in size but in the greater length of the
entrance passage and the possession of a straight front wall.

Most pottery was undecorated. Only four sherds of painted pottery, which
consisted of a crude gray ware with broad red lines, were found. The
predominant types were a plain buff or brown ware and a polished red
ware such as were found at the SU site. A few of the former fall in the
category of textured pottery. This is pottery which has been embellished
through techniques, such as scoring, incising, or punching, which change
the character of the surface. There are no corrugated types in the early
Mogollon, but a few pieces have banded necks, or have been scored.
Textured pottery became increasingly common in later periods.

Metates were made of unshaped stone blocks and were basin-shaped.
Projectile points were short and broad stemmed. Large stemmed blades and
stemmed drills were also made. Pipes were made of clay. They were short
and were formed in one piece.

Little is known of the physical type of the people and their burial
customs, since only one grave has been found which may be attributed to
this period. This contained the skeleton of an adult male with a
slightly deformed skull who had been buried beneath the floor of a
Georgetown house at Starkweather Ruin.

THE SAN FRANCISCO PHASE

Following the Georgetown in New Mexico comes the _San Francisco_ stage
for which the dates 700 to 900 A.D. have been tentatively suggested.[50]
A few datable logs have been found in structures assigned to the latter
part of the period. The approximate age is given in round numbers with
the terminal date as 900, although two logs gave dates of 927. The
terminal date for the Georgetown and the beginning date for the San
Francisco stage are by no means firmly established.

There are such distinct changes between Georgetown and San Francisco
times, particularly as regards architecture, that an intervening period
has been postulated. Excavations in Arizona are thought to provide
evidence to substantiate this belief, but there are as yet no published
accounts. It has also been suggested that the marked changes were due to
outside influences, possibly both Anasazi and Hohokam. Still another
theory advanced to account for the architectural changes at the
beginning of the San Francisco stage is that the culture was modified by
the addition of a Colonial Hohokam house type.[99] It is generally
agreed that after about 700 or 800 A.D. the Mogollon was a highly mixed
culture, but there are many questions which cannot be answered until
more evidence is available. Whatever the explanation, many culture
traits, notably house types, did change.

[Illustration: Fig. 55—Postulated reconstructions of the dwelling
units of the three Mogollon phases represented by the houses in the
Harris Village. (After Haury.[50] Courtesy Gila Pueblo.) a.
Georgetown.]

[Illustration: b. San Francisco.]

[Illustration: c. Three Circle.]

The small, roughly circular houses were replaced by deep rectangular pit
houses with roofs supported by a main center pole and auxiliary poles
along the long axis. Most had side entrances, but in some cases the
entrance was through the roof. Some of the wood taken from these houses
has yielded tree-ring dates. At Mogollon Village four houses, believed
to have been occupied at the close of the period, contained datable
logs. The dates fell between 896 and 908 A.D. At Starkweather Ruin, a
house attributed to the San Francisco phase yielded two logs with dates
of 927 A.D.

In addition to the domiciliary structures, there were larger houses
thought to have been of a ceremonial nature. These were kidney-shaped as
a result of the drawing in of the sides at the entrance. They did not
have ventilators. Storage pits were rare in houses but occurred
frequently between the structures. They were usually undercut, so that
they were wider at the bottom than at the top.

The same pottery types found in the Georgetown phase continued to be
made and red-on-brown and red-on-white painted wares were also produced.
Textured pottery increased in importance and included banded, punched,
and scored forms.

Basin-shaped metates persisted, but there were also troughed forms,
closed at one end. Grooved mauls are found in San Francisco levels.
Grooved axes are not found in all sites, but some were obtained from the
San Francisco horizon at Starkweather Ruin. Other stone work included
broad-bladed hoes, roughly shaped stone vessels and both long and short
pipes. Projectile points, blades, and drills were like the earlier
types. A distinctive implement, and an important feature of the Mogollon
culture, was a form of bone awl with a notch cut a short distance below
the head. Shell work was rare, but a few beads and bracelets made of
this material have been found.

Graves are usually found scattered between the structures, although at
Starkweather Ruin two adult burials were found below a house floor.
Offerings were scarce, but in some cases vessels were broken and the
pieces scattered in the grave. This foreshadows the practice of
“ceremonial killing” of pottery which became so marked later. It is
believed that this was done to permit the release of the spirit or soul
of the pottery. While inhumation was the chief method of disposing of
the dead, cremation was practiced in a very few cases and the ashes and
unconsumed bones placed in pits. This trait may have been derived from
the Hohokam to the west. A study of the skeletal remains indicate that
the people had relatively low, broad heads and did not practice
deformation.

BEAR RUIN[53]

In the seventh and eighth centuries another site of great interest was
occupied in east-central Arizona. This site, which is known as the Bear
Ruin, lies in the Forestdale Valley some eight miles south of Showlow.
Tree-ring dates were obtained from three beams. The dates fall in the
middle of the seventh century. These logs may have been cut at any time
during the building period, however, and it is only through finding
pottery of known age that archaeologists have arrived at the dates of
600 to 800 A.D. for the estimated age of occupation.

Bear Ruin is important because it shows hybridizing and blending of
Mogollon and Anasazi traits. Probably the Mogollon was the original
culture on which were superimposed certain Anasazi traits. Eventually
the former is thought to have been so completely overlaid by the latter
as to practically disappear, not only here, but also in other parts of
the territory.

The people who lived in Bear Ruin, in the days when it was not a ruin
but an inhabited village, were equally dependent on hunting and
agriculture. They lived both in round and rectangular pit houses.
Seventeen of these have been excavated, and it is thought that this may
represent about fifty per cent of the village.

Most of the houses resemble those of the Anasazi area, yet some are like
Mogollon houses and others show a combination of Anasazi and Mogollon
elements. None contained either masonry or slab linings. A large kiva
was found on the outskirts of the village. It contained a grooved
trench, dug into the floor, which, it is thought, may have provided a
fastening for the lower beams of looms.

Cooking was apparently done over large rock hearths in and about the
houses. The technique employed may have been to fill pits with rocks
which were then heated. Food wrapped in some insulating material, such
as grass, was then placed in the pit and covered with hot rocks topped
with earth. This trait is one of those which, it has been suggested, may
have been derived from the ancient Cochise people.

The Bear Ruin people did not make any painted pottery, but this must
have been a matter of choice, for they were familiar with the painted
wares of the Anasazi, Mogollon, and Hohokam, which they imported. A
great percentage of the indigenous pottery was the plain buff to
reddish-brown ware so plentiful in all early Mogollon sites. One
distinctive type of pottery found in the Forestdale Valley is
characterized by a black interior and a brown or reddish-brown exterior
marked by black fire clouds. These clouds or smudges are the result of
pottery coming in contact with fuel during the firing process. Another
Forestdale type is a gray to light-brown ware which may represent a
fusion of Basketmaker gray ware and Mogollon buff ware. A third is a
red-brown pottery mottled by fire clouds.

The dead were buried in shallow pits scattered throughout the village.
Bodies usually lay on the back in a semi-flexed position with the heads
to the northeast. Most of the graves contained mortuary offerings,
usually pottery. One child was found buried with seventeen vessels. Nine
of these were miniatures and were possibly his toys. Due to soil
conditions, bones were poorly preserved. What evidence could be obtained
from them indicates the presence of a mixed population, such as would be
expected on the basis of the mixture of traits shown in the material
culture.

THE THREE CIRCLE PHASE

In New Mexico further changes took place during the _Three Circle_ stage
which followed the San Francisco. Pit houses were somewhat smaller and
shallower and were all rectangular and often stone-lined. Roofs were
usually supported by four main posts placed near the corners. Sometimes
the supports were incorporated in the wall. In some cases, the side
entrances were short and sometimes started with a step. Besides the
domestic structures, there were also larger rectangular pit houses with
long inclined entrances which are thought to have been of a ceremonial
nature.

Troughed metates entirely replaced the basin-shaped variety. Manos were
shaped and four-sided in form. Axes were sometimes notched and sometimes
grooved for hafting. Stone vessels were still simple, but were sometimes
ornamented with incised patterns. Serrations on both edges characterized
the arrow points which were long and narrow-stemmed. Stone palettes
appear in this horizon. They may have been inspired or introduced by the
Hohokam, or they may have evolved from the simple paint grinding stones
such as those found in the SU site. Stone pipes and short clay pipes
with fitted stems have been found.

With the exception of red-on-brown pottery, wares already described
continued to be made. A black-on-white pottery, which apparently shows a
Pueblo influence from the north, was added to the assemblage. Textured
pottery became more important.

Shell was widely used as a material, although only a few species were
represented. Olivella shells and double-lobed pieces of cut shell were
used as beads. Thin bracelets were made of glycymeris shell. Some beads
were tubular forms made of bone. Others were made from hackberry seeds,
and one infant was found buried with hundreds of these.

In general, burials were like those of the preceding period. Cremations
continued to be very rare.

