THE ANASAZI CULTURE
GENERAL REMARKS
Once we pass on to a time which is separated from our own by hundreds
instead of thousands of years we are on firmer ground. Two main _basic
cultures_ have been differentiated by archaeologists and it now seems
probable that two more may be recognized. The best known and the first
to be considered is often called the Anasazi. This is a Navajo name for
the “ancient ones” and is applied to the prehistoric inhabitants of the
plateau area of the Southwest which includes the drainages of the San
Juan, Little Colorado, Rio Grande, Upper Gila and Salt Rivers, much of
Utah and some of eastern Nevada. The term _plateau_ must not be
interpreted as referring to a plain. Actually, it is a vast expanse of
territory with a greater elevation than the surrounding areas, but with
many drainage sources which have formed gorges in the tableland. It
contains prairies, mountains, and terraced mesas.
The Anasazi cultural sequence is a continuous one but can be divided
into successive horizons: the earlier of which are called _Basketmaker_
and the later ones, _Pueblo_. The end of the Basketmaker era is placed
at approximately 700 A. D. in most areas, but it is as yet impossible to
give any beginning date for it. The earliest date provided by tree-rings
for wood from a Basketmaker site is 217 A.D.,[122] but the culture was
well established by that time. Some charred wood found in a primitive
Basketmaker site near Durango, Colorado, has yielded information which
is still considered tentative but which seems to indicate occupation
well before the birth of Christ.[95]
The beginning date for the Pueblo era coincides with that given for the
end of the Basketmaker period which preceded it. No terminal date may be
given, for Pueblo Indians still live in New Mexico and Arizona.
THE BASKETMAKER PERIOD[1]
The first evidence of the Basketmaker people was discovered in 1893 when
ninety bodies accompanied by a great many finely woven baskets were
found in a cave in Butler Wash in southeastern Utah. It was apparent
that these people were older than the builders of the cliff houses, and
of a different culture, and the profusion of baskets led to the term,
Basketmakers, being applied to them to differentiate them from the later
people. The name soon found its way into scientific literature and has
continued to be used. It soon became apparent, however, that all the
Basketmakers were not of the same age, and archaeologists found that
they had to have names to distinguish the different cultural periods.
[Illustration: Fig. 5—Map of the Southwest showing sites, towns, and
areas referred to in Chapter III.]
1. Ackmen
2. Alkali Ridge
3. Allantown
4. Aztec
5. Betatakin
6. Butler Wash
7. Canyon de Chelly
8. Canyon del Muerto
9. Chaco Canyon
10. Durango
11. El Paso
12. Flagstaff
13. Gallina Creek
14. Governador Wash
15. Hopi Villages
16. Kayenta
17. Keet Seel
18. Kiatuthlana
19. Kinishba
20. La Plata River
21. Largo River
22. Lowry Ruin
23. Mesa Verde
24. Pecos
52. Piedra River
26. Puye
27. San Juan
28. Santa Fe
29. Taos
30. Tyuonyi
31. Village of the Great Kivas
32. Zuñi
In 1927 the leading archaeologists of the Southwest gathered at Pecos,
New Mexico, and worked out a system of terminology.[74] An early stage
characterized by a nomadic life with no knowledge of agriculture had
been postulated although no direct evidence had been found. This
hypothetical period was named _Basketmaker I_. The early
semi-agricultural, semi-hunting culture which produced fine baskets but
no pottery, and for which there was evidence, was called _Basketmaker
II_. To the third and final phase, when pottery was made, the term
_Basketmaker III_ was assigned. Clear-cut evidence for Basketmaker I has
been lacking and the term is little used although the finds in the
Tabeguache Caves may be attributed to this period. A simpler terminology
than that proposed at the Pecos Conference has since been suggested and
it will be used in this book.[110] The term _Basketmaker_ is applied to
the people formerly assigned to Basketmaker II and their immediate
successors are called _Modified Basketmakers_.
The Basketmakers were widespread over the Southwest and remains of their
culture have been found in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. We
know them best from the San Juan Drainage. It is probable that they
really reached their highest development here, but we must also take
into consideration the fact that here we have ideal conditions for the
preservation of much normally perishable material, and this gives us far
more information than is available for many sections of the country.
Many Basketmaker remains are found in caves along cliff faces. The term
cave, although widely used, however, is perhaps misleading, for it has a
connotation of darkness and of deep enclosed places. Actually the
so-called Basketmaker caves are fairly shallow rock shelters, worn in
the rock by the action of water and wind, and open to the sun. In them
are found ash and dust deposits which contain the bodies of the ancient
inhabitants and their possessions.
Many references are found to Basketmaker “mummies”. It is quite true
that, due to the aridity of the climate and the protection offered by
the shelters, which make it difficult for the bacteria of decay to
survive, many of the bodies were “mummified” with the dehydrated flesh
still on the bones and the hair looking much as it did in life. These
must not be confused with Egyptian mummies, however, which were
preserved by artificial means and highly specialized techniques. It is
simply a happy accident that these people buried their dead in places
which permitted the preservation of their bodies.
[Illustration: Fig. 6—Basketmaker mummy. (Courtesy Peabody Museum,
Harvard University.)]
Probably, though, in the Southwest as in ancient Egypt, belief in a life
after death is shown by the mortuary offerings placed in the graves.
With the bodies are found baskets, food, weapons, and various personal
possessions. With almost every corpse is found a pair of new, unworn
sandals. This would suggest that they were not a possession of the
deceased but a special offering which, it is logical to assume, was
designed for use in a later life.
We may now return to the Basketmaker culture as archaeologists have
reconstructed it from the evidence which they have painstakingly dug out
of the dust and ashes of rock shelters which had not echoed with the
sound of human activity for many centuries. The problems which these
ancient people faced stagger the imagination of modern man. They had no
metal, no pottery, no cotton or wool, no draught animals. Really all
they did have was their own ingenuity to wrest the necessities of life
from a none too favorable environment. It is remarkable how, by
utilizing wood, bone, stone, plant fibers, and even their own hair, they
not only produced all that they needed to survive, but also provided a
base from which arose the high culture which culminated in the great
communal dwellings of later times.
Were we able to project ourselves back into the time of the Basketmakers
and watch the people of that day we should find men and women not too
different from many Indians of today. The Basketmakers were rather
short. They had coarse, black hair which, while straight, had slightly
more of a tendency to waviness than that of present day Indians. Their
skins were brown and they had little body hair.
What clothing the Basketmakers wore, besides sandals, is not certain.
Woven bands, sometimes referred to as “gee strings,” have been found in
a number of sites but no mummy has ever been found buried with any loin
covering. Many little “aprons”, consisting of waist cords to which was
attached a fringe of strings of cedar or yucca fiber, have been found.
Some of the longer ones, usually of cedar bast, were used as menstrual
pads, but there are also a few shorter, finely woven, little aprons
which probably served as skirts for women. Their scarcity, however,
would suggest that they were not considered essential garments. Since
the country in which these people lived is cold in the winter and can
become quite chilly after nightfall even at other seasons of the year,
they undoubtedly had some covering to give them warmth. Almost every
body is found wrapped in a blanket made of fur and it is probable that
these served as wraps and blankets for the living as well as shrouds for
the dead.
The manner in which these coverings were constructed is most ingenious.
Strings were made of yucca fibres, then narrow strips of rabbit fur were
wrapped around them. These fur covered strings were then tied together
in close parallel rows, producing a light warm blanket. Sometimes they
were ornamented with borders made of cords which had been wrapped with
strips of bird skins. Some mantles of tanned deerskin were also made and
it may be that there were some woven robes, for a few fragments of woven
cloth have been found. These fragments bear patterns similar to those
shown on the chests of individuals depicted in Basketmaker paintings on
cliff faces, and they may have been parts of shirts or ponchos. It is
also possible, however, that the designs shown in pictographs simply
indicated body painting.[38]
[Illustration: Fig. 7—Basketmaker diorama in the Museum at Mesa
Verde National Park. (Courtesy Mesa Verde National Park.)]
[Illustration: Diagram showing the method of making a fur-cloth
blanket. The upper figure shows the construction of a fur strip; the
lower shows the manner in which the strips were held together.]
The major item in the limited Basketmaker wardrobe was sandals. Anyone
who has walked much in the canyon country of the Southwest can readily
see how vital such equipment would be, and apparently the Basketmakers
devoted much time and energy to keeping themselves shod. Sandals were
woven of cord made from the fibers of yucca and apocynum, a plant
related to the milkweed. They were double-soled, were somewhat cupped at
the heel, and had a square toe which was sometimes thickened, but was
usually ornamented with a fringe of buckskin or shredded juniper bark.
