Pre-Columbian Archaeology
of North America
Regional Chronologies:
Week 8 – the Southwest
General Characteristics
Three major ecozones and culture regions:
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Key factors are rainfall, temperature, number of frost free days, farmland availability, water
sources, floodwater.
Plant categories: wild and domesticated. Domesticated plants appear in the SW by 3500 BP.
Domesticated are genetically altered and dependent, to some extent, on human propagation.
Cultivated are the same genetically as wild, tough planted and cared for by humans.
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Hohokam Region: Sonoran Desert
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advantage- lush desert with wild food plants year around:
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spring wild barley, agave (Yucca mohavensis), cholla (Opuntia sp.) buds
summer saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea) fruits
fall and winter mesquite (Prosopis juliflora), acorns, prickly pear (Opuntia).
Cultigens are agave.
Farming of corn, various beans, squash, gourds, supported by large-scale irrigation on flood plains.
Fauna of rabbits and fish, small game.
Mogollon Region:
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Mountainous regions (max. elevation 3500 m)
Forests rich in plants but not in human foods
Diverse wild resources are cacti, mesquite, piñon (e.g. Pinus ediuls), mesquite, acorns, but
not abundant.
Farming of small patches of arable land by rainfall and floodwater farming.
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Agave.
Mimbres used floodplain irrigation. Weather often not ideal, wet and cool or warm and dry. Population
smaller than Pueblo or Hohokam areas.
Pueblo Region
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Less diverse wild resources
arable land varies by area with growing season problems in some areas
Farming was by floodwater, rainfall (western region) and irrigation (eastern region in the Rio.
Fauna
• Herbivores
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Mule Deer
Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canidensis) ovce tlustorohá
Jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) zajíc tmavoocasý
rodents
• Carnivores
– Mountain lions, wolves, coyotes
– Raccoons, skunks, badger
– Kit fox, gray fox
• Birds
– Eagles, hawks, owls, raven [krkavec], quail [křepelka],
roadrunner [kukačka kalifornská]
• Reptiles
– Rattlesnakes, tortoises, lizards
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Southwest (1)
Archaic Period
– 8,000 - 1,800 BP.
• Altitherm was 7,000 - 4,500 BP.
– More regionalism of cultures with diverse projectile point traditions, side-notched,
corner-notched, and barbed points, evidence varying hunting strategies.
– Broad spectrum adaptation to small game and plant resources, especially rabbits
and seeds.
– Technology includes digging sticks, serrated stone, ground stones, manos and
metates, storage baskets.
– Yields fruit 3k - 9k cal/hr, nuts 1k - 2k cal/hr, seeds 200 - 600 cal/hr.
– Tome and space scheduling requires intense knowledge of landscape.
– Residential and logistical mobility.
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Early domestication of plants evidence in SW:
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Tornillo 3225 BP, Mogollon Desert in SW NM
Bat Cave 3441 BP, West NM
Three Fir Shelter 3040 BP, Colorado Plateau
Milagro 2780 BP, Sonoran Desert near Tucson associated with pithouses.
Early domesticates spread quickly.
– Late Archaic (1500 - 200 BC) had corn, gourds and squash, associated with
pithouses.
• Earliest sedentary farmers are in the Sonoran Desert.
• Slow change to sedentism is attributed to cultural evolution and genetic evolution.
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Later development divided into three distinct culture regions
– Anasazi
– Mogollon/Mimbres
– Hohokam
Southwest (2)
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Basketmaker II
– 2200 - 1500 BP
– Most models that attempt to explain the cultural innovations of BMII assume in situ
adoption of agriculture by late Archaic populations.
– Many lines of evidence show BMII dependence on corn agriculture:
• Burned and unburned corn recovered from trash middens, storage pits, burials
• Corn found in dessicated human feces (coprolites)
• Locations of BMII sites (unlike Archaic sites) often in areas of good, deep soils or near
washes where cultivation could have taken place
• Carbon isotope ratios of BMII human bones are different from these ratios in the bones of
Archaic populations, in a way that indicates a BMII diet rich in corn.
– Pithouses associated with residential seasonal mobility, multi-year use.
• Wide variability, including large, deep forms and shallow, basin-shaped forms.
• Foundations are made of a wide variety of materials, cribbed logs and rock. Walls are not
often preserved, but these were made of poles and brush, jacal, and stacked logs.
• BMII pithouses are circular to oval in shape, with entryways facing to the south or east.
Firepits are often in the center of the house.
• Some houses were placed in rock shelters, but most were constructed out in the open.
– Subterranean storage cists (for corn, piñon nuts, and other foods), often lined with
slabs, but sometimes simply dug below the ground in the shape of a jug or bell.
– Generally speaking, no ceramics
– Atlatl and throwing spear (dart), no bow-and-arrow. (The atlatl/throwing spear
combination was also found in the Archaic, in BMIII, and in later Pueblo times, but in
BMII it was the main form of weapon/hunting tool).
– Multi-year middens, more burials than during Archaic
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Southwest (3)
Basketmaker III
– 1500 - 1200 BP
– BMIII is a continuation and elaboration of the BMII adaptation. During BMIII, there
appear a number of cultural innovations, but many of the ways of BMII also
continue.
