Chapter 7-Q-A.docx

Ancestral Pueblo: a term used by some archaeologists for the Native American groups who occupied southeastern Utah, southwestern Colorado, northern Arizona, and northwestern New Mexico from about 500 cal BC until just before Spanish contact in AD 1540; their descendants live in the Hopi, Zuni, and R...

Ancestral Pueblo: a term used by some archaeologists for the Native American groups who occupied southeastern Utah, southwestern Colorado, northern Arizona, and northwestern New Mexico from about 500 cal BC until just before Spanish contact in AD 1540; their descendants live in the Hopi, Zuni, and Rio Grande pueblos of Arizona and New Mexico. The term “Ancestral Pueblo” replaces the archaeological term “Anasazi,” although many archaeologists have continued to use Anasazi, given its historical precedence, and note that modern pueblos in Arizona and New Mexico likely also include descendants of the Mogollon and other archaeological cultures such as the Hohokam. Aztec Ruins: an Ancestral Pueblo region in northern New Mexico with many great houses. It became an important center during the late Pueblo III period, after the abandonment of most of Chaco Canyon. Casa Grande: a Classic period Hohokam site in Arizona. It has a great house, residential compounds, and platform mounds. Casa Rinconada: a great kiva built in Chaco Canyon (New Mexico) in the North American Southwest during the late Bonito phase (beginning of the Pueblo III period). Casas Grandes: a large Pueblo IV settlement (also called Paquimé) in northern Mexico. It contains evidence for trade and exchange into the Ancestral Pueblo, Mogollon, and other North American Southwest regions. Cave 7: a Basketmaker II burial cave site in southeastern Utah. It contains 96 individuals of both sexes and a range of ages, including 18 adult males with signs of violence, suggesting that raids between Basketmaker II groups occurred from time to time. Chacoan Outlier: an Ancestral Pueblo community in the region outside of Chaco Canyon (New Mexico) that dates to the Pueblo II and III periods; it includes a great house built in a similar way to the great houses of Chaco Canyon, a great kiva, and several surrounding small roomblock settlements. Chaco Phenomenon: an unusual set of archaeological features found in the Chaco Canyon region of New Mexico from AD 900 to AD 1220 (Bonito phase). It includes a population of 2000 to 3000 in this marginal agricultural area, great houses and small settlements, Chaocan roads, Chacoan outliers, trade with other regions of the North American Southwest (turquoise, shell jewelry, certain types of pottery) and Mesoamerica (copper bells, macaws, cacao), and the possible presence of elites at the great houses. Early Agricultural Period: a term used by archaeologists to describe the Late Archaic period in the area of southern Arizona that becomes the Hohokam region. This term is used in preference to Late Archaic because domesticated maize was introduced from Mesoamerica and then incorporated into mobile hunting, gathering, and foraging lifeways. Thus, people in this area of the North American Southwest were engaged in at least some agriculture, as well as the early construction of canals for irrigation of fields. Grasshopper Pueblo: a Mogollon period site in the mountainous east-central part of Arizona. It was occupied between AD 1275 and AD 1400. At its peak between AD 1300 and AD 1330, it was an aggregation site with large, multistoried roomblocks with enclosed open plazas. The roomblocks to the west of the stream were occupied by Mogollon peoples, while those on the east side of the stream were where Ancestral Pueblo groups lived. Great House: a large multistory building, this term is used for several of the prehistoric cultural areas in the North American Southwest. For the Ancestral Pueblo beginning in Pueblo II times and later, it describes multiple roomblocks often built of stone, such as Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. In the Hohokam region, great houses were built during the Classic period and were multistory adobe structures located within compounds. Great Houses also were built by Mogollon peoples. Great Kiva: a very large round pithouse structure used by Ancestral Pueblo groups for communal activities such as ceremonies. They are found first in the late Basketmaker III period and continue into the Pueblo periods. Rectangular versions are characteristic of settlements of many living Native American groups in the North American Southwest. Hohokam: an archaeological