URBAN GENESIS AT CHACO: Case Study of the Origin of Civilizations. Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6

3.5 Unit Pueblos

The above-ground storage bins were enlarged considerably by the beginning of the eighth century. The doubling or tripling in size indicates both the ability and the willingness of farmers to grow more corn, probably as a precaution against famine years but possibly to feed a growing population as well. The above-ground bins were also lined with stone or made entirely out of large stone slabs as proof against pests, again a strategy probably developed for longer-term storage. (Cordell 1984:233)

Eventually the aboveground bins became both the prototype and a component of a new dwelling form. Storage bins were enclosed as small rectangular rooms in the early eighth century. These aboveground rooms began to be built in contiguous rows that were three to five rooms wide(see figure 3.4). The whole row was arranged either in a straight line or a slight arc, concave toward the south (Sebastian 1992:27).

780-Early 800s
AD 950-1000
AD 1020-1040/1050

Site 29SJ627 (1986: 439, 453 after Truell 1981)
Late 700s-900s
Late 900s
Early 1000s

Site 29SJ625 (1986:438, 448 after Vivian 1965)
AD 825-925
AD 975-1000
AD 1000-1025

Site 29SJ 629 (1986: 440, 455 after Windes 1978)

Comparative Development of three Small Sites

Chaco Canyon, N.M. (after McKenna and Truell 1986)

Ramadas

Once the bins were remodeled into rooms, an additional feature--the ramada--began to be built adjacent to the row of rooms. Like pithouse superstructures, evidence of ramadas is minimal. Their very existence has to be inferred from the location of postholes next to the grain bins, a position which is analogous to the location of ramadas in Historic pueblos. Anthropologists base their reconstructions of ancient ramadas on two historically documented types: four-post trellises and two-post lean-tos. Four-post ramadas are used in Rio Grande pueblos today both as shade structures and as drying racks for corn and game. Two-pole and ridge lean-tos have been used as shade structures by many Pueblo groups while farming or hunting in areas remote from their villages. Ancient ramadas were either four-post trellises or two-pole porches leaned against the grain storage bins.

Although late in appearing together with the pithouse, ramadas may actually be the oldest Puebloan built form. If hunters and gatherers were using ramadas before the fifth century, the basic structure of the ramada may have served as the prototype for the pithouse roof frame. Unfortunately, the postholes of ancient ramadas by themselves are exceedingly difficult to find and identify. For lack of firm archaeological evidence, this sequence of design development can only be inferred. In any case, by the seventh century ramadas had become a regular domestic feature, as an extension of the aboveground row of rooms.

Exactly how this dwelling form was used over the course of seasons is unknown. It is generally assumed that pithouses were inhabited during the winter, but during the summer the pithouse-makers probably spent most of the day outside of the pithouse. Furthermore, the people may have spent extended periods away from the pithouse altogether: either tending remote fields, gathering nuts and herbs, or hunting small game and deer in the mountains. Perhaps only a few members of the family or band remained at the dwelling on a permanent basis while the rest became seasonally nomadic between the time of planting and the time of harvest. What is clear, though, is that over time the pattern of use of the dwelling changed. The addition of ramadas next to an enlarged row of grain-bins implies that a lot of daily activity began to take place in this area just outside of the pithouse. By the ninth century, firepits and meal-grinding slabs were common features under the ramada. Meanwhile, pithouses had become more perfectly circular, and deeper. Metates and food-storage cists became increasingly rare, and the from-grade entrance top the pithouse was remodeled into an air vent. Essentially, the pithouse was redesigned into a small version of the Big Pithouse of a village. Since this new form may not have domestic, it is often referred to as a pit structure. The rectilinear rooms had taken over the role as both domestic architecture and continued their initial function as storerooms.

As the aboveground room-blocks grew in size, a regular pattern of development emerged. Initial storage bins were enclosed in pairs to form three, four, or occasionally five very small rooms. During the late eighth or early ninth centuries, the ramadas in front of this original row were also enclosed to make larger rooms. The space in front of this new room, in turn, became the outdoor extension of the dwelling. Since this sequence of development was occurring simultaneously along a row of dwellings, a series of attached, one-story rowhouses were developing. I shall refer to this row of rectilinear, above-ground rooms as a room-block after Lekson (1984).

The room-block-pit structure form of dwelling became the standard dwelling of the Southwest after AD 750. Plog (1983) and Gorman and Childs (1980-1981) noted that the form of these settlements were very consistent across a wide area of the Colorado Plateau region . "Prudden suggested that each settlement was the residence of an extended family or clan" (Cordell 1984:239).

The appearance of the unit pueblo around ad 750 was considered a major cultural boundary by Southwestern archaeologists throughout most of the twentieth century. But does this change in dwelling form reflect a significant change in social structure? Was the mode of dwelling in a unit Pueblo different than the mode of dwelling in a pithouse? Or, to restate these questions in terms of the theoretical framework proposed in chapter one: was the pithouse-to-pueblo transition simply a change in form (style), or was it actually a change in use (type) that marks a significant shift in social practices?

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