Pueblo Bonito
Encyclopedia
Pueblo Bonito, the largest and best known Great House in Chaco Culture National Historical Park
, northern New Mexico
, was built by ancestral Pueblo people
and occupied between AD 828 and 1126.
In January, 1941, a section of the canyon wall known as Threatening Rock, or tse biyaa anii'ahi (leaning rock gap) in Navajo
, collapsed as a result of a rock fall, destroying some of the structure's rear wall and a number of rooms. The builders of Pueblo Bonito appear to have been well aware of this threat. However, they chose to build beneath the fractured stone, which stood 97 feet (29.6 m) high and weighed approximately 30,000 tons, and compensated by building a structural reinforcement for the slab.
In 2009, it was reported that traces of cacao from, at the nearest, 1200 miles (1,931.2 km) away in Mexico, were detected in pottery shards at Pueblo Bonito. This was the first demonstration that cacao, important in rituals, had been brought into the area that became the United States at any time before the Spanish arrived around 1500. Cylindrical pottery jars, common in Central America, had previously been found, but are rare. At Pueblo Bonito, 111 jars had been found in one of the 800 or so rooms of the pueblo.
"Pueblo Bonito is the most thoroughly investigated and celebrated cultural site in Chaco Canyon. Planned and constructed in stages between AD 850 to AD 1150 by ancestral Puebloan peoples, this was the center of the Chacoan world."
U.S. army Lt. James H. Simpson
and Carravahal, Simpson's guide from San Juan Pueblo, first came upon Chaco Canyon during a 1849 military expedition. They briefly examined eight larger ruins in Chaco Canyon including Pueblo Bonito, named pretty village in Spanish by Carravahal. At the conclusion of his expedition, Simpson published the first description of Chaco Canyon in his military report, with drawings by expedition artist R. H. Kern.
Rancher Richard Wetherill
, and natural history student George H. Pepper
from the American Museum of Natural History
, began excavations at Pueblo Bonito in 1896 and ended in 1900. These excavations were financed by B. Talbot Hyde and Frederick E. Hyde, Jr. of New York City, who were philanthropists and collectors. During this time, the two men uncovered 190 rooms and photographed and mapped all major structures in the canyon. The Hydes donated the resulting large collection of artifacts to the American Museum of Natural History. After the excavation, Wetherill sought to gain personal control of parts of Chaco Canyon, including Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl
and Pueblo Del Arroyo
. He filed a homestead entry on these ruins, which was invalidated by the General Land Office in 1904 when the federal government took formal possession of these lands. Wetherill was required to stop his ongoing excavations on federal property, but continued to run a trading post at Chaco Canyon until his death in 1910.
Pueblo Bonito is divided into two sections by a precisely aligned wall, running north to south, through the central plaza. A Great Kiva
is placed on either side of the wall, creating a symmetrical pattern common to many of the Great Houses. In addition to the great kivas, over thirty other kivas or ceremonial structures have been found, many also associated with the large central courtyard. Interior living spaces were quite large by the standards of the Ancient Pueblo.
The site covers almost two acres (8,000 m²) and incorporates at least 650 rooms, with some estimates rising to 800. In parts of the village, the tiered structure was four and five stories high. During later construction, some lower level rooms were filled with debris to better support the weight of the upper levels. The builder's use of core and veneer architecture and multi-story construction produced massive masonry walls as much as three feet (1 m) thick.
Archaeologists' population estimates for the village have varied. During the early 20th century, the structures were viewed as small cities, with people residing in every room. From this perspective, Pueblo Bonito could have accommodated several thousand inhabitants at the village's peak. More recent analysis has lowered the resident total to less than 800, primarily due to the small number of usable hearths in the ruins. Another analysis, based on architecture, estimates the resident population to be even smaller, with only 12 households or about 70 people at its peak. These tend to be located on the ground floor, near the central plaza, and are associated with entrances to a series of rooms going deeper into the structure. Rooms were connected by a series of interior doorways, some of them in a T-shape. A family may have inhabited 3 to 4 rooms, with many small interior spaces being used for storage. There was generally no outside access to the room blocks other than from the central courtyard.
