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006 - The Aztec Pueblo Pt 2 · Aztec Ruins National Monument, New Mexico

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Speaker 1: Section five of Aztec's Ruins National Monument, New Mexico. This
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Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Aztec Ruins National Monument, New Mexico by
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Speaker 1: John M. Corbett. The Aztec poul Eblo Part two. To
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Speaker 1: the northwest of the Ruins, less than two miles away,
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Speaker 1: the Indians found an outcropping of sandstone which could be
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Speaker 1: broken into shape and then ground into rectangular blocks. These
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Speaker 1: were hauled to the proposed building site, where the women
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Speaker 1: took over the construction. Holes were dug in the clay
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Speaker 1: soil nearby, Water poured into them and then stirred to
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Speaker 1: produce a thick adobe mud. This was used, along with crude,
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Speaker 1: un chafed sand's own blocks, as filler for the walls.
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Speaker 1: On the outside, the women laid up the well shaped
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Speaker 1: blocks in regular courses, chinking them with small smalls or posters.
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Speaker 1: The rooms were laid out in rows, adjoining one another.
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Speaker 1: As one row was finished, another was added alongside of it.
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Speaker 1: When several rows had been completed, second, impossibly even third
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Speaker 1: stories were added the first group to arrive, probably completed
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Speaker 1: the major part of one wing. Later groups added to
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Speaker 1: this and erected the other wings and associated kivas, until
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Speaker 1: the entire Puepplo had the traditional plant aspect of a
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Speaker 1: typical plaza enclosed jocko poeblow. In the central plaza area,
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Speaker 1: several kivas were dug and roofed over a ground level.
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Speaker 1: The fourth side consisted of a single row of one
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Speaker 1: storied rooms. Finally, even a fourth story may have been
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Speaker 1: added in places. Sometimes a large square space was temporarily
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Speaker 1: left open, later to be filled by a circular kiva
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Speaker 1: out in the plaza. During the latter part of this
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Speaker 1: first occupation, works started on the great kiva, but this
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Speaker 1: was the center of the ceremonial life of the entire pueblo.
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Speaker 1: Here would be performed as ceremonies which would ensure the
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Speaker 1: inhabitants that theirs would be a long and happy life
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Speaker 1: and that everything would prosper for the new community. For
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Speaker 1: roofing the rooms, main stringers of pine or juniper were used,
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Speaker 1: and over these were laid splits of juniper or long
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Speaker 1: poles of cottonwood. Next came a layer of rush or
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Speaker 1: reed mattings, and then a layer of dirt and adobe,
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Speaker 1: which formed the top of the roof or the floor
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Speaker 1: of the room above if there was more than one story.
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Speaker 1: The pine logs used for the main stringers are good sized,
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Speaker 1: many being one foot to one and a half feet
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Speaker 1: in diameter and up to ten to twelve feet long.
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Speaker 1: Although juniper is still fairly abundant in the nearby country,
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Speaker 1: good stands of pine to day are many miles away.
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Speaker 1: At the time the first parts of this boeblar were constructed,
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Speaker 1: the pine forest may have been much closer. Perhaps extensive
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Speaker 1: cutting hastened soil erosion and thus caused the forest growth
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Speaker 1: to retreat Prehistorically, it still was a long haul to
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Speaker 1: bring in such big logs. Many people have assumed that
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Speaker 1: the logs were floated down the animous river. This would
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Speaker 1: have been the easy way of doing it, but the
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Speaker 1: logs found in situ in the ruins were obviously fresh cut, peeled,
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Speaker 1: wild green, and shown no scars. They must therefore have
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Speaker 1: been carried over land from their source, no matter how
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Speaker 1: far away, for it would have been impossible to float
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Speaker 1: them down stream without being scarred and bruised intransit through
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Speaker 1: the growth of tree rings on pine logs. It is
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Speaker 1: possible to date the time at which they were cut.
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Speaker 1: If a tree is cut to day, the outermost ring
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Speaker 1: constitutes its growth for the year in which it is cut.
