Home / Keyword ancestral puebloan 1142
- Elko Corner-notched Point
Cultural Period: Archaic (Elko Series, 8,000 – 950 BP) Description: A nearly complete Elko Corner-notched projectile point made of brown chert. Points such as this would have been attached to a dart for use with an atl-atl or "spear-thrower." Dimensions: 6.0L x 3.0W cm (2.36 x 1.18 in) Collection: On display at Wupatki National Monument (catalog card). - Elko Corner-notched Point
Cultural Period: Archaic (Elko Series, 8,000 – 950 BP) Description: This Elko corner-notched point was found near Deadmans Wash in Wupatki National Monument. The point was manufactured from a white and rust colored chert and has been professionally repaired. Dimensions: 14.0 cm (L) x 6.9 cm (W) x .4 cm (T) (5.5 x 2.7 x .16 in). Collection: On display at Wupatki National Monument (catalog card). - Chiricahua-style Point
Cultural Period: Archaic (Middle Archaic, 4,800 - 2,500 BP) Description: This projectile point was made from translucent white chalcedony and found near Doney Peak in Wupatki National Monument. Dimensions: 2.85 (L) x 1.95 (W) x 0.35 (T) cm (1.12 x 0.77 x 0.14 in). Collection: On display at Wupatki National Monument (catalog card). - Elko Side-notched Point
Cultural Period: Archaic (Elko Series, Archaic, 9,000 - 1,000 BP) Description: This Elko-series projectile point was found three miles west of Crack-in-Rock Ruin in Wupatki National Monument. The point was made from red Chinle chert and was broken in two when first found. It has since been repaired. Dimensions: 4.8 x 2.0 x 0.48 cm (1.89 x 0.79 x 0.19 in). Collection: On display at Wupatki National Monument (catalog card). - Paint Palette
Cultural Period: Ancestral Puebloan Description: Stone palette shaped by chipping and grinding sandstone to form a rectangular shape in which three cupules are spaced equally. Each cupule still bears the remnants of minerals ground for paint pigment at Wupatki Pueblo. The yellow, orange, and brown pigments are derived from iron-rich minerals such as limonite, ochre, and perhaps hematite. Dimensions: 23.0L x 11.7W x 3.7T cm. Collection: On display at Wupatki National Monument (catalog card). - Plainview Point
Culture: Paleoindian (Plainview ≈ 13,000 - 10,000 BP) Description: Plainview projectile point base from Wupatki Pueblo, Wupatki National Monument. The material is an unsourced brown chert. The basal thinning on this point is reminiscent of Clovis fluting, leading some researchers to classify this point as a Clovis fluted point rather than a Plainview. Dimensions: 5.2 cm (L) x 2.5 cm (W) x 0.30 cm (T) (2.0 x .98 x .12 in). Collection: On display at Wupatki National Monument (catalog card). - Clovis Point
Cultural Period: Paleoindian (Clovis ≈ 13,000 BP) Description: Clovis fluted projectile point found northeast of West Mesa and east of the Citadel Sink in Wupatki National Monument, Arizona. According to the results of x-ray fluorescence (XRF) testing, the point was made from Black Tank obsidian, the source of which is located more than 50 miles from Wupatki National Monument. Dimensions: 55.4 mm (L) x 27.8 mm (max. W) x 8.8 (max. T). Base width is 25.2 mm (9.2 in) with a basal concavity depth of 4.3 mm. (1.7 in) Both lateral margins are ground. ( 21.8 x 10.9 x 3.5 in ). Collection: On display at Wupatki National Monument (catalog card). Additional Information: Christian E. Downum (1993) Evidence of a Clovis Presence at Wupatki National Monument. Kiva 58(4):487-494. - Lomaki Area Ruin
Location: Box Canyon, Wupatki National Monument. Description: Moenkopi sandstone and Kaibab limestone masonry structure on the Lomaki/Box Canyon Pueblos trail in Wupatki National Monument. - Reconstructed Rooms, 1930s vs. 2011
Park rangers once lived in this pueblo. The two rooms above were reconstructed to house employees Jimmy and Sallie Brewer, and Davy and Corky Jones during the 1930s. They hauled water from the nearby spring, but had the luxury of cooking with propane. Jones excavated a small adjoining storage room to house a gas refrigerator; commercial electricity did not arrive until 1959. The government, of course, charged them rent - $10 per month! "Those were the two rooms we were to live in. At the top of the ladder was the room used as a bedroom and office, and (to the right) the beautiful sunny little kitchen. The water was in a barrel behind a niche in the kitchen wall... Davy pumped the water in once a week, fifty-five gallons, and that sufficed for everything. We took our baths there unless it was a special occasion, when we would go down to where the spring ran out to the sheep troughs. There was more water that way, but there were apt to be sheep and Navajos, too." -Corky Jones, from Letters from Wupatki
Reconstructed rooms may help us to visualize the past and identify more closely with the inhabitants. But, the mental images we construct and conclusions we draw likely mirror our present rather than reflect the world in which they lived. Reconstructions lead us to believe we know the past, when in reality, so much will never be known. Like other reconstructions, these walls and roofs were removed in the 1950s. - Ballcourt