It is possible that Pueblo Bonito is actually neither a village nor city. While its size has the capacity for a significant population, the environment may not have been ideal for sustaining a large population. Excavations at the site have not revealed significant trash middens indicating residential areas. A common suggestion is that Pueblo Bonito was a ritual center. This is not only evident in the existence of the kivas (which are more often than not attributed to ritual function) but also in the construction of the site and its relation to other Chaco Canyon sites.
The site allows us to begin to comprehend the degree to which the Anasazi/ Ancient Pueblo understood the solar and lunar cycles. The solar and Lunar cycles are marked in the petroglyphs of the surrounding cliff area as well as in the architecture of Pueblo Bonito itself.
Examination of pack rat
middens revealed that, at the time that pueblo bonito was built Chaco Canyon and the surrounding areas were wooded by trees such as ponderosa pines. Evidence of such trees can be seen within the structure of Pueblo Bonito, such as the first floor support beams. Scientists hypothesised that during the time that the pueblo was inhabited the valley was cleared of almost all of the trees, to provide timber for construction and fuel. This, combined with a period of drought, led to the water table in the valley to drop severely, making the land infertile. This explains why Pueblo Bonito was only inhabited for about 300 years and is a good example of the effect that deforestation
can have on the local environment. The Anasazi, no longer able to grow crops to sustain their population, had to move on.
Since 2004, the University of Mexico has begun a campaign to reopen excavations of the great house in order to obtain new data. Major excavations of Chaco Canyon occurred during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; for this reason, the nature of the incredible social transformation that developed in Chaco Canyon and its underlying causes remains poorly understood.
A multi-year field study, centered in Pueblo Bonito, has been launched in order to obtain new information on the economic conditions of the Bonito phase. The ultimate goal of this recent fieldwork is to obtain data that will enable researchers to examine the development of great house communities in respect to relationships between demographic change and economic productivity.
Thus far, the team from the University of New Mexico has recovered and inventoried thousands of artifacts, including ceramics, animal bones, and stone fragments. As a result, the researchers have received a separate grant from the National Science Foundation to analyze more than 300,000 artifacts: the largest single-site artifact assemblage ever collected from Chaco.
s depicting six-toed feet, an element also found in other Ancient Pueblo rock art. These images were made in the late 10th century or early 11th century.
Chaco Culture National Historical Park
Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park hosting the densest and most exceptional concentration of pueblos in the American Southwest. The park is located in northwestern New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Farmington, in a remote canyon cut by the Chaco Wash...
, northern New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, was built by ancestral Pueblo people
Ancient Pueblo Peoples
Ancient Pueblo People or Ancestral Pueblo peoples were an ancient Native American culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the United States, comprising southern Utah, northern Arizona, northwest New Mexico, and southern Colorado...
and occupied between AD 828 and 1126.
In January, 1941, a section of the canyon wall known as Threatening Rock, or tse biyaa anii'ahi (leaning rock gap) in Navajo
Navajo language
Navajo or Navaho is an Athabaskan language spoken in the southwestern United States. It is geographically and linguistically one of the Southern Athabaskan languages .Navajo has more speakers than any other Native American language north of the...
, collapsed as a result of a rock fall, destroying some of the structure's rear wall and a number of rooms. The builders of Pueblo Bonito appear to have been well aware of this threat. However, they chose to build beneath the fractured stone, which stood 97 feet (29.6 m) high and weighed approximately 30,000 tons, and compensated by building a structural reinforcement for the slab.
In 2009, it was reported that traces of cacao from, at the nearest, 1200 miles (1,931.2 km) away in Mexico, were detected in pottery shards at Pueblo Bonito. This was the first demonstration that cacao, important in rituals, had been brought into the area that became the United States at any time before the Spanish arrived around 1500. Cylindrical pottery jars, common in Central America, had previously been found, but are rare. At Pueblo Bonito, 111 jars had been found in one of the 800 or so rooms of the pueblo.
