The Context, Dating, and Role of Painted Building Murals in Gallina Society

Abstract

Ancestral Pueblo people created painted murals within their homes and ceremonial buildings to express important messages about their shared identities. Over the course of a century of archaeological work, several rare examples of these important features have been documented at Gallina Phase sites. Discussions of these murals, however, have received little attention. In this article, I draw together new and existing data about the content and context of the Gallina murals and, using dendrochronology, establish the temporal ranges of the structures decorated with murals. I discuss variation in mural imagery and context in the Gallina sites, and then turn to a regional view of mural arts in the region before AD 1300. By comparing the Gallina murals to contemporary examples from the Mesa Verde and larger San Juan Basin regions, and later northern Rio Grande examples, I discuss the role that building murals appear to have played in Gallina society.

Los Pueblo Ancestral crearon murales pintados en sus hogares y en edificios ceremoniales para expresar mensajes importantes sobre sus identidades compartidas. A lo largo de un siglo de trabajo arqueológico, varios ejemplos raros de estos rasgos importantes han sido documentados en sitios de la fase Gallina. Sin embargo, las discusiones sobre estos murales han recibido poca atención. En este artículo presento tanto información nueva como existente sobre el contenido y el contexto de los murales Gallina y, haciendo uso de la dendrocronología, establezco los rangos temporales de las estructuras decoradas con murales. Discuto la variación en la imaginería y el contexto de los murales en los sitios Gallina, y luego presento una visión regional del arte mural en la región antes de 1300 D.C. A través de la comparación de murales Gallina con ejemplos contemporáneos de las regiones de Mesa Verde y la Cuenca San Juan, así como con ejemplos más tardíos del norte de Rio Grande, discuto el rol que los murales de los edificios parecen haber tenido en la sociedad Gallina.

Keywords:

• Gallina archaeology
• Painted murals
• Dendroarchaeology
• Cross-media approaches
• Mesa Verde migration

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Lewis Borck for inviting me to participate in this volume and to Lewis, Connie Constan, and an anonymous reviewer for their comments on early drafts of this paper. Wyatt Welch helped with editing and moral support. I would also like to thank my advisors at the University of Arizona, School of Anthropology, and the staff of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research for their support and guidance. Dr. Towner’s NSF funded Dendroarchaeology of the Gallina project (BCS-1322579), an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (BCS-1745759), and three Canyonlands Natural History Association Discovery Pool Grants provided funding for different aspects of this research.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation: [Grant Number BCS-1745759], three Canyonlands Natural History Association Discovery Pool Grants, and Dr. Towner’s NSF funded Dendroarchaeology of the Gallina project: [Grant Number BCS-1322579].