| Archaeological Zone of Paquimé, Casas Grandes * | |
|---|---|
| Country | Mexico |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | iii, iv |
| Reference | 560 |
| Region ** | Latin America and the Caribbean |
| Inscription history | |
| Inscription | 1998 (22nd Session) |
| * Name as inscribed on World Heritage List ** Region as classified by UNESCO |
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Casas Grandes (Spanish for Great Houses; also known as Paquimé) is the contemporary name given to a pre-Columbian archaeological zone and its central site, located in northwestern Mexico in the modern-day Mexican state of Chihuahua. It is one of the largest and most complex sites in the region. Regarded as one of the most significant archaeological zones in the northwestern region,[1] Casas Grandes is centered in a wide, fertile valley on the Casas Grandes or San Miguel river, some 35 miles (56 km) south of Janos and 150 miles (240 km) northwest of the state capital, the city of Chihuahua. The archaeological zone is contained within the eponymous modern municipio (municipality) of Casas Grandes.[2] The valley and region has long been inhabited by indigenous groups.
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Between AD 1130 and 1300, the area's inhabitants began to congregate in small settlements in this wide fertile valley. The size of the settlements expanded during the 14th century, ultimately resulting in multi-storied communities which may have housed up to 2500 people. The larger communities are characterized by I-shaped Mesoamerican ballcourts, stone-faced platforms, effigy mounds, a market area and an elaborate water storage system.
Specialized craft activities included the production of copper bells and ornaments, the manufacture of beads from marine molluscs, extensive pottery production. These crafts were probably distributed by an extensive trading network. Casas Grandes pottery has a white or reddish surface, with ornamentation in blue, red, brown or black, and is sometimes considered of better manufacture than the modern pottery in the area. Effigy bowls and vessels often formed in the shape of a painted human figure. Casas Grandes pottery was traded as far north as New Mexico and Arizona and throughout northern Mexico.
The largest identified settlement is known today as Paquimé or Casas Grandes. It began as a group of 20 or more house clusters, each with a plaza and enclosing wall. These single-story adobe dwellings shared a common water system. Evidence shows that Paquimé had a complex water control system that included underground drain systems, reservoirs, channels for water to get to the homes, and a sewage system.[3]
This community was almost completely rebuilt during the 14th century. Multi-storied apartment buildings replaced the smaller dwellings. Paquimé was abandoned in the early 15th century.
At the time of the Spanish Conquest, the district of Casas Grandes was studded with artificial mounds, from which looters took large numbers of stone axes, metates or corn-grinders, and earthenware pottery vessels of various kinds.
Before significant archaeological investigation, sizable portions of ruined buildings from pre-Columbian times were still extant about half a mile from the modern community. The ruins were built of sun-dried blocks of mud and gravel, about 22 inches thick, and of irregular length, generally about 3 feet (0.91 m), probably formed and dried in place. The thick walls seem to have been plastered both inside and outside. A principal structure extended 800 feet (240 m) from north to south, and 250 feet (76 m) east to west; generally rectangular, and appears to have consisted of three separate units joined by galleries or lines of lower buildings.
The homes of the people who lived at Paquimé were circular and semi-circular pit houses and coursed adobe room blocks built around plazas. The living spaces evidently varied in size from mere closets to extensive courtyards. Walls at many of the angles stand 40 to 50 feet (15 m) high, and indicate an original elevation of up to six or seven stories. Ruins about 450 feet (140 m) from the main grouping consist of a series of rooms ranged round a square court, seven to each side with a larger apartment at each corner.
A 5000 pound iron meteorite was found in one of the rooms, carefully wrapped in linen. The meteorite is now on display in the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.[4]
Excavations in one compound produced eggshell fragments, bird skeletons and traces of wooden perches which led to the conclusion that the community raised scarlet macaws, important in Mesoamerican rituals.
A major collection of Casas Grandes pottery is currently held by the Museum of Peoples and Cultures, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
Ruins similar to those of Casas Grandes exist near Gila and Salinas in New Mexico, and in Colorado, and it may be that they each represent cultural groups related to the Mogollon culture. Early ethnologist Hubert Howe Bancroft, in The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, was disposed to relate them to the modern day Hopi, sometimes known as Moqui during his period, but today's scholars are unable to identify the descendants of the Casas Grandes people.
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