• There is good evidence that population has increased by BMIII, and that villages have
become larger. There are many more BMIII sites than BMII sites, and they are spread over
a wider area.
• At some BMIII sites, one or a few exceptionally large pit structures are found. These are
interpreted as some form of communal gathering place, perhaps the earliest expression of a
great kiva.
• These structures suggest that BMIII societies were socially integrated at a level not seen in
BMII, i.e., there was some form of intra- or even inter-village cooperation regarding
important decisions and ceremonies.
– Beans and pottery
• Beans (lysine) = complete protein. Pottery used to cook beans = maximized caloric return.
• Pottery = less mobility
– Turkeys being raised for meat and feathers
– Bow and arrow, smaller points indicate new adaptations.
– More storage pits and cists
– Pithouses more substantial and “great kivas” appear.
• Many BMIII pithouses have large alcoves or vestibules; raised ridges in the floor dividing the
house into sections; slabs lining the walls of the pithouse; and a large hearth in the center of
the pithouse.
Southwest (4)
• Comparing BMIII sites:
– Shabik’eshchee had a communal economy
• Dendrochronology: construction begins c. 1450 BP, continuing
to c. 1200 BP
• 70 small, standardized pit houses with small antechambers
suitable for two persons
• 47 cists, few storage pits in houses
• large subterranean circular structure “great kiva”
• storage and caching visible to community
• burials outside pithouses.
• Maximum population may have been as high as 77 people (avg.
for BMIII is 15)
– The SU site had a household based economy:
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35 large, variably sized, larger antechambered pit houses
one large pithouse
storage inside homes and less visible
diverse burials.
Southwest (5)
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Pueblo I (PI-III: Anasazi)
– 1300 - 1100 BP
– The transition from BMIII to PI is not abrupt, nor does it involve an influx of new
people
– Changes from BMIII to PI are thus gradual and evolutionary, though when we
compare overall trends from the two time periods, many differences can be seen.
– Cranial deformation associated with the introduction of a new type of cradle board
– Year round occupation in pueblos with above ground rooms, some pit houses, pit
structures have some ritual features
• Typical site a double row of rooms fronted by pit structures
– Winter use of pits. Structures are warm and cold adapted.
– Living rooms have storage rooms attached.
• Toward the end of PI, the above-ground architectural form shifts from insubstantial jacal
structures to rectangular masonry rooms. These are often arranged end-to-end in "blocks"
of rooms. There is evidence (hearths and other floor features, as well as artifacts found on
the floors) that such room blocks were used for a combination of habitation, storage, and
special activities such as food preparation and manufacture of crafts.
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Household based economies and less sharing.
Field houses indicate claim to land areas.
Plant remains support continuous, year round occupation.
First corrugated and black-on-white pottery appears (probably by about 1200 BP),
along with black-on-red styles
• There is evolution of designs from the crude an sparse designs of BMIII pottery (which often
resemble the designs woven into BMIII baskets), to more elaborate and widely distributed
styles of painted decoration which do not match basketry designs
– clearly pottery has emerged by PI as an important medium for new symbolic expressions
• The corrugated pottery usually consists of thick corrugations confined to the neck of the pot.
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Southwest (6)
In a few places, large villages arise during PI, which exceed the size of the largest BMIII villages and
reflect different and probably more complex forms of social organization.
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McPhee village
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The dendroclimatic evidence (evidence of yearly rainfall values based on tree rings) did not indicate that such
aggregations took place during years that might have produced agricultural surplus.
Instead, it appears that aggregations took place during times when there were no severe droughts that would
have forced people to disperse and move to more favorable agricultural locations.
The abandonment of these PI villages does seem to have been correlated with periods of drought,
implying that the social organizations that were formed during the good times (agriculturally speaking)
were relatively fragile, and the social bonds were relatively easily broken.
As with the BMIII villages, there is no good evidence for "elite" leaders with substantial political power
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40 households (120+ people) lived there at the peak of occupation
Evidence of other, larger villages in the area
Because of the limited amount of non-agricultural food resources in these areas, some have proposed
that large villages formed during climatic conditions that fostered consecutive years of adequate
agricultural production.
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21 room blocks and a remote kiva.
1200 BP: 2 great kivas 22.5 m in diameter.
1160-1100 BP: oversized pit structures - 5 m - central in room blocks with elaborate sipapus and footdrums.
Circa 1100 BP: abandonment with pit structures burned, burying bodies in the floor.
Grand Mesa Village
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Many of these villages involve multiple units of linear, arc-shaped, or U-shaped rows of masonry rooms, with
doorways facing an open area containing one or more kivas.
In the larger villages, there are one or a few exceptionally large, circular structures that can be considered as
great kivas.
In some cases, it appears that these great kivas did not have roofs, and were large, open-air gathering places.
Again, in spite of the fact that there were intra- or inter-village ceremonial organizations (reflected in the great
kivas), the religious and political power may have been dispersed among a number of individuals and
households, and social organization was relatively egalitarian.
There is much evidence that the room blocks surrounding the kivas were used for "potluck" feasting,
wherein large quantities of food were prepared and eaten on a periodic basis.
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This evidence may indicate something about periodic ceremonial events involving large numbers of people
congregating at the great kivas.
