An Investigation of Pithouse Village Structure in Western Texas

Abstract

Archaeologists have long been aware that the Pithouse period, which occupies most of the 1st millennium A.C., established the village farming foundations for the subsequent Pueblo florescence in the southwestern United States. Nevertheless, we understand all too little of the organization of society during the Pithouse period, or of directions and processes of cultural evolution within the period. Stimulated by this situation, the present study interprets excavation data from a site of the late Pithouse period in the Hueco Bolson of western Texas. The study asks how household units were composed, how these units were distributed within the community, and how the composition and lay-out of the village reflects the organizational patterns of society during the Pithouse period. Some consideration is also given to the question of changes in social organization during Pithouse times, and between the Pithouse period and the succeeding Pueblo period.