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Speaker 1: Counting to at the center of the tree. Ring by ring,
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Speaker 1: you will arrive at the date at which the tree
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Speaker 1: was a young sapling. Climatic factors dry and wet spells
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Speaker 1: are reflected in the width of the rings. Dry years
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Speaker 1: usually show small, odd shaped or stunted rings. Normal years
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Speaker 1: show regular, well shaped rings, and extremely wet years may
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Speaker 1: result in excessively large rings. These various rings, which are
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Speaker 1: arranged into patterns, can be matched with similar tree ring
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Speaker 1: patterns from still alder trees, and a chart of patterns
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Speaker 1: can be prepared which will extend as far back in
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Speaker 1: time as you can find specimens with overlapping patterns. Against
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Speaker 1: this master chart, the ring pattern of any particular tree
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Speaker 1: can be compared in the specimen dated today. Archeologists have
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Speaker 1: such a tree ring master chart which extends back to
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Speaker 1: the time of Christ by the sand Juan area. At
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Speaker 1: Aztec samples of tree rings were secured from some of
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Speaker 1: the beams that still existed at the time this dating
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Speaker 1: process was discovered. Such samples fall into two groups of dates.
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Speaker 1: One group with numerous samples was placed between eighty eleven
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Speaker 1: ten and eleven twenty four, the second group, with only
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Speaker 1: six samples, between twelve twenty five and twelve fifty two.
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Speaker 1: The tree ring dates indicate the Great Pueblo at Aztec
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Speaker 1: had undergone at least two major periods of construction. Since
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Speaker 1: a large number of dates ranged from eleven eleven and
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Speaker 1: eleven fifteen, this would appear to have been the first
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Speaker 1: peak of building activity. It is possible that earlier samples
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Speaker 1: have broddered away or have been destroyed by later Indians
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Speaker 1: or by the early white settlers. Moreover, all, building activity
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Speaker 1: probably did not suddenly cease in a d eleven twenty four.
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Speaker 1: It may well have continued for another ten years, but
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Speaker 1: the beams representative of this later period have since been destroyed.
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Speaker 1: We can safely say that the first construction period at
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Speaker 1: Aztec Pueplo occurred sometime between eleven ten and eleven thirty,
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Speaker 1: with most of the development occurring around eleven eleven and
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Speaker 1: eleven fifteen. Likewise, a second major construction period at Aztec
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Speaker 1: occurred sometime between twelve twenty and twelve sixty, with major
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Speaker 1: development in the twenty five year span between twelve twenty
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Speaker 1: five and twelve fifty. The two construction periods at Aztec,
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Speaker 1: as indicated by the tree ring dates, are corroborated nicely
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Speaker 1: by other evidence found by Morris that Aztec actually was
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Speaker 1: built by one group of people, abandoned and then reoccupied
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Speaker 1: at a later date by a slightly different group of people.
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Speaker 1: Throughout all the rooms he dug, he found sterile layers
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Speaker 1: of wind blown sand and row in debris from falling
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Speaker 1: walls and ceilings. In this debris and under the sand,
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Speaker 1: he found chocoal like pottery and artifacts. In addition, there
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Speaker 1: were surprisingly few burials. The last point might seem strange
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Speaker 1: except for the fact that even today, forty years after
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Speaker 1: Morris's work and despite endless searching, archaeologists have located few
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Speaker 1: Choco type burials in Choco Canyon itself. Whatever the burial
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Speaker 1: customs of the charcoal people may have been evoluted archeologists
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Speaker 1: for many years, the absence of barrels of this period
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Speaker 1: of Aztec is a clue that probably a group of
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Speaker 1: charcoal like people bearing the distinctive charcoal culture may actually
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Speaker 1: have moved into the Aztec area. Morris wrote that he
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Speaker 1: found many rooms built in typical Charcoal style architecture, granting
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Speaker 1: that the local sandstone was not quite as easily worked
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Speaker 1: as that at Charcoal. The large sized rooms, the high ceilings,
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Speaker 1: the banded veneer masonry walls, the large doorways, and other
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Speaker 1: techniques used were very similar to the architectural techniques of
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Speaker 1: the Charcoal area. Overlying the charcoal debris in sterile sand layers,
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Speaker 1: Morris found pottery, household utensils, and burials characteristic of the
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Speaker 1: Classic mace Verdi period, a period which occurred later than
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Speaker 1: the Great Charcoal Period. In addition, there were obvious architectural
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Speaker 1: signs of rebuilding and remodeling within the pueblo. Large Choco
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Speaker 1: type rooms had been made swallowed by wattle and dog
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Speaker 1: partition walls, while doorways had been shortened and narrow more
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Speaker 1: like the ones at Bay Severity. Thus there were two
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Speaker 1: definite periods of occupation at Aztec, one by a Choco
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Speaker 1: like people and one by a May Severity type people.
