Archaeology Magazine - May/June 1978 - 8

These large villages are made up of
semisubterranean pithouses with lateral ramp
entrances. Such earthen houses are typical for
the Southwest at this time, although their
architectural details varied from area to area.
These villages were always situated on high
knolls up to eight hundred feet above the valley
bottom. The placement of the villages would
have required considerable amounts of energy
to carry up water, fuel, food and construction
materials, and it is unclear why the settlements
were built in such inaccessable locations.
During this early period, there is evidence of
the beginnings of ceremonialism. The
exceptionally large pithouses excavated at a
number of sites generally have adobe lobes
or pillars attached to their walls on
either side of the rampway. These pillars
apparently served no evident architectural
function and scholars have no clue as to their
use. It is known, however, that they were
restricted to ceremonial or communal pithouses.
Although these communal pithouses underwent
major changes in shape and size during a span
of eight hundred years, these pillars continued
to be incorporated into their construction.
Some time between a.d. 600-700, two events
occurred that eventually culminated in the
Classic Mimbres culture. First, the hilltop
villages were abandoned and relocated on the
broad terraces just above the Mimbres River. At
about the same time, the first painted ceramics
were produced. These bowls, called Mogollon
Red-on-brown, had simple linear designs similar
to those found in surrounding regions. For the
next three hundred years, there was a steady
increase in the size of the villages in the valley.
The pithouses evolved from a circular plan to a
rectangular plan; and the ceremonial structures
increased in size, the largest finally attaining
dimensions of fifty by thirty-six feet. Along with
these architectural changes there were steady
changes both in the diet and in the
environment as the valley began to fill up
with people. Previously, large game animals,
primarily deer and antelope, served as the
main source of protein; later, as the villages
expanded and developed, the people hunted
primarily jackrabbits. Construction and fuel
wood were originally procured from the valley
bottom, but as this area was apparently stripped
and used as fields, wood was transported from
the nearby hills.
The painting style continued to evolve. By
8

approximately a.d. 750, the pottery had evolved
into a black-on-white, called Boldface
Black-on-white. Around a.d. 900 the first
relatively crude naturalistic paintings were
produced. Both the animals that were being
depicted and the general design style are strongly
reminiscent of the Hohokam peoples of the
Phoenix area of Arizona. Interestingly, the
Mimbres received a great deal of influence
from the Hohokam during this period, but it
practically ceased during the subsequent period,
when painted bowls began to be used as
funerary offerings. A painted shallow bowl,
averaging twenty centimeters in diameter and
eight centimeters in depth, often accompanied by
a plainware pitcher, was usually placed beside
an individual in a Mimbres burial pit. Such
interments were often made beneath the floors of
the pithouses which continued to be inhabited.
The culmination of this cultural sequence
came when a final set of changes occurred about
a.d. 1000, marking the beginning of what is the
Classic Mimbres Period. At this time, pithouses
were abandoned in favor of multiroomed surface
pueblos and villages often consisted of several of
these blocks of rooms each containing up to
about five hundred rooms. The pueblos included
large living areas with hearths and smaller
storage rooms. These rooms were constructed of
river cobbles mortared with adobe; a series of
posts supported flat adobe roofs. Some
rectangular rooms within the room blocks,
probably ceremonial in nature with special
features such as benches and air vents, have also
been uncovered. They are similar to those of the
kivas found farther north which were built by
the Anasazi, who lived in the northern part of
the ancient southwest. The ceremonial rooms of
the Mimbres surface pueblos, however, are small
in comparison with the very large communal
rooms of the earlier pithouses. It seems likely
that as the population grew, it became
impractical to build a communal room large
enough to hold an entire village. This problem
may have been solved by performing ceremonies
in the plazas between the room blocks; such
plazas have been found with these Mimbres
pueblos. Spectators probably occupied the
surrounding roof tops and ceremonies took
place in the open.
A change in burial practices also occurred at
about this time. Bowls were no longer placed
beside the deceased in the burial pits. Instead
they were first "killed" by having a hole pierced
Archaeology Magazine - May/June 1978

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - May/June 1978
