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Excerpted and adapted from: AN ARCHITECTURAL STUDY OF WUPATKI PUEBLO (NA 405), by Christian E. Downum, Ellen Brennan, and James P. Holmlund, with contributions by Laurie Coveney-Thom, Kelley Hays-Gilpin, and Erik Whiteman. Northern Arizona University Archaeological Report 1175, Flagstaff, Arizona, February, 1999. Report submitted to U.S. National Park Service, Flagstaff Area National Monuments, in partial fulfilment of Southwest Parks and Monuments Association Grant No. 96-11. Research sponsored by the U.S. National Park Service and the Western National Parks Association.

Copyright 2004 by Christian E. Downum

Introduction

This discussion is a brief summary of the sequence in which rooms were built at Wupatki Pueblo, based on stratigraphic evidence from surfaces, prepared walls, and other features. The discussion is divided into two major sections, one covering the North Unit and one covering the South Unit at Wupatki. Many additional details of the construction sequence of Wupatki remain to be understood, pending the recovery of additional field notes (e.g., those from the excavations of David Jones in the 1940s and Roland Richert in the 1950s), and a systematic examination of all relevant documentation photos taken during excavations.

What is presented here is a rough outline that gives a general picture of how the Pueblo grew through time. This is a relative sequence, and does not give calendrical dates to the major events that are postulated. It is known from tree-ring dates that the great majority of Wupatki’s growth took place over a period of less than 100 years. Wupatki was built primarily from the AD 1130s through the first two decades of the 1200s. Specific tree-ring dates for individual rooms are given in the section on tree-ring dating. The North and South Units grew independently, but tree-ring dates indicate that there was no significant difference in the calendrical date range over which both units grew (i.e., both the North and South units grew mostly from about AD 1136 through 1215.)

THE NORTH UNIT

Compared to the South Unit of Wupatki, rooms of the North Unit are few and relatively simple. This is a bit misleading, however, because many rooms of the North Unit were extensively reconstructed after their excavation in the 1930s. Also, in the 1940s NPS Ranger David Jones excavated in Rooms 10, 11, 12, and 15, but his excavations were either poorly documented or records have been lost. Thus, while the number of rooms in the North Unit is limited, many uncertainties remain in their interpretation.

Wall-bond and abut patterns suggest that Room 1 was probably the earliest room of the North Unit. Rooms 2, 3, 4, 8, and 9 were added to Room 1. Based on current observations, it appears that Room 4 is earlier than Room 5, as the walls of Room 5 abut with what appears to be the continuous south wall of Room 4 (which also forms the south wall of the space designated as Room 8). Room 5 and a series of rooms lying to the south, along the east side of the rock outcrop (including Rooms 15 and 16) may have been added as a single unit. A historic period wall along the east side of Rooms 15 and 16 obscures the extent of these rooms and gives the misleading impression that these rooms were extremely narrow; they apparently were as wide as other rooms in the pueblo.
Rooms 7, 10, and 12 appear to have been added to the North Unit after the construction of the row of rooms along the east side of the rock outcrop. Room 10 apparently was added to Room 12, and Room 7 was built after Room 10.

THE SOUTH UNIT

The South Unit of Wupatki Pueblo is a very complex set of rooms and walls that apparently were built out (horizontally) and up (vertically, in some cases with several stories) over a long period of time. Many of the rooms in the South Unit were filled with trash, new floors built atop the trash, and walls extended into two, three, or perhaps more stories. There is evidence of the sealing of ventilators and doorways to accommodate these changes, and many rooms seem to have changed radically in function and size through time (Burchett 1990). Added to the original complexity of this prehistoric situation is the massive amount of pre-1930s vandalism and NPS-era (1933 and later) reconstruction, repair, and maintenance. In short, the South Unit is a very complicated set of buildings indeed, and much additional work and additional sources of information will be required to obtain the fullest possible set of interpretations. Nonetheless, we have attempted to interpret the construction sequence of the South Unit, using previous information (Colton et al. 1933; Richert n.d.; Burchett 1990) and some new data based on the 1990s mapping and recording efforts sponsored by NPS and the Western National Parks Association (WNPA).