THE MIMBRES PHASE

More and more the Mogollon people were affected by outside cultural
influences. By about 950 or 1000 A.D. their culture had been so greatly
altered and was submerged to such an extent that the resulting blend may
be considered a new entity and given another name. This phase or culture
is called the _Mimbres_. It was named after the Mimbres River, for this
valley seems to represent the focal point of the culture. The greatest
development centers in Grant County, New Mexico, where excavated sites
include the Swarts Ruin,[21] the Mattocks Ruin,[98] the Galaz Ruin,[8]
and Cameron Creek Village.[6]

In these sites is found evidence of rapid changes in the construction of
dwellings. The earliest houses were Mogollon-type pit houses, sometimes
slab-lined. These were followed by semi-subterranean and single surface
houses with rubble masonry. In the latest stage, houses were built
entirely above the surface. They were one-story pueblolike buildings
consisting of clusters of rooms. In some cases there were no more than
five rooms, in others there were more than fifty. The larger structures
sometimes had inner courts or plazas and at Swarts Ruin, where there are
two big houses, there was a large dance plaza between the two buildings.
Walls were built of masonry, often made of river boulders. Roofs were
made of beams covered with brush, grass, reeds, and adobe. Some
contained trap-doors, covered with stone slabs, which provided a means
of entrance. In one architecturally advanced building there were
windows. In the rooms were fireplaces and rock-walled storage bins.
Kivas were rectangular, underground chambers.

One interesting trait of the Mimbreños was the practice of burying the
dead under the house floors, although the houses continued to be
occupied. In one room a total of thirty-two, sub-floor burials were
found. Although this practice was the most common one, it was not always
followed, for there were some burials outside of the houses and in the
fill of unoccupied rooms, and a few cremations have been found.

Archaeologists are very grateful to the ancient Mimbres people for their
habit of burying pots with the dead, for it is to this that we owe our
knowledge of some of the most beautiful and interesting pottery that has
ever been made. A few old people and children were buried without
offerings, but most bodies had one or more bowls placed over the head.
Metates and manos were also often placed in women’s graves, and there
was some jewelry. One interesting feature of burial pottery, apart from
the magnificent skill which went into its decoration, was the presence
of a hole, usually punched into the pot with a sharp instrument, or
sometimes drilled. It is believed that this was done to release the
spirit or soul of the vessel which was thought to be a part of the
maker. The ceremonial killing of pottery probably took place at the
grave, for the piece knocked out of a pot is often found associated with
it in the burial. Metates were often similarly treated.

The plain burnished-buff and polished-red wares of the Mogollon
continued to be made, but black-on-white pottery assumed the greatest
importance, and fine corrugated cooking ware began to be produced. There
is also some polychrome ware with red and black designs on a white
background. It was in the field of black-on-white ware that the ancient
Mimbreños reached an artistic peak which has seldom, if ever, been
surpassed in the medium of pottery. The black-on-white color combination
at once suggests Pueblo influence. Certain design elements are
reminiscent of the Hohokam, however.

Bowls were the usual shape. Designs were sometimes positive, sometimes
negative. They were of two types, geometric and naturalistic. Both are
equally remarkable. The geometric designs are very beautiful and are
characterized by an extraordinary sureness of touch which is revealed by
the accuracy of spacing and the precision of line. In one case, for
example, twenty-seven parallel lines are to be found in a band less than
two inches in width. The bowls with naturalistic designs show the same
fine sense of composition. Some depict charming, surrealist creatures
which Dali might be proud to claim, but others are quite realistic. The
forms shown include birds, insects, quadrupeds, fish, and human beings.

From these we can gather certain clues to help us reconstruct something
of the way of life of the people who painted them. Turkeys were among
the birds most commonly represented, but a lack of turkey bones in the
refuse heaps suggests that they were not used for food. Remains of fish,
which are also commonly represented, have not been found, but this may,
of course, be due to the fragility of their bones. Most useful are the
designs showing human beings. There are some narrative scenes which show
such activities as men fighting bears, setting snares, dancing, and
picking bugs from corn plants. From pictures of people, we may learn
something of the clothing which was worn. Men are shown wearing breech
cloths. Women are sometimes represented wearing a fringed sash and
sandals. Some are shown wearing blankets which extend below the waist
and with fringed sashes hanging down in back. Their hair was worn in
whorls on the side, much like the present head dress of unmarried Hopi
girls. We know from burials that skull deformation was widely practiced,
and this adds to our knowledge of the appearance of the people. Jewelry
was rather widely worn. It is shown on human figures painted on bowls,
and examples are found in graves. Beads were made of stone and shell.
Turquoise was used in the manufacture of beads, in inlaying, and in
making pendants which were worn as ear bobs. There were many bracelets
and carved pendants of shell.

[Illustration: Fig. 56—Mimbres black-on-white pottery. Note hole in
center of upper bowl which shows that the vessel has been “killed.”
(Courtesy School of American Research.)]

Stone implements include grooved axes, hoes, large knives, projectile
points, and manos and troughed metates. Some interesting artifacts are
mortars and pestles believed to have been used for crushing nuts and
seeds. Some mortars were holes dug into rock outcrops and boulders. A
considerable number of palettes have been found. Bone was widely used in
the manufacture of awls. Some of these have decorated heads carved in
the form of mountain sheep.

During the twelfth century the Mimbres people left their old haunts. The
culture may have persisted for some time in some of the outlying
districts to the south but the main area was left unoccupied. During
Regressive-Pueblo times it was inhabited for a time by Pueblo people,
but there were no occupied villages at the time of Coronado. Why the
Mimbreños deserted this fertile valley, we do not know. There is no
evidence of warfare and no sign of a hurried departure. When the people
moved they must have had time to gather their belongings together and
take them with them, for only heavy stone artifacts were left behind. We
do not know where these people went after leaving the Mimbres Valley.
The best guess seems to be that they moved south into Mexico where they
were assimilated and absorbed by other groups, and that they lost their
identity among the people of Chihuahua.

SUMMARY

We may summarize the Mogollon problem as follows: In west-central New
Mexico and east-central Arizona have been found certain sites which do
not follow entirely the same pattern as Anasazi or Hohokam sites. There
are a number of possible theories to explain the development of the
culture represented by these sites. It may have been derived from the
Anasazi, it may represent an early fusion of the Anasazi and Hohokam
cultures or, it may be a separate cultural entity which possibly
developed from the eastern branch of the ancient Cochise Culture. During
the earliest periods it had certain traits which, in the opinion of many
archaeologists, make it necessary to consider it a separate basic
culture. Houses were of the pit house type with long sloping entrances.
Agriculture was practiced, but there was a great dependence on the
gathering of wild foods and on hunting. The atlatl was used, as well as
the bow. Pottery was made by a coiling and scraping technique, was fired
in an oxidizing atmosphere, and was usually well polished. A painted
ware with red designs on a brown background and a red-on-white ware were
later added and textured pottery increased in importance. Pipes were
made of clay and of stone. Bone awls were often notched on one side. The
dead were usually buried outside the houses. There were some cremations.

From about 700 or 800 A.D. on, there is evidence of more and more
outside influences. By around 950 or 1000 A.D. there were so many
changes in the Mimbres Valley that the resulting blend is often referred
to as a separate culture. Single pit houses were replaced by
multi-roomed pueblolike structures built above the ground.
Black-on-white pottery was the dominant ware and reached a high degree
of excellence. The dead were usually buried under house floors. Cranial
deformation was widely practiced. The Mimbres Valley was deserted in the
middle of the twelfth century and we can only conjecture where the
people who had inhabited it went.

As may readily be seen, the whole Mogollon problem appears to be very
complex. This is always the case when a culture or an area is first
investigated and the long job of studying it is in its initial stages.
Apparently the Mogollon people influenced their neighbors to the north
and to the west, and were influenced by them, but we are not yet in a
position to evaluate these trends.

CHAPTER VI
THE SINAGUA PEOPLE[18]

In northern Arizona have been found many remains of prehistoric people
who were contemporaneous with and had certain traits in common with the
Anasazi, and it was originally thought that they all belonged to this
culture. Later, and more intensive, studies have shown that the problem
is more complex than was first believed. Apparently various tribes were
represented, and at present archaeologists are not in agreement as to
the cultures to which all of these groups should be assigned.[29] The
people of the Kayenta region were Anasazis, but in north-central and
northwestern parts of the state lived other people whose affiliations
are not yet known with certainty. It has been suggested that the best
known group may represent a branch of the Mogollon but it has not been
definitely assigned to this culture.

This group is called the _Sinagua_. It first occupied the area about the
San Francisco Mountains and, later, the Verde Valley. The characteristic
pottery is a brown utility ware of paddle-and-anvil manufacture, fired
in an oxidizing atmosphere. The surface is smoothed and sometimes
polished. Tree-ring dates have not been satisfactorily established for
the earliest period, but, on the basis of pottery finds, it has been
estimated that the San Francisco Mountain area was occupied between 500
and 700 A.D. by people who lived in round and rectangular pit houses
with center firepits and long sloping entrances to the east. Roofs were
of sloping poles covered with earth.

These were followed by fairly deep, timber pit houses. Walls were made
of a series of upright poles lashed together, with larger poles set in
corners to provide support for a roof platform. The entire structure was
covered with grass or bark, and earth was banked over it. These timber
pit houses at first had long sloping entrances to the east, but these
were later reduced to serve as ventilators, and entrance was through the
roof.

In locations unsuitable for the construction of pit houses, there were
also surface or near-surface houses. In places where drainage was poor
and the ground was boggy, they were built on artificially constructed
earth mounds some eight to twelve inches high. These have been called
platform or alcove houses. They are roughly rectangular and have a small
extension or alcove which was used as an entrance. The alcove may have
served a further purpose and supplied additional storage space, although
rectangular surface granaries made of timber seem to be associated with
these houses.