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Speaker 1: The two major construction periods, as indicated by the tree rings,
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Speaker 1: agreed with Morris's evidence of two occupation periods, and so
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Speaker 1: far as we know, closely date those periods During which
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Speaker 1: the pueblo was actively inhabited. Aztec at the height of
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Speaker 1: the Chocoan occupation must have been a fascinating sight. On
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Speaker 1: a sunny summer day, the plaza and rooftops would have
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Speaker 1: been a busy swarm of activity. Mothers nursing and tending
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Speaker 1: their young, grinding corn for tortillas, preparing meat for the
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Speaker 1: stewpot making baskets and molden clay pots for later firing.
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Speaker 1: All men bast in the sun or instructed the young boys.
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Speaker 1: Most of the men and older boys were busy tending
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Speaker 1: the corn, beans and squash, and the fertile fields surrounding
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Speaker 1: the pueblo. This was exacting work, since each plot clanned
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Speaker 1: by clan had to receive its carefully husbanded share of
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Speaker 1: water from the irrigation ditch that ran along the slope
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Speaker 1: of the high terrace just to the north of the pueblo.
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Speaker 1: At times during the day, hunters would straggle in happily
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Speaker 1: it burdened with game, sadly and slowly if empty handed
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Speaker 1: after a fruitless chase. Occasionally a wandering group of strangers
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Speaker 1: would pass by with items to trade. They were made
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Speaker 1: welcome and fed, and the whole plaza took on a
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Speaker 1: fist of air. At night, the pueblo must have presented
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Speaker 1: a vastly different appearance, dark, mysterious, and quiet. Here and there,
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Speaker 1: a small dying fire cast a flickering glow upon a
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Speaker 1: browne a dobe wall in one or two of the keepers.
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Speaker 1: A faint light through the hatchway in the roof indicated
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Speaker 1: preparations under way for a ceremony, or perhaps a special,
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Speaker 1: highly secret meeting of one of the clan societies. If
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Speaker 1: you looked closely, you might make out one of the
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Speaker 1: sentinels silhoutd briefly against the night sky as he shifted position.
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Speaker 1: But the pueblo was silent, a silence only broken by
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Speaker 1: an occasional dog's bark or baby's wail, until shortly after
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Speaker 1: the morning star appeared. The hunters crept quietly out of
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Speaker 1: the vueblo, and as the star faded, the broadening morning
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Speaker 1: light heralded the approach of another day in the life
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Speaker 1: of Aztec Pueblo. But something happened, for no reason we
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Speaker 1: can ascertain, to day, the pooeblo was abandoned by its
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Speaker 1: first occupants. Presumably this was a fairly fast exodus, but
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Speaker 1: one in which the people had time to take most
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Speaker 1: of their treasured processions with them. There is no evidence
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Speaker 1: that they were driven away by invaders or by any
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Speaker 1: other major catastrophe such as fire, flood, or pestilence. We
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Speaker 1: do not know if they left en mass, or perhaps
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Speaker 1: more gradually, as they arrived in clans and groups, if
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Speaker 1: a few hardy souls stayed behind, or if a few
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Speaker 1: weak strangers couldn't make the trip. There is no evidence.
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Speaker 1: All we know is that about a d. Eleven twenty
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Speaker 1: five or perhaps eleven thirty, the pueblo was empty for
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Speaker 1: almost a hundred years. The great structure stood alone, untended,
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Speaker 1: and uninhabited. Perhaps the local people occasionally used a loosening
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Speaker 1: beam from the structure, or gathered up a few blocks
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Speaker 1: from the slowly crumbling walls, or held themselves to any
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Speaker 1: readily useful articles left behind, but otherwise they and any
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Speaker 1: passing wanderers seemed to have left the place alone for years.
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Speaker 1: The wind blew the sand into the open doorways through
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Speaker 1: the widening cracks in the walls, passed the sealed doorways
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Speaker 1: down through the floors, even until the deepest and most
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Speaker 1: inaccessible rooms had a layer of four six or eight
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Speaker 1: inches of fine sand deposited over them and whatever secrets
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Speaker 1: they held. Rats and other rodents infested the place, and
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Speaker 1: little disturbed the brooding silence except for their piping squeals.
