Secrets of Casas Grandes - El Palacio Magazine

Secrets ofMelissa S. Powell, Ph.D.Curator of ArchaeologyMuseum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of AnthropologyCasas Grandes holds manysecrets, some of which havebeen revealed through archaeology,and others we have yet to unlock.It is a story of remote ruins, preciousartifacts, and scientific discoveries—but more importantly, it is therecord of the lives of the people ofCasas Grandes. The prehispanicculture is primarily known forits beautiful ceramic tradition,although the real storyis about the people who madeand used the pottery and abouta past culture of the Southwestthat emerged in a desert valleyof northern Chihuahua over eighthundred years ago.In a time before there was aninternational border between Mexico andthe United States, in the thirteenth century,the people of Casas Grandes built a city like noother. We don’t know what they called their home, buttoday it is known as Paquimé. During the Medio period of a.d.1200–1450, the prehistoric city was the center of the Casas Grandes world. Exotic goods32 El Palacio

Casas GrandesABOVE: Several hundred T-shaped doorways were found at Paquimé. Photograph by Leif Percifield.LEFT: Casas Grandes plain ware effigy jar with closed eyes, Casas Grandes, a.d. 1200–1450. Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology, 8335/11.El Palacio 33

secrets of casas grandesABOVE: Adobe architecture at Paquimé,the largest Casas Grandes site.RIGHT: Charles Di Peso examining a macaw pen at Paquimé.Macaws were symbolically important and prized for their feathers,which were traded to other areas of the Southwest. Courtesy of theAmerind Foundation, Inc., Dragoon, Arizona.at the site—copper, shell, turquoise, and macaws—tell us thatCasas Grandes participated in a widespread trade and interactionnetwork that extended from northern Chihuahua intowhat is today the US Southwest.In many aspects Paquimé looks like a Southwesternpueblo, with multistory adobe roomblocks bordering plazasand pottery that is clearly part of the Southwesternpolychrome tradition. In other ways, Casas Grandes is anenigma. Ballcourts, monumental architecture, a stratifiedsocial hierarchy, macaw breeding, and ceramic effigies all suggestMesoamerican influences. Casas Grandes is not uniquelyPuebloan or Mesoamerican; it blends elements of both cultures.Located far north of classic Mesoamerica and south ofthe US Southwest, Casas Grandes has often been overlookedfrom both sides of the border, despite being one of the largestand most significant cultures of its time.Explorers and travelers to the Chihuahuan desert encounteredarid basins separated by the Sierra Madre OccidentalMountains and by three river valleys. Less than ten inchesof rain fall each year, making rivers and springs essential forsustaining life. The first written accounts of the desert ruinswere made in 1584 by Spanish General Francisco de Ibarraand Baltasar de Obregón, who observed:There are many houses of great size, strength,and height. They are of six and seven stories,with towers and walls like fortresses forprotection and defense against the enemieswho undoubtedly used to make war on itsinhabitants. The houses contain large andmagnificent patios paved with enormous andbeautiful stones resembling jasper. There wereknife-shaped stones which supported the wonderfuland big pillars of heavy timber broughtfrom far away. The walls of the houses werewhitewashed and painted in many colors andshades. . .Charles Di Peso and the Amerind Foundation excavatedat Casas Grandes from 1958–1961. In bold style, Di Peso presentedthe vision that Paquimé was founded by Mesoamericantraders—pochteca—who established political control over34 El Palacio

