Pueblo III Period


The Pueblo III Period was the third period, also called the "Great Pueblo period" when Ancestral Puebloans lived in large cliff-dwelling, multi-storied pueblo, or cliff-side talus house communities. By the end of the period, the ancient people of the Four Corners region migrated south into larger, centralized pueblos in central and southern Arizona and New Mexico.
The Pueblo III Period is roughly the same as the "Great Pueblo Period" and "Classic Pueblo Period".

Architecture

During the Pueblo III Period most people lived in communities with large multi-storied dwellings. Some moved into community centers at pueblos canyon heads, such as Sand Canyon and Goodman Point pueblos in the Montezuma Valley; others moved into cliff dwellings on canyon shelves such as Mesa Verde or Keet Seel in the Navajo National Monument. Typical villages had included kivas, towers, and dwellings made with triple-coursed stone masonry walls. T-shaped windows and doors emerged for both surface and cliff dwellings.
Three major regional centers with cliff dwellings and community centers were Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico, Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado and Betatakin and Keet Seel area in Arizona.
Based upon the similarities between the Ancestral Puebloans and modern puebloan people, it is likely that the communities were organized in clans, or groups of related family members, by matrilineal lines of descent. When a couple married, they lived at the home of the wife's mother and the husband engaged in religious activities in the kiva of his mother's clan.
During the Pueblo III period some people were buried with personal objects, indicating both a level of prestige and evolved religious beliefs. To have earned a higher status within the community infers that the settlements developed hierarchical political and social systems.
It is likely that public ceremonial dances were performed for bountiful harvests, health, hunting and rain, like the Hopi Snake Dance. Whatever the ceremonial observance, each person had a role which increased in responsibility and status over time.
As a means to improve agricultural yield, the Pueblo III period saw advancements in water conservation. Stones were placed in and around farm land to divert flow for irrigation, water conservation and to reduce run-off. This was accomplished through the use of bordered gardens, reservoirs, check dams and terraced gardening plots – building upon the techniques of the Pueblo II Period. Corn, beans and squash were cultivated using dryland farming techniques. Their diet was supplemented with wild plants, such as beeweed. As nutrients were depleted from over-farming, new land was found and cleared for cultivation.

Pottery

Corrugated gray ware and decorated black-on-white pottery were prevalent in the beginning of the Period. Gray pottery vessels were used for cooking and storage. Designs, primarily geometric designs and symbols of people, animals and birds, were painted on the exterior of black-on-white pottery and the interior of bowls. The pottery made included cooking vessels, jars, mugs, bowls, pitchers, and ladles. Pottery making became an art form for individuals who specialized in distinctive styles made for trade. Polychrome pottery painted in white, orange, red and black was made at the end of the Pueblo III period.
Due to the considerable refinements during this period, pottery from Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon are considered "some of the world's finest ceramic art, ancient or modern."

Other material goods

Some of the material goods from this period are:
By 1300, Ancient Pueblo People from the Four Corners region abandoned their settlements. The migration was likely as the result of prolonged drought from AD 1276 to 1299 which would have caused considerable hardship, such as starvation, raids from neighboring starving people, and dramatic reduction in the pueblo population. During and after the drought there was a mass exodus south to central and southern Arizona and New Mexico.
There are other theories about why people forever abandoned the northern pueblo regions. Soil nutrients may have become depleted due to many years of farming. Or there may have been wars with other regional tribes.

Cultural groups and periods

The cultural groups of this period include:

Gallery