wall and brought to the surface a few feet south of the house. Sometimes
this tunnel served merely as a ventilator and crawl entrance but usually
the end was enlarged into a room. This second room was always smaller
than the main room but it was roofed in much the same manner. In reality
a house of this type consisted of the large main room and a smaller
antechamber, the two being connected by a tunnel. The location of the
antechamber door is uncertain. Probably there was a hatchway in the roof
or there may have been a door in one of the side walls. It is certain
that the fire in the main room drew fresh air from the antechamber for
just in front of the tunnel entrance was placed a large stone slab which
served as a deflector. This slab kept the current of fresh air from
blowing across the fire and, in the winter, prevented cold air from
sweeping across the floor where people were sleeping.
The sipapu, a small hole in the floor near the firepit, made its
appearance at this time. This feature has continued in use to the
present day for some of the modern Pueblo Indians have similar holes in
the floors of their kivas. It serves as a symbolic entrance to the
Mother Earth and its importance is indicated by the fact that it has
persisted for so many centuries.
Many of the earliest pithouses, perhaps the very first ones, were built
in caves. The people had used the caves for centuries and it was only
natural that they should build houses there. Within a short time,
however, there was a movement toward the open country and soon pithouse
villages were being built on the mesa tops and in open valleys. The
caves, although they provided shelter from the winter's storms, were
cold and uncomfortable for the sun shone in only a few hours each day.
With substantial houses the people no longer feared the rigors of winter
and life in the open was far more pleasant than in the cold, shadowy
caves. By the seventh century most of the people seem to have moved out
of the caves and they were seldom used until the time when the cliff
dwellings were built.
One of the far-reaching effects of the permanent house was its influence
on true family life. Before this time the people probably had lived in
haphazard groups with little opportunity for development of the true
family. The house changed all this. In most instances a small pithouse
probably served as the dwelling place of a single family and this gave
new meaning to the family as a compact unit. Family ties, relationships
and inheritance probably took on new meanings.
As generations passed the houses improved and toward the end of the
period an important development came. For some time the people had built
slab-lined storage rooms around their pithouses. At first they were
small but gradually they were enlarged until they could serve as living
rooms. The floor was slightly below ground level and the walls of the
pit were lined with stone slabs. The above-ground walls were built of
poles and adobe and the flat roof was of similar materials. The rooms
became rectangular and the side walls vertical making it possible to
join them together in long rows. At the end of the period many of the
villages consisted of long rows of living rooms in front of which were a
few of the old-type pithouses. These pithouses grew deeper and gradually
seem to have developed into ceremonial rooms. This was the beginning of
the kiva, a subterranean room which is still used for this purpose by
present-day Pueblo Indians. Ruins of the type described above are called
slab-house villages because of the stone slabs which lined the walls of
the living rooms.
The third cultural trait which set the Modified Basket Makers apart from
their ancestors, the Basket Makers, was the bow and arrow. Again the
people borrowed. The bow and arrow is such a complicated combination
that it is easier to believe it was invented once, then spread over the
world, than that it was invented several times by different people. The
invention occurred in the Old World and the weapon was brought to
America by many bands of immigrants.
The Indians of the Mesa Verde received the bow and arrow after they had
acquired houses and pottery. Some band of wandering Indians probably
brought the new weapon into the region and the people may have obtained
it by peaceful borrowing. Or they may have recognized the superiority of
the bow through the sad experience of trying to defend themselves with
their atlatls. Whatever the circumstances may have been they adopted the
bow and the atlatl was discarded.
The bow excelled the atlatl in every way. It had greater accuracy and
was well adapted for stalking game or defending the home since it could
be shot from almost any position. Brush and trees did not interfere with
its use as in the case of the atlatl which could be used only where
there was room for the overhead sweep of the arm. Arrows were shorter
than atlatl darts, easier to carry and their range was greater. The bow
was also more efficient in the killing of small game.
As is always the case the old gave way to the new. The bow was accepted
and soon mastered. Defense of the home was easier, hunting was more
efficient and more game animals were killed than had been possible with
the atlatl.
An extremely important point that must be remembered is that the house,
pottery and the bow did not all arrive at the same time. It must not be
considered that on a certain day, in a certain year, the Basket Makers
voted to accept the new things and become Modified Basket Makers. These
new cultural traits filtered in slowly and the people themselves little
realized how their culture was changing.
During this period beans came up from the south and were accepted
eagerly by the farmers. It is entirely possible that this acceptance was
made possible by the new cooking vessels which the people now possessed.
At an altitude of 7000 feet dry beans require several hours of boiling
and while the people cooked in baskets this would have been virtually
impossible. Pottery cooking vessels made the task easy, however, and the
beans, an excellent protein food, gave the people a more balanced diet.