The reconstructed ballcourt was an unusual structure. Known ballcourts in the Southwest were not masonry. This court may have had multiple functions: a place where special ceremonies were held, where competitive games took place for socialization, or where children played a game of stick and ball, similar to hockey. After rains, it may have served as a reservoir. Some archaeologists think valuables changed hands through ritual events such as ball games. People living to the south (Hohokam tradition) had shells, salt, cotton, and a ballcourt in every town. People to the east in the Chaco region (Ancestral Puebloan tradition) has Mesoamerican macaws, copper, and turquoise to trade. A ballcourt at Wupatki could function as a link between distant regions. Trade valuables from both regions ended up here. Sandals trod far and wide, maintaining trade networks that helped meet mutual needs and improved the quality of life. When materials, innovations, and ideas came to communities, all knew what others had to offer. - Storage and Food Processing
Numerous storage rooms within the pueblo attest to a constant preparedness for crop failure. People likely had some of last year's corn on hand at this year's harvest. Perhaps this room served for storage and food processing. Imagine corn stacked like cordwood, or gathered foods such as piñon nuts, rice grass seeds, and juniper berries secured in clay seed jars. Water jars undoubtedly sat here too. Hours spent at these grinding stones reduced corn and seeds to flour. - Leaving Wupatki
Villages like Wupatki were purposely settled and left for reasons we may never fully understand. After roughly 150 years here, maybe life ceased to be good. Perhaps the rumor of a better life in another village was worth investigating. Maybe, as some Hopi believe, the people stayed too long here and failed to lead moral and responsible lives. Ensuing social and environmental catastrophes were signals to resume migrations to find and settle the place where Hopi live to this day. By 1300, across the region people had moved into villages even larger than Wupatki. Those living here joined others at places like Homol'ovi along the Little Colorado River (near present day Winslow, Arizona) or at villages south of Walnut Canyon. According to clan histories, some went directly east to the Hopi Mesas. A few undoubtedly chose to stay behind. Today this village rests silent but not forgotten. Though it is no longer physically occupied, Hopi and Zuni people believe those who lived and died here remain as spiritual guardians. Descendants visit periodically to enrich their personal understanding of their clan histories. Wupatki is remembered and cared for, not abandoned.
"...for us life is shrouded in mystery and the world defies explanation...humans do not need to know everything there is to be known. The human past, we feel, is a universal past. No one can claim it, and no one can ever know it completely." -Rina Swentzell, Pueblo Santa Clara - Introduction to the Trail
Length: 1/2 mile (0.8 km) round trip. Time required: 45 minutes Terrain: Paved with some steps and inclines. Wheelchair accessible to overlook, beyond with assistance.
The farming settlement of Wupatki was unique. To appreciate why, we have to start by thinking big. From roughly 400 to 1700, culture in the Southwest was distinguished by farming, pottery, villages, seasonal moves, and large scale migrations. Major settlement systems were in place by 1100 in Chaco Canyon, the Phoenix Basin, and northern Mesoamerica. With favorable climates for agriculture and room to grow, the Southwest's farming population was reaching a peak. Until the mid-1100s, Wupatki remained a "frontier" between established groups, defined by archeologists as Sinagua, Cohonina, and Kayenta. Then, in one of the warmest, driest places on the Colorado Plateau, life flourished. This became a densely populated landscape supporting a complex society where people, goods, and ideas converged. - Terraced Rooms
Notice how people shaped their lives to this land. Sun, water, wind, and earth influenced decisions. Using the red sandstone outcrop as a backbone, and its naturally fractured blocks as bricks, masons laid stone rooms up and down the length of the formation. High walls on the north and west sides blunted prevailing winds. Terraced rooms to the south and east bathed in winter sun. Flat roofs served as water systems, collecting precipitation and directing it to storage pots. Wupatki Pueblo stood three stories high in places. Double walls were filled with a rubble core and were about 6 feet (2 meters) high; roofs were constructed with timbers, cross-laid with smaller beams or reeds, and finished with grass and mud. There were no exterior doorways at ground level. Built out in the open, Wupatki is far more typical of 12th century structures than a cliff dwelling. Cliff dwellings make up only a fraction of known southwestern archeological sites.
"...The family, the dwelling house and the field are inseparable, because the woman is the heart of these, and they rest with her... The man builds the house but the woman is the owner, because she repairs and preserves it." -A Hopi view of the community, presented to "the Washington Chiefs," 1894 - Macaw Skull
Cultural Period: Ancestral Puebloan (Wupatki Pueblo, A.D. 1130 – A.D. 1260) and Hohokam Description: Mesoamerican macaw skull found in Wupatki Pueblo. Perhaps traded through the Hohokam to Northern peoples, live macaws were kept by peoples throughout the Southwest. Collection: Museum of Northern Arizona: Wupatki.