Diagram Of A Pit House
As we have seen Pit Houses were the first dwellings of these Puebloan people and were first built on top of the Mesa and later built in connection with the Alcove and Cliff Dwellings and early Puebloan villages during the period of A. D. 700 to 950. Often times Pit houses were constructed almost on top of or on older pit house that had been destroyed earlier. While archaeologists searched some of these pit homes they discovered charred timbers and scorched adobe rubble which was evidence of intense heat. In these pit houses the fire pit was only six feet below the ceiling laced with sticks and timber dried by innumerable cooking fires a pit house was a hazardous place to live and definitely a " fire trap ". Archaeologists have determined that the majority of the pit houses were destroyed by fire. Later pit houses had a ventilation shaft and were dug deeper apparently an effort to lessen the danger of fires destroying the house. Some pit houses would become special rooms where ceremonies were likely held. As these old pit house ruins have been examined many tools and artifacts have been found; such as, a stone Mano held in the hand to grind seeds and corn on a large flat rock called a metate. Also found were deer bones, awls for making holes in leather, turkey bones, pottery sherd's, a piece of someones prized woven cloth sandal and a bowl filled with tiny seeds.
Ventilating A Pit House
Illustration Of How To Ventilate A Pit House
What Life May Have Looked Like In A Pit House As A Family Sits Around A Fire
Above I Mentioned That Pitt Houses Were Rebuilt On Or Near Older Ones
As This Diagram Depicts. The Older House Was On The Left.
This Is Excavation Site Of A Pit House Shown In The Diagram Above
Drawing Showing The First Pit House Then The Ruins Of The First Pit House
And Then The Second Pit House
Excavation Showing Old And Newer Pit Houses
Close Up View Of Excavation Of Pit House Site. You can See The Fire Pit In
The Center Of The Room And The Deflector Rock In Front Of the Ventilation Shaft
In the photograph above the row of sand stones slabs protruding into the larger room actually formed part of the north wall of the smaller pit house and held back the ashes and loose fill. The first dwelling may have had a standard antechamber for storage, the second house has covered evidence of it. The builders may have found it easier to enlarge the old storage area into living space. The reason for the reoccupation of these dwellings and enlarging them is not clear but speculation is that ancestral ties. religious beliefs or expediency may have played a part.
Next we have an example of a Crescent-Shaped Village which followed the building of Pit Houses which was a trend to living above ground..
Crescent-Shaped Village
By A. D. 850 most Mesa Verde people lived in above ground dwellings rather than in pit houses. The joining of rooms together may have reflected a greater degree of cooperation required by the expanding population. These houses were built on foundations of upright stone slabs. The walls were constructed by setting poles upright and weaving small sticks between them, then plastering them with mud. This technique is called " wattle and daub "
The large pit room shown above was used for ceremonies as well as cooking and sleeping. The slabs and floor cavities are typical of earlier pit houses. Some villagers may have found it better to move back into the pit room during the winter as the pit room would be easier to heat than the above ground house. Villages of this time only had one or two pit rooms . This may have been because spiritual matters evolved from family and community affairs. It is believed that the pit room was a transition from pit houses to kiva. The fact that no domestic features such as manos and metates and storage areas suggests a move toward a more formally structured religious chamber. This pit room is unique in that it is rectangular in shape rather than round and the reason for this change is unknown..
Diagram Of How This Pit Room May Have Looked. Note The Roof Is Near Ground Level
Diagram Of How A Pit House May Have Looked. Note The Sloped Walls
Next we move on to Stone villages rather than pit houses or Wattle and Daub type buildings as shown next.
Wattle And Daub Style
Diagram Of What A Stone Village May Have Looked Like
Ruins Of he Foundation/Walls Of Stone Village
When you compare the walls of this stone village with others you will find these walls indicate masonry construction where loose stones are cemented together with clay. This village is like others in that it has houses in a row, a plaza and a pit room except for the masonry construction. Historians are uncertain why they started building houses above ground. There may have been a shortage of good house building timber or the frequent house fires may have forced them to find a safer house. One thing that is sure and is evidenced as you tour the mesa and stop to realize the learning and development these people were making as they move from below ground dwellers to above ground dwellers to stone villages to as we will see later the shaping and fitting of stones together to support multistory villages. In this connection they moved from having villages built with post and adobe walls to single course masonry strong walls, to double course stone walls which were even stronger. A third new feature came into being and that was a round tower that were often associated with a kiva and connected to the kiva by an underground tunnel. All we have are questions as to what purpose they served. For example were they defensive structures or watch towers? Did they serve a religious or ceremonial purpose? Did they mark the beginning of troubled times on Mesa Verde? Or could they have meet the needs of a combination of all three of these questions? Because the Pueblo people choose to build and rebuild their homes on the same sites over several hundred years and over the old building much of the archaeological history was lost. In one location an unusual collection of jewelry was found beneath a floor surface including pendants, beads, and four exquisite necklaces, including one with 458 white shell beads. Buried in one of the kivas was a cache of bird, mammal and reptile bones. The final question comes to mind and that is why did they stay in the same location for centuries because the area is rather exposed to weather extremes and the closest water was a quarters of a mile away. It may have been the good farm land or it may have just simply been that it was home and that is where the family had always lived not much different than our families up until a generation or so ago.