To attach them to the foot there were heel and toe loops with a cord
passing between them. These cords were often made of human hair. Hair
was also sometimes used to provide the secondary warps in the sandals
themselves. A few pairs of large coarse sandals have been found coated
with mud and it is thought that they may have served as overshoes for
wear in bad weather.
[Illustration: Fig. 8—a. Basketmaker sandal. b. Modified-Basketmaker
sandal.]
Whatever the Basketmakers may have lacked in clothing, they compensated
for with jewelry and ornaments. Our information is derived not only from
mortuary finds but also from pictures painted on cliff faces by the
Basketmakers themselves. Hair ornaments were widely used. Most of them
consisted of bone points tied together to form comblike objects and
topped with feathers. Feathers have also been found made into little
loops and worn as pendants. Beads of all sorts were among the favorite
means of decoration. They were used in making necklaces and as ear
pendants. Some were of stone, carefully ground and polished, some of
bone, sometimes engraved. Seeds and acorn cups were also used to make
necklaces. Shells were very widely used, and it is interesting to note
that many of them were olivella or abalone which can have come only from
the Pacific coast.
It seems unlikely that either the Basketmakers or their contemporaries
along the coast were much given to transcontinental tours when their
only means of transportation was their own sandal-shod feet, but the
shells prove some sort of contact. Probably it was a contact by trade
carried on through the peoples who inhabited the country between the two
locales.
This preoccupation with ornamentation might suggest some degree of
vanity, and it is probably true that Basketmaker men gave a good bit of
time and thought to their personal appearance. Basketmaker women,
however, seem to have been a practical lot, far more concerned with
material for their weaving than with their own appearance. The hair of
female mummies is hacked off to a length of two or three inches. Of
course cutting with a stone knife could hardly be expected to provide a
particularly glamorous hair-do, and the fact that strands of hair seem
to have been cut off at different times, presumably as the need for
weaving material arose, added nothing to the general effect. While
Basketmaker women would hardly furnish “pin up” material according to
our standards, they presumably seemed attractive to Basketmaker men
which, after all, was far more to the point.
Basketmaker men usually wore their hair long and formed into three bobs
tied with a string, one on either side of the head and one in the back.
In some cases the hair was clipped away to form an exaggerated part and
tonsure, and from the hair at the top of the head was formed a queue
about the thickness of a pencil, which was wound with cord for the
entire length. The reason for this variation in hair dressing is not
known. Perhaps the rare form with the clipping and the queue had some
ceremonial significance, or was a mark of rank. Brushes made of yucca
fibers have been found, which we know were used for the hair. Human hair
is found clinging to them and they are a form still used by some modern
Indians.
Having determined how these people looked we may now turn to the
consideration of how they lived. For a great many years lack of evidence
of house construction, coupled with the fact that most Basketmaker caves
do not contain any great amount of ash and refuse, led to an acceptance
of the belief that the Basketmakers either had no dwellings, or perhaps
erected flimsy brush shelters which had since disappeared. Recent
excavations near Durango, Colorado, however, have yielded evidence of
well developed Basketmaker houses. Dates, tentatively assigned, fall in
the early part of the fourth century. Doubtless, in other parts of the
Anasazi province there were many other Basketmaker houses which have
been destroyed by erosion, root, and frost action. Some of those found
in the Durango area were in a cave and others on a terrace which had
been made by cutting into the talus and removing the earth until a level
surface large enough to accommodate the intended dwelling was produced.
“The house floors ranged in diameter from eight to thirty feet. They
were saucer-shaped, formed of adobe mud not too smoothly spread over the
surface of the excavation. The rim of the saucer was plastered against a
series of short horizontal foot logs, laid to conform to the arc of the
circle. These served as the foundation of the wall, the construction of
which may be characterized as wood-and-mud masonry. Sticks and small
timbers were laid around horizontally, and the interstices were crammed
full of adobe to produce a strong, tough shell. The wall leaned somewhat
inward as it rose to a convenient head height. Roofs were cribbed. Since
the roof rested directly on the wall there was no necessity for stout
vertical supporting timbers such as have been found in dwellings of the
succeeding period.
“In no instance did a room boundary remain to a height sufficient to
reveal the position, size, or shape of the entrance. At the approximate
center of each floor was a heating pit (heating pit is used advisedly,
because fire does not seem to have been maintained in the pits).
Metates, varying from basin to trough shape, were a normal feature of
each living surface. Interior storage devices occurred with great
frequency. Some were merely slab-lined pits dug into the floor. Others
were mud domes built entirely above the floor. The most common variety
consisted of a combination of the two—a sub-floor, slab-lined basin
surmounted by a mud dome with an opening in the top.”[96]
Even before these discoveries were made it had been known that the
Basketmakers had some knowledge of construction. In the caves or
shelters they built cists which provided storage space for corn and
which often served a secondary purpose as a final resting place for the
dead. Some were lined with grass and bark and may have been used as
temporary sleeping places. The cists were oval or circular pits, usually
dug in the cave floor. The average diameter was between three and five
feet and the average depth about two feet. There were also larger cists
which reached a diameter of over eight feet and were four feet deep.
Some were divided into bins by slab partitions. Cists were sometimes
simply pits but in other cases they were lined with stone slabs and
reinforced with adobe. Covers were usually provided. For the smaller
cists they were normally only sandstone slabs. The larger cists often
had more elaborate roofs of wood and plaster and some even had
above-ground superstructures of poles, brush, and bark, sometimes capped
by adobe.
Clothing and shelter are, of course, subordinate to man’s main physical
need—the need for food. In the period in which we first find evidence of
the Basketmakers they were no longer solely dependant on hunting and the
gathering of wild foods but had two cultivated crops, corn and squash.
Where the Basketmakers gained their knowledge of agriculture is not
known with certainty. Everything seems to point to the first
domestication of corn far to the south in Central[126] or South America
and it Is believed that knowledge of corn and its cultivation spread to
the north by diffusion.
Most of the corn cultivated by the Basketmakers was a tropical flint
with small ears. Agricultural implements were so primitive that a modern
farmer would be appalled at the thought of using them, even under the
most favorable climatic conditions. They consisted simply of digging
sticks of hard wood some forty-five or more inches in length. In most
cases two thirds of the stick was round and the remainder was worked
down to form a thin blade a few inches wide, with a rounded point and
one sharp edge. Others had plain flattened points instead of blades.
The implements available, as well as climatic conditions, naturally
influenced planting techniques which remained unchanged for many
centuries. Probably several kernels were placed in a hill at a depth of
a foot or more. This type of planting gives the seeds access to the
subsurface water on which they must depend to a great extent in a
climate like the Southwest’s. Fields were usually in the flood plains of
intermittent streams, and if there was any irrigation it was of the
flood type.
Corn was undoubtedly stored for the winter and for emergency use in case
of crop failures. Shelled corn found in skin bags and in baskets
suggests that selected seed may have been kept for the following year’s
planting. Squash plants were apparently grown not only to provide food,
but the fruit, when hollowed out, served as vessels. Other vegetable
foods were provided by nature and included roots, bulbs, grass seeds,
sun flower seeds, pinyon nuts, acorns, berries, choke cherries, and
probably yucca and cactus fruit. The suggestion, that cactus fruit
served as food, stems from a find which shows clearly the detective
methods which archaeologists employ to gather evidence from tiny clues.
No cactus fruits have been found in Basketmaker refuse, but a cactus
seed was found in the decayed molar of a skull.
Meat was undoubtedly an important component of the diet and quantities
of animal bones are found in all sites. Many smaller animals such as
rabbits, prairie dogs, gophers, badgers, and field mice, and some birds
were snared or netted. The Basketmakers developed some remarkable snares
and nets. One particularly interesting net, found at White Dog Cave near
Kayenta, weighed twenty-eight pounds, and contained nearly four miles of
string.[38] It was two hundred and forty feet long, over three feet
wide, and somewhat resembled a tennis net. It is thought that such a net
was placed across the mouth of a narrow gorge or canyon and that animals
were driven into it and shot or clubbed. The specimen from White Dog
Cave had two sections, one nine and one six feet long, woven of a hair
and apocynum mixture which gave them a darker color. It is thought that
this may have been done to produce the effect of an opening toward which
a frightened animal would rush. Various ingenious snares, many made of
human hair, were also used.
Larger animals, including deer, mountain sheep, and mountain lion, were
also hunted, and their bones and skins utilized as well as their flesh.
