Great house (pueblo)

Last updated February 08, 2024

A great house is a large, multi-storied Ancestral Puebloan structure; they were built between 850 and 1150. Whereas the term "great house" typically refers to structures in Chaco Canyon, they are also found in more northerly locations in the San Juan Basin, including the Mesa Verde region. The purpose of the structures is unclear, but may have been to house large numbers of people, religious leaders, or royalty. They were designed and constructed to provide shelter to inhabitants in an arid climate and had protective walls and small windows.

History and purpose

Great house construction flourished during the late 11th and early 12th centuries, and may have begun as early as 800. Mesa Verdeans usually built their great houses on the site of older villages.^[1] The earliest examples of structures similar to great houses have been found along the Mimbres River in New Mexico.^[2]

Archeologists differ as to their purpose, but they might have been residences for large numbers of people, or ceremonial centers that only priests occupied. Archeologist Stephen H. Lekson has proposed that they might have been the palaces of Puebloan royalty, particularly those found at Chaco Canyon.^[3] Additionally, Chaco Canyon area was a regional trading center and approximately half of the total area of the structures were storage rooms.^[4]

Design

Spaces were generally divided into four sections aligned with the cardinal directions, which held religious significance. The great houses at Pueblo Alto were aligned along a north–south axis.^[4] Entrances to structures were generally south or southeast facing.^[2]^[4] This provided shade from summer sun and warmth from winter sun.^[2] The back of the buildings were joined together with a large wall to provide shelter from wind.^[4] At the center of the structure was a plaza, meant to serve as a community center.^[4] Great house complexes are also characterized by earthen berms and formal road segments

Structures utilized thick walls, small entrances, and small windows to help protect inhabitants in an arid environment.^[2] Walls were constructed with stone and adobe plaster. Roofs were made from timber and have decayed faster than the walls that supported them.^[4]

Influence

Mary Colter designed buildings in the Southwest, including Hopi House which was modeled after Puebloan great houses and built to provide shelter for visitors and a reference for scale. Hopi House was her first work in the Grand Canyon area, completed in 1904, and was constructed before the area was dedicated as a national park.^[5]

Related Research Articles

Mesa Verde National Park is an American national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado. The park protects some of the best-preserved Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites in the United States.

The Pecos Classification is a chronological division of all known Ancestral Puebloans into periods based on changes in architecture, art, pottery, and cultural remains. The original classification dates back to consensus reached at a 1927 archæological conference held in Pecos, New Mexico, which was organized by the United States archaeologist Alfred V. Kidder.

A kiva is a space used by Puebloans for rites and political meetings, many of them associated with the kachina belief system. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, "kiva" means a large room that is circular and underground, and used for spiritual ceremonies.

Hovenweep National Monument is located on land in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah, between Cortez, Colorado and Blanding, Utah on the Cajon Mesa of the Great Sage Plain. Shallow tributaries run through the wide and deep canyons into the San Juan River.

Navajo National Monument is a National Monument located within the northwest portion of the Navajo Nation territory in northern Arizona, which was established to preserve three well-preserved cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloan people: Keet Seel, Betatakin, and Inscription House. The monument is high on the Shonto plateau, overlooking the Tsegi Canyon system, west of Kayenta, Arizona. It features a visitor center with a museum, three short self-guided trails, two small campgrounds, and a picnic area.

Pueblo Bonito is the largest and best-known great house in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, northern New Mexico. It was built by the Ancestral Puebloans who occupied the structure between AD 828 and 1126.

Chetro Ketl is an Ancestral Puebloan great house and archeological site located in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico, United States. Construction on Chetro Ketl began c. 990 and was largely complete by 1075, with significant remodeling occurring in the early and mid-1110s. Following the onset of a severe drought, most Chacoans emigrated from the canyon by 1140; by 1250 Chetro Ketl's last inhabitants had vacated the structure.

Pueblo del Arroyo is an Ancestral Puebloan great house and archaeological site located in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, in New Mexico, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancestral Puebloan dwellings</span> Ancestral Puebloan homes

Hundreds of Ancestral Puebloan dwellings are found across the American Southwest. With almost all constructed well before 1492 CE, these Puebloan towns and villages are located throughout the geography of the Southwest.

The Pueblo III Period was the third period, also called the "Great Pueblo period" when Ancestral Puebloans lived in large cliff-dwelling, multi-storied pueblo, or cliff-side talus house communities. By the end of the period, the ancient people of the Four Corners region migrated south into larger, centralized pueblos in central and southern Arizona and New Mexico.

The Mesa Verde Region is a portion of the Colorado Plateau in the United States that extends through parts of New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. It is bounded by the San Juan River to the south, the Piedra River to the east, the San Juan Mountains to the north and the Colorado River to the west.

The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado. They are believed to have developed, at least in part, from the Oshara tradition, which developed from the Picosa culture. The people and their archaeological culture are often referred to as Anasazi, meaning "ancient enemies", as they were called by Navajo. Contemporary Puebloans object to the use of this term, with some viewing it as derogatory.

Andrews Outlier is an Ancestral Puebloan archeological site located in the Red Mesa Valley in the southern portion of the San Juan Basin, approximately 50 miles (80 km) south of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, United States. The site is notable for its three great kivas and thirty small house structures. The area has not been excavated, but the visible architecture indicates that the primary purpose of the buildings was community rituals. Andrews Outlier was occupied from around 900 to 1100 CE. The site is owned by The Archaeological Conservancy and administered by the US Bureau of Land Management.

