- Wupatki Pueblo 1930s vs. 2011
Compare the images above. The rooms now visible were buried beneath rubble cleared during excavation beginning in 1933.
When occupied, this mud and stone building would have required periodic maintenance. Once people departed, natural forces prevailed - mortar eroded, roofs collapsed, walls tumbled. What you see today is an excavated building, heavily stabilized to postpone deterioration. The modern iron beam and plate visible here support the upper walls. The low walls exhibit Portland cement, used from the 1930s to 60s, and new stabilization mortars that more closely duplicate original materials. Although walls stand in their original location, virtually all the mortar you see is modern. Stabilization has compromised the historical architecture, but helps an excavated building withstand natural and human-induced erosion.
You are one of hundreds of thousands of visitors - please, do not lean, sit, or walk on any walls. - 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. - Air Circulation System
In this room, someone designed an innovative air circulation system to allow for an indoor fire. A stone-lined ventilator trench is connected to an opening in the base of the cliff wall. The upright stone slab at the end of the ventilator trench deflected incoming air so that the draft would pass directly across the firepit. Smoke would exit through a roof opening. Note how preservation efforts have changed this building: original floor surface, as with this room, are much lower - dirt placed in the rooms after excavation protects floor features and keeps walls from collapsing. Throughout the dwelling you'll see a variety of modern drains that keep water from standing in rooms. In some cases the architecture has been altered. For example, the square and round holes on this front wall were placed for drainage, and the large masonry column built in the back corner supports the upper wall. - Unexcavated Rooms
This section of the pueblo remains unexcavated. These rooms represent an opportunity to learn more about the past, but the knowledge comes at a cost. Excavation disturbs the site, and potentially, the people and artifacts buried there. Collected materials require elaborate conservation and storage methods; in the ground, this arid climate preserves artifacts almost indefinitely, free of charge. In the past, few people challenged the purposes of archaeological investigation, but today many voice concerns about disturbing sites. Should rooms be excavated, unearthing pots and other items? Possessions were intended, by those who buried or left them behind, to remain as placed, acted upon by time and the elements. Excavation represents a curiosity foreign to American Indian culture and often considered culturally offensive. Do objects from the past serve as legitimate educational tools, or is that notion unimportant or even wrong? - Community Room
The reconstructed circular structure below you resembles a great kiva, a special room used for rituals and ceremonies. However, excavators found no evidence of a roof or other floor features typical of a kiva. Archeologists speculate that this open-air community room could have served as a central gathering place. Imagine voices carrying to others assembled on the pueblo roof tops. People may have come from nearby and distant villages to participate in ceremonies held here. Maybe rituals focused the community and solved problems, or served to redistribute materials and food. - Ballcourt Interpretative Panel
This depiction of a ball game is based on descriptions of games played by the Mayan and Aztec cultures of Mexico and speculations on the Hohokam games in southern Arizona.
Ballcourts were common in southern Arizona from A.D. 750 to 1200, but relatively rare here in the northern part of the state. This suggests that the people of Wupatki intermingled within their southern Arizona neighbors – the Hohokam – who may have borrowed and modified the ballcourt idea from earlier contact with the Indian cultures of Mexico. Located along major natural drainages and travel routes, ballcourts may have provided opportunities for social exchange between villages. They were often within a one-day walk of a neighboring village. There is continued speculation about the uses of the ballcourts. Because of the work involved in building a ballcourt and the numbers that have been found (over 200 in Arizona), ball games may have been an important part of life for the people of Wupatki and their southern neighbors. The Hohokam balls – found at archaeological sites containing ballcourts – were made of carefully shaped rock and perhaps covered with pin pitch or other material. One form of the game might have involved moving the ball toward a goal using a curved stick.
The Wupatki ballcourt is 78 feet wide, 102 feet long, and had a 6-foot-high wall. Excavated and stabilized in 1965, a large part of the interior wall has been reconstructed. - The Blowhole
This intriguing geological feature was unearthed during the 1965 excavations of the Wupatki Ballcourt. After its discovery, the National Park Service bricked in the opening, giving the blowhole the appearance it has today and allowing visitors the experience of feeling the rush of air from the opening. It is unknown if the people of Wupatki were aware of the blowhole, and if they were, what significance the feature may have held to prehistoric people. - The Blowhole Interpretative Panel
This blowhole – a crevice in the earth’s crust that appears to breathe – is one of several found in the Wupatki area. It connects to an underground passage – size, depth, and complexity unknown – called an earthcrack. Earthcracks resulted from earthquake activity in the Kaibab Limestone bedrock and have enlarged over time. Archaeologists have yet to uncover any evidence of prehistoric structures or uses at the blowhole. Its connection to the Wupatki Pueblo remains a mystery. Today, the Hopi descendants of these early people, refer to the blowhole as the breath of “Yaapontsa,” the wind spirit. They and other American Indians attach a spiritual significance to these features. - 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 - Side-notched Point
Description: Black flint side-notched point with a straight base. Dimensions: 2.5 x 0.8 x 0.2 cm. Collection: On display at the Tuzigoot National Monument Visitor Center (catalog card). - Cotton Seeds
Cultural Period: Ancestral Puebloan (Wupatki Pueblo, A.D. 1130 – A.D. 1260) Description: Cotton seeds from Wupatki Pueblo. Collection: On display at Wupatki National Monument (catalog card). - Big Pots
Cultural Period: Ancestral Puebloan/Cohonina/Kayenta Description: Intact prehistoric pottery is an extremely rare find. These vessels were uncovered in February 2009 from deep cinder deposits. The pot on the left is a Cohonina-style vessel, while the pot on the right is Kayenta-style. The date ranges for the two pottery types overlap between A.D. 1075-1125, allowing archaeologists to estimate when these pots were made, used, and buried together. Collection: These pots are on loan from the U.S. Forest Service to the National Park Service for the enjoyment of visitors at Wupatki National Monument. - Small Yucca Sandal
Cultural Period: Ancestral Puebloan Description: Small yucca sandal. Provenience unknown. Collection: On display at Wupatki National Monument. - Large Yucca Sandal
Cultural Period: Ancestral Puebloan Description: Large yucca sandal. Provenience unknown. Collection: On display at Wupatki National Monument.