Crumbled House
| Crumbled House | |
|---|---|
  Location of Crumbled House in New Mexico
| |
| Location | San Juan County, New Mexico, USA |
| Coordinates | 36°14′46″N 108°49′56″W / 36.246073°N 108.832296°WCoordinates: 36°14′46″N 108°49′56″W / 36.246073°N 108.832296°W |
| Architectural style(s) | Ancient Puebloan |
| Governing body | National Park Service |
Crumbled House is a ruined great house of the Ancient Pueblo Peoples, just east of the Chuska Mountains in New Mexico. Based on ceramic dating, the buildings were built and occupied between 1100 and 1250 AD.[1] Crumbled House is a Chaco Protection Site, or special management area.[2]
Location
Crumbled House is in the northwest of New Mexico, about 104 kilometres (65 mi) south of the Mesa Verde and 72 kilometres (45 mi) west of Chaco Canyon, at an average elevation of about 1,790 metres (5,870 ft) above sea level. The site is about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) southwest of the Chuska Mountains, from which the builders obtained construction timber.[1] It lies on the Chuska Slope, sometimes called the Chuska Valley, which forms the eastern footslope of the Chuska range.[3]
Structure
The site has two room blocks. The triangular upper block, sometimes called the "Castle of the Chuskas", is on a mesa tip about 30 metres (98 ft) above the floor of the surrounding valley. One side is about 47 metres (154 ft) long and the other two about 81 metres (266 ft) long. There are massive circular towers at each corner, high stone walls along the edge of the mesa, and a deep moat and strong wall defending against access from the plateau.[1] There may have been about eighty ground floor rooms in this block, twenty-five rooms on the second story and fourteen subterranean kivas. The masonry walls are made of sandstone cobbles collected from the talus slope.[4]
The second room block is about 21 metres (69 ft) to the south of the castle on a steep talus slope, stepping down about 20 metres (66 ft) in five or six terraces. It is no more than 55 metres (180 ft) by 60 metres (200 ft) in size, containing about 150 rectangular rooms and sixteen round kivas. The lower house is built from dark sandstone rocks collected from the talus slope to the west.[4] Based on ceramic and architectural criteria, the great house was occupied between 1150 and 1250, and the compound between 1250 and 1300.[5]
Artifacts
The people of this community appear to have been closer in culture to the people of the Mesa Verde than to those of Chaco Canyon.[1] The Crumbled House Black-on-white pottery of the Chuska tradition is similar to Mesa Verde Black-on-white, which was made between 1180 and 1300 AD, although not identical.[6] Crumbled House Black on white has been found at 35% of sites where Mesa Verde Corrugated has been found, and at 20% of sites where Mancos Black-on-white was found.[7][8] Almost 20% of the chipped stone found at Crumbled House is Narbona Pass chert, from a quarry of the top of the Chuska mountains.[9]
References
Citations
Sources
- Adler, Michael A. (2000-04-01). The Prehistoric Pueblo World, A.D. 1150-1350. University of Arizona Press. p. 265. ISBN 978-0-8165-2048-0. Retrieved 2012-08-26.
- Broilo, Frank J. (1977). "Settlement and Subsistence Along the Lower Chaco River: The COP Survey". University of New Mexico. Retrieved 2012-08-26.
- Friedman, Richard A.; Stein, John R.; Blackhorse, Taft, Jr. (April 2003). "A Study of a Pre-Columbian Irrigation System at Newcomb, New Mexico". Journal of GIS in Archaeology I. Retrieved 2012-08-26.
- Morgan, William N. (1994). "Crumbled House". Ancient Architecture of the Southwest. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-75159-0. Retrieved 2012-08-26.
- Varien, Mark D. (1995). "Analytic Criteria for Pottery Types". Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. Retrieved 2012-08-26.
- Walker, William; Venzor, Kathryn R. (2011-07-01). Contemporary Archaeologies of the Southwest. O'Reilly Media, Inc. ISBN 978-1-4571-1156-3. Retrieved 2012-08-26.