Southwest (7)
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Pueblo II
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1100 - 900 BP (900-1100 AD).
Dominated by Chaco Canyon.
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First large scale stone ruins in the US.
Chaco Era 850 - 1150.
Chaco sequence begins around 850 at confluence of drainages with good access to water and agriculture sites.
1000 - 1100 major population growth, Chaco considered a major regional center by 1050.
1075 - 1115 major construction peak.
1088-1092 Beams brought from 50 miles distance.
1100's experience environmental changes.
1130 - 1180 was a period of reduced rainfall.
Around 1140 to 1150 Chaco became depopulated. Aztec Ruin takes place of Chaco.
Chaco population estimated at 1500 - 5000.
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Given room with hearth is a habitation = six people, therefore 1500 - 2000 people.
Given a room suite = six people 1500 - 2000
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With Pueblo Bonito at only 150 residents.
Lots of non-habitation architecture, with a chain of storage rooms at Pueblo Bonito, and rooms deep within
structure.
Pottery
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Further elaboration of black-on-white, black-on-red, and gray ware pottery.
Toward the end of PII, the first “polychrome” ceramics appear, painted in red, orange, and black designs.
Black-on-white ceramic styles are very widespread and generally similar across vast areas, with some minor
local variation.
During PII, there is evolution of the gray ware “corrugated” pottery. Early in PII, the common form of corrugation
is neck banding, similar to the style of PI. However, through time the neck bands become smaller and more
elaborate, with the corrugations often finely pinched with the fingers to make small, scalloped designs.
In middle to late PII, the pottery becomes corrugated all over, sometimes with very deeply and finely pinched
corrugations.
After the mid-1000s, many of the black-on-white and black-on-red pottery styles across a broad area of the
northern Southwest show some influence from designs originating from Chaco Canyon.
Southwest (8)
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Architecture:
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Room average is 44 tons of sandstone,
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To construct all the great houses 200,000 trees were used.
Pueblo Bonito had 4-5 stories and 600 or more rooms.
Over engineering meant easy upkeep, inference of cultural importance.
Estimate of a stage of construction was 30 people x 2 - 4 months a year for 10 years. Great houses built in stages.
Chaco kivas can be above ground and surrounded by rectangular walls.
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Pueblo Alto is one story 85 rooms with a big plaza.
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1020 - 1060 construction, maintained until 1100.
Big room suites are not heavily worn and have a kiva.
Trash midden is 2400 m3 with 150,000 pots, evidencing feasting.
A few burials are very rich, elaborate and early in the sequence.
Little evidence of private wealth and residential evidence is of equality.
Chaco health is better than at small sites.
Acquired status likelier than stratification of the society.
The Chaco System
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Great kivas are 15 - 20 meters in diameter. Casa Rinconada 63 feet.
Status is evidenced at Chaco.
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50 million pieces in Chetro Ketl.
Chaco regional system of about 100 sites in an area of 100,000 km 2.
Outliers have some Chacoan characteristics: multistory structures (great houses) great kivas, raised, enclosed kivas.
Roads estimate is 2400 km.+ symbolic link roads point to Chaco.
Imports to Chaco are pottery, 50% in 1000's and 95% in 1120.
Shell, turquoise and deer imported.
Processed turquoise exported.
Chacoan outlier/great houses identified: Dating from A.D. 900 – 1115
Architecture:
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Unprecedented and unequaled massive size and planning, period specific horizontally aligned, carefully coursed masonry patterns,
walls stronger than at other Anasazi structures, overengineering, advanced architectural planning, large scale and grand design is
unique
Buildings are taller, walls are thicker, stone pattern more intricate, rooms larger than typical Anasazi constructs. Many storage rooms in
the Chaco Canyon great houses. Outliers have multi-story structures. Great kivas or raised enclosed kivas, kivas in great houses above
ground and enclosed in surrounding rectangular walls. Cribbed roofs laid on bench
Roads are carefully engineered and flanked by berms of adobe, stone or earth, often connecting the great houses.
Pottery: Cylinder vessels found exclusively at Chaco great houses, black on white painted vessel.
Turquoise trade in evidence, processed turquoise items.
Southwest (9)
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Organization.
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Chaco Canyon is seen as a center for the regional system.
The number of storage rooms may have been for redistribution purposes.
The sites with outlier great houses are seen as part of the regional system. These populations
utilized the canyon sites for gatherings.
The center may also have served as a trade center. Roads often connected the sites.
The region was tied together around Chaco Canyon. With Chaco Canyon acting as a ritual
center and trade center.
The low number of residents in Chaco Canyon would indicate that the visitors to the canyon
came from the outliers.
Social organization during PII is not well understood particularly with respect to the
Chaco system.
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Was Chaco a mighty empire with the ability to coerce and control outlying populations, or was it a
great religious and ceremonial system that was a place of pilgrimage?
The debate has convincing arguments on both sides.
David Wilcox has argued in various publications that the Chacoans were able to send out
relatively small but well-trained and fearsome groups of armed men to control outlying
populations and demand "tribute" (gifts of food and other valuable items) for consumption or use
by elites living in the Canyon Great Houses and in the outlying Great Houses.
