April 2, 2007
The Ancient Pueblo Region won the silver medal in the 2007 Best Places in AncientWorlds contest. Our thanks and sincere appreciation go out to all the volunteers who have been a part of this effort. Congratulations!

Click the links to see a short definition of each.
Ancient Pueblo People Fremont Hohokam Mogollon Patayan Sinagua	Overview: Select a culture from the list.

Want to learn more about the six cultures of the Ancient Southwest? Please visit these Cities: Ancient Pueblo People Ancient Pueblo People Ancient Pueblo People Mogollon Sinagua Culture Hohokam

The architecture of the Ancient Southwest is unmistakable. It is the greatest reminder we have of these four cultures and it is a connector between the Native American cultures of the past and present.

The Pithouse
The first architecture to appear on the American Southwest's landscape was the pithouse. This was usually a dwelling for one family that had its entrance at the roof. The pithouse was used year round.

The Fieldhouse
Early architecture also included the field house which used for agriculture. The field houses were built next to or within close proximity of their fields. The fields were usually located some distance from the pithouse. The field house were used for shelter, storage, and to denote ownership of a certain field. In Dr. Timothy Kohler's article from American Antiquity (57(4). 1992, pp. 617-635), he states that these seasonally occupied field houses were connected to aggregation and the advancement of agricultural technology. While researching field houses at the Dolores Archaeological Project, an Ancient Pueblo People site in southwestern Colorado, Kohler found that the field houses were used to minimize the cost of the trips between one’s pithouse or pueblo and one’s field. He also found that the field houses were the tangible symbol of land ownership by the Ancient Pueblo People. The field houses were used to claim the fertile land and its resources on behalf of a certain household, lineage, or village.

The Multi-family Pueblo
As the cultures of the Southwest advanced, the architecture advanced as well leading to the construction of multi-family pueblos. Between the years A.D. 700 and 1000, Ancient Southwestern architecture advanced from the semi-subterranean pithouse into the aboveground pueblo. In Rocek's article from American Antiquity (60(2). 1995, pp. 218-239), he believes that this transformation has to do with subsistence-settlement patterns. As population increased and as agricultural technology advanced, people began to cluster together in many roomed pueblos in order to combine resources, such as fertile soil and water.

Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde [1200-1300 CE]

The Kiva
These lower-level storage rooms became known as Kivas. During this transition from pithouse to pueblo, the Kivas were used for religious purposes as well as for food-storage.

A Kiva found at Sand Canyon Pueblo, Crow Canyon

The Great Kiva
Great Kivas have received a great amount of archeological study recently. These were the community rooms were religious ceremonies often took place. The Great Kiva was often built away for the main dwelling areas. The oldest Great Kivas date to as far back as 1 CE.

Cliff Dwellings
Cliff Dwellings are yet another form of architecture found in the Ancient Southwest. The majority of these were built between 1200 CE and 1300 CE by the Ancient Pueblo People. They had a fine mastery of the skies and the Cliff Dwellings were known to have good solar orientation - shade in the summer and sun in the winter. The location underneath a cliff also kept rain and snow out of the Cliff Dwellings. The Cliff Dwellings also were essentially a defensive stronghold, and access to most was by either ladder or rope. It is odd that this final stage of ancient architecture was only inhabited for approximately one hundred years. Recent tree-ring research points to a long period of drought between 1276 and 1299 CE. An example of a Cliff Dwelling is the Square Tower at the Mesa Verde complex.

Types of Construction Materials

1. Jacal – a clay and stick lattice combination anchored to stone
2. Sandstone – soft and easy to work with mainly for Cliff Dwellings
3. Adobe – not used often by the Ancient Pueblo People
4. Stones – often shaped and usually used to construct walls

View an original slideshow of the Ancient Pueblo Region, created by Gamma Roca. Take the Chaco Canyon Quick Time Virtual Reality Tour - The University of Colorado at Boulder held a recent conference on Chaco Canyon which was titled: EVALUATING MODELS OF CHACO: A Virtual Conference. Click on the link to view a Virtual Tour of Pueblo Bonito and Casa Rinconada at Chaco Canyon. Plus, there is also a Virtual Tour of a reconstructed Great Kiva from Aztec National Monument. NOTE: Your computer will need to have QuickTimeVR Software in order to run the tour. Visit the Chaco Culture National Historic Park Online - You can view a number of slide shows, including rock art images, historic views of Chaco Canyon, and more. View a 3D pottery gallery, from the Arizona State Museum. Play a Pottery Memory Game! NOTE: You need to have javascript enabled in order to play the game. View a 3D representation of a Hohokam pithouse. Purple Maize Tavern Kokopelli's Art Gallery Living In Our Hood - Resources Research Center of the Ancient Pueblo Region Welcomes and Introductions Back to Top

Jars from Pueblo Bonito now found at the American Museum of Natural History, New York	Pitcher from Chaco Canyon now found at the American Museum of Natural History, New York
How To Make Pueblo Pottery How did the Pueblo peoples work ordinary clay into beautiful pottery? Click on the image to take this tour.	Pottery Clipart for Your Home Just moved into our hood and looking for home decorating resources? Maiara Kawiil has created some great pottery clipart images you can use in your homesites or properties. Enjoy!
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Here are two short reviews or annotated bibliographies on journal articles from the Ancient Southwest. There are many fine academic articles out there in scholarly journals such as Kiva. Just stop by your local university library and enjoy!