[Illustration: Fig. 57—Map of the Southwest showing probable areas
occupied by the Sinagua group and the Patayan Culture. Dotted area,
Sinagua; 1. Southern branch, 2. Northern branch. Hatched area,
Patayan; 3. Cohonina branch, 4. Prescott branch. (Based on maps by
Colton[18][19] and McGregor.[87])]

Sometime between 1046 and 1070 A.D., probably in 1066, a volcano fifteen
miles northeast of the present town of Flagstaff erupted. This volcano,
now known as Sunset Crater, covered some 800 square miles with a black
ash, and forced the early inhabitants to flee from their homes on the
lower slopes of the San Francisco Mountains. This seeming disaster,
however, was really a very fortunate occurrence, for the fine black
material strewn over the countryside by the volcano provided a mulch
which aided in conserving moisture and made the practice of agriculture
possible over a wider area.

[Illustration: Fig. 58—Montezuma Castle National Monument, Arizona.
(Courtesy National Park Service.)]

Not only did the original Sinagua people return to the area, but Hohokam
and Pueblo people moved in too, bringing with them their own special
traits. The Hohokam introduced their type of architecture and their
distinctive ball courts, and the Anasazi introduced the Pueblo
architecture which was adopted by the Sinaguans. At first, masonry was
used to replace timbers in pit houses, but in a very short time the
Sinagua people began building surface masonry dwellings and multi-roomed
pueblos became the rule.

During the years of the great drought of 1276 to 1299, many more people
left the area and moved farther south into the Hohokam territory where
some Sinaguans had already settled. Shortly after 1300 A.D. the
Flagstaff area was abandoned. Some people stayed in the Verde Valley and
built large pueblos. This southern branch is best known from the
impressive sites of Tuzigoot[13] and Montezuma Castle, now National
Monuments. Others may have gone farther south and mixed with the Hohokam
in the Gila Basin, and some may have moved to the Little Colorado area
and may be among the ancestors of the present Hopi Indians.

CHAPTER VII
THE PATAYAN CULTURE

The prehistoric people who lived in the valley of the Colorado River
below the Grand Canyon are the least well known in the Southwest, for
most information about them has been derived only from surface surveys.
Originally, the term _Yuman_ was applied to these people, for Indians
speaking a Yuman language were found there by the first white men to
visit the area.[35] Some archaeologists still use this term, and it is
commonly applied to the culture found in the lower Colorado River basin
and adjacent areas in California.[116] Others feel that it is unwise to
apply a linguistic term to a prehistoric culture and use the term
_Patayan_, a Walapai word meaning “the old people.”[16] It is postulated
that the Patayan or Yuman is a basic culture or root to which should be
given the same status as the Anasazi and Hohokam.

A large population was found in this area when it was visited by Father
Kino in 1700, and it is thought that there must have been a great
concentration of population in this fertile valley and delta for a long
time. In the lower basin of the Colorado River and in the desert area
which adjoins it, has been found evidence of ancient people who worked
in stone but did not make pottery.[115] A period followed in which more
territory was occupied and in which pottery was made. The finding of
datable pieces of trade wares in the valley indicates a period of
occupation of some 1500 years by people familiar with ceramics.[116]

Archaeologists studying the Patayan or Yuman culture encounter many
difficulties. The culture seems to be characterized by a great poverty
of material remains, possibly because of a greater use of perishable
materials which have not been preserved. Also, until Boulder Dam was
built, the river overflowed its banks every year and covered the land
with a layer of silt, thus burying much evidence of occupation.[17]

In western and northwestern Arizona, the portion of this area which lies
within the scope of this book, the one group of people which has been
more or less definitely assigned to the Patayan culture is known only
from the finding of distinctive, brown utility-wares. The main center of
this tribe seems to have been in the Colorado River valley below Black
Canyon.

There are also two other groups of northwestern Arizona which may, or
may not, prove to be manifestations of the Patayan pattern. The area
below the Grand Canyon and north of the San Francisco Mountains, bounded
on the east by the Little Colorado River and on the west by the Grand
Wash Cliffs, was occupied between about 700 and 1100 A.D. by a group of
people to which the name _Cohonina_ has been applied.[16] These people
lived both in deep and in very shallow pit houses with walls made of
timber. It has been suggested that the deep pit houses may represent a
Sinagua trait and that the near-surface houses were the true Cohonina
form. Masonry was used in the construction of some of the deep pit
houses and granaries and forts. The latter are large rectangular
buildings with thick walls and parapets which were probably loop-holed.
The building of such structures would suggest unsettled conditions. Some
time after 1100 A.D., masonry pueblos were built.

Cohonina pottery was a gray ware made by the paddle-and-anvil process,
sometimes scraped for final finishing, and fired in a reducing
atmosphere. Red paint was often applied over the surface of the vessel
after firing. It is impermanent and is commonly called “fugitive red”.
Occasionally crude designs were applied with a thin black paint. Jars
were the most common form, but some bowls were also made. Arrowheads
were of a distinctive type. Cohonina points are slender and roughly
triangular, although sometimes the maximum breadth is above the base.
They are serrated and unnotched. Little is known of methods of disposing
of the dead. It is suspected that cremation was practiced, but that the
bones were not gathered after burning.

To the south in the vicinity of Prescott, Arizona, between about 900 and
1000 A.D., lived another group of people.[16] They too built some
masonry forts and made gray, paddle-and-anvil pottery with a coarse
temper containing much mica. Decorations were in black paint. The firing
atmosphere was poorly controlled, and there is a variation in color from
gray to orange or red, although the paste is the same.

If all this seems needlessly confusing, it must be remembered that even
the archaeologists most intimately concerned with the problem are
confused too. Only the most fragmentary evidence has been found, but
they know that an important chapter in the prehistory of the Southwest
lies in the valley of the Colorado River and adjacent areas. They know
that eventually they will be able to read it, and, as a result, they
will have a greatly improved perspective in their attempts to analyze
the whole of prehistoric life in the Southwest. Before the final pages
are deciphered, however, so much remains to be done that very likely
there will be even more confusion before there is clarification.

CONCLUSION

In the preceding chapters an attempt has been made to summarize our
present knowledge of the prehistory of the great area called the
Southwest. Although the Southwest is possibly the best known area in
America, we have barely scratched the surface and great discoveries lie
ahead. For the present there are many gaps in our knowledge. Doubtless
in many cases, data have been incorrectly interpreted. Archaeological
opinions are by no means unanimous on all points. In the years to come,
other archaeologists with greater knowledge and more refined techniques
will reveal new pages of prehistory and re-interpret many of those which
their predecessors have tried to decipher. The findings of all science
must be regarded, “not as rigid dogma, but as reasonable approximation
to truth, certain to be largely extended and modified in the future.”[2]
Although there is yet much to be learned and much to be reevaluated, a
great deal has already been accomplished in the realm of Southwestern
archaeology. Through scattered clues, carefully assembled and
painstakingly studied and correlated it is at least possible to see
something of the growth and development of unfamiliar cultures.

Inevitably certain questions are asked of those who devote themselves to
such work. “What good is archaeology?” “Why is it important to know
these things?” The best answer seems to be still another question. “Are
we sufficiently sure of the worth of our own achievements to deny the
value of trying to reconstruct another chapter of human history, even if
we have nothing more than pottery and stone to guide us?”[3] According
to our standards the prehistoric inhabitants of the Southwest did not
achieve civilization. Still, there might be something to be learned from
people so uncivilized that they believed that the cultivation of the
land, the creation of beautiful as well as useful objects, and keeping
in harmony with the great natural forces of the universe, were more
important than the subjugation or destruction of their fellow men.

GLOSSARY

Aborigine—The native inhabitants of a country; in America, the Indians.

Apocynum—A plant, related to the milkweed, which provided fibers used in
weaving.

Archaeology—The scientific study of the material remains of human life
and human activities in prehistoric or ancient times.

Artifact—A product of human workmanship. Commonly used by archaeologists
in speaking of prehistoric tools, implements, etc.

Atlatl—An Aztec word meaning spear-thrower. Atlatls are throwing sticks
which have a handle on one end and on the other a spur which fits
into a pit or cup drilled into the basal end of a dart shaft. When
the dart is thrown the atlatl remains in the hand.

Basic Culture—See _Culture_.

Caliche—A crust or succession of crusts of calcium carbonate that forms
within or on top of the soil of arid or semi-arid regions.

Ceramic—Pertaining to pottery and its materials.

Chronology—The study of the method of arranging past events or the
material representing them in a sequence of their happenings in
relation to years or in relation to each other.

Cist—An oval or circular pit, often slab-lined, used for storage. Cists
sometimes served a secondary purpose as depositories for the dead.

Clan—A social group made up of a number of households, the heads of
which claim descent in either the male or female line from a
common ancestor.

Cloisonne—A surface decoration produced by outlining a design with
strips of flat wire and filling the interstices with enamel.

Complex—A group of related traits or characteristics which combine to
form a complete activity, process, or cultural unit.

Compound—In the Orient, a wall or fenced enclosure containing a house,
buildings, etc. The term is also used to describe the walled
enclosures built during Classic Hohokam times.

Corrugated Pottery—Pottery in which the alternate ridges and depressions
resulting from a coiling-and-pinching technique of manufacture
have not been obliterated.

