NO. I ARCHITECTURE OF PUEBLO BONITO JUDD 4I 



THE RISE AND FALL OF PUEBLO BONITO 



Pueblo Bonito began as a wide-spreading crescent of Pueblo II 

 houses with storerooms at the rear, several subterranean kivas out in 

 front, and the village trash pile beyond. After that trash had ac- 

 cumulated to a depth of 8 feet or more, after 5 feet of sand had 

 settled against the old P. II houses, another people came to join the 

 original settlers — a Pueblo III people with a more advanced architec- 

 ture and a different pottery complex. Together, the houses these 

 P. Ill people built and the pottery they made are now widely accepted 

 as earmarks of a distinct social development, "The Chaco Culture." 

 One objective of the Pueblo Bonito Expeditions was to ascertain, if 

 possible, the origin of this development and its termination. 



We reached part of our goal but not all. After seven summers at 

 Pueblo Bonito, 1921-1927, I am of the opinion that the P. II and the 

 P. Ill peoples who formerly dwelt there had come independently from 

 beyond the San Juan River, but I can only guess at their destination 

 after leaving Chaco Canyon. This recognition of the broad area north 

 of the San Juan as the place of origin — an area in which I have done 

 no field work for many years — has been substantiated by the published 

 observations of Kidder, Morris, Martin, Roberts, Brew, and others, 

 and I have placed great confidence in those observations in what 

 follows. I am aware of no later, equally pertinent researches. 



The so-called Chaco Culture was just short of full bloom when 

 it first came to Chaco Canyon. At Pueblo Bonito it introduced veneer- 

 and-core masonry and architectural precision; it also introduced 

 Corrugated-coil Culinary ware, Straight-line Hachure and, among 

 others, a hybrid variety of domestic pottery we designated "the Chaco- 

 San Juan." Seen by various observers and variously described, the 

 Chaco Culture and influence attributed to it have been reported far 

 beyond the borders of Chaco Canyon. 



Chaco-like pottery and Chaco-like masonry have been cited re- 

 peatedly as proof that Lowry Ruin, northwest of Mesa Verde 

 National Park and Aztec Ruin to the southeast, among others, repre- 

 sent colonies from Chaco Canyon, Mancos Black-on-white and 

 McElmo Black-on- white were dominant pottery types at Lowry 

 although Mesa Verde Black-on-white appeared conspicuously in the 

 upper fill of several rooms (Martin, 1936, p. 94, 205). All Lowry 

 masonry is of veneer-and-core, or double-coursed, composition but 

 Martin separated it into 3 classes : Chaco-like, non-Chaco, and inter- 

 mediate. Tabular sandstone identifies the first; squarish blocks of 