Earliest Stratigraphic Evidence: A Pre-Sunset Crater Wupatki Occupation?

In the 1950s, NPS archaeologist Roland Richert proposed that there was a poorly documented occupation or use of the area now covered by Wupatki Pueblo. Richert believed that this occupation pre-dated the construction of pueblo rooms and made use of natural alcoves and outcrops. He based his conclusions on evidence such as stratigraphic sequences of from trash deposits and geological layers, soot-blackening of natural alcove walls and ceilings now covered by pueblo rooms, and a few scattered features. He also supposed that Wupatki’s natural rock outcrops and the nearby spring would have been an attractive place for people to have camped or settled in the pre-Sunset Crater eruption time period. His inferences are quoted directly (Richert n.d.):

A period of time somewhat early, perhaps transitory and of unknown duration was taken up by pre-Wupatki occupation as evidenced by findings beneath the dance plaza (Room 66) [also known as the Wupatki Amphitheater] and the cavate rooms (Wupatki Rooms 52-54), and the subsequent, temporary abandonment which either preceded or else was precipitated by the eruption of Sunset Crater.

A test pit was sunk to undisturbed ground in the dance plaza [Amphitheater] where slab-lined cists, thought to be Basket Maker II or III [ca. 1500 BC to AD 700] were encountered (Colton 1946:60). The test revealed two floor levels (66A and 66B), a third “existence” level (66C), and “below that two cists resting on the hillside – a fourth level (66D).” Over and around these cists for a depth of 20 in. were cinders, stratified and undisturbed around the cists, indicating that they were in position at the time of the cinder fall. In the fill between 66B and 66D were indications of other cists, but the soil about them had quite evidently been disturbed, showing that they were placed later.” Whether the cinders surrounding the cists in Level D, the first occupation layer, are dune cinders from volcanoes earlier than, or those of, Sunset Crater, is not known. In either case, this occupation is the earliest now known for Wupatki and it pre-dates the major ruin by anywhere from 50 to 300 years. Early Man and Basket Maker III sites have been discovered along the Little Colorado River seven miles to the east of Wupatki and it is reasonable that some of these groups used the Wupatki rock intermittently for shelter and the good spring several hundred yards to the west must have been an added inducement.

EARLIEST PUEBLO OCCUPATION: CORE ROOMS OF THE SOUTH UNIT

The earliest identifiable pueblo component at Wupatki consists of a set of rooms built directly against the rock outcrops on the east and west sides of the South Unit. According to Richert (n.d.), this early component dated to the period of abundance for the ceramic type Black Mesa Black-on-white (today known from tree-ring evidence to have been made and used between about A.D. 1025 and 1150):

...The strat test by MNA [in 1933-34] and those conducted in 1952 show essentially the same trends and results. The earliest decorated pottery found in all of the combined testing at Wupatki is Black Mesa Black-on-white. While extremely rare sherds of it may be found at various levels through mixing, it is uniformly found in very small amounts in the lowest, valid cultural strata.

Richert noted further that the earliest rooms built against the rock outcrops on the east side of the South Unit showed no underlying refuse, but had been built directly atop a layer of volcanic cinders, presumably from the eruption of Sunset Crater:

Combined studies of architecture and stratigraphy, where it was possible to test these conclusively, show an early use surface underlying the area of rooms 40, 80, 81, and 82 which preceded the construction of these walls and which in turn, is underlain by (1) thin refuse, (2) cinders, and (3) a sterile red clay surface containing random slabs. The latter rests on bedrock and has been termed the pre-Wupatki surface.

Wherever stratigraphic tests were conducted, layers 2 and 3 were always present, but the thin-floored use area was not found under rooms built directly against the rock spur including 24, 39, 58, and 73, nor in 71 which was in the first tier to the east (Richert n.d.).