Coursed Masonry—Masonry constructed of stones lying on approximately
level beds.

Cranium—Skull (Plural: Crania)

Culture—The total activities and beliefs of a group of individuals which
may be separated from other groups on the basis of differences in
complexes and original differences in geographical and
chronological positions. In an archaeological context, the
material remains of a group of people which represent traits which
they had in common, which differentiated them from other people. A
_Basic Culture_ is, as the name implies, one which provides a base
or foundation for succeeding cultures. It is essentially a
cultural root from which may spring stems and branches.

Deflector—An upright slab, standing between fireplace and ventilator in
a pit house or kiva, designed to protect the fire from inrushing
air.

Dendrochronology—A system of establishing an absolute count of years by
utilizing the pattern combinations of tree-rings.

Diffusion—The transference of elements of culture from one society to
another.

Effigy—An image of a living object.

Ethnology—The scientific study of the cultures of living primitive
peoples.

Hatchures—Short, closely spaced, parallel lines used in pottery designs.

Hogan—A Navajo house; one room, domed or conically shaped, made of logs,
sometimes with stone side walls, usually covered with earth.

Horizon—In a site, a level or stratum. In a culture, a particular level
of development.

Incised—In pottery, grooved in soft clay with a sharp tool.

Jacal—A type of construction in which walls are made of upright poles
set at short intervals and heavily plastered with adobe.

Katchinas—Supernatural beings in Pueblo Indian mythology, or masked
dancers personifying these beings.

Killed Pottery—Pottery in which a hole has been punched or drilled in
order to release the soul or spirit of the vessel which is
conceived as being a part of the maker.

Kiva—A ceremonial chamber, usually subterranean and circular.

Mano—A hand stone, usually roughly oblong, used for grinding grains,
seeds, etc.

Metate—The grinding stone on which the Mano is rubbed.

Moraine—An accumulation of earth, stones, etc. carried and finally
deposited by a glacier.

Oxidizing Atmosphere—Pottery is said to have been fired in an oxidizing
atmosphere when air is permitted to circulate around it during the
firing process. This leads to an excess of oxygen in the
atmosphere and produces pottery in shades of red, brown, or
yellow.

Paddle-and-Anvil—A pottery-finishing technique in which coil impressions
are obliterated by striking the exterior of the vessel with a
paddle while holding a round or mushroom-shaped object, known as
an anvil, within the vessel to receive the force of the blow.

Periphery—In archaeological usage, a marginal area, a region lying
immediately beyond the boundaries of a specific area.

Pilaster—A square column forming part of a wall.

Phase—This term is used in different ways by different archaeologists.
For the purposes of this book, it may be defined as an interval of
culture occurring in a specific area at a specific time and
associated with a particular culture. It may also be defined as a
group of sites with similar determinants.

Polychrome Pottery—Pottery bearing three or more colors.

Plaza—A public square.

Projectile Point—An arrow point, spear point, or dart point.

Reducing Atmosphere—Pottery is said to have been fired in a reducing
atmosphere when air is not allowed to circulate around it during
the firing process. This results in a reduction of the oxygen
content of the atmosphere and produces pottery in shades of white
and gray.

Sherd—A fragment of a broken, pottery vessel.

Sipapu—A hole commonly found in the floors of kivas which is symbolic of
the mythological place from which, according to creation myths,
the first people emerged from the underworld.

Slip—A coating of very fine clay applied to a vessel before firing to
give a smooth finish.

Spall—A chip or flake removed from a larger piece of stone.

Stockade—An enclosure made with posts and stakes.

Stratification—The characteristic of being in layers or strata and the
processes by which such material is deposited. A single layer is
called a _Stratum_, more than one, _Strata_. When undisturbed the
lowest stratum is the oldest since it was laid down first.

Trait—Any single element of culture.

Temper—Non-plastic material added to clay from which pottery is made to
prevent cracking.

Twilling—A system of weaving in which the woof thread is carried over
one and under two or more warp threads, producing diagonal lines
or ribs on the surface of the fabric or basket.

Twining—A system of weaving in which splints or threads are intertwined
around a foundation of radiating rods or threads.

Tuff—Solidified volcanic ash.

Typology—The study of any system of arrangement according to type.