term for the Native American groups who occupied south-central and southeastern Arizona from about AD 1 until just prior to Spanish contact in AD 1540; their descendants include the Tohono O’odham and the Pima of Arizona. Kiva: a round pithouse structure used by Ancestral Pueblo families for group activities such as story-telling, weaving, and rituals; see also Great Kiva. McPhee Village: a Pueblo I period settlement in Colorado; it includes above ground masonry U-shaped roomblocks, linear jacal roomblocks, and more than 50 pithouses; there are two great kivas, which are associated with the U-shaped masonry roomblocks. Mimbres: part of the Mogollon culture area, Mimbres Mogollon sites are found in southwestern New Mexico and a small portion of southeastern Arizona. Mogollon: an archaeological term for the Native American groups who occupied much of central and southern New Mexico, the northern portions of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts of northern Mexico, and the mountainous region of central Arizona from about AD 100 to just before the arrival of the Spanish in AD 1540; their descendants likely moved to the Rio Grande pueblos. NAN Ranch Site: a Mollogon site in southwestern New Mexico occupied during the Pithouse and Mogollon Pueblo periods. At its largest, during the Classic Mimbres phase (AD 1000 to 1130) of the Mogollon Pueblo period, Nan Ranch had three roomblocks with over 100 rooms and a ditch and small canal system to divert water to fields and a reservoir. It was abandoned shortly after AD 1130. Pithouse: in the North American Southwest, pithouses are usually circular to oval dwellings that have been dug into the ground, although they also can be rectangular. In the Hohokam region, pithouses are shallow, while in the Ancestral Pueblo and Mogollon areas pithouses tend to be deep. In most cases, poles and/or beams are used to build walls and roofing above ground. Pueblo Alto: an Ancestral Pueblo great house in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, that has evidence in its trash mounds for large-scale, cooperative community feasts during the Bonito Phase. Pueblo Bonito: an Ancestral Pueblo D-shaped “great house” in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, that was built over the period from the late AD 800s to AD 1150. It had more than 350 ground floor rooms (perhaps as many as 700 rooms total with rooms from the upper stories), 32 kivas, and 3 great kivas. Ridges Basin: a series of spatially close Pueblo I clusters representing a community in southwestern Colorado. Each cluster had a distinct social identity that can be seen in the types of architecture they built and in how they buried their dead. Santa Cruz Bend: a Late Archaic period site in Tucson, Arizona, which has evidence of early maize, along with wild plants and hunting of animals. It is a small, settled village site with more than a dozen pithouse dwellings and a large, communal pithouse. Shabik’eschee Village: a Basketmaker III occupation in the Chaco Canyon area, New Mexico, which is tree-ring dated to AD 550–700. It has 25 excavated pithouses, including a great kiva, and perhaps as many as 36 unexcavated structures. There also are more than 50 storage pits. Shabik’eschee Village is interpreted as an aggregation site. Snaketown: a large Hohokam settlement in central Arizona near Phoenix. Snaketown had numerous individual pit structures occupied by families. It also had two ball courts, which are an architectural form likely introduced from Mesoamerica. The ball game ritual probably also was introduced from the south. Snaketown was occupied during the Pioneer, Colonial, and Sedentary periods and largely abandoned by AD 1150. Three Fir Shelter: an Archaic period site in northeast Arizona with evidence for the early use of maize by 1990 cal BC. The Southwest is the geographical region of southwest Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and southeast Utah. The point where these four modern US states come together is called the “Four Corners.” The human occupation of the Southwest extends from Clovis culture to large settled communities and complex social organization that continues through the present day. The Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi), Hohokam, and Mogollon are the three great cultural traditions of the American Southwest (see Figure 7.1). Other major groups include the Sinagua, Salado, Patayan, and Trincheras cultures. Chapter 7 focuses on the Ancestral Pueblo. The Ancestral Pueblo inhabited southwestern Colorado, northwestern