Moon House (sometimes written as Moonhouse) is a Pueblo III-period cliff dwelling located in southeastern Utah on Cedar Mesa in Bears Ears National Monument. It was created by the Ancestral Puebloan peoples between 1150 and 1300.
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Moon House (sometimes written as Moonhouse) is a Pueblo III-period cliff dwelling located in southeastern Utah on Cedar Mesa in Bears Ears National Monument. It was created by the Ancestral Puebloan peoples between 1150 and 1300.
3 sections of the Moon House complex are identified by Bloomer (1989 [1] ); M-1, M-2, and M-3. These are discussed briefly. Structures from the M-1 cluster yield tree-ring dates from between 964 and 1267, with most rooms clustering between 1125 and 1250. Structures from the M-2 cluster date from between 1109 and 1268. Structures in the M-3 cluster date from between 1044 and 1266, with most dates between 1150 and 1255.
Both Dean and Bloomer postulate different rooms served different functions, [2] and each section of the Moon House complex had a different function. M-1 seems to represent a residential area, with approximately 5 households, while M-2 primarily functioned as a storage area and M-3 as a ceremonial unit dominated by a large kiva. Bloomer found no other kivas within the canyon where Moon House is located, indicating that perhaps Moon House served as a local ceremonial center, servicing the ceremonial needs of the residents nearby in the canyon as well as possibly from the mesa tops.
Moon House derives its name from the unique pictographs located within Room I within the M-1 cluster.
In recent years, debate has arisen among hikers that visit the southwest over the location of Moon House. Some hikers have argued that its location, being on public land, should be available to the public. The Bureau of Land Management and some professional archaeologists disagree with this. In recent years, the USGS has removed Moon House, among other ancient ruins, from its 7.5 minute topographical maps. [3]
In 2011, the BLM Monticello Field Office created the Moon House Recreation Management Zone, limiting visitation to 20 people per day (no pets). [4] This is in response to the rising visitation to Moon House and resultant damage. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.
Moon House is featured in David Robert's 1996 book "In Search of the Old Ones." [5]
A.G. Deiss sets a portion of her 2003 novel "The Sullivan Girls and the Mystery of Moonhouse" at Moon House. She also adds Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch into the history of Moon House, [6] though there is no evidence that he actually visited the ruin.
Craig Childs talks briefly about Moon House in his book "House of Rain." [7]
The 2009 book "The Marauders" by Rob Gay centers around Moon House and the controversy surrounding publication of its location. [8]
Mesa Verde National Park is a national park of the United States and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado, and the only World Heritage Site in Colorado. The park protects some of the best-preserved Ancestral Puebloan ancestral sites in the United States.
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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 and a place of worship.
Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in North America. The structure built by the Ancestral Puebloans is located in Mesa Verde National Park in their former homeland region. The cliff dwelling and park are in Montezuma County, in the southwestern corner of Colorado, in the Southwestern United States.
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Mogollon culture is an archaeological culture of Native American peoples from Southern New Mexico and Arizona, Northern Sonora and Chihuahua, and Western Texas. The northern part of this region is Oasisamerica, while the southern span of the Mogollon culture is known as Aridoamerica.
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.
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A timeline of Chacoan history includes Chaco Culture National Historical Park, Aztec Ruins National Monument, Twin Angels Pueblo, Casamero Pueblo, Kin Nizhoni, Pierre's Site, and Halfway House.
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The Ansel Hall Ruin, also known as Cahone Ruin, is located in Cahone, Dolores County, Colorado. A pre-historic ruins from the Pueblo II period, the Northern San Juan pueblo was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
The Pueblo I Period was the first period in which Ancestral Puebloans began living in pueblo structures and realized an evolution in architecture, artistic expression, and water conservation.
The Pueblo II Period was the second pueblo period of the Ancestral Puebloans of the Four Corners region of the American southwest. During this period people lived in dwellings made of stone and mortar, enjoyed communal activities in kivas, built towers and dams for water conservation, and implemented milling bins for processing maize. Communities with low-yield farms traded pottery with other settlements for maize.
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 Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi and by the earlier term the Basketmaker-Pueblo culture, 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, a term introduced by Alfred V. Kidder from the Navajo word anaasází meaning 'enemy ancestors' although Kidder thought it meant 'old people'. Contemporary Puebloans object to the use of this term, with some viewing it as derogatory.