secrets of casas grandesBELOW: Ramos Polychrome male smokereffigy jar, Casas Grandes, a.d. 1200–1450.Collection of Alan S. and Alice B. Fleischer.ABOVE: Ramos Polychrome olla with stylized macaws, Casas Grandes,a.d. 1200–1450. Collection of the Amerind Foundation, Inc., Dragoon, Arizona, 4605.Casas Grandes. He believed Paquimé was the outpost of aMesoamerican state where merchant rulers exploited localresources and controlled the exchange of shell, ceramics, copper,and turquoise, all channeled to classic Mesoamerica.Today there is little accepted evidence to support amodel of direct Mesoamerican intervention. However, DiPeso’s fascinating work still tells us much about the peopleof Paquimé. The great pueblo was the home of potters,stone workers, craft specialists, weavers, ball players,macaw breeders, hunters and farmers, traders, religiousleaders, and families. The city was densely populated withthree to five thousand people.Visitors to Paquimé immediately notice thick-walledadobe roomblocks, some with unusual cross and butterflyshapes. Paquimé contained about two thousand rooms.Setting it apart from other Southwestern sites, a ceremonialprecinct includes ballcourts, a colonnaded gallery, anelite tomb complex, and seven massive platform mounds.Archaeologists Michael Whalen and Paul Minnis characterizethe imposing, substantial nature of the buildings as architectureof power, designed to awe visitors to Paquimé eighthundred years ago, much as it does today.The control of water was an integral feature, with a sophisticatedwater system linking domestic reservoirs to a spring.There was an underground well, and stone-lined canals suppliedwater and drained refuse. In surrounding areas, irrigationditches directed water for the farming of corn, beans, andsquash, a diet supplemented by the hunting of game.Casas Grandes is the only area of the Southwest withevidence of macaw breeding. Nesting pens with heavy entrystone rings protected caretakers from the sharp beaks andclaws of the birds. Several hundred macaw skeletons, alongwith eggshells, are evidence of breeding. Scarlet macaws(Ara macao) are not native to Casas Grandes. Their naturalhabitat is tropical lowland areas such as Veracruz. Macawswere raised for trade in feathers, or less commonly for exportof the birds themselves. Macaws were prized for their brilliantfeathers, used in ceremonies. Most macaws found incontemporaneous archaeological contexts in the Southwestprobably came from Casas Grandes. Macaws appear on CasasGrandes pottery in realistic and stylized designs, emphasizingtheir great cultural significance.El Palacio 35

secrets of casas grandesTHIS PAGE: Ramos Polychrome bird effigy jar,possibly a duck or killdeer, Casas Grandes,a.d. 1200–1450. Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology, courtesy of Johnand Linda Comstock and the Abigail VanVleck Charitable Trust, 8365/11.OPPOSITE PAGE: HuerigosPolychrome Janus-faced jar, CasasGrandes, a.d. 1200–1450. Collection ofAlan S. and Alice B. Fleischer.Casas Grandes ballcourts were places for gatherings ofgreat importance. Southwestern kivas are absent, and ballcourtslinked together neighboring communities. Paquimé hastwo I-shaped ballcourts of Mesoamerican style with a playingfield enclosed by raised sides. I-shaped ballcourts occur atfifteen smaller Medio-period sites in northern Chihuahua,most within a day’s walk of Paquimé. Visiting teams fromother areas of Casas Grandes may have traveled this distanceto participate in games.The ballgame was probably an exciting part of communitylife played for diversion and to mark ritual occasions.The events were likely accompanied by feasting at nearbyagave roasting pits. We do not know exactly how the CasasGrandes ballgame was played. It may have been similar toan Aztec version where players hit a rubber ball with thehips, while other depictions show the ball returned withsticks or the hands and feet. Mesoamerican ballcourtsoccur in areas with factionalized, competing leaders, leadingsome archaeologists to propose that Casas Grandesballcourts signify ongoing competition and rivalry betweenneighboring elites.OriginsOne of the secrets of Casas Grandes is where the people originated.Some look to distant sources, such as Stephen Lekson’sassertion that Chaco Canyon elites traveled south along aChaco Meridian to found Casas Grandes. A stronger casecan perhaps be made for development from local beginningsin northern Mexico. Cerros de trincheras—fortified hilltopterraces—were residential and agricultural sites from 1000b.c.–a.d. 500, a surprisingly early date. The terraced settlementsreveal a significant late Archaic population in the areaand demonstrate the importance of sedentism, defense, andthe appearance of agriculture.Origins of Casas Grandes are seen in pithouses and plainpottery that appear around a.d. 200, traits shared with theMogollon culture of the Southwest. People lived in farmingvillages of clustered pithouses and made textured and red-onbrownpottery during the early Viejo period (a.d. 600–1075).By a.d. 1075–1200, their descendents lived in surface houseswith plazas. A dramatic change occurred when Paquimé wasbuilt in the Medio period (a.d. 1200–1450), a time of greaterpopulation aggregation and a profusion of eight different polychromeceramic types.36 El Palacio

