The Pueblos

I. Who are these people?

A.  They are the Ancient Puebloans or the hisat sinom .

        1. Their descendents are the Zuni and the Hopi.

2.  They have been known by their NaDéne or Navajo name, "Anasazi," or "Enemies of our Ancestors".

a. This name is offensive to the Pueblo peoples, but because it is the name used by academics, scientists and the public, the change to  Ancient Puebloans or to hisat sinom will take some time. 

B. The Mimbres (People of the Willow) succeeded the Mogollon, around 1000 B.P.

1. Used basic stone tools.

2. Ate rodents, antelope, corn, beans, wild greens and seeds (coprolites).

1. Domesticated turkeys.

3. Burials under house floor yield most objects.

a. Accompanied by terrific ceramics.

i. Technology and designs are mind-boggling.

ii. Black paint on white slip, very fine lines.

aa. Chewed yucca brushes.

bb. More than fifteen lines per inch.

iii. 7” - 11” in dia. 5” deep bowl form.

iv. Interiors only were decorated, not outsides.

b. Personal objects “killed.”

4.  Wiped out by 23 year drought (824 - 801 B.P.) empty storage bins and houses.

5. Much pot hunting until 1977.

C.  Hopi - Uto-Aztecan speakers from modern day Arizona.  Live in villages on the tops of tall, flat-topped mesas.  Name means "Peaceful Ones."

1. Architecture is/was constructed to imitate nature. (Ours dominates nature.)

a. Hopi have no particular names for architectural types.

b. Cliff-like qualities.

c. Arch. serves major cultural function.

i. Buildings frame the plaza.

ii. Can watch rituals from roof.

iii. creates an internal focus.

d. Kiva (round ceremonial chamber) roof doubles as a plaza.

      2.  Rituals are important, adults spend 50% of their time in ritual.

aa Diverse pantheon required rituals for rites of passage, births, deaths, funerals, harvest, first fruit, planting.

bb.  Kachina dolls were made to teach children about the 350+ Kachinas. 

zz. Made of wood, leather, hide, cloth, paint, feathers, pottery.

cc. People dress as Kachinas during celebration.  Children are cautioned to be good.

dd. All types of deities are represented, from corn god to clowns.

ee. Kachinas were developed by Hopi, Zuni, Tewa, and other southwestern peoples.

ff. Tablitas are flat headdresses worn like a corona.

II.

A. They practiced agriculture as borrowed from MesoAmerica.

Many similarities indicate intense interaction and trade between the peoples of the Southwest and MesoAmerica.

1.  Many crops grown.

a. The Three Sisters

b.  chilis, teparies.

c.  cotton.

2. This allowed the population to increase in times of plenty of rain, but caused a population decline in times of drought.

3. The close ties with the crops generated many ceremonies and associated objects.

4.  This caused art and architecture to reflect the crops.

a. Buildings, garments, and props for ceremony.

b. Objects to haul, prepare, serve, and store food.

B.  Pottery.

1. Corrugated ware for cooking - increased surface area.

2. Grey ware for storage.

                3. Black lines and designs on white slip (coating of kaolin) for ollas and burials.

  a. Slip painted while leather hard.

4.  How Pottery Works.

a. The heat causes clay to become insoluble because of molecular changes (vitrification).  Very durable.

b. No major kilns found from ancient times.

c. Spanish recorded pit firing.

d. Firing causes color changes through oxidation reduction. 

i. As the ceramic heats O2 combines with iron in clay to form (reddish brown) iron oxide on surface.

ii. as the amount of O2 reduces the surface carbonizes producing brown or black.

e. Slab molded bases with coils added to give additional width and height. Paddle and Anvil technique.

f. Burnishing instead of glazing.

g. Temper added to reduce shrinkage.

h. Vegetable resin added to provide sheen.

i. Clay is responsive to culture change.

        C. Textiles

1. Tump Line for carrying loads.

2. Called the Basketmaker culture because of versatile basketry methods.

                3. Clothing men’s and women’s.

a. Sandals.

b.  Mantas and belts.

c. Bride blanket made by groom.

d. Hair "squash blossom" or "butterfly" was a special hairdo only for unmarried but eligible young women.

e. Turkey feather and rabbit skin blankets.

D.  Accurate Solar Calendar

1.  The most accurate solar calendar ever devised imported from Mexico.

a.  Coordinates the orbits of the earth, venus, and the moon into one cycle of over 5100 years.

III.  Architecture - a variety of construction techniques - post and lintel predominates.

A. There was a shift in city planning around 1000 B.P., which indicates increasing pressure on the hisat sinom to build increasingly more protective housing.

2.  Communities were relocated from the mesa edges to the camouflage of the great caverns in the sandstone cliffs.

3.  Fields were moved up to ten miles from homes to avoid discovery of one through the other.

        B. Major sites dot the four corners area

1. Chaco Canyon, New Mexico occupied from 1100 - 910 B.P.   Hub of major trade routes.  30’ wide roads. Now a National Historic Park.

     a. Pueblo Bonita ”D” shaped complex at least three stories, maybe five, high.

i. 800 rooms of masonry covered with plaster housed at least 1,000.

ii. 50 circular kivas each with sipapu (place of emergence).  Earth vagina.

aa.  sipapu most important feature of kiva.

bb.  other features include: fire place, air vent, doorway, bench seats along the wall, foot drum(s), wall niches.

cc.  men only used the kivas.

    b. Casa Rinconada probably a religious center because of major Kiva.

i. Principal Kiva axis thought to be oriented to the sun, now found to be oriented to the lunar standstill cycle of 18.6 years.

ii. T-shaped doorways.

iii. Ceramics corrugated ware and black on white slip on ceramic.

  c. Betatakin is the largest cliff overhang dwelling at 1000 B.P.

2. Mesa Verde national park contains many ruins.

                  a. Cliff Palace had highly decorated walls (geometrics and figurals)

                  b. foot drums here.

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