Pit House Research Articles

The Pc Ruin: Archaeological Investigations in the Prescott Tradition

Archaeological data from a small prehistoric settlement near Prescott in west central Arizona are presented. Four pit houses were located, three excavated and the associated refuse tested.The small settlement may have been inhabited by three conjugal families, which, in turn, could have comprised a single extended one. The actual occupation was brief, occurring during an early portion of the 12th century between approximately A.D. 1100 and 1130. Upon abandonment, two of the domiciles were burned; a third had accidently burned earlier.The usual architectural, artifact, and ceramic summaries are included. The remains are assigned to the little known Chino phase (A.D. 1025 to 1200) of the Prescott cultural tradition. Also presented is the initial evidence for pit house architecture within this cultural period.

Ethnobotany of point of pines ruin Arizona W:10:50

In the 13th Century a group of emigrants from northern Arizona settled among an indigenous people in east central Arizona. The immigrants occupied a block of rooms that later burned as a unit. The carbonized vegetal material in the rooms provides evidence concerning ethnobotany, the study of the inter-relationship between plants and man (Jones, 1941: 220). The significance of the plant material derives from integrating information on topography and plant ecology with traditional Southwestern Indian plant uses and archaeological data. The Point of Pines Ruin, Arizona W:10:50, is in east-central Arizona, 65 miles east of Globe and 40 miles north of Safford. The ruin was excavated between 1946 and 1960, when the University of Arizona maintained an archaeological field school at Point of Pines. Both the field school facilities and the ruin lie at the edge of Circle Prairie (elev. 6000 ft) where the gentler, northeastern slopes of the Nantack Ridge finger toward Circle Prairie as spurs (Fig. 1). The main ridge is about 51/2 miles southwest of Point of Pines, and extends from northwest to southeast. It has an average elevation of 6,500 feet, but reaches a maximum height of 7,600 feet (Woodbury, 1961). The southwest escarpment descends from approximately 6,500 feet to 5,000 feet at Ash Flat. Arizona W:10:50 began around A.D. 1200 as a cluster of pit houses and a contemporary adjacent masonry structure. Between 1280 and 1285 newrooms

The Dobell Site: Archaeological Salvage Near The Petrified Forest

ABSTRACTThe DoBell site is a small pit house village south of the Petrified Forest in east central Arizona. Excavations by the Arizona State Museum in 1968 determined the site to be a small agricultural village occupied sometime between A.D. 1150 and 1250. The site is apparently representative of contemporary sites located in similar situations in the immediate vicinity, but differs greatly from contemporary sites in the Vernon area to the south.

Pipeline Salvage Near Willcox, Arizona

AbstractThe Arizona State Museum, funded by El Paso Natural Gas Company, excavated a pit house (Arizona CC: 10:1) 11 miles northeast of Willcox, Arizona, in January 1969. The site has affinities to the San Simon branch of the Mogollon and on ceramic evidence is believed to have been inhabited between A.D. 1100-1200.

Walnut Creek Village: A Ninth-Century Hohokam-Anasazi Settlement in the Mountains of Central Arizona

AbstractStudent members of the Arizona State University Walnut Creek Archaeological Field Camp excavated six pit houses and located several more at Walnut Creek Village, located 10 mi. southeast of Young, Arizona, during the summer of 1967. Three of the pit houses were Hohokam and three were Anasazi; one of the latter was a subcircular kiva with sipapu-resonator complex of distinctive western Pueblo style. The occurrence, during the ninth century, of these two archaeological groups, side-by-side, in an ecological setting which is unusual for the Hohokam contributes to our knowledge of them and permits inferences concerning the Hohokam community at Roosevelt:9:6, 30 mi. away. Additionally, hypotheses concerning Hohokam ceremonial and communal houses at other sites can be evaluated.

A Preliminary Report of the Excavations at Las Colinas*

AbstractUnder contract with the Arizona Highway Department and the Bureau of Public Roads, the Arizona State Museum excavated Mound 8 of the Las Colinas ruin group, located in Phoenix, Arizona.This site is the last remaining mound of 12 situated northwest of the downtown section of the city. The excavation revealed the following: an artificial platform mound, rectangular, post-reinforccd, adobe-walled rooms, pit houses, cremations, burials and thousands of artifacts. Occupation was during the Ilohokam Classic period.

Apache Archaeology in Northeastern New Mexico

AbstractExcavations in northeastern New Mexico have confirmed the presence of a variety of Jicarilla Apache house types mentioned in Spanish documents of ca. 1700. Associated with a 7-room adobe structure and a pit house was an artifact complex closely resembling that of the Plains Apaches represented by the Dismal River aspect. The predominant pottery, however, is a thin micaceous ware, herein described as Ocate Micaceous, accompanied by trade sherds of Tewa Polychrome, plain black Pueblo ware, and Puebla (Mexico) blue and white majolica. Mid-19th-century Apache sites in the area are “tipi-ring” sites yielding a thicker micaceous ware, herein described as Cimarron Micaceous, White man’s trade goods, and a few stone artifacts. The relationship between Apache micaceous pottery, made from ca. 1600 (or earlier) until the early 1900’s, and that made at Taos and Picuris is still not clear.