These animals were shot with darts propelled by atlatls. An atlatl is a
rather remarkable weapon which gives great propulsive force to the
missile and which produces the same effect as would lengthening the arm
of the individual throwing the dart. It consists of a throwing stick
about two feet long, two inches wide and half an inch thick, with a
prong in one end into which was fitted the hollow butt of a spear or
dart. Near the middle were two loops through which the fingers of the
thrower passed. The spear portion consisted of two parts, a feathered
shaft five to six feet long and about half an inch in diameter with a
hollow end which fitted into the prong on the atlatl and a foreshaft of
hard wood, some five or six inches long, tipped with a stone point. It
was set into a hole in the end of the main shaft. This foreshaft was
probably used to prevent the loss of the entire spear or dart while
removing it when the fore part was buried in an animal’s body. Also, if
a wounded animal ran away the shaft proper would shake loose from the
imbedded foreshaft and fall out.
Polished stones are often found lashed to the under-sides of atlatls. It
may be that they were designed to act as weights to give proper balance
to the weapon, but another possibility, suggested by their unusual
shapes and careful finish, is that they were charms or fetishes and
served no utilitarian purpose.
[Illustration: Fig. 9—a. Atlatl, b. Reverse side of atlatl showing
stone, c. Dart showing shaft (mid-section removed), foreshaft, and
point, d. Method of using atlatl, e. Grooved club.]
Often found associated with atlatls are curved sticks two to three feet
long, marked by longitudinal grooves, extending from the handle to the
top and usually with one or more interruptions in the lines. These are
sometimes referred to as rabbit-sticks and it was first thought that
they represented a form of non-returning boomerang such as is used in
hunting rabbits by the Hopi Indians. Now, however, they are believed to
be “fending sticks” such as were used by the Maya for defense against
the atlatl.[95] A dart or spear thrown with an atlatl moves fairly
slowly and could be deflected by the skillful use of such a club. They
could also serve as weapons in close fighting. There is not much
evidence of violent death among the Basketmakers, but there is some and
the atlatl must have been used to kill men as well as animals. Although
the Basketmakers did not use the bow and arrow, they apparently were in
contact with people who did. In Canyon del Muerto in Arizona evidence of
a massacre of Basketmakers was found. Among the bodies which had been
allowed to decay before burial was that of an old woman with an arrow
foreshaft between the ribs and skin of her left side.[92]
Once the Basketmakers had acquired their food, there naturally arose the
question of cooking it. Meat presented no real problem, for it could be
baked or roasted without culinary vessels or could even be eaten raw.
Dried corn, however, which comprised so important a part of the
Basketmaker diet, was something else again. From the grinding stones
found in Basketmaker sites we know that corn was ground, as it is by
Indians even today. To grind corn only simple implements are needed. The
dry corn is placed on a flat stone, known as a _metate_. The kernels are
then pounded and rubbed with a stone, of a size which can be held
easily, called a mano. Once the corn is made into meal it can be
moistened and formed into little cakes to be baked on hot stones.
Probably, even without having any utensils which would seem suitable for
cooking to us, it was possible for the Basketmakers to cook a variety of
foods by boiling or stewing. To speak of boiling foods when the only
available container is a basket may seem incredible but it can be done.
The Basketmakers, as their name implies, made many baskets. These were
remarkably fine and often so closely woven as to make suitable
receptacles for liquids. Even though the baskets could hold water,
however, the problem remains as to how they could be heated, since the
baskets obviously could not be subjected to fire. The technique employed
by other people faced with the same problem has been to drop hot stones
into the liquid, replacing them with other hot stones as they cool,
until the necessary temperature is achieved. Skin receptacles can also
be used in the same way. In Basketmaker sites are found scooplike wooden
objects, charred, and with worn edges. They are excellent digging
implements and were probably used in digging cists, but the charring
suggests that they may have been used in pairs to lift hot rocks from
the fire and drop them into baskets or skin bags in which food was being
stewed.
The most distinctive feature of the Basketmaker culture, as is implied
by the name, was the making of basketry. Most baskets were made by the
coiled technique in which a basket is built up from the base by a
growing spiral coil. As the basket progresses, each coil is sewed to the
one below with a thin splint. The coil itself consists of two rods,
usually willow, and a bundle of fibrous material. In sewing the coils
together a bone awl is used to pass the splint through the fiber bundle.
[Illustration: Fig. 10—Weaving techniques. a. coiling, b. twining,
c. twilling.]
The most common basket forms were shallow trays anywhere from three
inches to three feet in diameter. Smaller baskets tended to be deeper
than the larger models. There were also bowl forms, with steeply flaring
sides and flat bottoms, which may have been used for cooking. Small
baskets with restricted openings, which are called trinket baskets, were
probably used to store seeds and small objects. Two distinctive forms
are carrying and water baskets. Both are large, with flaring sides and
pointed bottoms. Water baskets had smaller constricted openings,
presumably to keep the water from splashing out. They were lined with
pitch made of pinyon gum. Some of the other baskets are so tightly woven
as to hold water, but these specialized forms were specially treated,
possibly because water was kept in them for a sufficiently long time
that, without the protection of the pitch, they would have become
water-logged and lost their usefulness.
Both the carrying and water baskets are so shaped as to fit against the
shoulders and it is believed that they were carried on the back,
probably with a tump strap running from the basket over the forehead of
the bearer. This type of woven strap, which is commonly found in
Basketmaker sites, is a device which helps to support and keep in place
a burden carried on the back while leaving the hands free. It would be
particularly useful in cases where there were cliffs to be negotiated
and it was essential to be able to utilize hand holes pecked in the rock
faces. Some of the water baskets are nearly two feet high and could have
held some two or three gallons of water. Since all the water used in the
caves would have to be carried up from streams below, or brought down
from mesa tops where rain water had accumulated in natural basins or
depressions, supplying the needs of a household would be no light chore,
and the Basketmakers must have needed all the help which their tump
straps provided.
[Illustration: Fig. 11—Basketmaker coiled baskets. (Courtesy Peabody
Museum, Harvard University.)]
Although baskets and carrying straps were utilitarian objects, their
decorative possibilities were not overlooked. Many of the baskets had
red and black designs formed by dyeing the sewing splints.
Another technique which was employed, primarily for the production of
bags and to a limited extent in the making of baskets, was twining. In
twining, splints or threads are intertwined around a foundation of
radiating rods or threads. Twined bags are very characteristic of the
Basketmaker culture. These are soft, seamless sacks which vary in size
from a few inches to two or more feet in length. They are egg-shaped
with slightly pointed bottoms and somewhat constricted necks. Usually
they were made of the fiber of apocynum, but some yucca fiber was also
used. Most of the bag was of the warm yellowish brown of the undyed
fiber but decoration was provided by dyeing some of the threads red or
black and weaving in designs in horizontal bands. There was no
introduction of specially dyed elements. When a change in color was
desired, weft threads were simply rubbed with color. Possibly the
finished article was treated in some way to fix the dye. Burden or tump
straps and narrow sashes were also twined-woven and similarly decorated.
[Illustration: Fig. 12—Basketmaker carrying basket, with tump strap.
(Courtesy Peabody Museum, Harvard University.)]
A few examples have been found in which the designs were painted on
finished bags. These painted designs were placed on the bag interior as
well as on the exterior and ingenious markers were woven into the fabric
to serve as guides for duplicating the pattern on the reverse side.[37]
The smaller bags have been empty when found. Medium sized ones have been
found containing corn meal and something resembling dried fruit. The
largest ones were often split and used for mortuary wrappings,
particularly for children. Other bags were woven of cedar bast. They had
a large mesh and could have contained only large objects.
Another type of bag represented in Basketmaker sites is made of skin.
Most of these were formed from the skins of two small animals, usually
prairie dogs. The animals were skinned forward from the back legs to the
nose. The two skins were then sewed together with the neck of the bag
formed by the two heads. They are usually found to contain oddly-shaped
stones or other objects thought to have some ceremonial significance.
[Illustration: Fig. 13—Basketmaker twined-woven bags. (Courtesy
Peabody Museum, Harvard University.)]
Although the Basketmakers did not have true pottery, they did have some
sun-dried clay dishes. These usually contained a vegetable temper or
binding material, such as cedar bark, to prevent cracking, and were
molded in baskets. It is not known whether the idea of pottery, but not
the technique for producing it through firing, had reached the
Basketmakers from some other people, or if the idea of making the
sun-dried dishes was one which they developed themselves. Most
archaeologists believe that the whole concept of clay containers came
from other people, but it is not impossible that the idea developed from
the practice of putting clay in baskets while constructing cists.[93]
[95] If clay were left for some time in a basket it would naturally
harden and, if the center portion had been scooped out, the hardened
residue in the basket would produce a vessel of sorts. Toward the close
of the Basketmaker period some vessels were made without molds, and sand
began to replace vegetable fibers as a tempering material.