Others (Steve Lekson, John Stein) have argued that Chaco may have been a great
ceremonial/religious center, where pilgrims came to participate in feasting and ceremonies. It is
interesting to note that some of the features of Chaco Canyon (arc-shaped room blocks, great
kivas, evidence for mass consumption of food) were also present in PI sites (see above).
Was the Chaco system then the driving intellectual, philosophical, and religious force of the 900s
through early 1100s, or did it merely reflect and reinforce ancient concepts and principles of the
Anasazi?
Southwest (10)
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Pueblo III
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1100 - 1300 AD
Mesa Verde (4-Corners, San Juan) Region.
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Mesa Verde Sequence: Mesa top habitation on Chapin and Wetherill Mesas.
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Pre-1150 household occupations 15 - 25 years
post 1150 - 1250 25 - 50 years.
Evidence of conflict onset around 1200, upon aggregation into towns.
Standardized ceramic complex in the region with no imports.
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36 sites with 200 - 400 people AD 1000 - 1200.
Tower construction.
Mummy Lake Reservoir held 500,000 gallons.
1200 AD shift to canyon occupation with greater aggregations.
Fewkes Canyon had 33 sites with 530 rooms, 600 - 800 people
Sun Temple, Cliff Palace and Spruce Tree House built.
Sun Temple has bi-walled construction.
Montezuma Valley:
10,000 - 30,000 people doing Mesa Top dryland farming.
1000 - 1150 population dispersed.
1200 population aggregated into 8+ towns, some with history and some new.
Important communities established by 1000 with community stability and mobile people.
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1888 Richard Wetherill finds Cliff Palace, 200 rooms, 8 kivas and 8 levels, turkey pens
Mesa Verde had largest aggregation in SW after 1150.
There is continued elaboration of ceramic production, with regional ceramic design styles arising that are
quite distinctive.
In many areas, it is clear that there is ceramic specialization, with a few artisans producing pots for export.
There is a tendency for the gray corrugated pottery to decline in quality, but other forms, especially the
black-on-white types, achieve their finest expression.
Toward the end of the PIII period, there appear polychrome pots pained in orange, red, black, and white.
These form the basis for many of the later PIV polychrome pottery traditions.
Isolation from the remainder of the SW
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No imports in evidence by 1300.
Southwest (11)
– Sand Canyon Pueblo: 1250 - 1280, canyon rim site,
• east side residential and west side with kivas, unit pueblos, low encircling wall,
use of boundary marking stones.
– Mesa Verde Region Abandonment Process.
• 10,000 - 30,000 people leave the region
• People moved to the Rio Grande and Little Colorado River areas.
• By 1200 more concentration into central Mesa Verde region with abandonment
of small sites as people aggregated in towns.
• At Sand Canyon orderly abandonment evidenced.
• Units of movement parallel unit construction.
• Trash filled units indicate process over several years.
• Some units burned with contents, kivas burned.
– Abandonment causes.
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Migration is a normal event for SW populations.
Great Drought from 1276 - 1299.
1275 tree ring dates, complete abandonment by 1300.
Not the first drought event in the SW.
Carrying capacity of the land.
People were in circumscribed areas.
No evidence of invading outsiders.
Evidence of intra-regional conflict with some people getting killed at some sites.
Attraction of the riverine sites.
– Irrigation terraces on the Little Colorado, reliable irrigation on the Rio Grande.
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Southwest (12)
Pueblo IV
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Post-1300 AD
Pan SW processes and styles.
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West pueblos are matrilineal descent groups with ritual societies that cross-cut descent groups,
absence of architectural boundaries.
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Hohokam (see below) and Pueblo distinction is blurred.
Larger sites and clusters of sites with open regions between clusters.
Plazas incorporated into pueblos with fewer kivas.
Pueblo III had six rooms per kiva, Pueblo IV has 50:1 ratio and end of unit pueblos.
Cotton is grown as a commodity.
Conflict is evidenced.
Katsina iconography (Fourmile Style) appears.
Southwest regional iconography on pottery, rock art and kiva murals; flowers, butterflies, serpents, parrots,
masks.
Homol'ovi pueblos
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Little Colorado River near Winslow.
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In migration, no katsinas, cotton growing, little local pottery
Homol'ovi III linear constructions
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40 rooms, 2 rectangular kivas, sandstone/adobe,
Tusayan pottery.
Homol'ovi IV terrace-like and masonry construction
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1276 river entrenched freeing 5,000 ha of terraces.
150 - 200 small rooms
White Mountain and Cibola pottery.
1300 AD river rises again and Homol'ovi III and Homol'ovi IV abandoned.
Aggregation and mixing in the new Homol'ovi I and Homol'ovi II pueblos, with much larger, plaza-oriented
sites, katsina iconography, lots of cotton, Jeddito Yellow Pottery, Fourmile Style, shrines, field houses and
territoriality marking.
1400 abandonment and move to Hopi villages.
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Southwest (13)
Mogollon
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Distinguishing features include coiled and scraped pottery.
Round, then square, pithouses with ramp entry.
Ceremonial structures lack sipapus.
Mogollon Sequence:
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Early Pithouse: 200 - 550 AD.
