THE MODIFIED-BASKETMAKER PERIOD[1]

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 cedarbast. 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.

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 vegetabletemperor 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 theBasketmaker 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, similarto 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 withincisedlines. 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.”

Fig. 14—Mummies of two varieties of Basketmaker dogs. (Courtesy Peabody Museum, Harvard University.)

On cliff faces are found pictures, sometimesincisedbut 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.

Fig. 15—Modified-Basketmaker diorama in the Museum at Mesa Verde National Park. (Courtesy Mesa Verde National Park.)

During the succeeding period, there was a continuation of the samebasic culture, but there was great development and sufficiently important changes occurred to warrant recognition by the application of another name. The laterphaseis known as theModified-Basketmaker periodor asBasketmaker 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 theculturemakes 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 theculturewas 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. Occasionallya 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.

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.

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 adeflector. 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 theSipapu. 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 thishorizonhas 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 bydiffusion. 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 areducing 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 anoxidizing 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-Basketmakerculture. It has been suggested that they may have beenimported from the south and that the red pottery, which owes its red color to firing in anoxidizing 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 asfugitive 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]

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 andincisedlines. 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 basketscontinued 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 ofapocynumstring 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.

In summarizing the Basketmakerhorizonas a whole, we may say that theculturewas 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 theatlatlor 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 theculturewas 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.

Following the Basketmaker era comes the Pueblohorizon, the second major subdivision of the Anasaziculture. 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 calledPueblo Iand 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 namedPueblo IIand 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 nameDevelopmental 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 theculturewas 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 thisphaseare found throughout the Plateau area.

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 nextphaseof 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 verycomplexsituation.

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 lightof this new evidence some archaeologists feel that the term “Anasazi” should be dropped, and the entireculture, 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.

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 fairlycomplexsurface domiciles and subterranean ceremonial chambers of the finalphaseof 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,jacalstructures as well as pit houses served as dwellings. The namejacalis 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 calledunit 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 morecomplexthan 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 clearerpicture, 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 andjacalstructures 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 foundjacalbuildings 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 somejacalconstruction, 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 crudecoursed masonryhas 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,jacaland 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 mostearly 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 ofjacalconstruction. Later houses were built ofcoursed masonryand 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 somecoursed masonry.

During the latter half of Developmental-Pueblo times in this area there were buildings made ofjacalwith 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 ofcoursed 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-groundstructures 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 asclanhouses, 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 placesavailable 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.

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