Site Structure of a Village of the Late Pithouse-Early Pueblo Period in New Mexico

Abstract

The period of change from pithouse to pueblo as the preferred dwelling in the American Southwest represents an architectural transition associated with greater complexity of community organization. Excavation of more than 70% of the principal residential area within a small, single component, late Mogollon pithouse village (A.C. 1150–1200) in New Mexico (but located near El Paso, Texas) helps provide behavioral definition of this period. Through an examination of trash location and artifact size, feature-fill sequence reconstruction, and overall community plan, a “coreactivity area” for Meyer Pithouse Village has been established. This activity zone is the material correlate of supra-household cooperation, a condition held necessary for the subsequent acceptance in antiquity of pueblo room-block architecture similar to that of the neighboring Anasazi area.