Case Study One – Pithouse and Field houses near Winona and Angell, Arizona

Dr. Peter Pilles and the Museum of Northern Arizona conducted excavations on sites near Winona and Angell, Arizona. He found that the one habitation unit (pithouse) and the two field houses date back to 1075 CE as evidenced by pottery and tree-ring dates. The sites are located twenty miles east of Flagstaff at an elevation of 6,000 feet. The pithouse (NA9814) was heavily excavated and was found to be usual for its time period. (NA9814) was a seven-meter diameter masonry mound constructed with limestone boulders. The boulders were set in mud mortar and the walls were probably no higher than two meters. Several postholes were dug inside the room, and the postholes were either fourteen centimeters or five centimeters in diameter. Dr. Pilles believes that the larger holes supported the roof and that the five-centimeter postholes were for a ladder or ladder support. There is no evidence of a doorway, which indicates entry from the roof. There is also a hearth, which was located in the north wall of the site. It was found to be in poor condition. The field houses (NA9816/NA9817) are located six miles east of the pithouse. Dr. Pilles’ research has shown that these field houses were temporary shelters and storage areas in conjunction with agricultural activities. Pottery found at both the pithouse and the field houses indicate that the field houses belonged to the inhabitants of site (NA9814).

Case Study Two - Measurements of the Ancestral Pueblo Peoples at Chaco Canyon

Dee Hudson stated that a basic requirement in all human activity concerned with architectural planning and construction is measurement. The research was done at Chaco Canyon, which is an Ancestral Puebloan site in northwestern New Mexico. Hudson examined the dimensions of 480 rooms from the sites of Pueblo Bonito and Pueblo del Arroyo. The pueblos were examined and measured to derive not only the dimensional value, but also to determine social behavior if any that is linked to these measurements. Looking at the measurement patterns and the distribution, some inferences into the social behavior of the ancient architect can been seen according to Dee Hudson. She believes that the Ancient Pueblo People used five different measurement units ranging from twenty to thirty inches with an average of twenty-four inches. Hudson took these measurements and looked at the various constructional sequences at Pueblo Bonito and Pueblo del Arroyo. She believed that after 1000 CE the arrangement of the rooms, the masonry styles, and the site at which construction was to begin were all community driven. The builders measuring devices, the uniformity in the size of the rooms, and the uniformity of the lengths and widths of the opposing walls within each room are evidence this community effort at Chaco Canyon. Social and architectural institutions were the same. This was clearly seen in room nine of Pueblo del Arroyo where one wall measures 58 feet and 3 inches and the parallel-opposite wall measures 58 feet and 4 inches.

While researching this hood, I have noticed that the term Anasazi has seen some heated debates within the academic community.

In fact, the Anasazi Heritage Center states:

“There never was an 'Anasazi' tribe, nor did any group of people call themselves by that name. Anasazi is only a descriptive term of Navajo origin. Archaeologists applied the term to villagers who lived and farmed in the Four Corners between the years 1 and 1300 AD. Most of them were probably ancestors of today's Pueblo people. After 1300, the heartland of this culture shifted southward but the culture never disappeared. The modern Pueblos are about 20 independent tribes living in New Mexico and Arizona. There is extensive literature available about the culture of modern and historic Pueblo people.”

This is my reasoning behind using the term, Ancient Pueblo People in the above Hood layout. However, when I sited a reference or quoted from a book that used the "Anasazi" term, I left the term as is. Also, when showing time, I chose to use (BCE – Before Common Era) and (CE – Common Era).

• Internet: Anasazi Heritage Center
  Bureau of Land Management - Colorado
• Internet: EVALUATING MODELS OF CHACO: A Virtual Conference
  University of Colorado
• Hudson, Dee T. Anasazi Measurement Systems at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Kiva, 38(1). 1972, pp. 27-42.
• Kohler, Timothy A. Field houses, Villages, and the Tragedy of the Commons in the early northern Anasazi Southwest. American Antiquity. 57(4). 1992, pp. 617-635.
• Lekson, Stephen H. The Idea of the Kiva in Anasazi Archaeology. Kiva. 53. (1988), pp. 213-34.
• Pilles, Peter J. Habitation and Field Houses near Winona and Angell, Arizona. Kiva. 34(2). 1969, pp. 90-102.
• Rocek, Thomas R. Sedentarization and Agricultural Dependence: Perspectives from the Pithouse-to-Pueblo Transition in the American Southwest. American Antiquity. 60(2). 1995, pp. 218-239.

• Images from History: An Image Archive to Support Teaching and Study of World History
• Haines Brown via University of Alabama Birmingham Found online at: Images From History

Many thanks to the following members for their contributions to the development of this hood:

• Asenath Amenhotep
• MacMorna Niafer
• Caileadair Etana
• Jia Li Shen Chi
• Helia Lupus
• Maiara Kawiil
• Gamma Roca
• Aynara MorningStar

Built by Gamma Roca