Most of the information we have about the Basketmakers we owe to their
burial practices and to their habit of placing extensive mortuary
offerings with their dead. There may have been some graves in the open,
but these have not been found. Those we know are from caves. Where cave
floors were covered with rocks, bodies were sometimes placed in
crevices. Usually, however, they were placed in pits or cists which had
originally been constructed for storage. There were many multiple
burials and up to nineteen bodies have been found in a single grave,
although two or three is the normal number. Usually all the bodies seem
to have been buried at the same time and, since there is rarely any
indication of violence, we may assume that epidemics must sometimes have
occurred. It is rare that the cause of death can be determined, but in
an occasional case, it is possible. The body of one young man was found
with a bladder stone, large enough to have caused death, lying in his
pelvic cavity.[37]
The bodies were tightly flexed, with the knees drawn up almost to the
chin. This must have been done soon after death occurred and before the
body had stiffened. Bodies were usually wrapped in fur blankets, but
occasionally tanned deer skins were used. In some cases a large twined
bag split down one side provided an inner covering. A large basket was
usually inverted over the face. In addition to these and other baskets,
mortuary offerings included sandals, beads and ornaments, weapons,
digging sticks and other implements, and cone-shaped stone pipes. It is
not known what was smoked in these pipes, but some form of wild tobacco
may have been used. It is unlikely that they were smoked for pleasure.
More probably the blowing of smoke had some ceremonial significance, as
it does with many living Southwestern Indians who connect smoke clouds
with the rain clouds which play such an important part in their lives
and which are accordingly represented in their religious rites. Bodies
were sometimes incased in adobe, but this was rather rare. Usually the
pit was lined with bark, grass, or fiber, and the body covered with the
same material.
Some quite unusual graves have been found.[37] One contained the mummy
of a man wearing leather moccasins, the only ones ever found in a
Basketmaker site. This individual had been cut in two at the waist and
then sewed together again. Another interesting burial was that of a girl
about eighteen years old and a young baby.[76] Under the shoulders of
the girl’s mummy was the entire head skin of an adult. The scalp and
facial skin had been removed in three pieces, dried or cured in some
way, then sewed back together again. The hair was carefully dressed, and
the face and tonsure part of the scalp painted with red, white, and
yellow. It had apparently been suspended around the girl’s neck and may
have been some sort of a trophy.
There was a high mortality rate for children and infants. Their burials
were handled somewhat differently from those of adults. Young children
were sometimes buried in baskets, sometimes in large bags. Babies were
usually buried in their cradles. These were ingeniously constructed with
a stick bent to form an oval and filled with a framework of rods placed
in a criss-cross arrangement and tied. The cradles were padded with
juniper bark and covered with fur-cloth blankets, often made of the
white belly skins of rabbits. Babies were tied in the cradle with soft
fur cord. The cradle could be carried on the mother’s back, hung on a
branch, propped against a rock or tree, or laid on the ground. Diapers
were made of soft juniper bark. Pads were used to prevent umbilical
hernia. These were made of wads of corn husks or grass or a piece of
bark, wrapped in a piece of prairie dog skin and tied in position with a
fur cord. The umbilical cord was dried and tied to a corner of the outer
blanket used in the cradle.
The only domesticated animal which the Basketmakers possessed was the
dog, and two burials have been found where dogs were interred with
people.[38] One large dog resembling a collie was buried with a man, and
a smaller black-and-white dog which looked rather like a short haired
terrier was found with a woman. Since these dogs are not related to
coyotes and other doglike animals found in America, it is believed that
they must have been domesticated in the Old World and accompanied their
masters when they came to this hemisphere. Probably the dogs were pets,
for the scarcity of their bones in refuse heaps indicates that they were
not eaten. Some dog hair was used in weaving, but not to a sufficient
extent to make it seem probable that dogs were kept entirely for the
purpose of providing material.
The exigencies of survival cannot have left the Basketmakers too much
leisure, but all of their time cannot have been taken up by work.
Undoubtedly religious ceremonies occupied them to some extent. Rattles
made of deer hoofs and bone were probably used to set the rhythm of
ceremonial dances. These may have been worn around the waist or ankles
or mounted on handles. Whistles have been found made of hollow bird
bones. There is reason to believe that the Basketmakers were not
unfamiliar with gambling. Gaming sticks and bones, similar to those used
by modern Indians, have been found in Basketmaker sites. The sticks are
of wood, about three inches long, flat on one side and convex on the
other, and marked with incised lines. The gaming bones are lozenges
about one inch long and roughly oval in shape. Doubtless even in that
far off time the canyons sometimes echoed with the prehistoric version
of “Seven come eleven, baby needs some sandals.”
[Illustration: Fig. 14—Mummies of two varieties of Basketmaker dogs.
(Courtesy Peabody Museum, Harvard University.)]
On cliff faces are found pictures, sometimes incised but more usually
painted, which are attributed to the Basketmakers. These usually show
square-shouldered human figures or hand prints. The latter were normally
made by dipping the hand in paint then placing it against the surface to
be marked, but in some cases they were painted. The significance of
these and later pictographs is not known, although there are innumerable
theories. The most probable explanation seems to be that they had some
religious significance but it is also possible that they were records,
were designed to give information, or were done for amusement.
[Illustration: Fig. 15—Modified-Basketmaker diorama in the Museum at
Mesa Verde National Park. (Courtesy Mesa Verde National Park.)]
THE MODIFIED-BASKETMAKER PERIOD[1]
During the succeeding period, there was a continuation of the same basic
culture, but there was great development and sufficiently important
changes occurred to warrant recognition by the application of another
name. The later phase is known as the _Modified-Basketmaker period_ or
as _Basketmaker III_. Some archaeologists believe that the cultural
changes were so great that it would have been better if the term
“Basketmaker” had not been applied to both periods.
The Modified Basketmaker period is marked by the beginning of a
sedentary life and the establishment of regular communities. The
essential continuity of the culture makes it difficult to assign
specific dates to the period. A typical Basketmaker site is readily
differentiated from a Modified Basketmaker site, but it is difficult to
give a precise year for the time when the transition from one to the
other occurred. The beginning is usually placed between 400 and 500 A.
D. The earliest date yet established by tree-rings for a
Modified-Basketmaker site is 475 A. D.[87] There is general agreement
that, in most places, the Modified-Basketmaker period ended about 700 A.
D., but some archaeologists place the terminal date as late as the ninth
century for certain areas.
One difficulty in trying to establish fixed dates for cultural phases is
that change and development were not equal in all areas. Dates which may
be correct for the main, or nuclear, area may be entirely incorrect if
applied to peripheral regions where development was slower and fewer
changes were made. During Modified Basketmaker times the San Juan
drainage was still the nuclear area, but the culture was quite
widespread and extended north into Utah, as far west as southwestern
Nevada, and south to the Little Colorado in Arizona, and beyond Zuñi in
New Mexico.
The Modified Basketmakers usually lived in villages made up of
irregularly grouped houses with granaries clustered about them. In some
cases there were only a few dwellings, in others there were as many as a
hundred. Houses were usually of the pit variety, sometimes built very
close together but not contiguous. The earliest structures were
circular, but later they became more oval and eventually a rectangular
form prevailed. At first houses were entered through a passageway
leading from the ground outside. Sometimes there was a small antechamber
at the outer end of the entrance passage. The pit depth varied from
three to five feet and the diameter of the structures ranged between
nine and twenty-five feet. The pit walls were sometimes plastered, but
more often they were lined with stone slabs. Occasionally a few rows of
adobe bricks were placed over the slabs. In some cases a combination of
slabs and plaster was used, in others, poles or reeds covered with mud
formed the wainscoting.
[Illustration: Fig. 16—Modified-Basketmaker house after excavation.
(Courtesy Mesa Verde National Park.)]
The pit was covered by a conical or truncated superstructure with a hole
in the center, designed to permit smoke to escape from the fireplace on
the floor below. Later in the period the entrance passageways were so
reduced in size as no longer to permit the passage of a human body, and
entrance to the houses seems to have been through the hole or hatchway
in the roof in which was placed a ladder leading to the room below. The
roof surface may, in some cases, have provided extra living space since
metates, manos, and pottery, have been found overlying roof timbers.