New Mexico, northern Arizona, and southeastern Utah. Ancestral Pueblo peoples built settled communities, including some of the best known “cliff dwellings.” The descendants of the Ancestral Pueblo live in the modern Hopi, Zuni, and Rio Grande pueblos—and maintain a history of oral tradition with their ancestors. Early Food Production A little backstory: Paleoamerican hunter-gatherer-foragers were present in the Southwest from 11,000 to 8000 cal BC (Chapter 4). After 8000 cal BC, they transition into the Archaic period (see Figure 7.2). Around 2100 cal BC, Hohokam people began incorporating domesticated maize from Mexico into their diets. The Late Archaic Period Late Archaic hunter-gatherer-foragers likely remained mobile and planted maize as a supplement. Small sites like Three Fir Shelter (see Fig. 7.4) provide evidence of maize use in the Ancestral Pueblo region as early as 1990 cal BC. Larger sites like Santa Cruz Bend (Hohokam area; Early Agricultural Period) include pithouses, even a large communal pithouse (Fig. 7.5). Late Archaic (Early Agricultural) people in the Hohokam area constructed irrigation canals by 1250 cal BC, possibly as early as 1750 cal BC. Domesticated squash (1200 cal BC) and beans (590 cal BC) were soon adopted from Mexico. In addition to use of maize, people here continued to hunt and collect wild foods. According to human behavioral ecology models “people generally will choose foraging over farming because farming requires more time and labor investment and thus has initially higher marginal costs” (Olszewski 2019:208). HBE emphasizes the variability of cost/benefit analyses in different contexts. Thus, hunter-gatherer-foragers across the Southwest incorporated farmed foods at different times and to different extents. The Basketmaker Phases of Ancestral Pueblo Ancestral Pueblo groups are descended from the Archaic groups that preceded them. The earliest period, Basketmaker (BM), is divided into two phases: BM II (500 cal BC–AD 500) and BM III (AD 500–AD 750). Basketmaker II Not surprisingly, the people of BM II used basketry containers and did not yet produce pottery. The dry climate of this region preserves fragile organic materials lost in most other archaeological contexts: fur, feathers, weaving, sandals, and corded fibers. People of the BM II period grew maize but also continued to collect wild plant foods and hunt deer, bison, and pronghorn antelope using atlatls. There is evidence of wild turkey bones, but these are not yet domesticated and likely taken primarily for their feathers, not as a food resource. Some BM II sites relied on runoff water for floodwater farming; others tried rainwater-dependent dry farming (both methods sensitive to changes in water availability). Slab-lined cists and bell-shape pits were used for everything from storage to human burials. BM II habitation sites are often located in rockshelters and, especially in late BM II, pithouses. “By AD 200, there is evidence for a limited use of pottery” (Olszewski 2019:208). Analysis of human bones from BM II sites on Cedar Mesa in southeast Utah shows that 80–90% of their diet consisted of maize. One method of cooking foods in baskets is to add fire-heated boiling stones to liquid contained in the baskets. At Cedar Mesa, heated limestone had the added benefit of compensating for some of the nutritional deficiencies of maize. When beans were adopted in the Southwest after 590 cal BC, they nutritionally complemented maize without the use of lime. BM II peoples produced a variety of coiled basket types. Differences in technique or style are often interpreted as reflecting different cultural groups. BM II burials at Cave 7 in southeast Utah indicate occasional violent raids and differences in achieved social status. Ninety-six individuals (39 adult males, 16 adult females, 23 infants and children, and young people of indeterminate sex). Eighteen of the adult males died violently (head wounds, embedded arrowheads). Two elaborate individual burials (an adult female and male) suggest these people had achieved distinction within their society. Basketmaker III Hunting spears and atlatls continued to be used in BM III, though the bow and arrow became more common. Hunters continued to take the large game species common in BM II, but rabbits increase in the faunal record during BM III. Turkeys were probably domesticated in higher elevations (still primarily for their feathers). Somewhat counterintuitively, plain greyware ceramics (less often, Black-on-Grey and Black-on-White wares) became