Pueblos and their construction in the Anazasi of the Southwest

Pueblos and their construction in the Anazasi of the Southwest

Introduction

"Anasazi" is a Navajo word that, depending on pronunciation, can mean "enemy ancestors" or "ancient people who are not us." The Anasazi were the forebears of the Hopi, the Zuni and the Rio Grande Puebloan Indian tribes of the Southwest. They built a great civilization in some pretty barren landscape. At Chaco Canyon they were living in 5-story cities, hundreds of rooms per building, at a time when most Europeans were living in thatched huts. Chaco Canyon seems to have been a center for them for a long time because we have found many roads leading out from there, like spokes on a wheel, connecting Chaco with Zuni, Mesa Verde, the Hopi Mesas, and the Rio Grande Pueblos. Trade routes went as far south as Central America and there was significant traffic in tropical birds and seashells, items used in religious rituals by most Southwest Indians.

Pueblos and their construction in the Anazasi of the Southwest

At the end of the last Ice Age, the Southwest was being vacated by the big game hunters as they followed the retreat of the glaciers northward. After the hunters moved north, a society of hunter-gatherers moved in from the south. This ancient group of foragers (about 6000 BC to the first century CE) were highly mobile, carrying only lightweight tool kits and "atlatls," sticks to extend their spear-throwing range. They traveled in small family groups of from 3 to 8 and were almost continually on the move, stopping just long enough to build crude huts and sleeping circles. What we know of them is found mostly among the stone chips left from their tool-making. Scholars call these people the Archaic or Desert Culture.

It is thought that the Anasazi were either a northern branch of the archaic people or they may have been northern settlers of the Mogollon Culture, which was located more in southern New Mexico. Somewhere in the first or second century CE the first signs of a distinct Anasazi culture began to emerge.

The Anasazi were dry-farmers, timing their planting so as to best use the moisture of spring snowmelt and summer rains. Fields were often planted in sand dunes or near a spring or in the mouth of an arroyo. Over time, the Anasazi built up layers of rock terraces on hillsides and systems of check dams across creeks to direct water flows onto their crops. At Mesa Verde they built a half-million gallon reservoir. In a few places they built irrigation canals.

About 500 CE, three major innovations revolutionized their way of life: permanent pithouse dwellings, pottery and the bow and arrow. The bow and arrow made hunting easier. Pottery made food storage easier. As the Anasazi settled more and more into a farming lifestyle, they built permanent pithouse dwellings. Pithouses could take any shape but basically, 4 strong upright posts were crossed with ceiling joists and overlaid with a lattice of brush, thin poles and ...