Usually the basis of the superstructure was formed by four posts,
imbedded in the floor, and supporting a platform of horizontal timbers.
Smaller timbers or poles, set into the ground, leaned against the
platform and others were laid horizontally across it. The whole was
covered with mats or brush, then topped with a layer of plaster and
earth reinforced with twigs, grass, and bark.
[Illustration: Fig. 17—Postulated method of Modified-Basketmaker
house construction. (After Roberts,[105] Courtesy Smithsonian
Institution.)]
The side entrance was retained in a reduced form, apparently to provide
ventilation. An upright slab, often found standing between the fire pit
and the passage opening, is believed to have served the purpose of
keeping the inrushing air from putting out the fire, and is known as a
_deflector_. There was often a bench or shelf running around the inside
of the house. This was sometimes omitted along the south side. Some
storage bins were built against the walls of the house.
Floors were usually of hardened clay, but in a few cases they were paved
with stone slabs. A basinlike fire pit with a raised rim lay near the
center of the floor. Extending from the south side of the pit to the
walls there were often ridges of mud. These were later replaced, in some
areas, by partitions, sometimes several feet high, made of slabs or
adobe. Metates are commonly found in the southern section, and it has
been suggested that this may have been the women’s part of the house. A
short distance on the other side of the fire pit is a small hole, known
as the Sipapu. Similarly placed holes in present day ceremonial
structures of the Pueblo Indians represent the mythical place of
emergence from the underworld from which the first people came to the
earth. The partitioning of the Modified-Basketmaker houses may have
served to segregate religious from secular activities. It is believed
that originally each house had its own shrine. In later times highly
specialized structures were built for ceremonial practices. This is
foreshadowed in the Modified-Basketmaker period for one site belonging
to this horizon has been found which contained a larger structure,
similar to the houses, but apparently not used as a dwelling place.[105]
Toward the end of the period in some areas, particularly in Southwestern
Colorado, some surface houses were built which presaged the type of
structure found in the next period. Villages have been excavated in
which separate pit houses were still used for living quarters, but there
were also some dwellings which were above ground and had contiguous
rooms.[83][95]
Another important development in this period was the manufacture of true
pottery. Some unfired forms were still made. Sometimes they were molded
in baskets and in other cases they were started in baskets and finished
by a coiling technique. To produce a vessel by this method, a thin rope
of clay is formed, then wound around in a circle with each row or coil
being attached to the one preceding it. Each added ring adds to the
height of the vessel wall. If a smooth surface is desired, the
depressions which mark the joining of the coils are obliterated. The
Anasazi achieved this by scraping with a thin gourd or wooden implement,
or sometimes with a piece of broken pottery. The principle of the
potter’s wheel was never discovered in the Southwest.
At one time it was felt that pottery making might have been a local
development of the Modified Basketmakers, but this theory has been
largely abandoned although it has not really been disproven. The belief
most generally held is that knowledge of pottery manufacture, as well as
maize, originally spread from Middle America to the Southwest by
diffusion. Some archaeologists now believe that the Modified
Basketmakers may have learned about pottery from people living in
southwestern New Mexico who were making pottery at an earlier date.
The first Modified-Basketmaker pottery was crude and limited in form
with many globular shapes somewhat reminiscent of those of gourds or
baskets. Perforated side lugs were very characteristic. The dominant
ware was a light to medium gray with a coarse granular paste tempered
with quartz. This occasionally became black from smoke carbon. Exteriors
were often marked with striations, suggesting that the vessels were
rubbed with a bunch of grass while still wet. There were some bowls with
interior decorations applied with black paint. The paint is believed to
have been made by boiling the juice of some plant, such as bee weed,
which still provides pigment for Indian potters. Brushes were probably
made by chewing the end of a yucca splint until the fibers separated and
were soft and flexible. Designs appear to have been taken, to a great
extent, from basketry. They usually consist of bands or ribbonlike
panels and the most common design elements are dots, small triangles,
rakelike appendages, and crude life forms.
No kilns were used and pottery was probably fired with a conical pyre of
firewood placed around the vessels. When the air is kept out and there
is no excess of oxygen in the atmosphere in which pottery is fired, a
white or gray colored background, such as is found in Basketmaker wares,
results. Such pottery is said to have been fired in a _reducing
atmosphere_. When air is allowed to circulate and there is an excess of
oxygen in the atmosphere, red, brown, or yellow pottery is produced, and
the vessels are characterized as having been fired in an _oxidizing
atmosphere_.[15]
In a few sites there has been found a highly polished red ware,
sometimes plain and occasionally with designs in black, and a pottery
with red designs on a brown or buff background.[95] These wares are much
better made than those previously described and this, coupled with their
rarity, indicates that they were foreign to the Modified-Basketmaker
culture. It has been suggested that they may have been imported from the
south and that the red pottery, which owes its red color to firing in an
oxidizing atmosphere, may be the product of the Mogollon people, of
southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona, who will be discussed
in a later section. Certain Modified Basketmaker vessels were covered
with a wash of red pigment which was applied after firing and which was
impermanent. This is known as _fugitive red_. The theory has been
advanced that this may represent an attempt on the part of the
Basketmakers to produce red pottery without knowing the firing technique
which was responsible for it.[7]
[Illustration: Fig. 18—Modified-Basketmaker figurine and
nipple-shaped object.]
There are two other classes of articles made of clay, sometimes lightly
fired but more often unbaked. These are human figurines and
nipple-shaped objects believed to be cult objects with no utilitarian
purpose. The figurines almost invariably represent human females. Faces
are indistinct except for the nose, which, like the breasts, is clearly
marked. Arms, if shown at all, are sketchily indicated. Legs are
scarcely ever shown. Necklaces and pendants are indicated by punctures
and incised lines. The nipple or funnel-shaped objects are hollow
cornucopias, about two inches long, decorated with punctations. They are
perforated at the base, which suggests that they were once tied to
something, possibly masks or clothing. There are many theories as to the
significance of these traits. It has been suggested that they may have
come with the introduction of maize and may be connected with fertility
rites.
Pottery did not entirely supplant basketry and many fine baskets
continued to be made. There was greater use of red and black designs
than in the previous period. Sometimes these were woven in and sometimes
they were painted. Sandals reached their highest level of development at
this time. They were finely woven of apocynum string over a yucca cord
warp. Fringing was abandoned, and the toe was marked by a
crescent-shaped scallop. The heel was puckered. Soles were double with
designs worked in colored cord in zones on the upper surface and raised
designs on the underside produced by variations in weave or by knotting.
Carrying bands continued to be very finely woven but twined bags
degenerated.
Fur blankets were still manufactured but the use of feather cord became
progressively more common. Some blankets were made partially of fur cord
and partially of feather cord. Strips of bird skin were no longer used
exclusively in the manufacture of the latter type. Small downy feathers
were employed, as well as heavier feathers from which the stiffer part
of the quill had been removed. Much turkey plumage was utilized, and it
is believed by some archaeologists that turkeys were domesticated at
this time,[87] although others do not think that domestication took
place until later. There is no agreement as to whether turkeys were kept
to provide food. It is most generally believed that they were not eaten.
At this time new varieties of corn were cultivated, which tended to be
somewhat larger than the earlier forms, and the people’s diet was
changed to some extent by the introduction of beans as a food crop. The
addition of beans to the daily fare may have been quite important for it
would increase the protein content of the diet. Such a crop also
indicates a more settled life, for, while corn may be planted and then
left for long periods of time, beans require almost constant attention.
Atlatls were still the principal weapons, but late in the period the bow
and arrow came into use. This new and superior weapon may have been
brought by small groups of newcomers to the Southwest or, perhaps,
simply the idea spread to the Anasazi from neighboring people. In any
case, the bow is believed to have been introduced from some other area.
Two new implements which also appeared at this time were grooved mauls
or hammers and axes notched for hafting. Before the introduction of axes
it is believed that timbers for house construction were felled by fire.
Much of our information about these people still comes from burials.