Comparison Of Kiva Style Of Construction
Look How Deep This Is
Another View
Here You Can Clearly See The Fire Pit And The Ventilator Shaft
Another View
View Of Ventilator Shaft, Fire Pit And Entry Into Central Structure
Partial View Of Central Structure
Kiva Alignment Was Very Important to These Early Puebloans
Closer View Of The Alignment Of The Ventilator Shaft, Fire Pit And Sipapu
Explanation Of Kiva Key Features Orientation
Finish Of Explanation Of Kiva Features Alignment. I Need To Point Out Here That The Last 10 Or So Photographs Are Of The Area First Uncovered By Archaeologist James A. Lancaster.
Kiva With Remains Of Tower To The Right. Again You Can See The Main Features Such As
The Fire Pit Ventilator Shaft And Tunnel To The Tower.
Ceremonial Chamber
The above photograph is an Anasazi kiva which is an underground religious room. Archaeologists in trying to understand what events occurred here look at modern Pueblo Indian kivas and beliefs. The small circular hole in the floor is a sipapu, a symbolic entrance into the underworld the Pueblo place of origin. By this time in their development, pit rooms had evolved into more formalized religious structure. This early kiva design was continued in Mesa Verde villages. The hole in the back wall near the floor is a ventilator shaft which exits at ground level near the fence at the top of the photograph. You can see three short stone columns or pilasters on the bench or shelf which circles the floor were used to support the roof timbers.
Ventilator shaft
Artists Rendition of Events In The Ceremonial Chamber.
Village Upon Village. As Mentioned Above Often Villages Would Be Vacated Or New
Structure Built On Top Of The Old One. In This Instance It Happened Three Times.
At first when you look at the above photograph/diagram it looks like a puzzle of circles and rectangles. Large pits seem dug at random and foundations overlapping. But really there are three distinct villages here with different architectural styles and each with its own kiva and underground ceremonial chamber. For at least 150 years a succession of Pueblo farmers occupied this same tract of land. as noted earlier this does not seem to be a truly desirable area as the mesa top has harsh weather and the drainage is poor. The snow is lingers making for late planting times as well as chilling the earthen rooms. You may wonder why did they build over a prior village. It does not seem logical does it? Also to me I keep wondering what happened that the village was empty so a new one could be built over it especially since the area was occupied for over a century. One thing seems certain by tearing down the old structures they had a ready source of building materials. The villages are now flattened, but scattered fragments yield clues to the villagers lives. Three wall types are visible. 1. post and adobe. 2. single course masonry one stone thick and 3. double-course masonry. This seems to have been a place of architectural experiment. Although the inhabitants left no calendar or no written record each occupation can be fixed in time. A kiva timber from the Third Village has a tree ring date of A. D. 1074. Other villages dates can be approximated by comparing ruins along the mesa. In a relative brief time span, Anasazi building methods show increasing stability and technical sophistication.
Pains Taking Effort To Learn About These People. James A. Lancaster,Archaeologist
Working At The Site In 1950.
Excavation To Unearth A Culture
Did you ever wonder how the archaeologist determine where to start digging? I have. Sure in this case I assume they knew of the alcove and cliff dwellings and perhaps some other structures but here it says there was only a low mound of dirt and a few building stones and it did not look very promising. To start you don't just grab a shovel and start digging like I do in my back yard. If you are serious you have to be careful or your first shovel full of dirt might cut right through a rare artifact. In this case they found two kivas that were from two earlier villages one of which was from a village estimated to be 100 years apart in time.
Another Example Of the Perfect Alignment Of The Ventilator Shaft And The Stone To Deflect The Heat,
The Fire Pit And The Sipapu. Some Of The Round Hole In The Floor May Have Been For The Poles To Support The Roof Which Was In Most Instances Covered With Dirt. Also You Will Notice On The Ledge You Can See Six Square Features And In Some Of These Kivas These Also Were To Set The Poles On For Support Of The Roof. Other Holes In the Floor I Do Not Know What They Were For.
Sun Point Pueblo is one of the last mesa-top pueblos built at Mesa Verde and is a part of a cluster of sites in the Cliff Palace Fewkes Canyon area. The pueblo's rooms enclosed an interesting kiva tower complex. The kiva was more than 12 feet in diameter and had a banquette, fire pit, ventilator, and sipapu which as previously explained represented the entrance from the underworld. The walls were plastered and contained small niches. A tunnel was dug to connect the kiva to the round tower. At some point the tunnel was filled and the tower mostly torn down. The " dimpled " marks in the stones of the kiva were a technique that began in the A. D. 1200 era and the purpose is unknown. The people lived at Sun Point Pueblo for about 10 years then some unknown event(s) occurred that caused them to move. They lost a considerable amount of investment in time and effort. I did not learn how long it took for them to build this pueblo but it must have been several years and a lot of hard work.
Sun Point Pueblo
Details About Sun Point Pueblo
Diagram Showing Tunnel Connecting Tower And Kiva. The Kiva Has Become A Central Point In Village Life. In Mesa Verde It Is Common To Find A Tunnel Connecting The Tower And Kiva. Speculation Is That The Tunnel May Have Allowed A Sudden Dramatic Entrance During Ceremonies.
Much Of Sun Point Pueblo Is Gone Now.
Sun Point Pueblo Tower Remains Kiva On Either Side
The Fire Pit Ventilator Shaft And Tunnel To The Tower.
From the mesa top at some point the Puebloan started building in the cliffs and alcoves of the cliffs and that will be what we look at next in the last posting about Mesa Verde.
As always remember that God loves you and so do I.
Grandpa Bill
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