secrets of casas grandesThe Ceramic TraditionThe people of Casas Grandes left no written accounts but theirpottery has endured to tell us about their society. Potters collectedhigh-quality local white clays to form vessels by hand.The typical form is a globular jar or olla. Ceramics were usedeveryday in both domestic and ritual contexts.The striking pottery of the Medio period (a.d. 1200–1450)has bold geometric designs painted in red and black on a lightbackground. Casas Grandes potters produced a wide varietyof types and forms. Ramos Polychrome is the most prevalent,and appears to have been made in the core area and exportedto other villages. Archaeologist Maria Sprehn finds that therise of pottery specialization coincided with the rise of an elitein the Medio period, as elite patrons may have commissionedspecialist artists to make the finest pieces.The symbolic importance of macaws and serpents isunmistakable, as they are among the images most frequentlydepicted on pottery. Serpents may symbolize Quetzalcóatl,Mesoamerican deity of the underworld, or they may be connectedto the Water Serpent of the Pueblos. Although the birdserpent may have been transmitted from Mesoamerica, it islikely that the underlying ideas may have been interpreted differentlyas this symbol spread throughout the Southwest.One of the secrets of Casas Grandes that continues topuzzle archaeologists is why potters madesuch a variety of ceramic effigyjars. Effigies are sculptural formsdepicting animals, humans, andother beings. They portraybirds, badgers, fish, andturtles, along with fantasticalcomposite creaturessuch as a cross betweena rabbit and a bird.“Janus” pots have thesame face on both sides,reflecting the importanceof duality. Hooded effigies,with a human-like head abovea jar, have been interpreted by DiPeso as Mesoamerican deities. Oneresearcher argues that effigy vessels were setin wall niches in domestic rooms, where they may havebeen used to present food and drink offerings.Female and male effigies may be more closely related toa Mesoamerican tradition, as human effigies are rare in theSouthwest. Information about dress and adornment are seenin details of jewelry, textiles, sashes, headbands, and facialdecoration. Females are seated with both legs extended, whilemales kneel or have one knee flexed to the chest. ArchaeologistChristine VanPool argues that smoking male effigies depictritual activity and may represent shamans, possible religiousleaders of Casas Grandes.Exotic Goods and ElitesExotic artifacts at Paquimé surpass amounts found at otherSouthwestern sites. Workshop and storage rooms containedornaments of shell, copper, and turquoise. Over four millionpieces of shell were found, weighing one and a half tons. Shellwas transported from the coast and made into jewelry. Fivethousand pieces of turquoise were found, as jewelry and buriedin room corners as offerings. Turquoise likely originatedfrom the Cerrillos mines or Burro Mountains of New Mexico.A probable trade network exported the sacred stone from theSouthwest to central Mexico.Casas Grandes society appears to have centered arounda prestige goods economy based on long-distance trade ofmacaws, shell, and turquoise. One of its secrets is why exoticgoods were stockpiled at the site. Somepropose Paquimé was a pilgrimage centeror that the goods represent storedwealth. Exotic goods may havebeen controlled by elites whowere religious leaders. Theassociation of elites withrare artifacts and symbolsof authority reveals statusdifferences among theCasas Grandes people.The RegionalSystemWe are only beginning tounderstand the role of Paquiméwithin the larger region. The surroundingarea contains hundreds of sites, just nowbeing scientifically studied, that were all part of the Casascontinued on page 88El Palacio 37