New varieties of corn also appeared. Previously only red corn had been
grown but now other colors became common.
During this period other cultural changes of a minor nature occurred.
Hafted stone mauls and axes appeared, the latter being vitally necessary
for cutting the many poles used in house construction. The turkey was
domesticated and feather blankets, which had first appeared in the
preceding period, became increasingly common. Jewelry was much the same
as in earlier times except that turquoise came into use and this gave
the people an additional stone from which to make beads, pendants and
earrings.
The popularity of baskets was in no way lessened by the appearance of
pottery and some of the finest baskets were made at this time. Sandals
improved in quality and the shape changed slightly. In the preceding
period the sandals were square-toed but now the toe became V-shaped, or
scalloped. Often the sandals were elaborately decorated with colored
designs and with designs produced by variations in the weave.
There is much evidence that the culture became more and more stabilized
with each succeeding generation. Farming methods improved and the
harvests became more abundant. With dependable supplies of food, the
added comfort and security of the dwellings and the improvement of
living conditions the population increased. By the early part of the
eighth century a large population of farming Indians occupied the Mesa
Verde and surrounding regions. It must have been a peaceful time for the
villages were widely scattered over the mesas and open valleys,
evidently with little thought of concentration for safety.
Ruins of this period are found in abundance in the Mesa Verde. Scores of
pithouse and slab-house villages have been found on the mesa tops and
one pithouse village has been found in a cave. In most cases pithouses
which were built in caves are now underneath the cliff dwellings which
were built later. Step House Cave, however, proved to be an exception.
In this cave, located in Long Canyon, the cliff dwelling occupies only
the north end of the cave leaving a large clear space at the south end.
This area was covered with several feet of trash which the occupants of
the cliff dwelling had thrown out. In 1926, Supt. Jesse L. Nusbaum
excavated under this trash layer and found three pithouses which had
been built about 600 A.D. This discovery indicates that some of the
early pithouses were built in caves and that excavation under some of
the cliff dwellings should reveal further evidence of cave occupation
during Modified Basket Maker times.
DEVELOPMENTAL PUEBLO PERIOD. 750 to 1100 A.D.
As we move into this new period it should be stressed that there was no
radical change in the culture. The same people continued to occupy the
Mesa Verde and they showed the same progressive tendencies which we have
seen in the earlier periods.
At this time, however, the people did a surprising thing. They adopted a
new cradle. Offhand, this may not seem especially important but it had a
startling effect and early archeologists were confronted with a baffling
problem. The new cradle caused such a radical change in the appearance
of the Indians that until recently the archeologists thought a new
people had moved into the region.
When the Basket Makers first were recognized half a century ago it was
noticed immediately that their skulls were strikingly different from
those of the people who had lived in pueblos and cliff dwellings. Skulls
of the Basket Makers were longer and narrower and there was no deformity
on the back. In contrast, skulls of the later people were broad and this
broadness was emphasized by a flattening on the back, a deformity caused
by the hard cradle board. The head shape was so radically different that
early archeologists assumed a new, broad-headed people had moved into
the region during the eighth century and merged with the Basket Makers.
As southwestern archeology progressed through uncertain early years this
assumption that the Basket Makers and Pueblos were two different people
was generally accepted. In those early days there was not enough
skeletal material for an exhaustive comparative study and while many
questions were unanswered and doubts were often expressed by
archeologists, the separate identity of the Basket Makers and Pueblos
was generally accepted.
Now the story has changed. Recent intensive study of a large amount of
skeletal material, ranging from the ancient Basket Makers to recent
Pueblo Indians, has thrown new light on the problem. The result is that
after all these years it now becomes apparent that there was no radical
change of physical type at all. The Basket Maker type seems to have
persisted with little evidence of any great addition of new blood.
The radical change in the shape of the heads seems to have resulted from
the new cradle which the people adopted during the eighth century. The
soft, padded cradle of the Basket Makers was discarded and within a
short time all of the women of the tribe were using a cradle made of
wood. No pillow was placed under the baby's head and the result was
inevitable. The back of the head flattened, the sides bulged and a
broad, deformed head resulted.
How can this change of cradles be explained except by saying that it was
a craze, a new beauty fad which caught the fancy of the people. Where it
came from is not known: surely it must have been borrowed from other
people with whom the Basket Makers came in contact. Evidently the new
head shape became fashionable for within a short time the new cradle was
adopted throughout the area. Instead of changing the hat or "hairdo", as
is the custom among modern people, they went to the very root of the
matter and changed the shape of the skull itself.
[Illustration: Basket Maker cradle]
[Illustration: Pueblo cradle board]
From this time on we are going to know the people as Pueblo Indians.
