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Chronology of the Ancient Southwest Cultures
| 30,000 BC -15,000 BC | Earliest dated site in Southwest. |
| 15,000 BC - 11,000 BC | Evidence of mammoth kills at Clovis, New Mexico. |
| 9,500 BC - 9,000 BC | Paleo-Indian Period: Clovis Period |
| 6,000 BC | Archaic Period |
| 5,000 BC | Basketmaker I - II: Atatal used, no bow and arrows. No pottery. Vessels of woven twig and pitch. Garments of woven fur. |
| 2,000 BC | Maize begins to be cultivated in western hemisphere. Hunter/Gatherer's - Agriculturists. |
| 500 - 700 AD Basketmaker III |
700 - 900 AD Pueblo I |
900 - 1050 AD / 1070 - 1120 AD Pueblo II |
1120 - 1200 AD Pueblo III |
1300 - 1600 AD Pueblo IV |
1600 - Present Pueblo V |
| Cochise Culture:(Desert Culture). | 200-300 BC: Pottery developed. Deliberate Burials. Projectile points developed. 600 AD: Influencing Basketmaker Culture. e.g. Pottery. 800 AD: Expanding west. Pit House Villages. 1000 AD: Reaching Cohonina and Sinagua Cultures in northern Arizona and merging with Hohokam Culture. 1200 AD: Finally feeling pressures from the Anasazi Cultures in the north: Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. | |
| Mogollon Culture: Hunter/Gatherer's & Agriculturists. | Occupied area along the Salt and Gila Rivers, AZ along with other people developing the Hohokam Culture. Reddish undecorated pottery. Pit Houses. Ceremonial structures. Round heads(not flat in back from cradle boards). Mogollon I:200 BC - 650 AD: Transistion from nomadic to settled village life. Mogollon II:650 AD - 850 AD: Larger villages built in valleys, distinguished pottery. Mogollon III: 850 AD - 1000 AD: Larger villages, kivas, some forty feet in diameter, pottery changes to black on white. Mogollon IV: Anasazi, Western Pueblo: 1000 AD - 1400 AD |
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| Hohokam Culture: Existed along with the Mogollon. | Pottery: evolved to oxidized atmosphere firing and using paddle and anvil to form vessels. Stone tools more artistically made, and exotic forms of arrow points. Metallurgy e.g. Copper Bells made by lost wax process. Clay Figurines. Pioneer Period: 300 BC - 550 BC:Pole,brush and mud houses, agriculturists, canal supplied water to crops. Red pottery w/ designs, crude figurines. Cremated the dead. Colonial Period: 550 AD - 900 AD: Occupied area from Salt and Gila rivers to Verde Valley to vicinty of Flagstaff. Extensive irrigation canals. Constructed Ball Courts. Carved ritual objects. Sedentary Period: 900 AD - 1100 AD: Territory expansion north after eruption of Sunset Crater in 1068. Agriculture expands. Dwellings arranged around a Plaza. Pottery designs more geometric. Mass producing pottery. Making of copper bells. 1000 AD: Mogollon and Hohokam Cultures merging into one Culture. Classic Period:1100 AD - 1450 AD: Great change, often thought of the apex of the culture. Culture weakens. |
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| Anasazi Culture: Kayenta/Mesa Verde/Chacoan | Undoubtedly related to the early desert cultures,this culture is the earliest of man along the cliffs of the Little Colorado River, Grand Canyon, northern plateau areas of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. Significant contribution to southwest was their architecture using stone and adobe when available. Basket Maker I-II:100 BC - 400 AD. Dwelling sites in caves and rock shelters throughout the Four Corners area. Baskets, no pottery. Hunter/Gatherer's but did cultivate maize and squash. Burials in caves or crevices. Basket Maker III: 400 AD - 700 AD. Culture grows and moves into valleys and highlands. Settlements contained numerous pithouses. Beans were cultivated and turkeys were domesticated and kept in villages. Bow and arrow appear.First grey Anasazi pottery emerges and crude figures for rituals. 600 AD: Influenced by Mogollon pottery, and arts. Used reducing method for pottery firing: resulting in Greyware. Excellent utensils. Pueblo I: 700 AD - 900 AD. Villages still similar to BM III. The Kiva, a subterranean religious/social structure resembling the pit house was constructed.Cotton was beginning cultivation and resaged the true loom.Practice of binding infants to cradle boards began, flattening the backs of the skulls.Pottery: Brown Ware,Grey Ware and Jugs and Ladels. Black on White/Red, Black on Red and Red on Orange. Pueblo II:900 AD - 1100 AD. Cultural uniformity: All ingrediants of the Anasazi culture has been introduced. Maxium distribution and greatest number of people. Masonry pueblos, small and large Kivas, Great Kivas more elaborate. Ornaments of oll kinds. Pottery: Experimentation evident. Gray corrugated jars, numerous styles, designs, types of clay, fire techniques,and pigaments of black on white. Others: Red, black on red, brown w/ black interiors. Products: Jars, Ladles, Bowls, Pitchers, Canteens, and Effigies. Chacoan Anasazi: 1000 AD: Branch of Anasazi living in Chaco Canyon in the San Juan Basin advanced culturally beyound their contemporaries. In population and interconnection of many villages, harnessing run off water, signaling outposts, and roads. The population florished for the first half of Pueblo III period and disolved by 1200 AD. Pueblo III:1100 AD - 1300 AD. Fewer, but more densely populated settlements and villages. Masonry structures predominated and were multi-storied in huge alcoves, on the plains and consisted of many Kivas. Trading with other peoples reached a high peak. Ceramics, artifacts, ornaments, foodstuffs, and raw and worked turquoise was traded with Mexican's for Macaws and objects of stone and metals. Pottery: Black on white, red on brown, black on red w/ geometric designs and some polychrome. Pueblo IV: 1300 AD - 1600 AD. Consentration of population continued into larger pueblos and sites, especially around the Hopi mesas, land of Cibola around Zuni,and the upper Rio Grande. Occupaton of the clff dwellings became rare. By 1450 AD most of the sites on the Colorado Plateau were deserted. In the next century the large urban centers were also deserted. Attributed to this deseration was the increasing encroachment of the newly arrived nomadic Indians, such as the Ute, Paiute, Apache, and Navajo. These people were Athabascan. Pottery: Creativity increased and evolved to beautiful polychrome with muli-colors. Mural paintings were painted on the wall of Kiva's depicting mythical creatures, maked dancers and ceremonial objects. Pueblo V1600 AD - Present. This period of the direct decendants of the Anasazi, the Puebloeans was historic. Discovered by the Coronado Expedition and subjugated by the Eroupeon influences was demoralizing. The Pueblo Uprising of 1680 cast out the Spanish colonist's. All the catholic priets were killed and colaborater's were vanquished (story of Awatobi). Diego de Vargas reconquered the Puebloeans twelve years later. Trouble with other Indians worsened with the Navajos after they acquired horses. 1400 -1600 AD: Notable population centers: Hopi Mesa's, Arizona; Zuni-Acoma, Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico; Upper Little Colorado River; Verde Valley, Arizona. |