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(61) 1935. The Chaco Canyon and its Monuments: Handbooks of
Archaeological History, University of New Mexico and
School of American Research, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Hewett, Edgar L.
(62) 1938. The Pajarito Plateau and its Ancient People: Handbooks
of Archaeological History, University of New Mexico and
School of American Research, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Hibben, Frank C.
(63) 1938. The Gallina Phase: American Antiquity, Vol. IV, No. 2,
pp. 131-136, Menasha, Wisconsin.
(64) 1941. Evidences of Early Occupation in Sandia Cave, New
Mexico, and other sites in the Sandia-Manzano Region:
Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 99, No. 23.
Howard, Edgar B.
(65) 1935. Evidence of Early Man in North America: The Museum
Journal, Vol. XXIV, Nos. 2-3, University of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Hurst, C. T.
(66) 1945. Completion of Excavation of Tabequache Cave II:
Southwestern Lore, Vol. II, No. 1, Gunnison, Colorado.
(67) 1946. Colorado’s Old Timers: Colorado Archaeological Society,
Gunnison, Colorado.
Huscher, Betty H. and Harold A.
(68) 1943. The Hogan Builders of Colorado: Colorado Archaeological
Society, Gunnison, Colorado.
Jenks, Albert E.
(69) 1936. Pleistocene Man In Minnesota, a Fossil _Homo Sapiens_:
Minneapolis, Minnesota.
(70) 1937. Minnesota’s Browns Valley Man and Associated Burial
Artifacts: Memoirs, American Anthropological
Association, No. 49, Menasha, Wisconsin.
Judd, Neil M.
(71) 1925. Everyday Life in Pueblo Bonito: National Geographic
Magazine, Vol. XLVIII, No. 3, pp. 227-262, Washington,
D. C.
(72) 1940. Progress in the Southwest: Smithsonian Miscellaneous
Collections, Volume 100, Washington, D. C.
Kidder, Alfred Vincent
(73) 1924. An Introduction to the Study of Southwestern
Archaeology, with a Preliminary Account of the
Excavations at Pecos: Papers, Southwestern Expedition,
Phillips Academy, No. 1, Yale University Press, New
Haven, Conn.
(74) 1927. Southwestern Archaeological Conference: Science, Vol.
66, No. 1716, pp. 489-91, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
(75) 1931. The Pottery of Pecos: Vol. I, Papers, Southwestern
Expedition, Phillips Academy, Yale University Press,
New Haven, Conn.
Kidder, Alfred Vincent and S. J. Guernsey
(76) 1919. Archaeological Explorations in Northeastern Arizona:
Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin No. 65,
Washington, D. C.
Kidder, Alfred Vincent and Anna O. Shepard
(77) 1936. The Pottery of Pecos: Vol. II, Papers, Southwestern
Expedition, Phillips Academy, Yale University Press,
New Haven, Connecticut.
Kroeber, A. L.
(78) 1928. Native Culture of the Southwest: Univ. of California
Pub. in Am. Arch. and Ethn., Vol. XXIII, No. 9, pp.
373-398, Berkeley, Calif.
Linton, Ralph
(79) 1936. The Study of Man: D. Appleton-Century Co. New York.
(80) 1944. Nomad Raids and Fortified Pueblos: American Antiquity,
Vol. X, No. 1, Menasha, Wisconsin.
Martin, Paul S., Lawrence Roys and Gerhardt von Bonin
(81) 1936. Lowry Ruin in Southwestern Colorado: Anthropological
Series, Vol. XXIII, No. 1, Field Museum of Natural
History, Chicago, Illinois.
Martin, Paul S., Carl Lloyd and Alexander Spoehr
(82) 1938. Archaeological Field Work in the Ackmen-Lowry Area,
Southwestern Colorado, 1937. Anthropological Series,
Vol. XXIII, No. 2, Field Museum of Natural History,
Chicago, Illinois.
Martin, Paul S. and John Rinaldo
(83) 1939. Modified Basket Maker Sites, Ackmen-Lowry Area,
Southwestern Colorado, 1938: Anthropological Series,
Vol. XXIII, No. 3, Field Museum of Natural History,
Chicago, Illinois.
Martin, Paul S., John Rinaldo, and Marjorie Kelly
(84) 1940. The SU Site, Excavations at a Mogollon Village, Western
New Mexico, 1939. Anthropological Series, Vol. XXXII,
No. 1, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago,
Illinois.
Martin, Paul S., Robert J. Braidwood, John Rinaldo, Marjorie Kelly
and Brigham A. Arnold.
(85) 1943. The SU Site, Excavations at a Mogollon Village, Western
New Mexico: Second Season, 1941. Anthropological
Series, Vol. 32, No. 2, Field Museum of Natural
History, Chicago, Illinois.
McGregor, John C.
(86) 1941. Winona and Ridge Ruin: Part I, Northern Arizona Society
of Science and Art, Bulletin 18, Flagstaff, Arizona.
(87) 1941. Southwestern Archaeology: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New
York.
(88) 1943. Burial of an Early American Magician: Recent Advances
in American Archaeology, Proceeding of the American
Philosophical Society, Vol. 86, No. 2, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.
Mera, Harry P.
(89) 1934. Observations on the Archaeology of Petrified Forest
National Monument: Laboratory of Anthropology, Tech.
Bulletin 7, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
(90) 1935. Ceramic Clues to the Prehistory of North Central New
Mexico. Tech. Bulletin 8, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
(91) 1938. Some Aspects of the Largo Cultural Phase, Northern New
Mexico: American Antiquity, Vol. III, No. 3, Menasha,
Wisconsin.
Morris, Earl H.
(92) 1925. Exploring in the Canyon of Death: National Geographic
Magazine, Volume XLVIII, No. 3, pp. 262-300,
Washington, D. C.
(93) 1927. The Beginnings of Pottery Making in the San Juan Area,
Unfired Prototypes and the Wares of the Earliest
Ceramic Period: Anthropological Papers, American Museum
of Natural History, Vol. XXVIII, Pt. 2, New York.
(94) 1928. The Aztec Ruin: Arch M. Huntington Survey of the
Southwest, Anthropological Papers, American Museum of
Natural History, Vol. XXVI, Pts. 1-5. New York.
(95) 1939. Archaeological Studies in the La Plata District,
Southwestern Colorado and Northwestern New Mexico:
Appendix by Anna O. Shepard. Carnegie Institution,
Washington, D. C.
(96) 1946. Personal Communication.
Morss, Noel
(97) 1931. The Ancient Culture of the Fremont River in Utah:
Peabody Museum Papers, Vol. XII, No. 3, Harvard
University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Nesbitt, Paul H.
(98) 1931. The Ancient Mimbrenos, Based on Investigations at the
Mattocks Ruin, Mimbres, Valley, New Mexico: Logan
Museum Publications, Bull. No. 4, Beloit, Wisconsin.
(99) 1938. Starkweather Ruin: Logan Museum Publications Bull. No.
6, Beloit, Wisconsin.
Nusbaum, J. L.
(100) 1922. A Basket-Maker Cave in Kane County, Utah; with Notes on
the Artifacts by A. V. Kidder and S. J. Guernsey:
Indian Notes and Monographs, Museum of the American
Indian, No. 29, Heye Foundation, New York.
Parsons, Elsie Clews
(101) 1939. Pueblo Indian Religion: University of Chicago
Publications in Anth. and Ethn., Chicago, Illinois.
Reed, Erik K.
(102) 1942. Implications of the Mogollon Complex: American
Antiquity, Vol. VIII, No. 1, Menasha, Wisconsin.
Rinaldo, John
(103) 1941. Conjectures on the Independent Development of the
Mogollon Culture: American Antiquity, Vol. VII, No. 1,
Menasha, Wisconsin.
Roberts, Frank H. H., Jr.
(104) 1929. Recent Archeological Developments in the Vicinity of El
Paso, Texas: Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections,
Vol. 81, No. 7, Washington, D. C.
(105) 1929. Shabik’eschee Village, A Late Basket Maker Site in the
Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, Bulletin 92, Bureau of
American Ethnology, Washington, D. C.
(106) 1930. Early Pueblo Ruins in the Piedra District, southwestern
Colorado: Bulletin 96, Bureau of American Ethnology,
Washington, D. C.
(107) 1931. The Ruins at Kiatuthlanna, eastern Arizona: Bulletin
100, Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, D. C.
(108) 1932. The Village of the Great Kivas on the Zuni Reservation,
New Mexico, Bulletin 111, Bureau of American Ethnology,
Washington, D. C.
(109) 1935. A Folsom Complex. Preliminary Report on Investigations
at the Lindenmeier Site in northern Colorado:
Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 94,
Washington, D. C.
(110) 1935. A Survey of Southwestern Archeology: American
Anthropologist, Vol. XXXVII, No. 1, pp. 1-33, Menasha,
Wisconsin.
(111) 1937. Archaeology in the Southwest: American Antiquity, Vol.
III, No. 1, pp. 3-33, Menasha, Wisconsin.
(112) 1939. Archeological Remains in the Whitewater District,
eastern Arizona; Part I, House Types: Bulletin 121,
Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, D. C.
(113) 1939. The Development of a Unit-Type Dwelling: Hewett
Anniversary Volume “So Live The Works of Men”,
University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
(114) 1942. Archeological and Geological Investigations in the San
Jon District, eastern New Mexico: Smithsonian
Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 103, No. 4, Washington,
D. C.
Rogers, Malcolm J.
(115) 1939. Early Lithic Industries of the Lower Basin of the
Colorado River and Adjacent Desert Areas: San Diego
Museum Papers, No. 3, San Diego, California.
(116) 1945. An Outline of Yuman Prehistory: Southwestern Journal of
Anthropology, Vol. I, No. 2, pp. 167-198, Albuquerque,
New Mexico.
Sayles, E. B.
(117) 1935. An Archaeological Survey of Texas: Medallion Papers,
No. XVII, Gila Pueblo, Globe, Arizona.
Sayles, E. B. and Ernst Antevs
(118) 1941. The Cochise Culture: Medallion Papers, No. XXIV, Gila
Pueblo, Globe, Arizona.
Seltzer, Carl C.
(119) 1944. Racial Prehistory in the Southwest and the Hawikuh
Zunis: Peabody Museum Papers, Vol. XXIII, No. 1,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Stallings, W. S., Jr.
(120) 1937. Southwestern Dated Ruins: I, Tree-Ring Bulletin, Vol.
IV, No. 2, Tucson, Arizona.
(121) 1939. Dating Prehistoric Ruins by Tree-Rings: General Series,
Bulletin 8, Laboratory of Anthropology, Santa Fe, New
Mexico.
(122) 1941. A Basketmaker II Date from Cave du Pont, Utah:
Tree-Ring Bulletin, Vol. VIII, No. 1, Laboratory of
Tree-Ring Research, Tucson, Arizona.
Steward, Julian H.
(123) 1933. Archaeological Problems of the Northern Periphery of
the Southwest: Bulletin No. 5, Museum of Northern
Arizona, Flagstaff, Ariz.
Underhill, Ruth
(124) 1947. First Penthouse Dwellers of America: Second Revised
Edition, Laboratory of Anthropology, Santa Fe, N. M.
Watson, Don
(125) 1946. Cliff Palace; the Story of an Ancient City: Mesa Verde
National Park Museum, Mesa Verde, Colorado.
Weatherwax, Paul
(126) 1936. The Origin of the Maize Plant and Maize Agriculture in
Ancient America: Symposium on Prehistoric Agriculture,
Bulletin 296, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N.
M.
Weltfish, Gene
(127) 1932. Preliminary Classification of Prehistoric Southwestern
Basketry: Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections: Vol.
87, No. 7, Washington, D. C.
(128) 1932. Problems in the Study of Ancient and Modern
Basketmakers: American Anthropologist, N. S. Vol.
XXXIV, No. 1, pp. 108-117, Menasha, Wisconsin.
Woodward, Arthur
(129) 1931. The Grewe Site: Occasional Papers, No. 1, Los Angeles
Museum of History, Science and Art, Los Angeles,
California.
Wormington, H. M.
(130) 1944. Ancient Man in North America, (Second Revised Edition):
Popular Series, No. 4, Colorado Museum of Natural
History, Denver, Colorado.

APPENDIX
Outstanding Exhibit-Sites, Modern Pueblos, Local Museums

by
ERIK K. REED
_Regional Archaeologist_
_National Park Service_

After reading about the prehistoric inhabitants of the Southwest many
people feel that they would like to visit the places where they lived,
examine examples of their ancient arts and crafts, and see their
present-day descendants. No description can produce the feeling that one
experiences when viewing the imposing ruins found in our National
Monuments and Parks. Even a short time spent looking at pottery and
other artifacts in a museum will give a far better idea of their
appearance than will photographs, drawings, or the most detailed
descriptions. A visit to a modern pueblo makes it possible to visualize
something of the life of bygone centuries and to think of the ancient
inhabitants of the area as living, breathing people rather than as
lifeless specimens. The following lists have been prepared in an effort
to help those who wish to visit the Southwest and to learn about its
people through their own experience.

I. OUTSTANDING EXHIBIT-SITES
The San Juan Anasazi Culture

MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK.

Great cliff-dwellings and open pueblos of the Classic period. Pit-house,
mesa-top villages and cave remains of earlier periods, Modified
Basketmaker and Developmental Pueblo. One of the major foci of the
Anasazi culture of 300-1300 A. D., and the most accessible and
best-exhibited, interpreted by caravan-tours and an outstanding museum.
Paved entrance-road from Highway U. S.-160 between Mancos and Cortez,
Colorado. Lodge with adequate accommodations open May-October.

CHACO CANYON NATIONAL MONUMENT.

The greatest concentration of open pueblo ruins in a valley floor,
another of the major foci of prehistoric Anasazi civilization. The
famous huge buildings, Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl, Pueblo del Arroyo,
etc.; a restored Great Kiva, an excavated Modified-Basketmaker village;
and innumerable small pueblo sites. Undeveloped museum. Very restricted
accommodations. In the middle of northwestern New Mexico, 64 miles north
of Thoreau (which is on Highway U. S.-66) and 64 miles south of Aztec,
New Mexico (on U. S.-550); 25 miles from nearest paved road (State 55,
Cuba to Bloomfield).

AZTEC RUINS NATIONAL MONUMENT.

