II.

Archaeology and Prehistory

Archaeologists relate the Pueblo to an older Southwest culture known by the term Basket Maker. The entire cultural sequence is called the Anasazi (Navajo for “ancient ones”) culture. During the early Basket Maker phase (100? bc-ad 500?) prehistoric settlements were established in the northern part of the Southwest. The inhabitants practiced weaving. They lived in caves or built shelters of poles and adobe mud. Pumpkins and corn were grown as a supplement to hunting and the gathering of wild plants. Food was stored in undergound pits, often lined with stone slabs. With the addition of a bean crop and the domestication of the turkey, agriculture became more important than hunting and gathering during the Modified Basket Maker period (ad 500-700). Pottery was introduced. The food storage pits developed into semisubterranean houses and ceremonial chambers, and buildings began to take their present connected form.

The transition from the Basket Maker to the Pueblo culture occurred about ad 700. Stone construction was adopted, and the connected, now-aboveground houses became larger. The ceremonial chamber developed into the kiva, an underground chamber used for rituals and as a male lodge. Several kinds of corn were grown, and the cultivation of cotton may have been introduced. Pottery was produced in a diversity of shapes and styles. During this period the Anasazi made their greatest territorial expansion, reaching as far as central Utah, southern Colorado, and a large part of northern Mexico.

During the Classic Pueblo period (1050-1300) the northernmost regions were no longer occupied, and the population became concentrated in large multistoried, terraced pueblos and in similar villages built in recesses in cliffs. See Cliff Dweller; Mesa Verde National Park. Notable advances occurred in pottery and weaving. At the end of this period many large centers of Pueblo life were abandoned, possibly because of drought or because of invading bands of Navajo and Apache. During the Regressive Pueblo period (1300-1700) many villages inhabited today were founded. Houses became less elaborate, but pottery and weaving continued to develop.