Hence, Rooms 24, 39, 58, 73, and perhaps 71 were part of an initial configuration of early rooms built before there had been any significant accumulation of refuse along the east side of the South Unit. Based on current evidence, Rooms 45B and 46B (ground-level rooms in the spaces designated as Rooms 45 and 46) may also be added to this list, as they were among the first rooms to be built against the outcrop. These early rooms may have had an associated circular kiva, as curving walls interpreted as the outline of a circular kiva were observed in a very early stratigraphic position beneath Room 49, a very late construction. This early, possibly circular kiva was never excavated and remains preserved under Room 49.
Meanwhile, along the west side of the rock outcrop of the South Unit, an initial version of Rooms 35 (Room 35C) and 36 (Room 36D) were built at a very early time. Room 36 may have been a fully-enclosed room, and Room 35 may have been adjacent work area built between vertical bedrock walls. The early date for these rooms is evident from the low stratigraphic positions of the rooms relative to later architectural features. Tree-ring dates support this idea as well.

Before discussing later constructions, it should be noted that the only specimens of charcoal that produced tree-ring dates at Wupatki came from early stratigraphic contexts. These dates were also among the earliest obtained from the ruin (dating to the period spanning A.D. 1131 to 1146). The stratigraphically low position rooms 35C, 36D, and 45B all had burned, and burned beams were recovered in deep test pits dug beneath rooms 80, 81, and 83. Except for Rooms 35, 36, and 45, the form of these earlier burned structures is unknown.

It is also interesting that Rooms 24 and 73 of this early “core” set of rooms were built in what some would call a “Chaco” style of masonry, with extremely well shaped and carefully selected sandstone wall rocks, carefully leveled and chinked with thin sandstone spalls. Room 41, which towers directly above these two rooms, was built on the top of the bedrock outcrop slightly south and west of Rooms 24 and 73. The east wall of room 41 (easily visible from below) was also built in this style. It is therefore possible that Room 41 was built at the same time as Rooms 24 and 73. Unfortunately, no direct stratigraphic evidence pertains to the temporal relationships of Rooms 24 and 73 with Room 41. The latter had been built atop four Ponderosa Pine beams that spanned a fissure in the bedrock, and these beams might have provided tree-ring dating evidence relevant to the question, but unfortunately, the beams did not provide dates.

Vertical and Lateral Expansion of the Rooms of the South Unit

Early Expansions

Much of the subsequent growth of the South Unit took place as the “core” rooms described above grew upward and out from the bedrock. According to Richert (n.d.), “room construction on the east side began at or near the rock and spread both laterally and broadside according to a discernible north-south quadrilateral plan.” Richert (n.d.) also inferred that one of the earliest expansions of the “core” set of rooms along the east outcrop of the South Unit involved the construction of Rooms 25, 30 (original version, prior to construction of the subdivisions that created rooms 69 and 70), 47, 40, and 71. He further believed that these rooms were added while the original core set were still in use; no stratigraphic evidence collected during the current project denies this interpretation:

It is possible that these rooms [24, 39, 58, 73,and possibly 71] stood alone for a brief time, since each had floor ventilators which may have faced the exterior. That they were, however, contemporaneous in part, at the first floor level, with the next tier to the east (71, 40, 25, 47, 69-30-70) is demonstrated by the subfloor tunnel ventilators which connect the two tiers.

Precisely how the rooms along the east side and atop the bedrock outcrop of the South Unit would have been expanded at this time is unclear. Further work is necessary to sort out these relationships.

Later Expansions

From the original core of rooms and the slightly later expansions of them described above, considerable lateral and vertical expansion took place at Wupatki. Tree ring dates indicate that these expansions may have commenced in the mid-1150s, with building activity accelerating in the early 1160s. Tree-ring dates also indicate that the construction continued into the second decade of the 1200s, though it had slowed considerably after the 1190s. Much of the expansion involved upward extensions of first floor rooms, sometimes accompanied by raising the floors of the rooms by the addition of heavy trash layers that were plastered over. Richert (n.d.) provides a good summary of the later expansion process at Wupatki:

By association of the east side of the ruin with the earliest structures found (the slab-lined cists under the dance plaza) and its more favored location on the southern and protected flank of the rock spur, the deep rooms (e.g., Rooms 45 and 46) and cavates at the southeast base of the rock were probably the first to have been occupied and the first to have been abandoned generally, although a few late rooms continued in use on top of filled rooms. As construction and occupation proceeded both around and on top of the rock spur, it hardly seems reasonable that trash would have been dumped on occupied rooms at the east until after they went into disuse. Hence, during simultaneous occupation of limited sectors on the east and those on top of the rock, refuse from the latter would have been largely concentrated on the west talus. After the east side was more or less abandoned, both east and west side of the rock were used simultaneously for disposal. This seems borne out by the findings in Rooms 40 and 73 [rooms that were filled with trash].

Along the west side of the South Unit, the expansion seems to have been mostly upward, rather than outward, but several poorly understood rooms along the west side, lying west of rooms 35 and 36, apparently represent a growth process similar to the one being played out at about the same time along the east side of the outcrop. At some point in this process, a very long and very tall retaining wall was built along the west side of the South Unit, reaching all the way to the North Unit (see Figures 1 and 4). This wall apparently was built to retain a very large amount of trash fill, to create a level “plaza” or activity surface along the west side of the Pueblo. Today, the collapsed remains of this wall are visible to the west of the visitor trail, below Rooms 31, 33, 35, and 59. A part of this wall collapsed intact, and its apparent height was measured during this project. Based on these measurements, this wall would have stood about 3.3 meters (10 .8 feet) high. This retaining wall apparently led west from the west side of Room 35, across the natural slope west of the South Unit, then turned north, where it connected with the North Unit in the vicinity of Room 12.

Rooms that were expanded upward along the west side of the South Unit include rooms 35 and 36, which may have grown to three stories in height. Tree-ring evidence indicates that Room 35 was expanded two stories upward around A.D. 1161. Coincident with this expansion of Room 35, Room 34 apparently was constructed. Upper story roofs may also have been added to rooms 38, 41, and 44, though this conclusion is far from certain.

Very Late Expansions

Some of the last rooms added in the construction sequence at Wupatki, not surprisingly, are those located around the perimeter of the South Unit. The exact timing of these expansions is not known, but it appears that Rooms 49, 50, and 51, along the south side (the first rooms encountered at close range by visitors) may have been quite late in the construction sequence. Room 49 was interpreted as a kiva, and it seems to have been built over the remains of an earlier kiva, apparently having a round shape. The stratigraphic position of rooms at the north side of the South Unit (rooms 43, 32, 59, and 72) has not yet been ascertained.

ABANDONMENT OF WUPATKI

The abandonment of Wupatki appears to be a relatively peaceful and orderly process, at least as compared to the evidence of violence and burning that sometimes accompanies later, Pueblo IV-age (AD 1300 to 1540) communities. None of the latest rooms at Wupatki appear to have burned, and many of them were abandoned in such a way that their roofs were left intact. Some rooms, e.g. rooms 35 and 44, had significant portions of their roofs still standing as late as the 1930s. Unfortunately, much of the evidence pertaining to the latter stages of Wupatki’s occupation was destroyed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by looters, who dug extensively in Wupatki’s upper deposits (the upper deposits, of course, contained the very latest evidence of Wupatki’s occupation). Also, it appears (John McGregor, personal communication to Christian Downum in 1987) that some of the upper story (i.e., probably the latest) roof beams from Wupatki were removed by bootleggers, who burned them in a moonshine still set up on Woodhouse Mesa not far south of the pueblo. Recently, however, three mid- to late- 13th century dates were obtained from tree-ring samples not previously submitted to the Laboratory of Tree-ring Research. These dates, along with ceramic evidence, suggest that Wupatki was finally abandoned considerably later than previously believed by archaeologists. People at Wupatki continued to cut trees and use them for some purpose (perhaps building or remodeling rooms) at least as late as the AD 1260s, and it is conceivable that Wupatki was not finally left by all its residents until perhaps as late as the early 1300s. The nature of this last occupation has not yet been fully studied, but the recent tree-ring dates in the AD 1260s and a recent re-analysis of the ceramics from Wupatki give us some new material to work with.