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Late Pithouse: 550 - 1000 AD.
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Large sites near flood plains, more farming.
Pottery: white slip, eventually B/W.
Classic: 1000 - 1130/50 AD. pueblos and irrigation.
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High ground, lots of wild foods.
Pottery: brown, then red slip, then painted.
Pottery: elaborate B/W, naturalistic and abstract designs.
Classic Period was one of intensive farming of corn, beans and squash, water control features, bordered
fields with ditches and terracess, low tech and labor intensive.
Mimbres area in 1100 AD had lots of riparian species and mesquite, and by 1150 mostly bushy plants.
Trees had been cut.
Villages of 50 - 200 rooms and field houses. Continuous occupation for hundreds of years.
Clusters of rooms gradually expanded as population grows. Environmental degradation corresponds to
growth.
Organization: no apparent plan to villages, no hierarchy evidence, homo`eneous architecture, rules of
painting pottery.
By 1150 the villages had been abandoned. Movement is an important aspect of desert adaptation.
Residential stability results in local environment degradation. Non-sustainable.
Postclassic: 1150 - 1250.
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Reorganization in Rio Grande drainages.
Continuity evidence is remodeling and additions, ceramics - classic Mimbres pots in use, radiocarbon
dating is flat.
Also new social relationships in evidence: new pots, new ceramic ware types, up to 8 vs. one.
New technology added to plainware evidences some immigrations.
Southwest (14)
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Comparison and contrast of the Mimbres Classic and Postclassic occupations.
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Pottery Classic; 1000-1150, elaborate black on white, naturalistic and abstract pattern, homogeneous style with
apparent rules of painting. Iconographic conventions include many rabbits, sheep, copulation, unusual animals,
humans, masks, mesoamerican themes and plumed serpents.
Postclassic; 1150 -1250, Classic Mimbres pots in use in Postclassic. Mimbres iconography discontinued. New
technology added to plainware. A diverse variety of pottery types associated with different areas of the Southwest
at Postclassic hamlets. Classic Mimbres iconography is continued after 1150. Reserve-Tularosa technological
style imported.
Interpretation of the evidence: Ideology of conformity during the Classic.
New technology indicates influx of some new people.
Regional interaction increased post 1150 with greater social interaction and movement of people.
Settlement patterns
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Interpretation of the evidence:
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Agricultural practices
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Mimbres Classic period was marked by aggregated villages with several hundred inhabitants.
Postclassic saw population disbursement to small hamlets.
A breakdown in social structure, and land degradation could be reasons for abandonment of Classic villages.
Classic period pottery has distinct and ubiquitous iconography.
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Classic; irrigation systems were in use, water control features, bordered fields with ditched and terraces, low tech
and labor intensive, intense farming of corn and beans.
Postclassic; All hearths had cultigens, change from large scale irrigation systems to dispersed. Interpretation of
the evidence: There was a degradation of the environment from long and continuous use. Cultigen evidence
indicates same manner of subsistence, with change in areas farmed.
General interpretation: Mimbres classical abandonment was actually a reorganization. Community
and regional relations were redefined at a broader and less restrictive level.
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Classic; clustering of rooms indicates gradual expansion of population. no evidence of hierarchy, residential stability, residential
stability was a non-sustainable subsistence pattern.
Postclassic; remodeling of field houses indicates continuity, Flat radiocarbon date indicate continuity.
Iconography does not appear in Postclassic contexts.
Therefore, social control/organization does not appear to exist, or weakens considerably, after 1150.
There is a high ubiquity of cultigens in Mimbres Classic period hearths. There are cultigens found in
100% of all Post-classic hearths studied
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Therefore, it would seem that Postclassic Mimbres are still cultivating at least as much as the Classic Mimbres.
Southwest (15)
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Discussion: Ways in which the focus, or scale of observation, affect our understanding of prehistoric
‘abandonmenst’ with reference to the Mimbres and Mesa Verde ‘abandonments.’
Focusing only on a small area may give the impression that a region has been abandoned. The
Mimbres valley may have been abandoned, but the Mimbres region evidences continuity of
occupation.
In this case a regional view is adequate to assess what really occurred.
In the case of the Mesa Verde abandonment a much wider view is needed. The Mesa Verde
populations did abandon the region and moved to the Rio Grande Valley, a movement of greater
distance than the Mimbres.
The Mesa Verde movement can be called an abandonment, the Mimbres is best viewed as a regional
reorganization. A camera viewfinder is an excellent analogy because a number of push and pull
factors may lead a population away from an area that they had historically occupied. In the camera
example, a narrow focus of the camera would indicate that the area was abandoned and the
inhabitants disappeared, when in fact they had just moved out of the view of the camera. In the case
of the Mimbres, the population did not abandon the region, signaling the end of the Mimbres culture.
Rather they disbursed to smaller hamlets to the east. If we do not expand our scale of observation it
would be easy to assume that they had disappeared. The scale of observation needs to be larger for
the Mesa Verde region. Its inhabitants moved all the way to the Rio Grande Valley 200 miles distant.
The following commentary on this document regarding the Mimbres material was provided by Dr.