common during Basketmaker III. Benefits of ceramic technology are that it can securely store dried maize and seeds and, unlike basketry, can be heated directly over a fire. BM III people continued to collect wild plant foods, but domesticated foods became a much larger component of their diet. Maize and squash were staple foods during both BM phases and domesticated beans entered the region during BM III. Some small settlements contained only 1–2 pithouses and were occupied for about 10–15 years before being burned and abandoned. Larger settlements contained several pithouses and even larger great kivas (communal and ceremonial gathering places). BM III groups were able to accumulate surpluses, based on many different types of storage: pithouse antechambers, exterior pits, and above-ground jacal storage in later BM III. Stored seeds/beans could be planted the following season or eaten during the winter. Most of the more than 1000 BM III sites in Chaco Canyon and San Juan Basin of New Mexico are relatively small, with 1–12 pithouses. Shabik’eschee Village is exceptionally large, with 25 pithouses (Fig. 7.6), a great kiva, more than 50 storage bins (and as many as 36 unexcavated pithouses). Despite all of these dwellings, probably no more than 20 of them were occupied at any one time. Dendrochronology shows that many pithouses were built about AD 550 and they continued to be built into the Pueblo I period (AD 700s). The large size of Shabik’eschee, along with its smaller number of permanent residents, led many to interpret it as an aggregation site. More recently, researchers have suggested that Shabik’eschee was one of many sites occupied by semimobile communities throughout the year. In this scenario, people would have moved occasionally and planted crops at different locations to limit the risks of farming in a dry landscape. This BM III pattern of a widely distributed population is evident in many areas of the Ancestral Pueblo region. There is evidence for violence among BM III groups outside of Chaco Canyon, possibly competition over areas with wild resources. Pithouse-to-Pueblo Transition The move from semisubterranean pithouses to above-ground masonry dwellings is one of the defining characteristics of the Pueblo I period (PI; AD 750–900). As in BM III, small P I communities appear to have been abandoned after 10–15 years of occupation. For example, three pithouses at Black Mesa, Arizona, were approximately ⅓ mile apart from each other and built in AD 852, 861, and 873, respectively. P I people used plain greyware, Black-on-White, and Black-on-Red ceramics. P I period groups continued to hunt and gather in addition to food production. Turkeys were fully domesticated during P I, and maize, beans, and squash increase in late P I to support larger settlements. These larger settlements consisted of adjoining roomblocks (living, storage, and activity) and circular kivas. For example, McPhee Village, Colorado features 20 roomblocks, 50 pithouses, and 2 great kivas. The presence of jacal roomblocks and larger U-shaped masonry rooms suggests status differentiation at McPhee. The residents of the U-shaped roomblocks had additional storage, access to the kivas, and may have been in charge of ceremonial feasting. “Architecture and burial assemblages from the Ridges Basin in southwestern Colorado suggest that at least some P I communities included several groups who each had their own social identity” (Olszewski 2019:213). The Chaco Phenomenon Today, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, is a relatively desolate environment. But between AD 900 and 1220, it was the center of what has come to be called the Chaco Phenomenon, a large-scale system of social organization and settlement. At its peak during the Bonito Phase, as many as 2000–3000 people may have lived in and around the canyon. This large population was supported by maize, beans, and squash agriculture and the hunting of deer and rabbits. The Ancestral Pueblo people of this phase had ingenious ways of capturing and controlling rainwater: check dams, dams (one is 120 feet long and 7 feet high), channels, and stone-lined canals diverted water into gridded fields. Chaco is known for its great houses, large multistory roomblock clusters. For example: Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl, Pueblo Peñasco, Pueblo Alto, Una Vida, Kin Kletso, and Casa Chiquita (Fig. 7.7). These great houses began small in the AD 800s, grew (by adding blocks) in the 900s, stopped during the unfavorable climate of the late 900s, and