Native American architecture—Southwest

Tribes affected: Anasazi, Eastern Pueblo, Hohokam, Hopi, Mogollon, Zuni, other Southwest traditions and tribes

Significance: Architecture in the Southwest evolved from the crude pit house to the magnificent stone pueblos of the prehistoric Anasazi, and then to pueblos built in the historic period in the Rio Grande Valley and at Zuni and Hopi

All three prehistoric cultures in the Southwest were pit house builders. The Mogollon constructed circular pit houses grouped in small villages of fifteen to twenty families. The Hohokam built square or rectangular pit houses randomly scattered over a large area (the settlement at Snaketown covers almost a square mile).

Basketmaker and Developmental Pueblo

BasketmakerAnasazi (circa 1-700 c.e.) in the Four Corners area built crude circular subterranean structures with flat roofs, entered by ladder through the smoke hole. Later in this period, three major Anasazi centers developed: Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, and Kayenta. In these villages, circular pit houses were as much as 25 feet in diameter and often were divided into ceremonial space and living space.

During the Development Pueblo period (700-1100), the Anasazi evolved building techniques which resulted in structures that were considerably more complex and sophisticated. The pit house continued as a kiva, but dwellings were now aboveground, consisting of slightly curved rows of contiguous flat-roofed rooms, each housing an entire family. The earliest utilization of stone was in “jacal,” a method similar to wattle and daub, with the addition of stone slabs placed against the bottoms of walls and held in place with adobe. A true masonry technique evolved from jacal, wherein large, irregular rocks were laid end to end and packed solidly with adobe.

Stone Masonry

Toward the end of this period, the Anasazi shaped sandstone rocks into building blocks, using stone tools not much harder than the sandstone itself. At first, only the load-bearing surfaces were shaped, but eventually both visible surfaces were smoothed as well, producing a wall that was both aesthetically pleasing and strong. This new masonry technique resulted in an increase in both the size and complexity of the pueblos; some were as large as thirty or more contiguous rooms and were two stories high. Stone masonry also affected the kiva, whose walls and floor were now lined with carefully shaped and fitted stone blocks, with a stone bench and stone pilasters to support the flat roof.

During the Classic Pueblo period (1100-1300), the Anasazi refined their masonry further, developing walls built with a three-ply construction: an inner and outer facing of shaped sandstone blocks with an interior filling of loose stones and adobe. Varying the shapes of the blocks created linear patterns, adding visual interest to the walls. Pueblos of this period often rose to as many as five stories, with heavy beams set into the walls to support the floors above ground level. Flat roofs were constructed with beams laid across with poles and brush and covered with several inches of clay and mud. Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, and Kayenta continued to be major centers of Anasazi culture; their influence had spread from the upper Rio Grande Valley to Texas and Nevada and to central and southern Arizona.

Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon was the largest pueblo in the Southwest, housing more than one thousand people and covering almost four acres, with eight hundred rooms rising in tiers from a single frontal story to five stories at the back. The Anasazi at Mesa Verde built large stone pueblos on the mesa tops but abandoned them a hundred years later in favor of the cliff dwellings—stone buildings erected in irregularly shaped caves in the cliff faces. They apparently made the move for reasons of defense, because the caves were much less desirable places to live, being without sunlight much of the day, difficult to reach, and limited in size. Even so, some of the cliff dwellings contained as many as two hundred rooms, twenty-three kivas, and both square and round towers. Having been built in haste in a less desirable location, the stonework was not as skillful as that of the earlier pueblos. Keet Seel and Betatakin were the largest pueblos at Kayenta, a center that was never as populous as Chaco Canyon or Mesa Verde, probably because crops grew less abundantly there. Pueblos both in the open and in the cliffs were built with masonry that was inferior to the other sites.

Anasazi Influence

As Anasazi culture spread during the Pueblo period, it transformed the architectural styles of both the Mogollon and the Hohokam. The Mogollon abandoned their pit houses in favor of aboveground masonry structures, such as those at Gila Cliffs in southern New Mexico. There they built forty rooms in five deep caves 150 feet above the canyon floor. The Hohokam were also influenced by the pueblo architecture of the Anasazi, as evidenced by the ruins of Casa Grande in the Arizona desert. Built of caliche, a subsoil with high lime content, Casa Grande has deeply trenched walls 4.5 feet thick at the bottom, tapering to 2 feet at their height. The main two-storied structure was set on a base of earth 5 feet high. A single room atop the building had holes in one wall that lined up precisely with sunset at the equinoxes, suggesting that it may have served as an observatory. Pueblo Grande, on the outskirts of Phoenix, was built of adobe and stone masonry on an earthen platform, providing an unobstructed view of the surrounding countryside. The platform was retained by a massive adobe and rock wall, with a second wall built around the pueblo itself.

About 1300, the Anasazi began to leave their major centers to migrate elsewhere. There are several theories which attempt to explain this, among them drought, invasion, or plague. In any case, Pueblo culture was reestablished in large communities in the Rio Grande Valley from Isleta Pueblo to Taos, in the Zuni Mountains, along the Little Colorado River, and in the area of the Hopi Mesas. Although construction varied according to time and place, pueblos generally followed the traditions established at Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, and Kayenta: large communal structures with hundreds of rooms, often multistoried, built around a central plaza. Some continued the techniques of stone masonry, while others were built with solid adobe or mixed adobe and stone construction. Kivas either were above ground and incorporated into the room blocks or were square or circular subterranean structures located in the plazas.

The Puebloans of the Southwest and many of their pueblos survived the Spanish, the Mexican, and finally the United States’ occupation of their lands. The traditions that evolved in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries formed the basis for the Pueblo cultures that exist in these areas today.

Bibliography

Ambler, J. Richard. The Anasazi: Prehistoric People of the Four Corners Region. Rev. ed. Flagstaff: Museum of Northern Arizona, 1989.

Amsden, Charles A. Prehistoric Southwesterners from Basketmaker to Pueblo. Los Angeles: Southwest Museum, 1949.

Brody, J. J. The Anasazi: Ancient Indian People of the American Southwest. New York: Rizzoli International, 1990.

Frazier, Kendrick. People of Chaco: A Canyon and Its Culture. New York: W. W. Norton, 1986.

Jones, Dewitt, and Linda S. Cordell. Anasazi World. Portland, Oreg.: Graphic Arts Center, 1985.

Lister, Robert H., and Florence C. Lister. Chaco Canyon: Archaeology and Archaeologists. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1981.

Nabokov, Peter, and Robert Easton. Native American Architecture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Stuart, David. The Magic of Bandelier. Santa Fe, N.Mex.: Ancient City Press, 1989.