Harry J. Shafer of the Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M University:
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Mimbre architecture: There are at least six different functional types of rooms, and the occurrence of these
functional types depends on the size of the social group, and whether it is an extended family or corporate
group. Features in rooms and the way they articulate with other rooms defines the room type. There is a great
deal of variability in the use of building materials, depending on the location relative to the kind of available stone,
and when the room was constructed. Great kivas during the pithouse-pueblo transition (A.D. 900-1000) had
sipapus, and Classic corporate kivas had rectangular floor vaults placed next to the hearth.
Mimbres mortuary practices: Intramural burials, which account for 85% of all Classic period burials, were lineage
cemteries placed beneath certain types of rooms. Extramural burials included inhumations (10%) and
cremations (5%).
Mimbres pottery: Style III painted pottery ceased to be produced probably before A.D.1150. Arguments for
continued use after 1150, are based on radiocarbon dates. A microstylistic sequence worked out for Style III
based on tree-ring dates indicates the rules of design began to break down after A.D. 1100. Style II and III were
but one of a number of material correlates that relate to the organization of Mimbres society involved in irrigation
agriculture. When the system broke down after A.D. 1130, the pottery ceased to be made but heirloom vessels
may have been used up to mid century.
Southwest (16)
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Hohokam
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Traits:
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The Hohokam are multi-lingual and multi-ethnic
Ancestoral to O'odham and Yumans.
1400's population was 40,000 to 80,000.
Spanish contact population was 5,000.
Area is from Gulf of California to Flagstaff, core area was Gila-Salt confluence and adjacent valley areas.
Rancherias (houses in pits)
Irrigation agriculture with large scale canals
Red on bluff, paddle and anvil pottery
Naturalistic figures in the designs
Cremation
Links to Mesoamerica as evidenced by ballcourts and platform mounds, social hierarchy.
Chronology:
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Origins show continuity from the Archaic or earlier
Dating difficult due to lack of dendrochronology, before 1980 less than 120 dates, now thousands.
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Preclassic: Pioneer – 2300 - 1500 BP (300 BC - AD 500)
Colonial -- 500 – 875 AD.
Sedentary -- 875 - 1100/1150 AD.
Classic: 1150 – 1450 AD.
Subsistence
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Flowing rivers and Sonoran abundance.
Farming included floodplain, ak-chin, dry terraces, canals.
Canal irrigation by the end of the Pioneer period included the main canals and laterals totaling 900+ km, farming
more than 10,000 ha.
Canals were up to 15 – 25 m wide.
Method is risky, expensive and highly productive, and requires organization of labor.
Silting evidenced at La Ciudad.
Soils salinization evidenced.
Floods damaged the system.
Disease vectors increase.
Southwest (17)
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Architecture
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Trade
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Regional exchange network larger than ballcourt area.
Gulf of California shell homogeneous distribution
Copper bells and exotic stone from Mexico
Obsidian from Gila Bend area
Forest products and stone from the north.
Valley had a surplus of agricultural product.
Temporal Changes
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Pit houses had risers in early Pioneer period, evidencing in-house storage.
Risers decline with advent of courtyard groups.
Courtyard groups occupied 40 - 100 years.
Ballcourt from Tucson area to Flagstaff, with 225 ballcourts at 160 larger sites. Oval, elliptical in form with berms.
Adobe compounds replace pit houses during Classic.
Hohokam redware changes from Gila Red (to 1300) to Salt Red evidencing change in exchange.
During the Classic platform mounds replace ballcourts and are concentrated.
One mound replaces several ballcourts, indication of social reorganization.
1250 AD residences atop mounds.
1300 Salado polychromes imported and increase of activity in the Tonto Basin.
Inhumation increases.
New iconography.
Canals and Social Organization
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Canals require headgates, specific gradients, cannot cross waterways.
Management is necessary.
Hohokam system increased in complexity over time.
No evidence of violence indicates social stability.
Largest sites at the headwater of the canal.
Often one major platform mound near the headwater of the canal.
The larger upstream canals lasted longer.
Steeper gradients in the Classic may indicate water competition.
Southwest (18)
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Hierarchy
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Greatest evidence of hierarchy in the SW.
Few Great Houses and limited number of mounds indicates regional organization.
Special houses and goods found atop mounds.
Walled compounds around mounds and Great Houses.
More adobe compounds near mounds with courtyard groups ion mound periphery.
Comparison: Pre-Classic Hohokam ballcourts and Classic platform mounds.
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225 ballcourts at 160 of the largest sites, 40% in the Phoenix basin (compared to thousands of Hohokam sites)
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Platform mounds are concentrated, within 60 miles of Snaketown (Lower Gila River), there are fewer mounds
than ballcourts.
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Mounds are built of solid fill with stone or adobe exterior retaining walls
Mounds had rooms built on them after 1250
Mounds had courtyards and enclosure walls. These may have served to limit access.
Similarities: Both ballcourts and platform mounds were ceremonial in nature, both were constructed as public
works; both mounds and ballcourts acted as unifying elements within the culture; both probably facilitated trade.
Exchange and interaction is similar and continued from the pre-classic to the classic period
Differences: Residences were built on platform mounds; ballcourts were built throughout Hohokam regional
system, while platform mounds were concentrated in Phoenix, Salt River, Gila River and southern Arizona.