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Speaker 1: Occasionally weakened beams gave way or wall here and there
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Speaker 1: crashed on as its plaster and rubble fill were washed
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Speaker 1: out by rains and melting snows. Bit by bit, the
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Speaker 1: old poeplas slowly crumbled. Why in how the first great
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Speaker 1: Poepla was built by a Chocole like people and then
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Speaker 1: suddenly and for no apparent reason, abandoned is a real mystery. Strangely,
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Speaker 1: this abandonment seems to agree roughly with the time at
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Speaker 1: which the charcoal area itself was being depopulated in Choco Canyon,
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Speaker 1: and arroyo much like the one which exists today, was
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Speaker 1: cutting its way backward up the canyon, and this arroyo
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Speaker 1: cutting would have made it impossible for many of the
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Speaker 1: inhabitants to continue to flood irrigate their fields. It may
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Speaker 1: have been the basic factor involved in the general abandonment
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Speaker 1: of the great communal dwellings of the Chaco Canyon around
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Speaker 1: a D eleven fifty. No doubt coupled with a certain
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Speaker 1: amount of strife and considerable periods of drought. But this
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Speaker 1: would not have been true at Aztec. The Animous River
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Speaker 1: is a perennial stream, and there is no apparent cause
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Speaker 1: for the abandoned of the pueblo by the charcoal like people,
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Speaker 1: unless for some reason they decided to leave Aztec because
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Speaker 1: the last of their kinfolk and charcoal were leaving that area.
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Speaker 1: In fact, it could better be proposed that some of
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Speaker 1: the first groups which had to leave Charcoal Canyon about
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Speaker 1: eleven hundred because of the incipient arroyo and its accompanying
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Speaker 1: loss of irrigation water and generally lowering water table, might
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Speaker 1: actually have moved to the Animous an established Aztec. Perhaps
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Speaker 1: a rather coincidental event may have occurred at Aztec which
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Speaker 1: caused its abandonment, just as Charcoal Canyon was also depopulated
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Speaker 1: the early settlers. In the Animus we call evidence of
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Speaker 1: a prehistoric canal flowing along the lower slopes of the
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Speaker 1: terrace to the north of Aztec ruins somewhat lower than
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Speaker 1: the modern one. This canal took off on the right
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Speaker 1: bank of the river, several miles up stream from the pueblo.
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Speaker 1: A major shifting of the river. A swing of the
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Speaker 1: main stream against this old river terrace on the right
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Speaker 1: bank would have effectively cut the canal at a point
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Speaker 1: below which the people could not take off water to
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Speaker 1: irrigate their fields, and in a manner they could not repair.
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Speaker 1: Such a disaster would have forced them to move to
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Speaker 1: other cultival fields. If none were available nearby, and they
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Speaker 1: may have all been taken up by other local groups,
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Speaker 1: they would have had to go far away. They couldn't
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Speaker 1: return to Chocoal Canyon or other areas near there. But
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Speaker 1: these places too were being depopulated, so perhaps they followed
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Speaker 1: some of their charcoal kind folk who were intimittently migrating
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Speaker 1: in groups to the Rio Grande or to the Hopi country.
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Speaker 1: In these new areas, mixing with the local population, they
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Speaker 1: lost their distinct cultural identity. We can look at the
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Speaker 1: modern poor Indians of to day and wonder if perhaps
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Speaker 1: some of their long ago ancestors may not have actually
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Speaker 1: lived at Aztec or in Chaco Canyon. But there is
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Speaker 1: a double mystery at Aztec, as indicated earlier, overlying the
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Speaker 1: evidences of a Chocal phase occupation, Mars found evidence of
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Speaker 1: rebuilding and rehabitation of many rooms. Large sized charcoal rooms
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Speaker 1: had been shortened, reduced, or cut off by interior walls
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Speaker 1: and lowered ceilings. All the doorways have been blocked up
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Speaker 1: or had been partially filled and reduced in size. In