"Pueblo" is a Spanish word meaning village, or town, and was applied by
the early Spaniards to Indians whom they found living in large, compact,
many-roomed villages. It is an excellent term, as far as architecture is
concerned, for from the eighth century on the Indians of the Mesa Verde
showed an increasing tendency to join their houses together to form
compact villages. The term, Developmental Pueblo period, means exactly
what it says. It was a time of development and expansion and during this
period the groundwork was laid for the Great Pueblo period which
followed.
Once again we should stress a very important point. Even though we have
changed names, even though we have stepped from the Modified Basket
Maker to the Developmental Pueblo period there was no abrupt cultural
change. The only real difference as we move from one period to the next
is in the appearance of the people. Because of the adoption of the hard
cradle their heads became broad and deformed but otherwise the changes
were gradual and it is difficult to draw a sharp line between the two
periods.
During the Developmental Pueblo period there was the same gradual
development in all lines that we have seen throughout the earlier
periods. The people were alert and curious: they were energetic and
ambitious and the result was steady development. It was a period of
peace and the people seem to have lived without fear of an enemy. The
caves were deserted and villages were built on the open mesa tops or in
broad valleys near the fields of corn, beans and squash which provided
them with food in abundance. The population grew rapidly and spread over
a vast area in the Four Corners region where Colorado, Utah, Arizona and
New Mexico now meet at a common point. It was a far-flung culture and
there is every evidence that for a long time there was peace and
prosperity among the people.
The most important development during this period was in the field of
architecture. At the end of the previous period most of the villages
consisted of groups of individual pithouses. Some of the villages,
however, were made up of long curving rows of flat-roofed houses built
of poles, stone slabs and adobe. In front of the living rooms were one
or more pithouses which probably served as ceremonial rooms.
At first the Developmental Pueblo villages were merely continuations of
these earlier villages. As time passed improvements came, indicating
that the builders were doing a great deal of experimenting. Walls of
many types were built and with each generation there was progress.
During this period the population of the Mesa Verde evidently was large
for the mesa tops are dotted with scores, perhaps hundreds, of ruins.
Recently five ruins dating from this period have been excavated in the
Mesa Verde. Two of the ruins are at the Twin Trees site, with one ruin
sitting on top of the other. The other three are less than three hundred
yards away at Site 16. And here again the ruins are piled up one on top
of another. The people showed a strong tendency to build villages on the
ruins of earlier villages.
The five ruins, taken in chronological order, show very clearly the
architectural progress of the Developmental Pueblo period:
850 A.D. The first ruin is a slab-house pueblo. The floors of the living
rooms were a foot or more below ground level and the earthen walls were
lined with slabs. The upper walls consisted of slender posts, set a few
inches apart, with the intervening spaces filled with adobe. In front of
the long row of living rooms were four pitrooms, each one being about
six feet deep. The roof of each pitroom was supported on four posts set
in the floor of the room.
900 A.D. The second ruin is a post-and-adobe pueblo. The floors of the
living rooms were not dug below ground level and no stone slabs were
used. The walls consisted of posts, set upright a foot or more apart.
The spaces between the posts were filled with adobe into which had been
forced many small stones. In front of the living rooms was a kiva of a
very early type. The walls were of plastered native earth. The roof was
supported on four posts but instead of rising from the kiva floor the
posts were built into the face of a bench which encircled the room.
950 A.D. The third ruin is a small masonry pueblo. The walls were built
of stones and adobe but the masonry was exceedingly crude. The stones
were irregular in shape and only a few were laid in even rows. An
excessive amount of adobe was used; actually the walls were about fifty
percent adobe and fifty percent stone. In front of the living rooms was
an early type kiva. The walls were of plastered native earth and the
roof, instead of being supported on posts, was supported on four stone
pillars, or pilasters, which rested on the bench.
1000 A.D. The fourth ruin is a small pueblo built of single-coursed
masonry. The walls of the living rooms contain stones which were well
shaped but without smoothed faces. The stones were laid in even rows but
the walls were only the thickness of a single stone, measuring less than
a foot in width. The kiva, which was located in front of the living
rooms, approached the standard Mesa Verde type. The walls below the
bench were faced with stone and the roof was supported by six stone
pilasters which rested on the bench.
1075 A.D. The fifth ruin is a pueblo built of thick, double-coursed
masonry. The faces of the stones were smoothed and some retain the peck
marks of the tools used in the shaping process. Some of the walls were
two stories high. The kiva, located in front of the living rooms, was of
excellent construction. The roof was supported on eight stone pillars
which rested on the bench, and the walls, from the floor to the top of
the pillars, were faced with masonry of good quality. One new
architectural feature, the tower, appears in this ruin. There are three
of these tall, circular structures--we shall consider them in a moment.