An excavated great pueblo of the Classic period, twelfth and thirteenth
centuries, built between 1100 and 1125 A. D., with a completely restored
Great Kiva; additional unexcavated pueblo ruins. Lying between Chaco
Canyon and the Mesa Verde, these pueblos on the Animas River partake of
both phases of Anasazi culture. A small museum adjoining the main ruin.
Located close to Highway U. S.-550 and the town of Aztec, New Mexico.

CANYON DE CHELLY NATIONAL MONUMENT.

Striking cliff-dwellings and very early remains. In a spectacular
setting of great red-rock canyons occupied by picturesque Navajo
Indians. Tree-ring dates from one of the major sites, Mummy Cave, range
from 348 A. D.—the earliest date in the San Juan drainage—to 1284 A. D.,
the next-to-last. No museum. The monument and canyon area extends east
of Chinle, Arizona, in the Navajo Indian Reservation. Chinle is 100
miles from Gallup, New Mexico, or seventy-five miles (unpaved) from
Chambers, Arizona (which is west of Gallup on Highway U. S.-66). Not
accessible in bad weather. An excellent lodge (Thunderbird Ranch,
Chinle, Arizona), but rather restricted facilities.

NAVAJO NATIONAL MONUMENT.

Betatakin and Keetseel, great cliff-pueblos of the thirteenth century,
picturesquely situated in huge caves in the red sandstone walls of the
Tsegi Canyons, west of Kayenta, Arizona, in the Navajo Indian
Reservation. No museum. No tourist accommodations. (As in all the other
national monuments listed, however, a custodian on duty the year around,
resident at headquarters above Betatakin.) Another 100 miles, of rather
bad road, from Chinle to Betatakin; or 135 miles from Flagstaff—sixty
miles north on paved Highway U. S.-89, about the same distance on fairly
good unsurfaced reservation road, and the last dozen miles a quite rough
trail. Not accessible in winter or in rainy weather.

The White Mountains Region

KINISHBA.

A large pueblo of the period 1000-1400, largely excavated and partially
restored by the Arizona State Museum, in the Apache Indian Reservation
near Fort Apache, Arizona, twenty miles east of Highway U. S.-60. No
accommodations.

The Rio Grande Area

BANDELIER NATIONAL MONUMENT.

Unusual cliff-ruins and open sites in beautiful Frijoles Canyon, in the
Pajarito Plateau, west of Santa Fe and south of Los Alamos, New Mexico,
seventeen miles from paved highway. Museum. Small lodge open
May-October.

PUYE.

Large partially-restored pueblo and small cliff-ruins, in the Pajarito
Plateau, north of Los Alamos, on the Santa Clara Indian Reservation,
fifteen miles from Espanola, New Mexico.

CORONADO STATE MONUMENT.

Two extensive adobe pueblos, Kuaua and Puaray, the former partially
restored. Museum. Across the Rio Grande from Bernalillo, New Mexico,
just off paved Highway State 44.

PECOS STATE MONUMENT.

Ruins of the great pueblo, finally abandoned in 1838, and of the
partially-restored Spanish mission of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. Close to Highway U. S.-85, about twenty-five miles southeast
of Santa Fe, near modern town of Pecos, New Mexico.

GRAN QUIVIRA NATIONAL MONUMENT.

Ruins of the pueblo and mission of Humanas, abandoned about 1675. No
museum; no accommodations. By a poor road twenty-five miles south of
Mountainair, New Mexico, which is on Highway U. S.-60.

ABO and QUARAI STATE MONUMENTS.

Sister missions to Humanas, with extensive unexcavated pueblo ruins. No
museums. Close to U. S.-60 and Mountainair, New Mexico.

The Salado Complex

TONTO NATIONAL MONUMENT.

Two fourteenth century cliff-dwellings high in a small canyon
overlooking Roosevelt Lake and the Tonto Basin. These well-preserved
ruins have yielded fine and unusual archaeological material: the
striking Salado polychrome pottery, a variety of expertly-made cotton
textiles, even a lot of lima beans. Very small museum exhibit. No
accommodations at the monument. Located near Roosevelt, Arizona, and the
Apache Trail (State Highway 88).

CASA GRANDE NATIONAL MONUMENT.

A unique great adobe structure, sole survivor of the large pueblo-like
towers and compounds built by the Salado in the Gila Basin in the
fourteenth century. The site includes several adobe compounds as well as
the Casa Grande itself, and also earlier _Hohokam_ remains—unexcavated
ball-courts and pit-houses. Small museum. On State Highway 87 close to
Coolidge, Arizona.

PUEBLO GRANDE CITY PARK.

A complex mound, partially excavated, of the late period in the Phoenix
area. On E. Washington Avenue, Phoenix.

Sinagua Sites

WUPATKI NATIONAL MONUMENT.

Large and small pueblos of 1100-1300 and earlier pit-houses; several
Anasazi sites as well as Sinagua—the frontier between these two cultures
was not the Little Colorado, but lay some distance west into the Wupatki
area, and varied from time to time. Still other cultural influences are
observed. One unique feature is a masonry-walled ball-court beside
Wupatki Pueblo and near the monument headquarters, fifteen miles east of
U. S.-89 and forty-five miles from Flagstaff, Arizona. No museum. No
accommodations at the monument.

WALNUT CANYON NATIONAL MONUMENT.

Very small cliff-dwellings in sandstone ledges of a narrow chasm twelve
miles east of Flagstaff, not far from Highway 66. No exhibits installed
in Museum. No accommodations at the monument.

TUZIGOOT NATIONAL MONUMENT.

An excavated and partially restored hilltop pueblo, which reached its
maximum in the fourteenth century. Comparatively large museum housing
extensive collection close to Clarkdale, Arizona, and readily accessible
from U. S.-89.

MONTEZUMA CASTLE NATIONAL MONUMENT.

A five-story cliff-dwelling of the same period as Tuzigoot pueblo, near
Camp Verde, Arizona, and readily accessible from Highway U. S.-89. Small
museum. No accommodations at the monument. Also included in this
monument is Montezuma Well, nine miles northeast, with small
cliff-dwellings in a limestone sinkhole containing a “bottomless” lake.
Highly unusual archaeological features at Montezuma Well are cist-graves
undercut in soft limestone, and travertine-encrusted prehistoric
irrigation ditches.

II. MODERN PUEBLOS ON (AT LEAST APPROXIMATELY) PRE-SPANISH LOCATIONS

ORAIBI on the third or northwesternmost Hopi mesa, materially unchanged
for over 600 years, and in a general sense, the other older HOPI INDIAN
pueblos—WALPI on First Mesa, SHONGOPOVI and MISHONGNOVI on the middle
mesa—which have shifted their locations during the historic period from
valley floors to mesa tops. The villages of Hano (Tewa) and Sichomovi on
First Mesa, and probably also Shipaulovi on Second Mesa, are eighteenth
century foundations. Hotevilla, Bakavi and New Orabi (Kikhochomovi) date
from the break-up of Oraibi only about fifty years ago. Toreva and
Polacca are purely modern towns. Good dirt roads to the Hopi country
from Gallup, Winslow, and Flagstaff. No tourist accommodations.

ZUNI PUEBLO, the one surviving, or reestablished, town of the six
early-historic “cities of Cibola.” Fair road, forty miles south from
Gallup, New Mexico. Very limited tourist accommodations.

ACOMA on its great mesa, one of the most picturesque of all, little
changed since the seventeenth century when the large mission church was
built. Fair road, thirteen miles south of U. S.-66, about sixty miles
west of Albuquerque.

ISLETA, on Highway U. S.-85 about ten miles south of Albuquerque.

The five Keres pueblos southwest of Santa Fe—SANTO DOMINGO, SAN FELIPE,
and COCHITI along the Rio Grande north of Bernalillo, west of U. S.-85;
ZIA and SANTA ANA on the Jemez River, northwest of Bernalillo and across
the stream from State-44.

JEMEZ PUEBLO, twenty-five miles northwest of Bernalillo on State Highway
4.

The five Tewa pueblos north of Santa Fe: TESUQUE, on U. S.-64-285;
NAMBE, in the foothills to the northeast; SAN ILDEFONSO, on the east
bank of the Rio Grande; SANTA CLARA, on the west bank just below
Espanola; SAN JUAN, at Chamita, New Mexico.

TAOS, the one modern terraced pueblo, close to Taos, New Mexico, and
PICURIES in the foothills to the south.

In the Rio Grande drainage, Laguna and Sandia are historic pueblos only.
Laguna was a new foundation, under Spanish direction, about 1700. Sandia
was re-established on or near an earlier location, in 1745-1750 by Tiwa
Indians brought back from the Hopi country by Spanish priests, after
abandonment fifty years earlier of the several Tiwa pueblos between
Bernalillo and Albuquerque.

III. LOCAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUMS IN THE SOUTHWEST

Santa Fe:
The Laboratory of Anthropology.
The Museum of New Mexico.
Albuquerque:
The University of New Mexico Anthropology Museum.
Tucson:
The Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona.
Phoenix:
The Heard Museum.
Grand Canyon National Park:
The Wayside Museum of Archaeology.
Petrified Forest National Monument:
Small branch museums at Painted Desert Inn and Puerco Ruin.
Flagstaff:
The Museum of Northern Arizona

FOOTNOTES

[1]Ref. [72], p. 433.

[2]Ref. [14] p. 281.

[3]Ref. [31] p. 269.