Small house refers to small masonry dwellings built by the Ancestral Puebloans. There are hundreds of small house sites in Chaco Canyon. They were first constructed during the late 8th and early 9th centuries, about fifty to seventy-five years before work began on great houses. They differ from great houses in that they do not feature core-and-veneer construction, nor do they include great kivas. Archeologists believe that the residents of small house sites were connected by marriage or kinship, and were part of larger communities based on association with nearby great houses.

Bluff Great House is an Ancestral Puebloan great house and archeological site located in southeastern Utah, United States. The site lies near the north bank of the San Juan River, approximately 130 miles (210 km) northwest of Chaco Culture National Historical Park. It contained between fifty and sixty rooms, with four kivas and a great kiva nearby. Two ancient road segments were found in the area, and several berms were leveled to create a terrace, which is rare in Chacoan sites. The great house was partially excavated from 1996 to 2004, and archeologists believe the site was constructed, in at least two stages, between 1075 and 1150 CE by Chacoans who interacted with the Puebloan residents of both Mesa Verde and Kayenta, Arizona. Bluff Great House was abandoned c. 1250.

The Chaco Meridian is a north-south axis on which lie the Ancestral Puebloan sites, Aztec Ruins and Chaco Canyon, as well as Paquime at Casas Grandes in northern Mexico. Archeologist Stephen H. Lekson developed the theorizes that the location of these sites approximately on the same line of longitude (107°57'25") was intentional, and represents a ceremonial and political connection between the sites and is due to migration of the rulers of the Ancestral Puebloan moving their capital city.

The Chacra Face Road is one of eight Ancestral Puebloan roads that enters Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. It enters the canyon through a break in the Chacra Mesa called the Fajada Gap, and ends at the great house Una Vida. It probably connected Una Vida to an eastern Puebloan community, Guadalupe Outlier.

East Community is an Ancestral Puebloan great house community and archeological site located 12 miles (19 km) east of Pueblo Bonito, at the eastern end of Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico, United States. Archeological evidence uncovered during the 1980s suggests the site was occupied by both Chacoans and Mesa Verdeans. Eighty-two structures have been identified in the area, including a great house that contains twenty-five rooms and several small house sites. At least one kiva has been uncovered there, but no great kivas. A partial road segment is visible there, but archeologists are unsure if it connects with a longer segment thought to originate near Pueblo Pintado. The great house at East Community was constructed in the 10th century, with significant additions completed during the 11th century. The associated small house sites were occupied by Chacoans from 875 to 1300, and thirty-nine of them by Mesa Verdeans, from 1175 to 1300. Archeologist Thomas Windes believes the site was linked to Chaco Canyon through a system of signaling stations atop the area's mesas.

McElmo Phase refers to a period in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, when drastic changes in ceramics and masonry techniques in Chaco Canyon appeared. During this period the Ancestral Puebloans living in the canyon started using painted black-on-white pottery versus their standard grey ware, and the masonry and layout of great houses built during the McElmo phase, which was the last major construction era in the canyon, differ significantly from those built during the early parts of the Bonito Phase, which overlaps with the McElmo Phase. Archeologists initially suggested that the McElmo influence was brought to Chaco Canyon by immigrants from Mesa Verde, but subsequent research suggests that the developments were of local origin. Archeologist R. Gwinn Vivian notes, "The jury is still out on this question, a problem that poses intriguing possibilities for future work."

References

↑ Hurst & Till 2006, pp. 76–77.
1 2 3 4 Ferguson, T. J. (1999). "Anasazi Architecture and American Design. Baker H. Morrow and V.B. Price, editors. 1997. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, xviii + 241 pp., 49 illustrations, references, contributors, index. $70.00 (cloth), $29.95 (paper)". American Antiquity. 64 (1): 170–171. doi:10.2307/2694354. ISSN 0002-7316. JSTOR 2694354. S2CID 163964494.
↑ Vivian & Hilpert 2012, p. 134–35.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Jarzombek, Mark M. (2014). Architecture of first societies : a global perspective. Wiley. ISBN 978-1-118-42105-5. OCLC 892925215.
↑ Fahlman, Betsy (2002). "Mary Colter: Architect of the Southwest Arnold Berke". Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 61 (3): 410–412. doi:10.2307/991798. ISSN 0037-9808. JSTOR 991798.

Bibliography

Hurst, Winston; Till, Jonathan (2006), "Mesa Verdean Sacred Landscapes", in Nobel, David Grant (ed.), The Mesa Verde World: Explorations in Ancestral Puebloan Archaeology, School of American Research Press, pp. 74–83, ISBN 978-1-930618-75-6
Vivian, R. Gwinn; Hilpert, Bruce (2012), The Chaco Handbook: An Encyclopedic Guide (2 ed.), University of Utah Press, ISBN 978-1-60781-195-4

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[FOOTNOTEHurstTill200676–77-1] Hurst & Till 2006, pp. 76–77.

[:0-2] 1 2 3 4 Ferguson, T. J. (1999). "Anasazi Architecture and American Design. Baker H. Morrow and V.B. Price, editors. 1997. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, xviii + 241 pp., 49 illustrations, references, contributors, index. $70.00 (cloth), $29.95 (paper)". American Antiquity. 64 (1): 170–171. doi:10.2307/2694354. ISSN 0002-7316. JSTOR 2694354. S2CID 163964494.

[FOOTNOTEVivianHilpert2012134–35-3] Vivian & Hilpert 2012, p. 134–35.

[:1-4] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Jarzombek, Mark M. (2014). Architecture of first societies : a global perspective. Wiley. ISBN 978-1-118-42105-5. OCLC 892925215.

[5] Fahlman, Betsy (2002). "Mary Colter: Architect of the Southwest Arnold Berke". Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 61 (3): 410–412. doi:10.2307/991798. ISSN 0037-9808. JSTOR 991798.

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