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Speaker 1: some cases, entire small rooms complete with ceilings have been
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Speaker 1: built within larger rooms. New floors have been laid down
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Speaker 1: upon the debris and wood blown sand which partially filled
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Speaker 1: some of the older rooms. All the beams have been
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Speaker 1: pulled out of rooms and reused elsewhere, or new walls
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Speaker 1: in a different style have been built in place of
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Speaker 1: those that had collapsed. A newest style of pottery, reminiscent
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Speaker 1: of the Maserverti type pottery, was prevalent. The majority of
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Speaker 1: burials found within the ruins one hundred forty nine out
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Speaker 1: of a total of one hundred eighty six seemed to
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Speaker 1: belong to a different period, as shown by the type
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Speaker 1: of arniffects associated with them. T shaped doorways, an architectural
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Speaker 1: trait characteristic of Meservertic times, was prevalent in the later
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Speaker 1: parts of the Pueblo. Keyhole shaped kivas, another Meserverti trait,
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Speaker 1: were inserted into and between rooms of the earlier period,
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Speaker 1: and Finally, the great Kiva in the central plaza, which
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Speaker 1: had fallen into disuse, was rehabilitated in a much poorer
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Speaker 1: style of construction, surely but nonetheless obviously repaired and temporarily
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Speaker 1: put back into use. These factors in clin wore to
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Speaker 1: feel that sometime after a d eleven twenty four the
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Speaker 1: pueflo at Aztec was abandoned by the Chacowan builders. Then
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Speaker 1: about twelve twenty five, a new group arrived, bringing with
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Speaker 1: them the general styles and culture of the area we
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Speaker 1: know is Maysa Verdi. As with the earlier occupation of Aztec,
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Speaker 1: we do not know exactly who these second people were
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Speaker 1: or exactly where they came from, although it is obvious
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Speaker 1: that they had a close affiliation with the people of
19:31
Speaker 1: the Maser Verda area. Nor do we know if they
19:35
Speaker 1: were a large group representing a mass migration, or whether
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Speaker 1: once again some of the local population may have decided
19:43
Speaker 1: to attempt building a large community, perhaps for a second time,
19:47
Speaker 1: a few people possessing special abilities of representing a religious
19:52
Speaker 1: organization prevailed upon either the local population of the Animus
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Speaker 1: Valley or wandering migrant group to assist them in erecting
20:02
Speaker 1: large community. Structures. We do know that about this time
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Speaker 1: there was a considerable population shift all of the Meserverdi area.
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Speaker 1: The people were dispersing from their normal habitats and moving
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Speaker 1: into more protective locations or consolidating into larger, more defensible units.
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Speaker 1: In the Meiserverdi itself, for example, they were abandoning their
20:28
Speaker 1: mestappo eblows and crowding together in the caves, or moving
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Speaker 1: out of the area entirely. In the Hanweep area, they
20:37
Speaker 1: retreated to the heads of the canyons and built watch
20:39
Speaker 1: towers along the canyon sides and bottoms to protect their
20:43
Speaker 1: dwindling water supplies. It was evidently a period of considerable
20:48
Speaker 1: strife and turmoil. They were short periods of recurrent drought,
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Speaker 1: and possibly many of these groups had begun to fight
20:55
Speaker 1: among themselves over land and water rights and other necessity
21:00
Speaker 1: of life. The second occupation at Aztec was more intensive
21:05
Speaker 1: and one in which parts of the local population participated actively.
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Speaker 1: The construction style of this period shows a considerable use
21:14
Speaker 1: of local cobblestones set in adobe water, as in many
21:19
Speaker 1: of the small ruins throughout the Animus. Sometimes cobblestone walls
21:23
Speaker 1: are overlaid or underlaid by or even intermingled with sandstone walls.
21:29
Speaker 1: It was at this time also, as far as we know,
21:33
Speaker 1: that the other pueblo units now all ruins within the
21:37
Speaker 1: monument boundary were constructed, as well as several of the
21:41
Speaker 1: major Maseverty phase structures elsewhere in the animous valley. In addition,
21:47
Speaker 1: large quantities of new material had to be secured fairly
21:51
Speaker 1: rapidly to keep pace with the feverish building activities at
21:55
Speaker 1: Aztec Or. Some of the rooms of the large charcoal
21:58
Speaker 1: style pueblo were rehabilitated by these new inhabitants. Others were dismantled,
22:04
Speaker 1: and their materials, in addition to those from fallen walls,
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Speaker 1: were used elsewhere. But even this great pueblo could not
22:12
Speaker 1: supply all the stone needed. So from the old quarry
22:16
Speaker 1: to the side of the pueblo two paths were built
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Speaker 1: side by side, each wide enough for eight men to
22:23
Speaker 1: walk abreast. For many months, men with stone walls and
22:27
Speaker 1: hammers cracked and chopped and ground the sandstone into building blocks.
