Mogollon Culture
The Mogollon culture, named after the Mogollon Mountains located along the Arizona-New Mexico border, is a significant part of the early Pueblo cultures in the Southwest United States. Emerging from the earlier Cochise culture, the Mogollon people engaged in foraging, hunting small game, and cultivating crops like corn and beans without the use of irrigation. Their settlements, primarily composed of pit houses—sunken structures designed for thermal efficiency—illustrate their adaptation to the environment. This culture is characterized by distinct pottery styles that evolved from plain dark-brown ware to more elaborate red-on-white and black-on-white designs under Anasazi influence.
Mogollon society is divided into various subregions, each with unique cultural traits, such as the Mimbres and Jornada. Early settlements typically consisted of clusters of pit houses, while later periods saw the transition to aboveground pueblo dwellings. Rituals and social gatherings often took place in larger structures called kivas, highlighting the cultural importance of community and spirituality. The Mogollon culture thrived until around 1200 CE, leaving a rich archaeological legacy that continues to be studied today.
Mogollon Culture
Related civilizations: Cochise, Hohokam, Anasazi.
Date: 200 b.c.e.-700 c.e.
Locale: Present-day southeast Arizona, southwest New Mexico, United States, and northern Sonora and Chihuahua, Mexico
Mogollon Culture
The Mogollon (muh-guh-YOHN) culture, part of early Pueblo cultures, influenced other Southwest cultures and later merged with the Anasazi. Archaeologist Emil Haury named this tradition after the Mogollon Mountains of the central Arizona-New Mexico border. Mogollon culture developed from the earlier Cochise culture and retained many of its traits, including the gathering of seeds, roots, berries, nuts, and insects and the hunting of small game. In addition to gathering and hunting, the Mogollon people grew corn and beans without irrigation, clustered in villages in pit houses, and made coiled pottery. The vast area occupied by people of this cultural tradition can be divided into a northern mountainous region and a southern valley or desert region. These not only represent topographic differences but also differences in cultural history. Distinct subregions or cultural subtraditions identified by archaeologists are Chihuahua, Forestdale, Grasshopper, Jornada, Mimbres, Pine Lawn, Point of Pines, Q Ranch, San Simón, and Upper Little Colorado.
Mogollon tradition is especially known for its pottery and architecture. The early period is identified with predominantly plain, dark-brown pottery. This changed to decorated red on brown and later to red on white. Finally, under Anasazi influence, the pottery became black on white with geometric and other designs.
Structures commonly identified with this tradition are pit houses. These ranged in shape from circular and oval to square with rounded corners. Pit houses were sunken below the frostline, making them more thermally efficient than aboveground structures. During the Early Pit House period (200-550 c.e.), roundish structures usually measured from 10 to 16 feet (3 to 4.8 meters) in diameter and were excavated to a depth of 2 to 5 feet (0.6 to 1.5 meters). Roofs of poles covered with branches and mud were either umbrella-type with a center post or dome-shaped with beams supported by marginal posts. Early settlements commonly consisted of four to six pit houses with an estimated population of around thirty men, women, and children. Not all pit houses had interior hearths, and some may have served as other than living quarters. Later pit houses usually had central hearths. Household equipment and furnishings included a variety of clay vessels, grass beds, rabbit-fur or bird-feather blankets, plant-fiber scouring pads, fire drills, fire tongs, metates (lower mill stones), and manos (upper mill stones). Some settlements contained larger pit houses, or kivas, which were used for special rituals or ceremonies. Early settlements were commonly located on elevated ground, such as ridges or mesa tops, which overlooked arable land and which probably served a defensive purpose.
During the Late Pit House period (550-1000 c.e.), settlements were located on both high landforms and in valleys close to garden areas. Pit houses became rectangular, and the dead were buried in simple pits outside the dwellings or inside under the floor. At the end of this period, structures changed from pit houses to aboveground pueblo dwellings. The Mogollon culture, as evidenced by dated archaeological sites, continued until 1200 c.e.
Bibliography
Cordell, Linda. Ancient Pueblo Peoples. Montreal: St. Remy Press, 1994.
Cordell, Linda, and George Gumerman, eds. Dynamics of Southwest Prehistory. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.