The largest and earliest of the Pueblo I period villages, Alkali Ridge Pueblo, is located just east of Blanding in southeastern Utah (Figure 2).įigure 2: This photo shows the 950-year-old, two-story remnants of the Edge of the Cedars Great House in Blanding, Utah. During the Pueblo I period, people continued to live in villages but settled even more closely together in architecture that resembles modern-day pueblo constructions. In the middle 700s, Pueblo communities returned but transformed. Late Basketmaker communities often included a large pithouse or “great kiva” that likely functioned as a center for ceremony and decision-making.Īncestral Pueblo populations seem to have departed the adjacent landscapes of southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado from about 700 to 750 CE. The houses were usually two-room pithouses that had a small room or “antechamber” attached to the south side of a larger subterranean room. These villages were loose clusters of single-family dwellings with some separation between houses. The earliest Ancestral Pueblo villages appeared in the late 500s and 600s CE. Growing populations resulted in larger groups of people living close together.

The protein-rich diet of corn and beans enabled more people to live healthier lives and have more children.

Earth was piled on to the leaning posts and roof, resulting in an earthen mound as seen from the pithouse’s exterior.īy the middle 500s CE, these early farmers introduced beans and pottery technology to the northern Southwest. Architects of the time erected the walls and roofs of their pithouses by emplacing a set of upright posts into an excavated chamber, nestling horizontal beams across the tops of these posts, and then leaning timbers from the perimeter of the room against these horizontal beams. The domestic architecture, pithouses, were partially excavated into the ground, largely constructed of wood and earth, and much more substantial than the constructions of the preceding Archaic period peoples. The Basketmaker period also marked a transition in hunting and warfare technology, from the atlatl or “dart thrower” to the bow and arrow. They made exquisite baskets, sandals, and other textiles but no pottery, for which reason they have come to be known as Basketmakers. People of the Early Basketmaker period were reliant upon agricultural crops, corn and squash, and developed strategies and storage facilities for these foods. “Archaeological traditions” distinguish apparent similarities in pottery, stone tools, buildings, clothing, basketry, and rock art styles, among other things, that are found in particular parts of the Southwest. We turn to specifics of the Mesa Verde tradition, which spans southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado, for the rest of our discussion.įigure 1:The “archaeological traditions” map indicates locations of apparent groups of people in the Four Corners region prior to the 1200s migration. In Utah, the two traditions that emerged were the Virgin (west of the Colorado River) and the Mesa Verde (east of the Colorado River) traditions (Figure 1). To the south, in Arizona, archaeologists have distinguished the Kayenta tradition to the southwest, in what is now New Mexico, they have identified the Chaco tradition (Figure 1). In southeastern Utah, for example, these periods are approximately:Īs farming and village life established itself in the region, several subcultures or “traditions” of Ancestral Pueblo people became evident across the landscapes we now know as Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. The sequence of periods is referred to as the “Pecos Classification,” the dates of which vary slightly across the greater Southwest. Because these changes occurred over broad spans of time and across wide landscapes, researchers summarize Ancestral Pueblo history according to “periods” of time to understand better how changes occurred in Ancestral Pueblo societies. The deep history of Ancestral Pueblo culture is characterized by changes in architecture, technology, community settlement plans, clothing, and rock art styles (among other things). Although maize appears as early as 2000 BCE in the vicinity of the Four Corners, it’s not until 300 BCE that evidence of maize is consistently found in the households of people of the region. Their predecessors, nomadic Archaic period peoples, had principally relied upon wild food resources since the end of the Pleistocene epoch around 8000 BCE.

Ancestral Pueblo peoples lived in the Four Corners region, including southern Utah, from about 300 BCE to 1300 CE, and are basically identified by their strong commitment to maize (corn) agriculture. The Ancestral Pueblo are the ancestors of descendant Pueblo peoples who now reside in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

Hohokam anasazi