Ballcourts were accessible to everyone, but the mounds were occupied by only a few individuals. Mounds more
labor intensive to construct
Mounds seemed to service village clusters, while ballcourts were distributed in most villages. Ballcourts were
phased out and platform mounds became more prevalent. Society moving toward greater complexity.
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Ballcourts are oval or elliptical form depressions surrounded by berms.
Ballcourts were dispersed across the Hohokam regional system
Ballcourts were accessible to the entire community
Centralized powerful leadership emerged
Interpretation: The mounds and ballcourts are interpreted as indicating a shared cosmology and ritual pattern.
Different communities gathered together at ballcourts and at platform mounds, with more centralization at the
later. The scale of social, political and ritual organization shifted to larger units with a hierarchy. The society
evolved from simple to more complex. The mounds and ballcourts were constructed as public works; both
mounds and ballcourts acted as unifying elements within the culture; both probably facilitated trade;
ballcourts were accessible to everyone, but the mounds were occupied by only a few individuals; ballcourts were
phased out and platform mounds became more prevalent; society moving toward complexity and a centralized
powerful leadership emerged
Pit house
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Almost all of these pithouses
consisted of a large living room
and a smaller antechamber.
Using stone and wooden tools,
the people dug a rounded or
oblong-shaped depression
several feet into the ground.
Usually there was a low bench
surrounding the floor area with
four timbers placed in holes in
each corner to support a roof
framework. Timbers were
placed across the tops of the
four posts with smaller logs,
sticks, juniper bark, and mud to
cover the framework to make it
weatherproof.
The larger room, used as
sleeping quarters and a general
work area, was divided into two
sections by a low wall
extending toward the firepit.
Utensils and other implements
for food preparation are often
found behind this low wall, and
the antechamber was probably
a large storage area. Entrance
to the pithouse was by means
of a ladder through an opening
in the roof above the centrally
located firepit.
Corrugated Ware
• Chaco Canyon.
Coolidge corrugated
pitcher made in
Pueblo I-II period
(American Museum of
Natural History, New
York).
• 13 cm.
Chaco Canyon
• Map
shows the
core
Chaco
Canyon
region
Chaco Ceramics
• Chaco blackon-white
ceramic pots
• Typical
geometric
design
elements
• Upper: R:
Chaco A.D.
1050-1125; L:
Chaco-McElmo
A.D. 1075-1125
• Lower: Anasazi
black-on-white
pitchers
Chaco Canyon:
Pueblo Bonito
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Pueblo Bonito is the largest
ancient dwelling at Chaco
Canyon, and in fact the
largest known Anasazi
dwelling.
The South wall (running
vertically along the right of
the photograph) is nearly 175
meters long.
Pueblo Bonito grew through
four major construction
phases, starting in the early
tenth century with a
semicircular row of rooms
(coinciding roughly with the
left curved outer portion of
the building), culminating in
1120 with over 650 rooms
and an estimated resident
population of 400-1000.
Chaco Canyon: Pueblo Alto
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Reconstruction
Located about 3500 feet
north of Pueblo Bonito,
Pueblo Alto is the highest
village at Chaco Canyon,
and may have been a
place of communication
into what is now Mexico
via fire signals. There is
one possible tower kiva,
but otherwise the entire
village is single storey
construction.
The village's 110 rooms
and eleven kivas were
constructed between 1020
AD and 1140 AD. It was
abandoned ten years later.
Seven prehistoric roads
radiated outwards from
Pueblo Alto. It is a place
were turquoise was
processed for ritual
objects. The source of the
turquoise used here was
near present-day Cerillos,
south of Santa Fe.
Mesa Verde (1)
• Cliff Palace, in Mesa Verde National Park, was built around
1200 A.D. The large pueblo contains more than 200 small
rooms plus kivas. Some of the construction is four storied.
Mesa Verde (2)
• The three story buildings extend to the ceiling. This third
largest cliff dwelling on Mesa Verde has 114 rooms and
eight kivas nestled in a 66 by 27 meter cave.
Mesa Verde (3)
• Spruce Tree House
– Located in large,
natural rock shelter in
Mesa Verde region
Mesa Verde (3)
• Square Tower
House
• Originally
there were 80
rooms and
seven
kivas. Two
kivas retain
portions of
their roofs.
Mesa Verde (4)
• Sun Temple is located across the canyon from Cliff
Palace. It consists of a double-walled structure
surrounding two kivas. The kivas may have been towers.
Mesa Verde (6)
• Mesa Verde
black-on-white
bowls (Crow
Canyon
Archaeological
Center).
• These were a
common article
of trade in the
region in ca.
1180-1300.
Mesa Verde (7)
• Chaco Canyon.
Wingate black-on-red
three-lobed jar with
mask motif (American
Museum of Natural
History, New York). 15
cm.
Tusayan Polychrome
• Bowl
• 26.67 cm diameter
• Tusayan B Polychrome
Homolovi
Mogollon: Early Pit House architecture
• Early Mimbres architecture
consisted of subterranean
pithouses.
• The walls of these
structures were made of
soil, upon which plaster was
applied.
• The pithouse was entered
through the roof, then later
by an inclined entrance
from the surface.
