New Perspectives on the Maverick Mountain Phase Roomblock at Point of Pines Pueblo

Summary

Emil Haury's 1958 synthesis of the Pueblo III-Pueblo IV period (A.D. 1265-1450) archaeology of Point of Pines Pueblo, in east-central Arizona, is the US Southwest's classic case study in how to reliably infer ancient migrations. Field school excavations conducted between 1946 and 1960 uncovered compelling traces of immigrants from the Kayenta region of far northeastern Arizona and southeastern Utah. Noting evidence of a fire in the part of the pueblo referred to as the Maverick Mountain phase roomblock, and the rarity of Maverick Mountain Series pottery in deposits post-dating the conflagration, Haury concluded that the locals at Point of Pines burned these rooms in order to drive the Kayenta immigrants out. Recent research with the site’s collections and their associated records has revealed indications of ritual architectural closure behavior similar to that documented at the Homol’ovi villages, a key indicator being enriched deposits. The nature of these deposits suggests that, rather than the locals, the immigrants set fire to the roomblock. In this paper, we describe this new evidence and consider the implications for understanding interactions between locals and immigrants at Point of Pines.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 18791