then peaked again during the more favorable period of AD 1020–1150. The most distinctive and well-known great house in “downtown Chaco” is Pueblo Bonito, which featured as many as 700 rooms, 32 kivas, and 3 great kivas (see Fig. 7.9). The 373 miles of roads leading into Chaco Canyon created a physical and symbolic link between the heart of the canyon and the 200 or so sites called Chacoan outliers (Fig. 7.10). There is some debate about whether Chacoan outliers were politically and socially reliant on Chaco or were more independent settlements modeled after Chaco. Resource Networks, Trade, and Exchange More than 240,000 ponderosa pine, spruce, and fir logs may have been transported about 50 miles to build the great houses of “downtown Chaco.” In addition, given the amount of fuel wood needed to fire ceramics, much of Chaco’s pottery was imported or traded into the canyon. Eye-catching pink/orange chert was imported from the Chuska Mountains 46 miles to the west. Obsidian was imported from the Jemez Mountains 62 miles to the east. Turquoise was most abundant during the Bonito Phase and imported from multiple sources as far as 310 miles away; the closest turquoise source was 125 miles to the east of Chaco Canyon. Whether turquoise was mined by Chacoan task groups or traded in is not clear. Other exotic goods, from even more distant origins, came to Chaco via trading networks: shells from the Gulf of California (500 miles), live macaws and copper bells from northern Mexico (>435 miles), and cacao beans from central Mexico and further south (>1240 miles). See Peopling the Past: Chaco Canyon and the Mesoamerican Connections. “... consumption of the cacao and holly beverages represents trading links to Mesoamerica (and possibly to other regions) and the incorporation of aspects of Mesoamerican rituals that could be modified to fit within the Ancestral Puebloan world view” (Olszewski 2019:221). Social Life One question has driven Chacoan studies for decades: How were social, political, and ritual power distributed among the great house of Chaco Canyon and outlying communities? Was it a situation of elite dominance, or a necessary division of labor? Pottery motifs shared between Chaco and outliers demonstrate cultural affinity, but little about the nature of the relationship. The maintenance of Chaco’s lifeway would have required coordinated labor. For example irrigation of crops and harvesting of timber. Tree-ring evidence shows that most wood in Chaco was harvested in late spring and early summer, processed, and then stored until it was needed. Some researchers suggest that these wood-harvesting task groups were comprised of males and the concurrent preparation of fields and planting was completed by females. See Peopling the Past: The Roles of Men and Women in Chaco Canyon. It is often assumed, based on ethnographic observations, that grain grinding was a female task in Chacoan society. Bioarchaeological evidence supports the conclusion that people who lived in great houses had access to a greater variety of and higher quality food—likely an indication of elite status. Great house occupants were taller than those in smaller settlements. Great houses contain more exotic materials, and associated burials contain more grave goods. Researchers caution that grave goods could reflect specific ritual roles more than political power over others. Evidence for large-scale cooperative feasting is found at Pueblo Alto: 150,000 broken pottery vessels, large numbers of deer bones (brought in from elsewhere), and large numbers of rabbit bones (communally hunted within the canyon). Warfare and Violence There is some evidence of violence, but not widespread warfare, in the Ancestral Pueblo region—especially in the Mesa Verde region of southwestern Colorado. Sites in Chaco Canyon do not have fortifications or other defenses. Less evidence of violence at Pueblo Bonito (exceptions are two males with head wounds). An adult male buried at Chetro Ketl has an arrowhead embedded in his ribs. At Chacoan outlier Kin Bineola (Fig. 7.11), many females also have serious head traumas. The Late Bonito Phase in Chaco Canyon Six new great houses were added, and Pueblo Alto, Pueblo Bonito, and Chetro Ketl were modified between AD 1100 and 1130. Building stopped at that point, though some people continued to live in the structures until about AD 1220. Casa Rinconada (Fig. 7.8) was built between AD 1140 and 1200, and may have been used as a communal area for everyone remaining in the canyon during the late Bonito Phase.