• Later pithouses were
constructed of rubble
masonry and were semisubterranean.
Mogollon: Early Pit House Ceramics
• The San Francisco Red
pottery type is
characterized by a deep
red slip applied to the
interiors of bowls and the
exteriors of jars.
• This pottery is highly
polished and has an
extremely smooth
surface.
• The red slip is made
from hematite added to a
clay suspension in water.
Mogollon: Late Pit House architecture
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During the Late Pithouse period two
distinct phases of pithouse
architecture can be determined.
– From AD 550 to 650 (Georgetown
Phase) pithouses were round with
simple hearths and no internal
divisions. Large wooden posts
supported the roofs. The structures
were systematically cleaned out
before they were abandoned.
– From AD 900 to 1000 (Late Three
Circle Phase) pithouses changed
from circular to rectangular in shape
and the walls were constructed of
masonry one meter above the
ground surface. Hearths became
more elaborate and also became
rectangular rather than circular, and
small holes constructed in the roof
allowed smoke from the hearth to
escape. These pithouses were
burned before they were
abandoned.
– Pueblo room blocks appeared after
AD 1000 as a response to the
increase in population and
agricultural intensification in the
Mimbres Valley.
Mogollon: Late Pit House Ceramics (1)
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Black-on-white style I, or Boldface
Black-on-white, pottery type was made
from AD 750 until AD 900. It is
characterized by a thin, chalky, white slip
applied to the interiors of bowls and the
exteriors of jars. The paint is black
although sometimes it is red due to
misfiring. The painted designs extend to
the rim and are executed in thick lines.
The designs consist of large scrolls,
wavy-line hatchure, a three-pronged F,
and rare, crude naturalistic designs.
The Black-on-white style II, or
Transitional Black-on-white, pottery type
was made from AD 900 until AD 1020. It
is characterized by a thin, chalky, white
slip applied to the interiors of bowls and
the exteriors of jars. Early designs
extended to the rim but later designs
stop short of the rim when rim bands
develop. The designs were more
complex and there were varied motifs.
Designs included linear and curvilinear
designs, straight-line hatchuring
bounded by thick bordering lines, thickline interlocking scrolls, and some
naturalistic designs.
Mogollon: Late Pit House Ceramics (2)
• The Black-on-white style
II/III pottery type was
made from AD 970 until
AD 1020. This style
bridges the Black-onwhite styles II and III. It is
characterized by the
development of the use of
multiple, fine framing
lines, finer linework, and
more careful execution of
the designs. Geometric
and figurative images
were begun to be painted
in negative form.
Mogollon: Classic/Post-Classic architecture
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The Classic Mimbres period dates
from AD 1000 to 1140. Masonrywalled pueblos were built over Late
Pithouse period pithouses. These
pueblos consisted of living rooms,
storage rooms, and civicceremonial rooms. There was a
major increase in the population
due to irrigation agriculture and
more intensive and extensive
exploitation of the environment.
The Postclassic Mimbres period
dates from AD 1140 to 1450 and is
divided into two phases. The Black
Mountain Phase dates from AD
1140 to 1300. During this phase the
population moved towards the
south. There was no building of
ceremonial architecture (kivas) and
the pottery was either local
utilitarian or non-local painted ware.
The Cliff Phase dates from AD 1300
to 1450 and is characterized by
adobe architecture
Mogollon: Classic period ceramics
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The Black-on-white style III, or
Classic Mimbres Black-onwhite, pottery type was made
from AD 1010 until AD 1130. It
is characterized by a thin,
chalky, white slip applied to the
interiors of bowls and the
exteriors of jars. Framing line
bands, or rim bands, were
almost universal and often
multiple bands present.
Geometric and naturalistic
designs were painted on the
pottery. Designs included thin
line hatchure bordered by thin
lines, and wide and narrow
concentric bands
The Polychrome style III
pottery type was similar to
Black-on-white style III with the
exception of the use of a third
color, ranging from tan to
yellow, in place of fine-line
hatchure or as filler in a
naturalistic element.
Hohokam: Ballcourts
Hohokam: Pueblo Grande Mound
•
The platform mound at Pueblo Grande is one of the largest the Hohokam ever constructed. Like
the northwest ballcourt, it is oriented in a general north-south direction and measures 49 by 90
m, approximately the size of a modern-day football field. At its greatest height, the mound stood
7.5 to 9 m high. Surrounding the entire mound, a 2 m high and 1 m wide (1 m) compound wall
restricted access to all but a selected group of individuals.
Hohokam Ceramics
• The Hohokam adopted
stylistic elements of
Mesoamerican origin
and their settlement
patterns resemble those
of the adjacent Mexican
states Sonora and
Sinaloa more than the
Puebloan north.
Southern influences
include ceramic styles,
figurines, censers, and
palettes.
• Red-on-brown bowl
Map of Southwest
Culture Regions
• Southwest 1
• Southwest 13
• Southwest 16
Map of Hohokam Occupation in Arizona
Southwest Sites
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1. SU Site
2. McPhee Village
3. Tornillo rock shelter
4. Three Fir shelter
5. Milagro
6. Shabik’eshchee
7. Chaco Canyon
8. Mesa Verde
9. Homol'ovi pueblos