These were more often single interments than was the case in the
preceding period. There were no definite cemeteries in the villages, and
bodies were placed wherever it was most convenient, often in refuse
heaps where digging was easiest. In caves the dead were commonly laid in
abandoned cists or in crevices. Baskets were still the chief mortuary
offerings, but some pottery was placed with the dead, as well as a
variety of other objects including ornaments, pipes, food, gaming sets,
and flutes. The latter are of particular interest, for they indicate
some knowledge of music. In the grave of one old man, believed to have
been a priest or chief, were four finely made flutes. They could still
be played when they were excavated and had a clear, rich tone. A
characteristic offering, found in almost all graves, is a pair of new
unworn sandals. Ornaments interred with the dead show that turquoise was
now being used for beads and pendants. It was sometimes employed with
shell pieces for mosaic work set in wood. In other cases it was combined
with whole shells, as in one magnificent cuff, found on the wrist of an
old woman, which was five inches wide and consisted of hundreds of
perfectly matched olivella shells with a fine turquoise in the
center.[2]
One of the most interesting of all interments was the famous “burial of
the hands” in Canyon del Muerto in Arizona.[92] This find consisted of a
pair of hands and forearms lying side by side, palms upward, on a bed of
grass. Wrapped around the wrists were three necklaces with abalone shell
pendants, one of which was as large as the hand itself. An ironical, yet
strangely pathetic offering, consisted of two pairs of some of the
finest sandals which have ever been found. Over the entire burial lay a
basket nearly two feet in diameter. Doubtless a fascinating story lies
behind this strange grave, but what it was we shall never know. Of all
the theories which have been advanced the one which best explains this
remarkable occurrence is that the individual may have been caught under
a rockfall and that only the hands and forearms could be released and
given suitable burial; but of course all this is pure conjecture.
SUMMARY
In summarizing the Basketmaker horizon as a whole, we may say that the
culture was fully established in the San Juan drainage in the early
centuries of the Christian era, and it may have been developing for
quite some time. Later it spread to include a larger area. This part of
the Anasazi sequence ended, in most places, at the beginning of the
eighth century.
The earliest people were dependent on both hunting and agriculture. The
only propulsive weapon used was the atlatl or dart-thrower. Squash and
corn were the only two crops produced. Houses had saucer-like floors of
adobe, wood-and-mud masonry walls with a log foundation, and cribbed
roofs. These people made beautiful baskets and sandals, produced some
exceptionally fine twined-woven bags, and made blankets of fur-covered
cord. Fired pottery was not manufactured but some unfired clay vessels
were produced.
In the second part of the period the culture was more widespread and
developed, and was modified in various ways. Several types of corn were
grown, and beans were added to the list of cultivated foods. Pit houses
were the usual form of dwelling, and village life began. Baskets were
still widely made. Sandals reached their highest point of development,
but twined-woven bags degenerated. Cord used in the making of blankets
came to be more commonly wrapped with feathers. Fired pottery was
manufactured, and the bow and arrow came into use. This was a most
important period, for it provided the foundation for the later culture
which, some centuries later, achieved a golden age that marked one of
the high points of aboriginal development in North America.
THE DEVELOPMENTAL-PUEBLO PERIOD
Following the Basketmaker era comes the Pueblo horizon, the second major
subdivision of the Anasazi culture. The name comes from that given to
the village Indians by the Spaniards. “Pueblo” is simply the Spanish
word for a community of people, but in the Southwest it has come to have
a definite connotation and is used to refer to communal houses and towns
and to the inhabitants, both prehistoric and modern.
The Pueblo period, like the Basketmaker, is divided into various phases.
Under the classification decided on by archaeologists, meeting at the
conference at Pecos in 1927, five phases were recognized. The earliest
was called _Pueblo I_ and was defined as “the first stage during which
cranial deformation was practiced, vessel neck corrugation was
introduced, and villages composed of rectangular living-rooms of true
masonry were developed.” The next was named _Pueblo II_ and was
characterized as “the stage marked by widespread geographical extension
of life in small villages; corrugation, often of elaborate technique,
extended over the whole surface of cooking vessels.”[74]
At the present time many archaeologists group both phases under the name
_Developmental Pueblo_.[110] This term, which is used in this book,
seems apt, for this was a period of transition which led to the classic
Pueblo era. In many ways the culture was still a generalized one, as was
the one which preceded it, but specialization, which was to become so
marked later, was already beginning. Sites belonging to this phase are
found throughout the Plateau area.
[Illustration: Fig. 19—Developmental-Pueblo diorama in the Museum at
Mesa Verde National Park. (Courtesy of Mesa Verde National Park.)]
Assigning dates to this period is rather complicated. It might be
thought that in dealing with somewhat more recent sites, where tree-ring
dates are more commonly available, it would be easy to say that a
specific period began at a definite time and ended at another. Actually,
such is not the case, for development was far from uniform in all
places. In some sections the period which we define as Developmental
Pueblo began toward the end of the seventh century; in other areas the
earliest date which can be given is in the middle of the ninth century.
Terminal dates are equally variable. In some regions this period had
ended and the next phase of development had begun by the middle of the
tenth century, and in others this change did not take place until the
twelfth century. In general, the dates 700 to 1100 A. D. may be assigned
to the Developmental Pueblo phase, but this represents a simplification
of a very complex situation.
For many years it had been thought that the people of Basketmaker and
those of Pueblo times were of entirely different physical types. The
Basketmakers were considered dolichocephalic, or long-headed, and the
Pueblos were believed to be brachycephalic, or broad-headed. The first
appearance of the latter was thought to mark the advent of an entirely
different racial group which became dominant and caused the
disappearance of the earlier inhabitants of the region. It was not
believed that the Basketmakers were entirely exterminated, but rather
that many were assimilated and absorbed by the new group while some were
killed and others driven into peripheral areas. Some archaeologists and
anthropologists still hold this theory.
Recently, however, a long and detailed study of fairly large groups of
crania of both people has been made.[119] The results of this
investigation suggest that, while there are some differences between the
two series, they are not of great significance and that, therefore, the
Basketmakers and the Pueblos were basically the same people. This is
confirmed by cultural evidence, for, although changes occurred, there is
a strong continuity of development from Basketmaker to early Pueblo
times. Possibly there was some coming in of new people, who introduced
new ideas which gave impetus to the cultural development; but it is now
difficult to accept the theory of a mass invasion by a racially
different group and of a radical change in physical type. In the light
of this new evidence some archaeologists feel that the term “Anasazi”
should be dropped, and the entire culture, including the Basketmaker and
Pueblo phases, should be called “Pueblo” or “Puebloan.”[7]
One factor which tended to make the Pueblo people seem extremely
broad-headed was the habit of deforming the skull posteriorly, a
practice which became almost universal in Pueblo times. A skull markedly
flattened in back inevitably appears broader than one which is
undeformed. This effect is believed to have been produced by strapping
babies against hard cradle-boards or by using a hard head-rest. The soft
skull of the infant was flattened by pressure in the back and, as the
bones grew and hardened, this deformity became permanent.
[Illustration: Fig. 20—a. Undeformed skull, b. Deformed skull.]
The question naturally arises: Why did people wish to have deformed
skulls? We cannot be sure of the answer, of course, but it seems
possible that it represents nothing more than a matter of fashion and a
change in ideals of beauty. Even in our own society there are fashions
in physical appearance as well as in clothing and adornment. One need
only compare the corn-fed curves of the Floradora sextette with the
emaciated lines of “flappers” of the 1920’s to realize that we have
little eccentricities of our own which might seem incomprehensible to a
prehistoric Indian.
Important changes which mark the transition between the Basketmaker era
and Pueblo times occurred in the realm of architecture. There are also
differences between the first half of the Developmental Pueblo period,
sometimes known as “Pueblo I,” and the second half which is sometimes
called “Pueblo II.” In a general way we can trace the evolutionary
development from pit houses, with associated granaries, to the fairly
complex surface domiciles and subterranean ceremonial chambers of the
final phase of the period.[113] Progress did not follow the same pattern
in all places, however, nor did all similar changes occur at the same
time.
As was noted in the preceding section, a few surface houses were built
in the Modified-Basketmaker period, but this type of architecture did
not become well established until Developmental-Pueblo times. In the
beginning of the period, in most areas, pit houses were still the usual
form of dwelling. To the west and north of these houses, granaries were
built with superstructures in the form of truncated pyramids. Sometimes
stone slabs and sometimes crude masonry were used in their construction.
Later, jacal structures as well as pit houses served as dwellings. The
name _jacal_ is applied to a type of construction in which walls are
made of poles set at short intervals and heavily plastered with adobe.
At first, walls sloped inward, as they had in the superstructures of the
earlier granaries from which it is believed that this type of house was
derived. Later, walls were perpendicular and the jacal construction was
sometimes combined with masonry. Still later, masonry was used almost
exclusively. As time went by, floors became progressively less
depressed. In early forms, rooms were not connected, but eventually
contiguous rooms became the rule, and, in the course of time, there
arose multiroomed structures, sometimes called _unit houses_. Associated
with these were highly specialized subterranean structures, used for
religious purposes, but apparently derived from the old domiciliary pit
house.
