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.