Violent Conflict and a Ritual of Memory in the Puebloan Southwest.

Summary

Among Puebloan groups of the American Southwest, oral traditions record mythical-historical stories of the often-catastrophic or violent ends of some of the pueblo ruins that dot the landscape (e.g., Hopi Ruin Legends, by Michael Lomatuway’ma, et al., 1993). In other cases, archaeological evidence points to the continued importance of ruins across centuries of time as repositories of meaning across the landscape (Snead 2008). One small feature from a burned pueblo from Central New Mexico records a once-hidden act of memory amid evidence of extensive destruction. Here, at LA-9032, people long ago carefully buried two new corrugated ceramic jars within a maize storage room. Deformed pollen grains in the jar indicate that the masonry walls and charred corn kernels still retaining heat from the fire. This poignant act of remembrance, while hidden from casual passers-by, forms part of the complex story of that particular place, reaches across the centuries, bearing witness again today to long-ago suffering

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20169