"Pueblo Bonito is the most thoroughly investigated and celebrated cultural site in Chaco Canyon. Planned and constructed in stages between AD 850 to AD 1150 by ancestral Puebloan peoples, this was the center of the Chacoan world."
Discovery
James H. Simpson
James Hervey Simpson was an officer in the U.S. Army and a member of the United States Topographical Engineers.-Early years:He was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey on March 9, 1813, the son of John Simpson and Mary Brunson. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1832 and was...
and Carravahal, Simpson's guide from San Juan Pueblo, first came upon Chaco Canyon during a 1849 military expedition. They briefly examined eight larger ruins in Chaco Canyon including Pueblo Bonito, named pretty village in Spanish by Carravahal. At the conclusion of his expedition, Simpson published the first description of Chaco Canyon in his military report, with drawings by expedition artist R. H. Kern.
Rancher Richard Wetherill
Richard Wetherill
Richard Wetherill , a member of a prominent Colorado ranching family, was an amateur explorer in the discovery, research and excavation of sites associated with the Ancient Pueblo People...
, and natural history student George H. Pepper
George H. Pepper
George Hubbard Pepper was an ethnologist and archaeologist, was born in Tottenville, Staten Island, New York.Pepper conducted field workstarting in 1893, including archaeological digs at Burial Ridge, the largest pre-European burial ground in New York City...
from the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
, began excavations at Pueblo Bonito in 1896 and ended in 1900. These excavations were financed by B. Talbot Hyde and Frederick E. Hyde, Jr. of New York City, who were philanthropists and collectors. During this time, the two men uncovered 190 rooms and photographed and mapped all major structures in the canyon. The Hydes donated the resulting large collection of artifacts to the American Museum of Natural History. After the excavation, Wetherill sought to gain personal control of parts of Chaco Canyon, including Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl
Chetro Ketl
Chetro Ketl is a Chacoan Anasazi great house and notable archaeological site located in Chaco Canyon, a canyon in the U.S. state of New Mexico. In the cliffs behind the ruins there are ancient stairways that lead to prehistoric roadways that connect to Pueblo Bonito...
and Pueblo Del Arroyo
Pueblo del Arroyo
Pueblo del Arroyo is a Chacoan Anasazi great house and notable archaeological site located in Chaco Canyon, a canyon in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Founded between 1050 and 1075 AD and completed in the early 12th century, it is located near Pueblo Bonito at a drainage outlet known as South Gap....
. He filed a homestead entry on these ruins, which was invalidated by the General Land Office in 1904 when the federal government took formal possession of these lands. Wetherill was required to stop his ongoing excavations on federal property, but continued to run a trading post at Chaco Canyon until his death in 1910.
Description
Kiva
A kiva is a room used by modern Puebloans for religious rituals, many of them associated with the kachina belief system. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, kivas are square-walled and underground, and are used for spiritual ceremonies....
is placed on either side of the wall, creating a symmetrical pattern common to many of the Great Houses. In addition to the great kivas, over thirty other kivas or ceremonial structures have been found, many also associated with the large central courtyard. Interior living spaces were quite large by the standards of the Ancient Pueblo.
The site covers almost two acres (8,000 m²) and incorporates at least 650 rooms, with some estimates rising to 800. In parts of the village, the tiered structure was four and five stories high. During later construction, some lower level rooms were filled with debris to better support the weight of the upper levels. The builder's use of core and veneer architecture and multi-story construction produced massive masonry walls as much as three feet (1 m) thick.
Archaeologists' population estimates for the village have varied. During the early 20th century, the structures were viewed as small cities, with people residing in every room. From this perspective, Pueblo Bonito could have accommodated several thousand inhabitants at the village's peak. More recent analysis has lowered the resident total to less than 800, primarily due to the small number of usable hearths in the ruins. Another analysis, based on architecture, estimates the resident population to be even smaller, with only 12 households or about 70 people at its peak. These tend to be located on the ground floor, near the central plaza, and are associated with entrances to a series of rooms going deeper into the structure. Rooms were connected by a series of interior doorways, some of them in a T-shape. A family may have inhabited 3 to 4 rooms, with many small interior spaces being used for storage. There was generally no outside access to the room blocks other than from the central courtyard.