22:33
Speaker 1: Other men and the stronger boys toiled all day in
22:36
Speaker 1: straggling lines, carrying the blocks on large wooden litters, or
22:40
Speaker 1: in great slings strung on poles. Long lines of workers
22:44
Speaker 1: streamed down one path loaded with blocks, to return over
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Speaker 1: the other path with their empty litters and slings. Although
22:53
Speaker 1: the great Keeper was repaired with rather sloppy workmanship in
22:57
Speaker 1: many places, it was probably only used for a brief period.
23:02
Speaker 1: The focal point of the community's religious life seems to
23:05
Speaker 1: have centered around the peculiar and somewhat puzzling triwall structures,
23:10
Speaker 1: two of which exist at Aztec. One is the excavated
23:15
Speaker 1: Hubbard Mound site just to the northwest of the main ruin.
23:19
Speaker 1: The other is Mount f which is also to the
23:22
Speaker 1: northwest of the other major but largely unexcavated ruin, the
23:28
Speaker 1: East Ruin. If there was such a thing at this time,
23:31
Speaker 1: as the beginning of a priestly hierarchy among the Pueblo peoples,
23:36
Speaker 1: these triwall structures, with their centralized kivas, may have been
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Speaker 1: the domiciles and religious quarters of this hierarchy. Once again,
23:46
Speaker 1: life seemed to flourish at Aztec. This time, with all
23:50
Speaker 1: the extra peblo units close to each other, the area
23:54
Speaker 1: must have resembled a veritable beehive. It would have taken
23:58
Speaker 1: an extensive farming area to support the population. If a
24:02
Speaker 1: shift in the river had cut the Chacohan's canal. Another
24:06
Speaker 1: shift back again may have made it possible to restore
24:10
Speaker 1: the old canal, improve it, and once again make the
24:13
Speaker 1: surrounding fields green in summer, with growing corn being squashed
24:18
Speaker 1: in cotton. In contrast to the Tracoan occupation, Morris found
24:24
Speaker 1: a large number of burials one hundred forty nine from
24:27
Speaker 1: this period, mostly in the rooms. Many were buried with
24:32
Speaker 1: great care and had numerous and varied grave offerings. For
24:36
Speaker 1: a while, evidently the pueblos prospered and traded far and
24:40
Speaker 1: wide for luxury items, but once again bad times set in,
24:45
Speaker 1: possibly accompanied by almost constant armed harassment by less fortunate groups.
24:51
Speaker 1: Although Mars did not find any direct evidence that the
24:55
Speaker 1: people at Aztec were actually killed off or driven out
24:59
Speaker 1: by armed conki, the later burials were all hastily made
25:03
Speaker 1: and usually unaccompanied by grave offerings. In addition, almost the
25:09
Speaker 1: entire east wing had been destroyed by fire. This could
25:12
Speaker 1: have been accidental, and such a disaster might have proven
25:16
Speaker 1: the final straw for an already beleaguered group, or they
25:20
Speaker 1: may have fired the puebler before leaving, or some marauding
25:24
Speaker 1: group might have been responsible exactly why after twenty five
25:30
Speaker 1: or thirty years, the second group also abandoned the site.
25:33
Speaker 1: We may never know. Times were hard in the Four
25:37
Speaker 1: Corners country, and by thirteen hundred this area seems to
25:41
Speaker 1: have been virtually depopulated. Perhaps the abandonment of Aztec some
25:46
Speaker 1: time after twelve fifty two was simply a local manifestation
25:51
Speaker 1: of this much larger dispersal. No doubt the great drought
25:55
Speaker 1: of the last quarter of that century contributed substantially to
25:59
Speaker 1: the general abandonment, but there must have been other factors
26:03
Speaker 1: at work as well. The Indians regard the forces of
26:07
Speaker 1: nature in a different manner than we do. They may
26:10
Speaker 1: have been struggling through long years, not only with nature,
26:14
Speaker 1: but among themselves. They may have felt that their gods
26:17
Speaker 1: were against them, that somehow they had offended them, and
26:21
Speaker 1: that nothing they could do in that country would be
26:25
Speaker 1: right again. It may have seemed easier to them, family
26:29
Speaker 1: by family, group by group, and perhaps poor e Flop
26:33
Speaker 1: by poor Epelo, to give up the struggle and go elsewhere,
26:37
Speaker 1: to start over in new surroundings where the gods might
26:41
Speaker 1: smile upon them once again. End of Section five