It cannot be stressed too strongly that these are all general
statements, designed solely to show evolutionary trends during this
period. Actually the situation is far more complex than this would
indicate. In some sections, big pueblos were built very early in the
period.[7] In peripheral regions, pit houses continued to be used as
dwellings long after they had ceased to serve such a purpose in the main
area, and, even in the nuclear portion, the rate of progress was by no
means constant, nor was it always in the same direction. For a somewhat
clearer picture, it is best to consider some of the different places
where excavation of Developmental-Pueblo sites has been undertaken.
At Kiatuthlana, Arizona,[107] forty miles southwest of Zuñi, pit houses
and jacal structures were contemporaneous during early Pueblo times. The
latter were flat-roofed, four-sided buildings, trapezoidal, rather than
rectangular, in outline. Some were single rooms, and others had three or
four chambers.
In the Piedra district of southwestern Colorado[106] are found jacal
buildings in clusters of from three to fifteen. The different structures
were often close, but did not touch. A number of clusters, laid in a
crescent shape around a circular depression, comprised a village. These
depressions are thought by some to have served as reservoirs, or
possibly sometimes as plazas or dance courts. Others hold the opinion,
based on the results of more recent excavations in other areas, that
they may contain pit houses.[41] The earliest houses were pits with
sloping jacal walls. Later the floors were merely depressed, and walls
were perpendicular. This type was eventually combined with two-room
storage buildings of crude masonry. Next, the jacal construction
disappeared and the rooms made of masonry were enlarged and became
dwellings instead of storerooms.
In the nearby region of the La Plata drainage,[95] houses in the
beginning of the period differed little from those of Basketmaker times,
except that they were somewhat more massive and more masonry was used.
There was some jacal construction, but usually a variant form was
employed in which only a few widely spaced wooden supports were used.
Sometimes the entire wall consisted of clay pressed into position with
the hands, and the posts were absent. Stones were sometimes added to the
clay, and some crude coursed masonry has been found. Stone slabs
commonly formed the wainscoting. Houses were usually grouped in a
crescentic form along the north and west sides of a depression
containing a subterranean chamber. No dance courts or plazas have been
found.
During the latter part of Developmental-Pueblo times in the La Plata
area, jacal and slab construction were replaced by stone and adobe, and
walls became more massive. At first the adobe was considered the
important mass and only a few stones were incorporated, but, as time
went by, the ratio changed and stone predominated with mud serving only
as a mortar. Crescent-shaped room-placement changed to a rectangular
structure.
In the Ackmen-Lowry region[82] of southwestern Colorado most early
Developmental-Pueblo sites consisted of one or two above-ground rooms
associated with a pit house which may have served as a domicile as well
as provided a place for the celebration of ceremonies. The surface
structures were of slabs topped by masonry, or were of jacal
construction. Later houses were built of coursed masonry and usually
contained from four to six rooms. The associated pit houses seem to have
been used exclusively as ceremonial chambers. Also found in this area
was a good-sized Pueblo, known as Lowry Ruin, which was occupied late in
Developmental-Pueblo times as well as during the succeeding period.
Thirty-five rooms have been uncovered, but there is evidence that the
pueblo was modified six or seven times, and it is estimated that
probably no more than fifteen or eighteen rooms were occupied at any one
time.
At Alkali Ridge in southeastern Utah,[7] thirteen sites have been
excavated which have yielded valuable information about architectural
development. Ten of these contained Developmental-Pueblo structures. In
this area, even as early as the eighth century, pueblos with as many as
three hundred above-ground storage and living rooms were being built in
association with large and small pit houses. These pueblos consisted of
long curving rows of contiguous rooms with the larger dwelling units in
front of the small chambers used for storage. A variety of wall types
was used, often in combination. They include upright stone slabs, jacal,
and some coursed masonry.
During the latter half of Developmental-Pueblo times in this area there
were buildings made of jacal with stones imbedded in the adobe. Those
found range in size from one to twelve rooms, and some may have been
larger. There were also structures of coursed masonry. Some of these
contained only one or two rooms but others may have been fairly large.
In excavations near Allantown, in eastern Arizona,[112] the evolution
from simple masonry granaries to multi-roomed houses, and the
development from simple, partially subterranean houses to highly
specialized kivas, or ceremonial buildings, is clearly shown. There the
change from domiciliary pit house to unit house seems to have occurred
in the period between 814 and about 1014 A. D. This, however, was a
slower development than in other areas. In the Chaco Canyon area of New
Mexico, for example, great communal houses, with several stories and
hundreds of rooms, of which the unit-type house seems to have been the
forerunner, apparently were started by 1014.
Unit houses, which were commonly built in the second part of
Developmental-Pueblo times and in the following period, were
above-ground structures built of stone and adobe. They were one story in
height and usually contained from six to fourteen rooms. These rooms
were sometimes placed in a long row, sometimes in a double tier, and, in
other cases, were arranged in the shape of an “L” or rectangular “U”.
Unit houses are occasionally referred to as _clan houses_, for some
archaeologists believe that they may have been occupied by single family
groups. Present day social organization in the western pueblos is based
on clans, and it is believed that this is of long standing and probably
extends far back into prehistoric times. Descent is traced in these
pueblos in the maternal line. In such villages a clan is a group made up
of individuals descended from the same female ancestor. Houses belong to
the women, and a family group which lives together usually consists of a
woman and her daughters and their families. The husbands belong to other
clans. They live with their wives’ groups, but their religious
affiliations are with their own clans. The kivas, or ceremonial
chambers, belong to the men of the clan and serve as club rooms as well
as providing a place where secret religious rites may be performed.
In Developmental-Pueblo times, kivas were very similar in form to those
used at the present time in the eastern pueblos. They were circular,
subterranean structures which lay to the south or southeast of houses.
Walls were of masonry, and there were encircling benches in which
pilasters were often incorporated. Roofs were normally cribbed, and
entrance was usually through the smoke-hole in the center; although, in
some unit-type sites in southwestern Colorado, stone towers are found
containing manholes which led into tunnels connecting with kivas.[83]
It is interesting to note the apparent derivation of kivas from the old
domiciliary pit houses which had, at least in a rudimentary form, all of
the features of the later religious structures and which also lay in the
same position in relation to the surface masonry structures. It is
believed that originally each house had its own shrine. When special
structures came to be built exclusively for the performance of religious
rites, the people clung to the old form of building, although their
dwellings were developing in a different direction. There is an innate
conservatism and traditionalism in religion which is well represented in
architecture. In our own cities, where we erect medieval cathedrals and
sky scrapers, we can see a lag of from four to seven centuries between
religious and secular architecture.
In some parts of the Southwest, kivas were not the only places available
for the performance of religious rites. At Allantown[112] was found a
great circular area, paved with adobe and enclosed on three sides by
upright stone slabs, which is believed to have been a dance court. On
the north side is a platform or dais. Probably in that long ago time
there were many days and nights when moving feet beat out the intricate
rhythms of the dance against the hard packed adobe, as the gods were
importuned to bring life-giving rain for the crops.
[Illustration: Fig. 21—Interior view of a kiva showing distinctive
features. Note the ventilator, deflector, fire-pit, sipapu, bench,
and pilasters.]
In addition to the houses, kivas, and dance courts, there were also
brush shelters with firepits, ovens and storage places. These probably
provided outdoor cooking facilities during the summer.
In the field of pottery, important changes were taking place, and
specialization was increasing all through the Anasazi area.
Developmental-Pueblo pottery had a finer paste and was better made than
that of Modified-Basketmaker times. Some tempering was done with
pulverized potsherds. More different types were represented. Plain gray
ware was still made. Pottery with black designs on a white background
was very common, except in the Alkali Ridge[7] area of southeastern Utah
where early Developmental-Pueblo painted pottery had a pinkish-orange
ground color with designs in red paint. In referring to painted pottery
it is customary to mention first the color of the design and then the
color of the background, as, for example, _black-on-white_ or
_red-on-orange_ ware. Minor types of Developmental-Pueblo times included
a lustrous black-on-red ware and bowls with more or less polished black
interiors and brownish or reddish exteriors. The differentiation between
culinary and non-culinary pottery became more marked. The former came to
be characterized by corrugations in the clay, and the latter chiefly by
painted designs.
[Illustration: Fig. 22—Corrugated Pottery. (Courtesy National Park
Service.)]