secrets of casas grandescontinued from page 37Grandes system. Nearby villages also have polychrome ceramics,T-shaped doors, macaw pens, and ballcourts. Some outlyingsites share similarities with the core area, but do not appearto have been under direct political control of Paquimé.The wider Casas Grandes interaction sphere includedpeople who lived in what is today southern New Mexico andArizona. The Joyce Well site in Hidalgo County, New Mexico,has Casas Grandes ceramics, T-shaped doors, and ballcourts,indicating ties to Paquimé. Similarities in ceramics also demonstrateinteraction with Jornada Mogollon people to thenortheast and with the Tonto Basin of central Arizona.The End of theCasas Grandes WorldBy a.d. 1450, Paquimé and the surrounding area were abandoned.Di Peso argued that the city was destroyed by burning during anattack from outside enemies. He described macaws left in pens,unfinished crafts in storerooms, pit ovens filled with agaves, andbroken altar stones. Some archaeologists think that the close ofthe Casas Grandes era was less dramatic, and influenced by forcessuch as changing environmental conditions.The remaining people of Casas Grandes migrated to theSonoran river valleys, according to Di Peso. They may haveCasas Grandes at the Maxwell MuseumBy David A. Phillips, Jr., Ph.D.,Curator of Archaeology, Maxwell MuseumPhoto courtesy Maxwell MuseumOnce you’ve seen the Museum of Indian Arts and CultureCasas Grandes exhibit, be sure to visit BeyondBorders at the Maxwell Museum at the Universityof New Mexico in Albuquerque. Beyond Bordersbegan life as a traveling exhibit on internationalcooperative studies in the Casas Grandesregion. (For more information on those studies,see Tim Maxwell’s August 2006 article inEl Palacio.) The December reincarnation of theexhibit will include artifacts from the Maxwell’scollections.No Casas Grandes exhibit would be complete withoutexamples of the pottery, for which the culture is best known (andwhich, sadly, has encouraged so much looting in Casas Grandessites). The Albuquerque exhibit includes several pieces to helpillustrate current theories about the pottery’s symbolic content.One of the authors of those theories, Christine VanPool, developedher ideas while a graduate student at UNM, so it’s especiallyappropriate to mention them in the expanded exhibit. Dr. VanPoolstudied the Maxwell’s pottery but also examined hundreds ofvessels from other collections, including those at theMuseum of Indian Arts and Culture.The Museum of New Mexico and the MaxwellMuseum have common roots, through—whoelse—Edgar Lee Hewett. Besides foundingthe museum system and School of AmericanResearch in Santa Fe, Hewett established thedepartment of anthropology at the Universityof New Mexico (and a few other programsbesides). The Maxwell Museum began as acouple of display cases of the department’s holdings,in a university hallway, back in 1932; today it’s anindependent unit of UNM. Next year we’ll celebrate our 75thanniversary.The Beyond Borders exhibit opening will be from 11:00 to2:00 on Saturday, December 2, 2006, and will continue until earlyMay 2007. We invite our El Palacio friends to drop by that day,or in the following months, to get a second look at the CasasGrandes culture. Admission to the Maxwell Museum is free. Formore information, please call 505-277-4405. n88 El Palacio

Ramos Polychrome female effigy vessel, possibly depicting a birth scene,Casas Grandes, a.d. 1200–1450. Collection of Alan S. and Alan B. Fleischer.joined new statelets that also participated in extensive tradenetworks. Others may have resettled in ancestral Pueblocommunities that were part of the Casas Grandes interactionsphere. When the Spanish arrived at the end of the sixteenthcentury, Suma Indians were living in the area, and the vibrantregional center of Paquimé was only an abandoned ruin.Regional surveys and Mexican-US collaborations areunderway, research that will bring to light more answers to theremaining secrets of Casas Grandes. With these projects comesgrowing awareness that Casas Grandes is a significant part ofthe Native American heritage of the Southwest, bringing thisimportant culture the recognition it deserves.The pottery of Casas Grandes lives on today in a differentform. The village of Mata Ortiz, located sixteen miles fromPaquimé, is a community of 400 potters known for its contemporaryart. Although not direct descendents of the CasasGrandes people, Mata Ortiz potters have revived the designsand forms of the prehistoric pottery over the past thirty years,finding acclaim on the international art market. Today MataOrtiz ceramics have moved far beyond direct imitation of theprehistoric vessels. The new styles reflect the constantly evolvingdiversity and creativity of Mata Ortiz potters—an artistic traditionthey share with the ancient potters of Casas Grandes. n