INDEX

A
Abandonment, of Northern Frontier, 73, 76, 80-84, 90, 91
Abo State Monument, 183
Acoma, 185
Agriculture, 37, 55, 70, 94, 118, 142, 148, 156;
_see also_ Beans, Corn, Cotton, Irrigation
Ackmen-Lowry Area, 62
Alcove Houses, 163
Alkali Ridge, Utah, 63, 65, 71
Allantown, Arizona, 63, 65
Anasazi, 27-117;
_see also_ Basketmaker and Pueblo
Ancient Cultures, 20-26
Animals
Extinct, 20, 22, 24
Hunted, 20, 22, 37, 38, 70, 121
Domesticated; see Dogs and Horses
Antler Artifacts, 103, 105
Apaches, 81, 105, 114, 144
Archaeology
Defined, 170
Development of, 11
Architecture, 61, 64, 76, 78, 79, 86, 91, 102, 140, 153, 155, 157,
161;
_see also_ Ball Courts, Cists, Forts, Houses, Kivas, Pithouses
Arrow points, see Projectile Points
Arrow-shaft smoothers, 104, 105, 139
Arroya Cutting, 81, 82, 87, 91
Athapaskans, 105-106
Atlatls, 38-40, 55, 152, 170
Awls, 41, 152, 155, 161
Axes, 55, 70, 73, 75, 104, 105, 139, 155, 157
Aztec Ruins, 89, 137, 182

B
Bags
Cedar Bast, 43, 44
Skin, 44
Twined-woven, 42-44, 45
Ball, rubber, 133
Ball Courts, 127, 132, 133, 139, 166
Bandelier National Monument, 109, 110, 183
Basketmaker and Modified Basketmaker Culture, 27-57
Agriculture, 37
Area, 29, 49
Basketry, 40-42, 54, 55, 56
Burials, 29, 30, 45, 46, 55, 56
Cists, 36, 44, 56
Clothing, 31, 33, 56
Dates, 27, 49
Figurines, 54
Food, 37, 38, 40, 55
Houses, 35, 36, 49-52
Ornaments, 34, 56
Pottery, 44, 45, 53
Physical Appearance, 31, 59
Tools and Implements, 36, 37, 40, 41, 55
Weapons, 38-40, 55
Weaving, 41-43
Summaries, 56, 57
Basketmaker Period, 27-48
Basketry, 22, 40-42, 54, 55, 56, 69, 89, 105, 134
Bat Woman House, 99
Beads, _see_ Ornaments
Beans, 55, 70, 118
Bear Ruin, 155-157
Bells, 137
Betatakin, 98, 99, 182
Biscuit Ware, _see_ Pottery
Bluff Ruin, 150
Bone Artifacts
Awls, 41, 152, 155, 161
Beads, 34
Gaming Pieces, 46, 47, 72
Hair Ornaments, 34, 137
Tubes, 124, 137
Bow and Arrow, 40, 55, 70, 124, 152
Bracelets, _see_ Ornaments
Brushes
Hair, 35
Paint, 53
Burials, 29, 30, 45, 46, 55, 56, 70-72, 75, 90-95, 96, 101, 138,
140, 152, 153, 154, 156, 159, 161
Burnet Cave, 21
Butler Wash, Arizona, 27

C
Cactus Fruit, 37, 137
Cameron Creek Village, 158
Canals, 119, 121, 125, 127, 132, 138
Canyon de Chelly, 182
Canyon del Muerto, 56, 182
Casa Grande, 139, 140, 141, 142, 184
Cavate Dwellings, 109, 110
Chaco Canyon, 63, 84-91, 96, 97, 101, 181
Children, 46, 70, 71
Chronology, _see_ Dates
Cibola, Cities of, 113
Cists, 36, 44, 56, 72, 170
Clans, 64, 170
Classic Hohokam Period, 120, 137-144
Classic Pueblo Period, _see_ Great Pueblo Period
“Cliff Dwellers” 76, 91
Cliff Palace, 91-93, 96
Climate, 12, 17, 80, 81, 82, 87, 96, 118, 121, 142;
_see also_ Arroyo Cutting, Dendrochronology, Droughts
Clovis, New Mexico, 21
Clubs, 38-40
Cochise Culture, 22, 119, 122, 148, 151, 156
Cochiti, 185
Cohonina Branch, 168
Colonial Hohokam, 120, 124-132, 153
Comanches, 114
Conquest, Spanish, 113
Cooking, 40, 156
Copper, _see_ Bells
Corn, 37, 55, 70, 93, 118, 121, 122, 152
Coronado, Francisco Vasquez de, 113, 114
Coronado State Monument, 183
Corrugated Ware; _see_ Pottery
Cotton, 69, 70, 73, 89, 134, 143, 144
Cradles, 46
Cranial Deformation, 60, 75, 152
Cremation, 96, 118, 125, 129, 134, 140, 155, 157
Culinary Ware, _see_ Pottery
Culture, defined, 170

D
Dance Courts, 62, 65
Dart Points; _see_ Projectile Points
Dates
Basketmaker, 27
Cochise, 22
Folsom, 21
Gypsum Cave, 22
Hohokam, 120, 124, 132, 137, 144
Modified Basketmaker, 49
Mogollon, 150, 151, 152, 153, 155, 158, 161
Navajos, 106
Patayan, 168
Pueblo, 59, 76, 108
Rosa, 75
San Jon, 22
Sandia, 20
Sinagua, 163, 164, 165
Yuma Points, 22
Deformation, of Skulls, 60, 75, 152
Dendrochronology, 13, 14-17, 80, 150
Desert Province, 118
Developmental-Pueblo Period, 57-76, 102
Dice, _see_ Gaming Pieces
Diffusion, 37, 72
Dogs, 46, 47, 70, 75
Douglass, A. E., 14-17
Droughts, 80, 81, 96, 97, 115, 165
Durango, Excavations near, 27, 35

E
Ear Plugs, 124, 125
Effigy Vessels, 88, 124, 134, 135
Egypt, 29, 125
El Paso, 115
Esteban, 113
Ethnology, 17-18
Etching, 136, 137

F
Fabrics, _see_ Weaving
Feather Cloth, 31, 55, 69, 89, 105
Figurines, 54, 72, 73, 122, 123, 128, 133
Firing, of Pottery, 53
Flutes, 56
Folsom Complex, 20, 21
Forts, 144, 168
Fremont River Culture, 73
Fugitive Red, _see_ Pottery
Fur Cloth, 31, 33, 55, 69

G
Galaz Ruin, 158
Gallina Phase, 104, 105
Game, Played in Ball Courts, 127
Gaming Pieces, 46, 47, 72
Geology, 20, 21
Georgetown Phase, 152, 153
Glazed Ware, _see_ Pottery
Governador Area, 75, 105, 115
Granaries, 49, 61, 63, 75, 164, 168
Grewe Site, 125
Great Pueblo Period, 76-107
Grinding Stones, _see_ Manos and Metates
Gypsum Cave, 22

H
Hair
Dressing, 35, 40
Use of, 33, 35
Hands, Burial of, 56
Harris Village, 152, 154
Hawikuh, 113
Historic Pueblo Period, 64, 107, 108
Hoes, 70, 135, 155, 161
Hohokam Culture, 118-147
Agriculture, 118, 142
Area, 118, 132
Ball Courts, 127, 132, 133, 139
Basketry, 134
Cremations, 118, 123, 134, 140
Dates, 120, 124, 132, 137, 144
Figurines, 122, 123, 128, 133
Food, 121
Houses, 121, 127, 132, 140, 142
Mirrors, 129, 130, 134, 139, 153
Ornaments, 130, 132, 135, 139
Pottery, 118, 122, 128, 133, 150
Shell Work, 130, 132, 135, 136, 137, 139
Stone Work, 123, 124, 129, 130, 134, 135, 139
Summary, 146
Weaving, 134, 143, 144
Hopi Area, 101, 108, 115, 116, 185
Horses, 82, 114
Houses, 35, 36, 49-52, 61, 62, 63, 72, 73, 79, 86-88, 91-93, 102,
104, 105, 108, 118, 121, 127, 132, 138, 140, 150, 151,
152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 163

I
Introduction, 11-19
Irrigation, 37, 81, 94, 95, 119, 121, 125, 132, 138, 142, 144
Isleta, 185

J
Jacal Construction, 61, 62, 63
Jemez, 186
Jewelry, _see_ Ornaments

K
Kayenta Area, 38, 99-101
Keet Seel, 99, 182
Kiatuthlana, 62, 71
Kihus, 99
Killing, of Pottery, 159
Kinishba, 101, 183
Kino, Father, 167
Kivas, 18, 61, 63, 64, 73, 84, 86, 93, 94, 99, 108, 110, 156, 158
Great Kivas, 86, 96, 97, 101
Knives, 105, 161

L
Laguna, 186
La Plata Area, 62
Largo Phase, 102-105
Largo-Gallina Phase, 102-105
Lead Ore, 129
Lindenmeier Site, 21
Little Colorado Area, 107, 137
Los Muertos, 139, 140
Lowry Ruin, 63, 96, 97

