ASB 222 - Buried Civilizations of the Americas - Keith Kintigh

27. Paquimé, Chihuahua: Mesoamerican Outpost in the Southwest or Southernmost Pueblo Great House

• Introduction
• Paquimé (Casas Grandes), in Chihuahua, not to be confused with Casa Grande (in Coolidge, AZ)
• Seems to be the center of a regional system with Southwestern and Mesoamerican characteristics
• Southwesternists look at it and say this looks Mesoamerican
• MesoAmericanists look at it and say this looks Southwestern
• A few archaeologists look at it and say this is a Mesoamerican intrusion into the the Southwest that indicates Mesoamerican dominance.
• About of the site was excavated by Charles DiPeso of the Amerind Foundation 1958-1961. 8, somewhat quirky, volumes published.
• Like Hohokam 20 years ago with Snaketown, most of what we know about the political/regional system come from 1 very large excavated site. However, a team including Mike Whalen and Paul Minnis are doing survey and trying to understand the regional context.
• Paquimé is restored and open to the public with a major INAH major museum. Highly recommended!
• Paquimé Dating
• DiPeso thought main occupation, the Medio Period, to be contemporary w/ Chaco, Toltecs - 1060-1340. This was based on tree-ring dates on rotted beams with edges planed off. This dating puts Gila Poly at Paquimé at AD 1050, whereas elsewhere it clearly dates to AD 1300.
• John Ravesloot and Jeffrey Dean have redated the Medio period to AD 1250-1450. This is now generally accepted and would be contemporary with Classic Hohokam, Salado, and Pueblo IV
• Architecture
• Planned architecture, adobe walls, 3-4 stories high; dug, all in one big piece.
• Public Architecture: I and T shaped ball courts; effigy mounds, serpent-shaped platform mound
• Water source within site and water distribution system through the site
• Turkey and macaw pens within the site.
• Artifacts
• Shell:
• 70 species of shell on the site; lots from Gulf of California, 1 Pacific species
• Manufacture of shell items and stockpiling; probably craft specialists. 2 workshops and 1.5 tons of shell in 2 rooms
• Pottery: great variety including Gila Polychrome as a small percentage
• Regional Exchange, between SW (at least Hohokam) and Casas Grandes: Ceramics; Macaws; Shell; Copper Bells
• Burials
• 576 burials, most subfloor; often in 3-10 gallon urns
• some graves are very elaborate: a necklace of human phalanges, human femur rasp - war trophies;
• like Pueblo Bonito, burials under planks with bodies over them
• Ravesloot suggests considerable ranking.
• Local Settlement System
• General environment: 10-20" rainfall/year, warm enough to double crop; system encompasses a range of environments.
• The center, Paquimé is very much larger than anything within its system. This seems to be more on a Mesoamerican rather than a Southwestern model.
• Other than Paquimé the sites are much smaller, though some have ball courts
• DiPeso Model; Dependent on 1050-1200 Medio Period dating (See McGuire Kiva 1980)
• Saw SW as the outer limit of the Gran Chichimeca of Mesoamerica
• Michteca-Puebla empire sent traders, pochteca, to acquire turquoise (God stone of the Toltecs) - and convinced local inhabitants (Chichimecs) to build Paquimé as connection to the Southwest US
• The pochteca introduced the cult of Quetzalcoatl (we do have feathered serpents or water snakes in the SW e.g., kolowesi.)
• The trade goods are evidence for this theory. Note however that the exotic goods found at Paquimé may have been mainly for local consumption, not trade.
• The residents, in 1340 threw off the yoke of their oppressors
• Steve Lekson's Argument
• Paquimé & Chaco Canyon are the two largest "pueblos," and even though they are not contemporary, they are both part of a greater Southwestern Pueblo world
• Centers of Casas and Chaco on same longitude w/i fraction of a minute (a few hundred meters), and sites overlap
• Is this an accident, or intentional. Is it plausible that it could have been done intentionally? If it is intentional, why?
• Mata Ortiz, a village near Paquimé (and Nuevo Casas Grandes) has become a center for revival Casas Grandes pottery. Juan Quesada was the person who started this.