Salvage Excavation in the Buttes Dam Site, Southern Arizona

ABSTRACTDuring November and December, 1966, archaeological salvage excavation was conducted in the Buttes Dam Site by the Arizona State Museum under contract with the National Park Service. Excavated were six pit houses, a Casa Grande type of ball court, four trash mounds, 21 cremations, and several cooking pits. The architecture, ceramics, and the style of some of the stone artifacts indicate that this Hohokam village site was occupied during the late Santa Cruz and early Sacaton phases. It is suggested that the occupation of the site took place between about A.D. 850 and A.D. 1000.

Archaeological Excavations Near Bylas, Arizona

AbstractUnder Contract No. 14-10-0333-995 with the National Park Service, the Arizona State Museum conducted excavations in two prehistoric ruins on the San Carlos Indian Reservation during April and May, 1963, as a part of the Inter-Agency Archeo-logical Salvage Program.A total of 88 surface rooms, 2 pit houses, and 4 cremations were excavated, and tests were made in 5 trash mounds and one sheet trash area. This project was accomplished with the aid of San Carlos Apache laborers.The two ruins, Arizona V:16:8 and 10, were nearly contemporary occupations of the area from about A.D. 1100 to 1200, on the basis of ceramic dating. Although Arizona V:16:8 was probably slightly later in time than the other village, both sites were occupied during the twelfth century and may be considered as belonging to the same cul-tural period, for which the designation of Bylas Phase has been suggested.

Salvage Archaeology on Highway 66 in Eastern Arizona

AbstractBetween May 11 and June 10, 1959, the Arizona State Museum conducted salvage excavations along a section of U.S. Highway 66 from the Arizona-New Mexico state line westward through Lupton for about 5.8 miles. Work in 10 sites with heavy equipment and a large crew of Navajo laborers resulted in the excavation of 16 pit houses, 43 surface rooms, 7 kivas (two only partially excavated), 6 trash deposits, 18 burials, and 21 miscellaneous architectural features. These ranged from Basket-maker III to Pueblo III, with no Pueblo I representation, and included an early Basketmaker III village with Mogollon affiliations. It was possible to clarify the definition of the White Mound phase and to demonstrate a specific front-oriented village plan for the Wingate phase. This intensive excavation produced a large quantity of material and data, thus raising the problems of how to accomplish the analysis of them and the publication of the results. This preliminary report is only a partial answer.

The Village and the Community of the Earliest Jomon Age

Remains of the earliest Jomon age are found in limited areas in southern Kanto, in the suburbs of Yokohama and Mishima. There is no sign of a pit house, but fire places are discovered. The local community of that time would seem to equal in scope to the sites of the remains. A local community very often includes several villages or hamlets, which are located in group on topographical features; cape, head land, spit.Those remains belong to the Hanazumi type, the Sekiyama type, the Kuro hama and Moroiso a.b.c. type. The largest plant of a pit house is 9×6m., whlie the smallest is 2.5×3m. The Minamibori shell mound was formerly a large village, which had five to ten pit houses with a central open space. Both the Fujioka and Fukuoka shell mounds were small hamlets with two or three pit houses.The Oyaba shell mound was resided by one large family. Its pit house is 9×6m. in area.Corroboration of the ancient society is difficult, but ethnological and archaeological facts may enable us to reason by analogy. Prehistoric villages, ancient communities, and the landowning groups differ in scope and structurally seem to be more complicated than is ordinarily supposed by scholars.

Round Houses in the Western Arctic

The Ghosts of “round” pit houses in Alaska were dispelled by Henry B. Collins 2 decades ago (Collins 1937: 282–6). They had emanated from the casual remarks of early explorers and the later hasty glances at house depressions. Up to now, 300 or more of the floors of old pit houses in Alaska have been exposed, and they overwhelmingly show that the winter house of the western American Arctic is some variation of a square plan. Even so, exceptions have just turned up — perhaps not merely to prove the rule. They are large oval pits on Choris Peninsula, the remains of early dwellings apparently without corners or entrance passages, or even the means of side entry.

A Pit House of the Gallina Phase

As part of the Gallina project in north central New Mexico, which has been carried on by the University of New Mexico since 1934 under the direction of Frank C. Hibben, a pit house site was excavated in the summer of 1950. Excavations were accomplished with the able assistance of Emily Gray and 4 local workmen. The author was in charge of the field work. This site was selected because the pit house had been the least investigated of Gallina architectural types, and also because it was in the as yet unworked southwestern periphery of the Gallina complex. Furthermore, surface indications showed this particular site to be a Gallina pit house of unusual size.

