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Show possibly from ideas brought in from the Mogollon people. We have also the first beginnings of architecture at this time, with the construction of circular, oval, or rectangular pit houses, some in caves, mostly in the open valleys and on mesa tops. Other new elements and ideas coming in include the bow and arrow, the grooved stone ax, the cultivation of beans, domestication of the turkey, and widespread use of turquoise for ornaments. From these Basketmakers there eventually emerged by the eighth century a somewhat different culture type, the Pueblo, the result of evolution of culture and probably of the adoption of new cultural elements from outside and perhaps intermingling with new peoples. Cotton was introduced, and fabrics made from it soon assumed an important place in the daily life of the people. Other innovations included improvements in pottery making, neck- banded utility vessels, twilled- woven sandals and baskets, and the development of the kiva or underground ceremonial room. Within a short time houses changed from single- room, semi- subterranean dwellings to above- ground structures with masonry walls, until by 1100 A. D. great multistoried communal dwellings of several hundred rooms were being constructed. These large apartment houses were built both in caves- the cliff dwellings- and in the valleys, and their ruins may still be seen today at such sites as Cliff Palace, Pueblo Bonito, Wupatki, and Walnut Canyon. Specialization rapidly took place in the various arts and industries, the apex of development in the San Juan area being reached between 1000 and 1300 A. D. Pottery making became a highly specialized art, with very elaborate black- on- white decoration and the evolution of several polychrome types and of corrugated wares. Since agriculture was the principal occupation of these prehistoric pueblo people, their communities are largely to be found concentrated along the streams and rivers where water and arable land could be utilized for the fields of corn, beans, squash, and cotton. Nature was against elaborate irrigation systems of the Hohokam type, but it did supply a more bountiful rainfall than in the desert. However, in some cases, at least in this northern country, as in the Muddy River Valley in Nevada, it is evident that ditch and canal irrigation was practiced to a limited extent. The shortage of rich bottom lands Figure 45.- Anasazi basket quiver ( made about 1200 A. D.) from Canyon de Chelly, Ariz. in the mountain valleys was partially offset by laying up rows of rocks along the contours on mesa tops as well as in the valleys. This stonework spread out the moisture which fell as rain, putting it where it would do the most good and preventing much of it from running off and thus being lost. Small check dams of rock built across arroyos are sometimes associated with this form of contour terracing, an obvious attempt to check the run- off. A study of many of these ruins will show how carefully sites for fields were selected so that full advantage could be taken of the surface run- off from higher ground. Since both flowing water and rainfall were limited over most of this southwestern country, these early pioneers utilized what little they had to the fullest extent. One of the best areas where these aboriginal efforts at conservation and intense cultivation of seemingly useless land may be seen is in the eastern part of the San Carlos Indian Reservation along the northern flank of the Natanes Plateau. Here hundreds of acres were terraced and farmed between about 1000 and 1400 A. D. Centuries later, in the 1930' s, the Civilian Conservation Corps used essentially the same system to check erosion and aid in re- establishing the vegetation in denuded areas. The Pueblo Indians, however, did not use the main Colorado River Valley as much as they did the smaller tributaries of the Colorado. From Marble Canyon south and west throughout the entire length of the Grand Canyon, sheer walls rise almost directly from the river's edge, and there was little available land on which agriculture could be carried on. Also, the tremendous floods during the 92 |