It is possible that Pueblo Bonito is actually neither a village nor city. While its size has the capacity for a significant population, the environment may not have been ideal for sustaining a large population. Excavations at the site have not revealed significant trash middens indicating residential areas. A common suggestion is that Pueblo Bonito was a ritual center. This is not only evident in the existence of the kivas (which are more often than not attributed to ritual function) but also in the construction of the site and its relation to other Chaco Canyon sites.
The site allows us to begin to comprehend the degree to which the Anasazi/ Ancient Pueblo understood the solar and lunar cycles. The solar and Lunar cycles are marked in the petroglyphs of the surrounding cliff area as well as in the architecture of Pueblo Bonito itself.
Examination of pack rat
Pack rat
A packrat, also called a woodrat, can be any of the species in the rodent genus Neotoma. Packrats have a rat-like appearance, with long tails, large ears and large black eyes. Compared to deer mice, harvest mice and grasshopper mice, packrats are noticeably larger and are usually somewhat larger...
middens revealed that, at the time that pueblo bonito was built Chaco Canyon and the surrounding areas were wooded by trees such as ponderosa pines. Evidence of such trees can be seen within the structure of Pueblo Bonito, such as the first floor support beams. Scientists hypothesised that during the time that the pueblo was inhabited the valley was cleared of almost all of the trees, to provide timber for construction and fuel. This, combined with a period of drought, led to the water table in the valley to drop severely, making the land infertile. This explains why Pueblo Bonito was only inhabited for about 300 years and is a good example of the effect that deforestation
Deforestation
Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....
can have on the local environment. The Anasazi, no longer able to grow crops to sustain their population, had to move on.
Since 2004, the University of Mexico has begun a campaign to reopen excavations of the great house in order to obtain new data. Major excavations of Chaco Canyon occurred during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; for this reason, the nature of the incredible social transformation that developed in Chaco Canyon and its underlying causes remains poorly understood.
A multi-year field study, centered in Pueblo Bonito, has been launched in order to obtain new information on the economic conditions of the Bonito phase. The ultimate goal of this recent fieldwork is to obtain data that will enable researchers to examine the development of great house communities in respect to relationships between demographic change and economic productivity.
Thus far, the team from the University of New Mexico has recovered and inventoried thousands of artifacts, including ceramics, animal bones, and stone fragments. As a result, the researchers have received a separate grant from the National Science Foundation to analyze more than 300,000 artifacts: the largest single-site artifact assemblage ever collected from Chaco.
Rock art
Behind Pueblo Bonito is a series of petroglyphPetroglyph
Petroglyphs are pictogram and logogram images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, and abrading. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images...
s depicting six-toed feet, an element also found in other Ancient Pueblo rock art. These images were made in the late 10th century or early 11th century.
Further reading
- Fagen, Brian. Chaco Canyon; Archaeologists Explore the Lives of an Ancient Society. Oxford University Press, New York, 2005. ISBN 0-19-517043-1.
- Frazier, Kendrick. People of Chaco: A Canyon and Its Culture. W.W. Norton and Company, New York, 1986. ISBN 0-393-30496-5.
- Noble, David Grant, editor. New Light on Chaco Canyon. School of American Research, Sante Fe, New Mexico, 1985.
- Plog, Stephen. Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest. Thames and London, LTD, London, England, 1997. ISBN 0-500-27939-X.
- Simpson, James H. Navaho Expedition: Journal of Military Reconnaissance from Santa Fe, New Mexico to the Navaho Country Made in 1849. Edited and annotated by Frank McNitt. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press 1964.
- Attenborough, David. "The State of the planet". (2000) BBC documentary.
External links
- The Mystery of Chaco Canyon a PBS documentary narrated by Robert RedfordRobert RedfordCharles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
- Chaco Canyon, a Photo Gallery
- Pueblo Bonito: 1995 Site Guide
- New Research at Pueblo Bonito
- http://www.nps.gov/chcu/planyourvisit/pueblo-bonito.htm