M
Manos, 40, 70, 157
Mattocks Ruin, 158
Mauls, 55, 73, 155
Maya, 125, 127, 128
Mesa Verde, 76, 91-96, 97, 99, 181
Metates, 36, 40, 70, 73, 93, 135, 151, 153, 155, 157, 159
Mexico, 137, 144, 161
Mimbres Phase, 102, 152, 158-161
Mirrors, 129, 130, 134, 139, 153
Mishongnovi, 185
Moccasins, 45, 73
Modified Basketmaker Period 48-57;
_see also_ Basketmaker
Mogollon Culture, 148-162
Agriculture, 148, 156
Area, 149
Bone Work, 151, 152, 155, 161
Burials, 152, 153, 156, 157, 158, 159, 161
Clothing, 161
Dates, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 156
Houses, 150, 151, 152, 153-155, 156, 157, 158
Hunting, 151, 156
Ornaments, 157, 161
Physical Types, 152, 153, 156, 157, 161
Pottery, 54, 150, 151, 153, 156, 159, 160
Shell Work, 157
Stone Work, 148, 151, 155, 157, 161
Summary, 161, 162
Theories of Origin, 148
Mogollon Village, 152, 154
Montezuma Castle, 165, 166, 185
Mortars and Pestles, 135, 161
Mortuary Offerings, 30, 45, 56, 70, 71, 124, 128, 129, 140, 152,
155, 156, 158, 159
Mosaic Work, 56, 90, 124, 129, 130, 135
Mummies, 29, 30, 45

N
Nambe, 186
Nampeyo, 108, 110
Navajo National Monument, 182
Navajos, 81, 104, 105, 106, 114, 115
Nets, 37
Nevada, 22, 73
Nipple-shaped Objects, 54, 72
Niza, Fray Marcos de, 113
Nomads, 73, 81, 82, 105, 106, 114, 115, 117
Northern Periphery, 72, 73
Nose Buttons or Plugs, 135

O
Oraibi, 16, 185
Ornaments, 34, 56, 69, 89, 90, 130, 132, 135, 139, 157, 161;
_see also_ Bone, Shell and Stone artifacts, Turquoise
Oxidizing Atmosphere, 53

P
Paints, 53, 66
Palettes, 123, 124, 129, 134, 157
Papagueria, 142, 144
Papago Indians, 142, 144
Parallel Flaked Points, 22
Patayan Culture, 164, 167, 168
Pathology, 45, 71
Pecos Classification, 29, 57, 76, 107
Pecos Pueblo, 110, 111, 114
Pecos State Monument, 183
Peripheral Regions, 72-75
Physical Types, 24, 31, 59, 93, 118, 152, 153, 156, 157, 158
Pictographs, 34, 47, 73, 116
Picuries, 186
Piedra Region, 62
Pima Indians, 144
Pine Lawn Phase, 151, 152
Pioneer Hohokam, 120-124
Pipes, 45, 69, 89, 104, 105, 124, 153, 155, 157
Pithouses, 49-52, 61, 62, 63, 72, 73, 75, 102, 104, 105, 150, 151,
152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 163, 168
Planting Sticks, 37
Plateau Area, defined, 27
Polychrome, _see_ Pottery
Pope, 114, 115
Pottery,
Atmospheres for Firing, 53
Biscuit Ware, 112
Black-on-gray, 53, 73, 168
Black-on-red, 66, 75, 112
Black-on-white, 65, 75, 88, 95, 100, 102, 105, 112, 157, 159,
160
Black-on-yellow, 108
Brown, 122, 128, 150, 151, 153, 163, 167
Buff, 128, 138, 153, 156
Burnished Buff, 151, 159
Coiled and Scraped, 52
Corrugated, 66, 68, 75, 88, 95, 100, 102, 108, 112, 159, 170
Eastern Branch, 66
Firing, 53
Fugitive Red, 54, 72, 168
Glazed, 110, 112
Gray, 53, 65, 72, 122, 156, 168
Importance of, 12
Neck Banded, 68
Origin, Theories of, 44, 53
Paddle-and-anvil, 103, 122
Pointed-bottomed, 103, 104, 106
Polished Red, 138, 151, 153, 159
Polychrome, 100, 101, 102, 108, 112, 113, 122, 139
Red-on-buff, 122, 128, 133, 139
Red-on-gray, 153
Red-on-orange, 65
Slips, 68
Spectrographic Analysis of, 12
Temper, 44, 45, 53, 65
Textured, 53, 155, 157
Unfired, 44, 45, 52
Preface, 3-5
Projectile Points, 70, 124, 129, 130, 135, 139, 153, 155, 157,
161, 168
Pueblo Bonito, 85, 86, 137
Pueblo Culture, 57-117
Agriculture, 69, 70
Area, 59, 84, 107
Basketry, 69, 89
Burials, 70-72, 90, 95, 96, 101
Clothing, 69, 89, 108
Dates, 59, 76, 107
Food, 70
Houses, 61, 62, 63, 79, 86-88, 91-93, 99, 101, 108, 110
Kivas, 61, 63, 64, 84, 86, 93, 94, 96, 97, 99, 101, 108, 110,
112
Ornaments, 69, 70, 89, 90
Physical Types, 59
Pottery, 65-68, 71, 88, 95, 100, 101, 108, 110
Tools and Implements, 70, 73, 75, 93
Weapons, 70
Weaving, 69, 89
Summaries, 75, 106
Pueblo Grande City Park, 184
Puye, 110, 183

Q
Quarai State Monument, 183

R
Rabbit Sticks; _see_ Clubs
Rattles, 40
Rebellion, Pueblo, 113, 114, 115
Reducing Atmosphere, 53
Refugees, 115
Refuse or Rubbish Heaps, 70
Regressive Pueblo Period, 84, 107-115
Religion, 30, 45, 46, 47, 64, 65, 78, 84, 93, 117
Ridge Ruin, 90
Rings, Ball Court, 127, 128
Rio Grande Area, 102, 107, 110
Roosevelt 9:6, 124, 125
Rosa Phase, 75, 165
Rubber Ball, 133

S
Salado Culture, 137-144
San Felipe, 185
San Francisco Phase, 153-155
San Ildefonso, 186
San Jon, 22
San Juan, 114, 186
Sandals, 30, 33, 34, 56, 69, 73, 89, 105
Sandia Cave, 20
Sandia Pueblo, 186
Santa Ana, 185
Santa Clara, 186
Santo Domingo, 185
Santa Fe, 114, 115
Scalp, 46
Scoops, 40
Sedentary Hohokam, 120, 124, 132-137
Shell Artifacts
Beads, 34, 89, 130, 157, 161
Bracelets, 56, 70, 130, 132, 139, 157, 161
Etched, 136, 137
Painted, 135
Pendants, 89, 130, 161
Needles, 130
Rings, 132
Trumpets, 139
Showlow Ruin, 16
Sinagua People, 163-166
Sipapu, 18, 52
Slips, _see_ Pottery
Snaketown Site, 121-124, 150
Snares, 37
Social Organization, 19, 64, 71, 78, 79, 82, 115, 125, 127, 138
Southwest, defined, 11
Spaniards, 113-117
Squash, 37, 70
Starkweather Ruin, 152
Stockades, 75
Stone Artifacts,
Axes, 55, 70, 73, 75, 104, 105, 139, 155, 157
Beads, 56, 69, 124, 132, 135, 139
Hoes, 70, 155, 161
Knives, 105, 161
Manos, 40, 70, 157
Mauls, 55, 73, 155
Metates, 36, 40, 70, 73, 93, 135, 151, 153, 155, 157, 159
Mortars and Pestles, 135, 161
Palettes, 123, 124, 129, 134, 157
Projectile Points, 70, 124, 129, 130, 135, 139, 153, 155, 157,
161, 168
Rings, 130
Shaft-Smoothers, 104, 105, 139
Vessels, 123, 124, 130, 135, 139, 157
Stratigraphy, 13
SU Site, 151, 152
Summaries, 56-57, 75-76, 106-107, 146-147, 161-162
Sunset Crater, 164, 166
Swarts Ruin, 158

T
Tabeguache Caves, 26, 29
Taos, 186
Temper, _see_ Pottery
Tesuque, 186
Texas, 73, 112
Tiguex, 114
Tonto Basin, 137
Tonto National Monument, 184
Towers, 64, 91, 94
Trade, 12, 13, 34
Tree-rings, _see_ Dendrochronology
Trumpets, 139
Tubes, _see_ Bone Artifacts
Tump Straps, 41, 42
Turkeys, 55, 70, 73, 75, 89, 121, 159
Turquoise, 56, 89, 90, 124, 161
Tuzigoot National Monument, 166, 184
Twined-woven Bags, 42-44, 45, 105
Tyuoni, 110, 111

U
Unfired Clay Vessels, 44, 45, 52
Unit Houses, 61, 63, 64, 72, 79
Utes, 114

V
Vargas, Diego de, 115
Ventana Cave, 26, 142, 143, 144
Village of the Great Kivas, 101

W
Walnut Canyon National Monument, 184
Walpi, 185
Warfare, 40, 71, 79, 80, 82
Weaving, 33, 41-43, 89, 108, 134, 143, 144, 156
Whistles, 46
White Dog Cave, 35
Woodland Pottery, 103
Wupatki National Monument, 184

Y
Yuma Points, 22
Yuman Culture, 167

Z
Zia, 185
Zuni Area, 101, 110, 113, 144, 185

Transcriber’s Notes

—Silently corrected a few typos.

—Added headings and Table of Contents entries to bring them into
correspondence.

—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
is public-domain in the country of publication.

—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by
_underscores_.

*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Prehistoric Indians of the Southwest" ***

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