Specialization in particular areas is best shown in the black-on-white
wares. There are two main groups—an eastern one which centered around
the Chaco Canyon area of New Mexico, and a western one which centered
around the Kayenta region of Arizona.[110] Both extended far beyond
these nuclear areas. The former was characterized by a wide use of
mineral paint. Designs stand out from the background. Possibly they were
applied after the vessel had been polished. In the western form, designs
were usually applied with a paint made from plant juices and they seem
to fade into the surface of the vessel. This may be due in part to the
application of paint before the polishing of the vessel had been
completed.
In all sections there was a greater variety of forms and designs than in
the preceding period. Designs were no longer confined to the interiors
of bowls and ladles but were placed on all kinds of vessels. Basketry
patterns were still used, but others were taken from textiles, and still
others seem to have been developed only for the medium of pottery.
Designs show a certain lack of skill in execution, but they were
elaborate and boldly conceived. There is every evidence of people still
experimenting with a new medium. The principal elements were parallel
lines, sometimes straight and in other cases stepped or wavy; zig-zags,
triangles, checkerboards, and interlocking frets. Both curvilinear and
rectilinear designs were used. In the latter part of the period parallel
lines were scarce, and elements became broader and heavier.
[Illustration: Fig. 23—Black-on-white pottery. Developmental-Pueblo
period.]
[Illustration: Fig. 24—Neck-banded vessel. Developmental-Pueblo
Period. (Courtesy National Park Service.)]
Techniques of production and finishing differed from those of
Modified-Basketmaker times. The practice of using slips developed. A
slip is a coating of very fine, almost liquid, clay which is smeared on
a finished vessel before firing to give a smooth even finish. In the
second part of the period, spiral coiling began. In the earlier forms,
short clay fillets, which made only one turn around the vessel, were
used. With the spiral technique, longer rolls of clay were used and each
made several circuits around the vessel. During the first half of the
period, vessels were either entirely smoothed or, in the case of many
culinary vessels, the bottom was smoothed while the neck portion was
characterized by flat, relatively broad, concentric clay bands. These
neck-banded jars are quite characteristic of early Developmental Pueblo.
During the second part of the period corrugated ware appeared. This is
pottery in which the alternate ridges and depressions resulting from a
coiling and pinching technique of manufacture have not been obliterated.
Sometimes the corrugations were embellished by indentations produced by
pinching the clay between the fingers or by incising them with the
fingernail or some small implement. In this way simple patterns were
formed. The use of this type of pottery for cooking may stem from the
fact that this is the only type of decoration which would not soon be
obliterated by soot. Objects made of clay also included tubular pipes or
cloud-blowers. Stone and wood were also sometimes used in making these
objects.
Baskets continued to be made, although pottery vessels were used for
many purposes for which baskets had formerly been employed. The number
of baskets made undoubtedly diminished, and the large flat trays so
characteristic of Basketmaker times seem to have almost entirely
disappeared. The great decrease in number of baskets made, however, may
be more apparent than real, for most Developmental-Pueblo sites are in
the open and little perishable material remains. Examples which have
been found indicate that the coiling technique continued and designs
became more elaborate. Twilled baskets were also manufactured.
[Illustration: Fig. 25—a. Developmental-Pueblo sandal, b.
Great-Pueblo sandal.]
Sandals of fine string, with coarse patterns on the under side, were
still being woven. They had rounded toes. A new material and new
techniques in weaving appeared with the introduction of cotton at this
time. Cotton was grown and used to produce thread which was woven into
fabrics with looms. Fur and feather blankets, primarily the latter, were
still being made, but light cotton blankets were probably also worn. It
is thought that kilts and breech cloths were made of the same material.
Various ornaments, including beads, pendants, and bracelets, were worn.
The former were largely of colored shales, turquoise, and alabaster.
Some bracelets were of glycymeris, a shell which must have been imported
from the Gulf of California.
Cotton was the only addition to the list of cultivated plants, but
squash and beans continued to be grown. Corn was still the staple food.
It was ground on scoop-shaped trough metates. In one case three graded
manos, of varying degrees of roughness, were found with one metate. This
foreshadowed the later Pueblo practice of having mealing bins with
series of metates ranging in texture from relatively coarse to very
fine. Corn was first coarsely ground on the roughest metate, or with the
roughest mano, and then worked over with progressively smoother stones
until a very fine meal resulted. Crudely flaked hoes began to be used in
cultivating the crops. Some were hafted, but many were not.
Meat continued to be included in the diet. Bear, elk, buffalo, wolf,
mountain sheep, deer, and rabbits were among the animals hunted. The bow
and arrow were almost universally used. Arrowheads were well flaked,
usually long and narrow, with long, sharp barbs. Late in the period a
new type appeared which became increasingly numerous later. These points
were short, broad, and notched at right angles.
Dogs and turkeys were the only domesticated animals. One reason for the
belief that they were not kept to provide food is that they have been
found buried with mortuary offerings. Corn was provided for the turkeys
and bones for the dogs which were buried. There was also pottery,
sometimes miniature vessels, sometimes sherds rubbed down to form
shallow vessels.
Axes are relatively scarce, but are found in this period. Edges were
smoothed by grinding. On the whole these were not very efficient cutting
implements, for the edges were quite dull.
Human burials varied widely according to locality. For the most part
they are found in refuse heaps. These characteristic mounds, as the name
indicates, were formed of the refuse thrown away by the inhabitants of a
village and are composed of ashes, dirt, broken pottery, and general
debris. There was no disrespect for the dead in burying them in such a
place; it was simply that, with the primitive implements available, it
was desirable to make interments where digging was easiest. The
difficulties of excavation also led to the placing of bodies, in some
cases, in abandoned storage pits or houses. Children are often found
buried under floors near firepits, possibly because mothers felt that
the dependence of an infant extended to the soul and they wished to keep
it near.
Bodies were inhumed in a more or less flexed position. There was no
fixed orientation, as there was in later periods. Undoubtedly there were
some mortuary offerings of a perishable nature, but these have not
survived. Pottery was placed in graves in many cases. At
Kiatuthlana[107] there was a strong degree of consistency in the
offerings. Each grave contained a culinary jar covered by a bowl with a
blackened interior, and a black-on-white bowl. Certain graves contained
more than three pieces of pottery, but they were in multiples of three,
with an equal number of each type.
There are some very puzzling features about the disposal of the dead in
Developmental-Pueblo times. In most of the San Juan area and in the
Kiatuthlana region the number of graves found is about what would be
expected on the basis of the population indicated by habitations. In
other places, however, and particularly in the La Plata region,[95] only
a very few burials have been found and they undoubtedly represent only a
fraction of the deaths which must have occurred. What happened to the
remaining bodies is a question which has not been answered. Some
particularly baffling finds are: skulls buried without bodies, and
bodies buried without heads. In the case of skull burials it has been
suggested that warriors may have been killed some distance from home.
Bringing the entire body back would have been impracticable, and only
the heads were returned to be given suitable burial among the kinsmen of
the dead individual. This, however, does not explain the headless
skeletons which are also found, for it seems unlikely that the body of
an enemy which had been left behind, after the head had been removed,
would be given burial.
At Alkali Ridge[7] there was the usual baffling scarcity of burials in
early Developmental-Pueblo times, and no evidence of cremation. A number
of burials were found in the later horizon, however, and they provide an
interesting example of how much we can learn of how people lived from a
study of their physical remains. Evidence of various bone diseases
indicates that the Alkali Ridge people suffered from malnutrition and
vitamin deficiencies. The fact that one individual, so badly crippled
that she could not have been a productive member of the community, lived
to be sixty years old or more, tells us that these people were willing
to care for handicapped members of their group. The communities must
have been subject to hostile attack. Two individuals appear to have died
from blows on the head. One of these men had also been shot by an arrow,
and scratches on his head indicate that he had been scalped. Evidence of
local inbreeding is provided by the finding of three people with fused
ribs, a very rare abnormality not likely to appear so frequently except
in a highly inbred group.
Peripheral Areas
Outside of the central area of the Anasazi region there were other
developments during this period. In marginal areas, certain phenomena
are almost invariably present. There will be some lag in the diffusion
of new traits, and in some ways the culture of the marginal section will
be less advanced. Early elements may survive for a long time. Traits
which are chronologically distinct in the main area may arrive together
in the outlying sections. Other features may not spread or may be
rejected by the people of the peripheral area. In general, there is a
progressive fading of the basic pattern as one goes farther away from
the nucleus. Certain traits may have been acquired from other cultures,
and there is usually also a tendency to develop new traits and to modify
and adapt those which have been imported, in accordance with local
needs.