A Pit House Site near Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico

One of the greatest problems confronting southwestern archaeology in its aim of interpretive reconstruction of the cultures of prehistoric peoples lies in filling the gaps where little or no information exists concerning significant periods of development in particular areas. One such interval, of considerable duration, exists in the middle Rio Grande Valley. We have known for some time that this region was inhabited by some of the early hunting groups (Hibben 1941, 1951) as well as the later Pueblo peoples. But who the people were, if any, that lived here during the interim between these extremes has been, until recently, largely a matter for conjecture. No ecologic reason has been presented to show why this river valley could not have supported its share of inhabitants, whether hunters, gatherers, or agriculturalists, during these thousands of years.

Pit Houses of Asia – A Japanese Phase

The discussion of pit houses in the Old World and in North America by Hiroshi Daifuku (American Antiquity, Vol. 18, pp. 1-7) prompts me to add a note concerning certain pit house sites which I explored in northern Japan during the spring and summer of 1951.While searching the Yamagawa River Valley near Furumaki-machi in Aomori Prefecture for early Jomon sites, I encountered several pit house village sites. I had previously been advised of the general location of these by Major Howard McCord, formerly of Misawa Air Force Base, who had done considerable archaeological work in that region.

Concerning the Existence of the Pit House in South America

With considerable interest I have read Daifuku's “The Pit House in the Old World and in Native North America” (American Antiquity, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 1-7, 1952). Although he did not refer to South America except in passing, citing only the finds of Bird in northern Peru, it is of interest to point out that there are numerous ethnographic references to the use of the pit house in the southern half of this continent, and that these references are confirmed by archaeological finds.Metraux (1929) in his study of the Huarpe, primitive inhabitants of the Cuyo region of Argentina, gave a summary of the definite references to the use of the pit house in South America and attached a distribution map. He listed, in addition to the Huarpe, the Kaupe, Tsirakua, Matsikui, Kitsua de Cojata, Obacoatiara, Guaranaguacu, Piraguayguaquig, and Wayana. The first three are found in Paraguay; the remaining four are in eastern Brazil. For some of the tribes mentioned the references in question are very clear; for others, such as the Tsirakua and Wayana, they are doubtful.

The Pit House in the Old World and in Native North America

The problem of the origin and distribution of semi-subterranean structures is an intriguing one. It is generally accepted that the semi-subterranean structure, earth lodge, or pit house, was one of a number of relatively unmodified traits of Old World origin found in North America. This paper reviews some of the literature on the pit house, and summarizes its development and distribution in the Eurasian and North American continents.Laymen, believing that early man habitually lived in caves, commonly use the stereotyped term “cave man” in referring to our early progenitors in the Old World. This assumption was an inevitable development since occupational sites in western Europe are predominantly caves or cave shelters. However, some European archaeologists have suggested such sites were seasonally occupied–that they were the winter habitations of man during the upper Paleolithic. There is reason to believe different types of shelters were used during warm seasons since engravings of tents or more substantial structures (tectiforms) have been found on the walls of caves and cave shelters. A number of European archaeologists including Breuil (1910), Clark (1939), Childe (1950), and others have accepted tectiforms as evidence of the existence of artificial structures in western Europe during the last glacial advance. Breuil has gone further and compared some of the tectiforms in the Font-de-Gaume, the Dordogne Valley of France, to the summer huts of Navahos described by Mendeleff in 1896.

Development of Architecture, Canyon de Chelly

During the summer of 1941 the writer made a survey of the sites in Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona, which represent the later phases of Modified Basket Maker and the early phases of the Developmental Pueblo period. The object of this survey was to trace the development of architecture from the early slab-lined pit houses to the above-ground dwellings constructed of linearly-laid stone masonry. Since the writer lacked the facilities for any intensive excavations, the information contained in the paper was on the whole based on surface observation.

Piedra Depressions

In his recent publication, Hall disagrees with Roberts' interpretation of depressions found in conjunction with house units, as set forth in a report in 1930.Dr. Roberts' report includes the results of a thorough examination of eighty houses, two kivas, and six circular depressions. It is the latter with which this comment is concerned. These depressions, according to Hall, are neither “borrow pits” nor “reservoirs,” but probably mark the locations of former pit houses:“The writer cannot help but feel that the majority of Roberts's Piedra ‘reservoirs’ are pit houses and that if these were defined they would resemble the Rosa Phase pit house in many respects.”

Excavation of Mesa Verde Pit Houses

During the autumn of 1941, excavations in Modified Basketmaker sites in Mesa Verde National Park were carried on, for the twin purposes of clearing well-preserved pit houses that could be used in the interpretative program of the park and of adding to the meager amount of information on Modified Basketmaker culture in the park area. Although this period has been studied extensively in adjacent districts, little work has been done on it in the Mesa Verde.