Casas Grandes

Infobox World Heritage Site
WHS = Archaeological Zone of Paquimé, Casas Grandes


State Party = MEX
Type = Cultural
Criteria = iii, iv
ID = 560
Region = Latin America and the Caribbean
Year = 1998
Session = 22nd
Link = http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/560

Casas Grandes (Spanish for "Great Houses"; also known as Paquimé) is the contemporary name given to a pre-Columbian archaeological zone and its central site, located in northwestern Mexico in the modern-day Mexican state of Chihuahua. Regarded as one of the most significant archaeological zones in the northwestern region, [Phillips and Bagwell (2001)] Casas Grandes is centered in a wide, fertile valley on the Casas Grandes or San Miguel river, some convert|35|mi|km south of Janos and convert|150|mi|km northwest of the state capital, the city of Chihuahua. The archaeological zone is contained within the eponymous modern "municipio" (municipality) of Casas Grandes. [Not to be confused with the adjoining, separate Chihuahan municipality, Nuevo Casas Grandes.] The valley and region has long been inhabited by indigenous groups.

Pre-Columbian culture

Between AD 1130 and 1300, the area's inhabitants began to congregate in small settlements in this wide fertile valley. The size of the settlements expanded during the 14th century, ultimately resulting in multi-storied communities which may have housed up to 2500 people. The larger communities are characterized by I-shaped Mesoamerican ballcourts, stone-faced platforms, effigy mounds, a market area and an elaborate water storage system. Specialized craft activities included the production of copper bells and ornaments, the manufacture of beads from marine molluscs, extensive pottery production. These crafts were probably distributed by an extensive trading network. Casas Grandes pottery has a white or reddish surface, with ornamentation in blue, red, brown or black, and is sometimes considered of better manufacture than the modern pottery in the area. Effigy bowls and vessels often formed in the shape of a painted human figure. Casas Grandes pottery was traded as far north as New Mexico and Arizona and throughout northern Mexico.

The largest identified settlement is known today as Paquimé or Casas Grandes. It began as a group of 20 or more house clusters, each with a plaza and enclosing wall. These single-story adobe dwellings shared a common water system. Excavations in one compound produced eggshell fragments, bird skeletons and traces of wooden perches which led to the conclusion that the community raised scarlet macaws, important in Mesoamerican rituals. This community was almost completely rebuilt during the 14th century. Multi-storied apartment buildings replaced the smaller dwellings. Paquimé was abandoned in the early 15th century. A major collection of Casas Grandes pottery is currently held by the Museum of Peoples and Cultures, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

Archeological ruins

At the time of the Spanish Conquest, the district of Casas Grandes was studded with artificial mounds, from which looters took large numbers of stone axes, metates or corn-grinders, and earthenware pottery vessels of various kinds.

Before significant archaeological investigation, sizable portions of ruined buildings from pre-Columbian times were still extant about half a mile from the modern community. The ruins were built of sun-dried blocks of mud and gravel, about 22 inches thick, and of irregular length, generally about convert|3|ft|m, probably formed and dried in place. The thick walls seem to have been plastered both inside and outside. A principal structure extended convert|800|ft|m from north to south, and convert|250|ft|m east to west; generally rectangular, and appears to have consisted of three separate units joined by galleries or lines of lower buildings.

The living spaces evidently varied in size from mere closets to extensive courtyards. Walls at many of the angles stand 40 to convert|50|ft|m high, and indicate an original elevation of up to six or seven stories. Ruins about convert|450|ft|m from the main grouping consist of a series of rooms ranged round a square court, seven to each side with a larger apartment at each corner.

Ruins similar to those of Casas Grandes exist near the Gila, the Salinas, and the Colorado and it is probable that they all represent one cultural group related to the Mogollon culture to the north. Early ethnologist Hubert Howe Bancroft, in "The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, " was disposed to relate them to the modern day Hopi, sometimes known as Moqui during his period.

ee also

* Colonia Dublán
* Mata Ortiz
* Nuevo Casas Grandes

Notes

References

: cite journal |author=aut|Boyd, Carolyn E. |year=1996 |month=June |title=Shamanic Journeys into the Otherworld of the Archaic Chichimec |journal=Latin American Antiquity |url=http://www.wac.ucla.edu/pdf/shamanicjourneyrockart.pdf |format=PDF reprinted online |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=pp.152–164 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=Society for American Archaeology |doi=10.2307/971615 |issn=1045-6635 |oclc=54395676: cite book |author=aut|Cahill, Rick |year=1991 |title=The Story of Casas Grandes Pottery |others=Julia Gates (Spanish trans.) |location=Tucson, AZ|publisher=Boojum Books |isbn=0-9630853-0-1 |oclc=25469407: cite book |author=aut|Di Peso, Charles C. |authorlink=Charles C. Di Peso|year=1974 |title=Casas Grandes: A Fallen Trading Center of the Gran Chichimeca |format=8 vols. |others=John B. Rinaldo and Gloria J. Fenner (coauthors vols. 4–8), Gloria J. Fenner (ed.), Alice Wesche (illus.) |series=Amerind Foundation, Inc. Archaeology Series, № 9 |location=Dragoon, AZ |publisher=Amerind Foundation, in association with Northland Press (Flagstaff, AZ) |isbn=0873580567 |oclc=1243721: cite book |author=aut|Fagan, Brian M. |authorlink=Brian M. Fagan|year=1995 |title=Ancient North America: The Archaeology of a Continent |edition=Revised and expanded edition |location=London and New York |publisher=Thames & Hudson |isbn=0-500-05075-9 |oclc=32256661 : cite conference |author=aut|Phillips, David A., Jr.|coauthors =and aut|Elizabeth Arwen Bagwell |year=2001|title=How Big Was Paquimé? |booktitle=Poster presentation |edition=online reproduction by author|conference=66th Annual Meeting, Society for American Archaeology, New Orleans, April 19, 2001 | publisher = | url = http://www.unm.edu/~dap/howbig/howfront.html | format = | doi = | accessdate =2008-08-11

: cite book |author=aut|Whalen, Michael E. |coauthors=and aut|Paul E. Minnis |year=2001 |title=Casas Grandes and its Hinterland: Prehistoric Regional Organization in Northwest Mexico |location=Tucson |publisher=University of Arizona Press |isbn=0-816-52097-6 |oclc=44632899

*1911

External links

* [http://www.nuevacasasgrandes.org/paquime.aspx Information about Paquimé]
* [https://www.desertusa.com/mag00/aug/stories/paquime.html History and photos of Paquimé]
* [http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=560 Paquimé declared a World Heritage Site]