The five ruins demonstrate graphically the steady architectural progress
of the Developmental Pueblo period. In the beginning the houses were
crudely built of posts and adobe and the underground rooms, which may
not have been entirely ceremonial at first, were merely deep pitrooms.
At the end of the period the houses were of good masonry and the
standard Mesa Verde kiva had developed. Certainly this development shows
that the people were constantly experimenting and as a result the
architecture improved steadily. During the latter part of the period few
large pueblos were built. Usually a village consisted of a few living
rooms joined together in a compact unit. A short distance south of the
living rooms was a single kiva.
Pottery also made rapid advances during this period. The women had
become convinced of its value and they experimented endlessly, probably
in a spirit of friendly competition. During the preceding period pottery
was dull gray in color and the crudely painted designs did not contrast
well with this drab background. The women now learned to apply a thin
wash of white clay to the vessels. This wash or slip, as it is called,
produced a clear white background and against this the constantly
improving designs stood out in bold contrast. Corrugated pottery
appeared and vessels of this type were used chiefly for cooking
purposes.
Good baskets still were made but pottery vessels were superior to
baskets for most purposes. As a result the quality of the baskets began
to decline. Sandals were much like those of earlier periods except that
the toes were rounded and there was less elaborate decoration. Cotton
came into use about the middle of the period and loom-woven cloth made
its appearance. Recent experiments have indicated that cotton will not
grow in the Mesa Verde so it must have been imported from warmer areas
to the south.
Minor arts and crafts improved as the people became more proficient in
the use of bone, stone and wood. An interesting change occurred in the
metate, or milling stone, during this period. Earlier metates were
trough-shaped, with a shallow groove for a grinding surface. Now a flat
metate came into use and the entire surface was used for grinding the
corn.
As the Developmental Pueblo period ended, thousands of peaceful farming
Indians occupied the Mesa Verde and a vast area around it. The
population had grown steadily since earliest Basket Maker times and the
region may have known its greatest population at this time or in the
early part of the following period. Most of the villages were small;
usually they consisted of a few living rooms and a single kiva. These
villages are often called unit pueblos and it has been suggested that
each one may have housed a number of closely related families forming a
single clan.
That the people were vigorous and ambitious is indicated by the progress
which they made. Now we see them nearing their cultural peak and it is
time for us to leave the Developmental Pueblo period and move into the
golden age of the Pueblos.
GREAT, OR CLASSIC PUEBLO PERIOD. 1100 to 1300 A.D.
This period has often been called the golden age of the Pueblo people.
Before we go into it, however, we should make some mention of the
beginning date, 1100 A.D. Usually, in the general Pueblo area, an
earlier date is given for the beginning of the period. One may very
easily push it back fifty or one hundred years, or even more, depending
upon how the period is defined.
Recent studies have produced some perplexing problems concerning the
architecture, pottery and movements of the people during their last two
or three centuries in the Mesa Verde. It is hoped that within a short
time some or all of these problems will be solved. Since the
uncertainties do exist we shall, for our purposes here, lean rather
heavily on the term "classic," which is often applied to this climax
period. The culture reached its classic development during the 1100-1300
A.D. period so we shall use those dates.
We saw the beginning of Pueblo development over a thousand years earlier
when the first grain of corn was planted somewhere in the Mesa Verde
region. From that simple beginning we have seen the culture develop
steadily without a backward step. Now it has reached its peak and for
two centuries we shall see the people enjoy the results of their long
struggle for improvement. It is true that adverse influences will affect
the people and will cause a radical change in their way of life. But
this adversity will not affect the arts and crafts and superior
workmanship will continue to the very end of the Mesa Verde occupation.
The massive stone walls were the finest ever built in the Mesa Verde.
The stones were carefully cut and were laid in neat even courses. Many
of the walls were smoothly plastered and often they were decorated with
brightly colored designs. The villages were often very large: sometimes
they contained scores of rooms and rose to a height of four stories.
Ceremonial rooms were numerous: sometimes there were more than a score
in a single village. They were built after a definite pattern, giving
evidence of rigid ceremonial practices.
Pottery of the Great Pueblo period was superb with the women of each
area specializing in certain shapes and designs. In the Mesa Verde the
women produced pottery of two types, the corrugated vessels which were
used for cooking and for storage of food and water, and the
black-on-white bowls, jars, ladles, kiva jars and mugs which were used
for other purposes. The decorated pottery was highly polished and the
intricate and carefully balanced black designs stood out in sharp
contrast against the glossy white background. For some unknown reason
the potters used a different material for their pottery paint during
this period. Previously they had used mineral paints in producing their
designs but now they used paint made from plants. Thus the designs were
simply carbon which the firing process burned into the surface of the
vessels.