Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Puerco Pueblo Ruins


Overlooking the Puerco River, the pueblo was occupied 600 to 800 years ago by Ancestral Puebloan People. Features include partially stabilized walls of several room types and a number of petroglyph panels. One of the latter appears to have been a solar calendar. The sun follows different paths throughout the year. This petroglyph marks the summer solstice. During the morning, a shaft of sunlight travels down the side to penetrate the centre of a small spiral.


Puerco Pueblo stood one-story high, with 2 to 3 rows of connected rooms of approximately 100 rooms surrounding a central plaza. Within the plaza were several rectangular ceremonial roooms called kivas. The village was a lively center even after the abandonment of larger Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon pueblos to the northeast. It was inhabited from about A.D. 1250 to the late 1300s, and housed a number of families. The nearby river provided the water that nourished plant and animal life necessary for this pueblo community.

No comments: