Water, Giver of Life, Then and Now – 'Aztec Ruins' National Monument

 Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.

William Penn

Reproduction of the original Great Kiva (background)
Older Kiva (foreground)

Located between Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde, the Aztec Ruins are a natural progression in what I felt I should visit to get a more comprehensive picture of these great successive and, at times, overlapping older societies.  It’s on my way to Mesa Verde, where I have a reservation to a guided tour of the Long House, hence a very easy reach.    

… visiting these places reinforces the idea that the ancestral landscape comprises a mosaic, and each site serves as a piece of this larger picture of history.  This region is part of the pathway that ancestors followed as they made their way to the Rio Grande. 

Walter Dasheno, Santa Clara Pueblo 

Situated on the banks of the Animas River, a source of year-round water, the vestiges you see today are only the ground floor.  When this village was occupied, the buildings were 3 to 4 stories high.  Logs for the beams were sourced from mountain forests twenty miles away.  Some of the walls were three-feet thick in places, making them twice as wide as the walls in the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings.  Of course, Mesa Verde’s dwellings were built inside protective alcoves on cliffsides whilst Aztec Ruins homes were not as well protected from the elements. 

Location of Chaco Canyon vs. Aztec Ruins vs. Mesa Verde

Don’t be fooled by the name, however.  These structures were not built by the Aztec People of Mexico, but by Ancestral Pueblo People centuries before the Aztec empire began (1320’s CE).  The name ‘Aztec Ruins’ erroneously traces back to Spanish drawn maps of the 1800’s.  

The Mayan, Inca, and Aztec cultures of South and Central America were some of the high points of America's culture and technology Pre-Columbus when Europeans arrived. However, an often overlooked, yet just as fascinating, culture existed in the North American Southwest. Anaasází ruins exist across a huge swath of the Four-Corners area. 

The Mesa Verde community prospered from 550 to 950 CE.
Chaco Canyon citizens flourished between 850 and 1130 CE.
The Aztec Ruins people thrived from the late 1000’s to the late 1200’s CE.

Paleo-Indians were farming and hunting the banks of the Animas River for at least 3,000 years prior to building this village.  The real Aztec Empire began its reign at least 125 years after the decline of the Ancestral Pueblo People Empire.  

Whereas Aztec Ruins may have been established initially as an agricultural or trading society between the two communities, the village eventually became independent, because it survived the downfall of Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde by more than a century.

The Great Kiva was excavated by Earl Morris in 1921
and reconstructed under his direction in 1934

An estimated 11% of New Mexico’s population is comprised of indigenous peoples, making up 23 Tribes, Nations and Pueblos.  Nineteen Pueblos, three Apache tribes (the Fort Sill Apache Tribe, the Jicarilla Apache Nation and the Mescalero Apache Tribe), and the Navajo Nation.  For these communities – the Apache, Navajo and Pueblo – many of the state’s most beautiful natural spaces are still sacred ground.  

The Ancestral Pueblo People of the Four Corners area included diverse groups with local styles of architecture, dress, art, and a very rich culture.  Today’s Pueblo People live in several separate communities.  Their language is divided into four distinct families that are as different as Chinese is to English.  

They consider these sites sacred grounds where they often return for ceremonies, visits, prayers, songs, dances, etc.  

At the very beginning of this Place by Flowing Waters, The People gathered to build a Great Kiva.  In so doing, they enacted the joining of the primal pairing of nature that bonded them as one people, male and female: Sky and Earth, sun and moon, winter and summer.  The Great Kiva represented the First House created by The People upon their emergence from the Earth’s Navel. The Great Kiva was the place where all the clans met to celebrate that First Story.  The Great Kiva was the center of the Cosmos, where the six sacred directions symbolically came together, where The People reconnected with their spiritual and mythic origins and were nourished by the spiritual Center, the Earth’s Navel. 

Resident of Santa Clara Pueblo.

Watch as the sun rises, aligned with this north wall, during summer solstice
Or as the sun sets during winter solstice

While we may never know the full story behind the many solar observations, we do know that the Ancestral Pueblo People built their structures in alignment with the winter and summer solstices.  The north wall of Aztec West is aligned with the winter solstice in late December, while the east end is aligned with the summer solstice in late June.

Inside the Great Kiva reconstruction
Over 40 feet in diameter, eight feet below ground level
Looks much larger from inside. 
Each window with ladder below leads to a small private room.

On a side note:  Kivas in general have four or more large supporting wooden posts.  An archeologist decided to find out how much energy it would take to build the way the Ancestral Pueblo People did.  Using only wooden digging sticks, stone axes and local materials, logs, poles, brush, mud, yucca fiber ropes and sandstone slabs, he built an Anasazi-type house.  He discovered that it took over 8,000 strokes with a stone ax to fell a single tree 11.5 inches in diameter.  Many kiva supporting posts were twice that big!

Each of the four columns supported by four stone discs
Such as these ones (display only)

So this is not Aztec – It is Ancestral Pueblo.

Is it a ruin?  What is a ruin?

Some argue it shouldn’t be called a ruin because Modern Pueblo People keep coming back to these ancestral grounds.  I once wrote about Tethered Nomads, an expression coined by Craig Childs in the book House of Rain where he explains that in most cases, these Ancient People left behind seeds in sealed jars for when they would eventually return to plant, harvest, hunt, and live again.  Leaving the land to rest for a while either seasonally or over years. 

Contemporary Pueblo People do not describe the region as abandoned but rather view it as just another stage in the area’s ongoing indigenous culture.  

Imagine how massive this would’ve looked if all 3-4 stories were still present
Much of the missing building blocks were stolen by
Settlers to build their own homes or workspaces 

The Aztec Ruins are maintained so that they do not deteriorate more than they already have. However, there are Ancestral Pueblo People who do not believe that this is the best treatment of their heritage. Some ‘believe that everything, including an ancestral site, has a natural life cycle, at the end of which it should rightfully expire.’ This belief has been expressed by some tribes to the National Park Service. 

There are cases where ruins are allowed to deteriorate, though usually only when the ruins are inaccessible to visitors, or they are too deteriorated to restore, and documentation is the only option. Still, most representatives appreciate the mandate to preserve archaeological resources for the future and not allow them to deteriorate. The typical treatment of significant existing ruins is that they be preserved as they stand and kept in a state of ‘arrested decay.’ 

While monuments and memorials represent deliberate declarations of value, the case of ruins is somewhat different. They summon awareness of the transience of life and the vulnerability of even the most committed efforts of civilization. 

Ruins have both ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ values: they are manifestations of human transience and decay but can be aesthetically very rich and pleasing. Why do we often enjoy them? 

Ruins serve to anchor us in time and history. Physical structures in various states of disrepair, decay, or abandonment are a tangible reminder of both the past and the passage of time. Ruins remind us that what today seems solid and immovable will one day be broken and crumbling.

Old kiva was covered by a several-layer domed / cribbed roof
Timbers rested one upon another, akin to a basket which represented the sky
Partial first rows seen here on the upper right low pilasters 

The pleasure and satisfaction to be derived from a ruin are perhaps not as great as that experienced in a historic house and are certainly different in kind. The carpets, furniture and pictures are a distraction from the building itself, while in the ruin the harsh architectural reality is thrust upon us. The vicissitudes displayed in the ruin’s history are perhaps a truer reflection of the brutal course of events over several generations than numerous portraits of figures in doublets and hose, wigs, top hats and tail coats. 

MW Thompson

Partial view of kiva’s cribbed roof from NPS website

The following is from Preservation without restoration: The Case for Ruins by Sydney Schoof 

‘Ruins typically represent a historical trend toward downsizing.  The aesthetics of ruins are often much admired and become the primary reason for local and even national interest in a site. Especially significant ruins can be stabilized to preserve them for future generations, though this changes the use of the site. Other ruins may be left to further deteriorate where appropriate, provided public safety is ensured. 

The working definition of ruins is the visible remains of a building or series of buildings that have outlived their original usefulness yet stand as a physical reminder of the social conditions that created them, as well as the change in society that led to their abandonment. The definition of a ruin will therefore include the traditional sense of the word: the remains of buildings so deteriorated that they can no longer perform their function. Ruins differ from abandoned buildings, which are vacant but can reasonably be expected to be repaired and reused.

Low consecutive aligned doorways

Ruins have their own unique history that must be preserved and understood.  People come to the area to photograph the ruins or to experience the sense of mystery they evoke. 

That is, these structures were often ruins for longer than they were buildings in active use.  This period of time, and the fact that the social conditions allowed for the useless structure to stand instead of being repaired and updated and made useful or else torn down and replaced, are generally at least as significant parts of the history of the building as its original use. Additionally, these structures have not retained their integrity as the original buildings as they often contain only the basic outline of what they once were. 

Ruins are the physical presence of growth as well as decline and therefore help visualize the existence of a way of life that once occupied the same location but was drastically different than what has replaced it. 

The abandonment and ruination of a once useful structure is an event that takes place only when there is a substantial change in the way a community lives, which is an important event in its history that would not otherwise be visible. When a building has reached a state of ruin, restoration is inappropriate as it would detract from the significance associated with the decline of the structure.

Essentially, ruins engage the intellect and imagination more easily than other works of architecture.’ 

The contemplation of ruins had both a moral and an aesthetic side: moral, in that we were forced to think that all things, our own accomplishments included, must pass, and to accept the vanity of human effort; aesthetic, because ruins were ideal conveyors of picturesque beauty, battered, rough, with intriguing textures and jagged ends – the very opposite of the cultivated finish of contemporary designs.

 Spiro Kostof

Built over a span of 200 years, Aztec Ruins consisted of great houses, kivas, small residential pueblos, earthworks, and roads.  The formal layout, purposeful landscape modifications, orientation, and visual relationships among buildings indicate a master design.  

The three-story building had over 400-450 rooms and many kivas, including a Great Kiva in the plaza that was used for community events.  Over forty feet in diameter, eight feet below ground level, the semi-subterranean structure is the oldest and largest reconstructed building of its kind.  It dates from the early 1100’s and is one of only a handful of tri-walled structures in the Southwest.  It has three concentric walls divided into 14 rooms, with a kiva. It was rebuilt in 1934 by Earl Morris, an archeologist for the American Museum of Natural History. 

In its early years, the settlement was marked by a strong Chacoan influence.  It prospered as a regional administrative, trade, and ceremonial center.  Its regional prominence persisted despite periodic droughts and the decline of the Chacoan social and economic system.  In later years, the people of Aztec Ruins continued constructing and remodeling, now in the style of Mesa Verde. 

‘Discovered’ in 1859 by geologist John Newberry, it was in a fair state of preservation at the time.  By 1878 however, it was estimated that over a quarter of the pueblo’s stones had been carted away by recent settlers for building material and lining of wells.  

A few years later, a local teacher and students dug through walls and found intact rooms, including a room with human burials and well-preserved objects.  Artifacts soon vanished as others broke into rooms untouched for centuries.  Not until 1889, when Aztec West passed into private ownership, did the site become relatively safe from looting. 

Interesting blueish rock line along North/South wall
Blue stripes may have been associated with water and protection

The Anasazi Tribe, now known as the Ancestral Pueblo People, was the largest and most prominent Southwestern prehistoric group of people. 

There are three main reasons the Anasazi story is so captivating. The first has to do with their enigmatic ruins. The size and complexity of their structures are staggering. For example, the 15 complexes within Chaco Canyon in Northern New Mexico were the largest buildings in North America until the late 19^th century.  Anasazi ruins are not just large, they are accessible and aesthetically pleasing. Found in spectacular natural settings in one America’s most beautiful regions, they are open to the public and are fascinating to explore. 

The second reason people are drawn to the Anasazi story is they can connect with the culture on some level, something that is virtually impossible with other people of the past. This is because elements of Anasazi beliefs have survived and are reflected in the artistic and ritual traditions of Modern Pueblo People. 

The third reason the mere mention of the Anasazi evokes such a romantic reaction relates to their supposedly sudden and mysterious disappearance in the 12th century.  Which is clearly false since the culture of the Anasazi tribe is still represented today through its descendants who carry on many of their traditions and customs. They include Pueblo Indian tribes such as the Laguna, Hopi, Acoma and Zuni.

 

Evidence of the tribe's unique history is only represented by archaeological remains and written accounts provided by Spanish explorers. This is due to the fact that there are no accounts providing insight into the history of the Anasazi tribe written by the Anasazi people.

Overview (looking east) of village with old kiva

From reading and thinking about ruins to listening to Modern Pueblo People’s thoughts about their natural progression over time, I suppose that for them, these ‘ruins’ would be akin to me going back to Québec walking around my grandfather’s abandoned farmstead.  Not really a ‘ruin’ but full of reminiscence of my great times there as a child, picking wild blueberries, helping with the potato crop, just being a kid in nature – connecting to a cherished past that still lives within me? Feeling the place, not just seeing it, touching it?  Having a deeper, more meaningful connection to my past and continually associating it with my present and future?  

But my memories only go as far as that, my childhood on the farm.  I have no knowledge of further history even though my family has been in Canada for more than 20 generations.  

So if not Aztec Ruins, what should it be called?

 

Holy Place of Remembrance?  Phantom Pueblo?  Familial Site?

Circle of Ancient?  Cultural Landscape?  Ancestral Heritage?

Structures of Continued Celebrations?

When the Ancestral Pueblo People, the master community planners, architects and builders, walked away from their Four Corners heartland, they left but did not abandon a vast landscape of forlorn stony settlements behind them. 

By the mid 1400’s, they had lost their cultural cohesion, the product of thousands of years of social evolution, and they had relinquished their traditional lands, the homes of generations of their ancestors.

Researchers have tried to map the Ancestral Pueblo Peoples’ wanderings by correlating the community plans, architectural designs and construction methods of more recent pueblos with those of the early pueblos, and they have tried to follow the trails of groups’ distinctive pottery, the archaeological equivalent of DNA for the desert cultures. They have found a broad and confusing mix of archaeological evidence. 

In sum, the Puebloan migrations became a time of change, adaptation and conformance, a very long march to different drummers. 

Many Ancestral Pueblo People maintain deep spiritual ties with these ancestral places through oral tradition, prayer, and ceremony.  By way of offering to the spirits that inhabit and protect these sites, they pay homage to the sacredness of each one. 

For years, archaeologists thought that the Puebloans moved from their ancestral homelands across the deserts of the southwestern US and northern Mexico because, it seemed, the intermittent droughts which occurred between 1150 and 1450 must have caused crop failures and diminished game and wild plant food resources.

Aerial view, from NPS website

After additional research, however, archaeologists realized that comparable droughts occurred just as the Ancestral Pueblo People began making the transitional leap from pithouses to multi-story surface structures. They saw that the Ancestral Pueblo People established the Great House pueblos of Chaco Canyon during the heart of a period of drought. Then in 1990, a graduate student, Carla Van West, demonstrated that the Mesa Verde People could have raised enough corn to support their population in spite of the droughts. ‘Nobody is talking about great droughts anymore,’ archaeologist Linda Cordell told New York Times reporter George Johnson back in 1996. Since then archaeologists have been searching for other explanations. 

In the end, we still don’t fully understand what prompted so many people across the SW United States and northern Mexico to give up ancestral homelands and move en-masse to new regions within the same period. We can guess that communities felt themselves ‘pushed’ by some combination of social and environmental factors and ‘pulled’ by promises of more stable weather, irrigable farm land, safer communities and spiritual fulfillment. We may never understand, however, how the phenomenon of migration extended over such a wide area at the same period in prehistoric times. 

The Modern Pueblo People’s world view is one in which they acknowledge those who have come before them and all that they have provided for them. ‘Our ancestors provided for us so that we may exist today and provide for our descendants in future generations. We do not view the relationship between past and present as one of "that was then and this is now." We as Pueblo people see the relationship between past and present as one that has been constant and continuous for many generations. The past, present, and future are not separated; they are continuous.’ 

How differently would we choose a site, build, expand, and take care of structures if we lived that way as well?  Keeping a connection alive through generations upon generations.  Would we be kinder to our environment?  Would we build with more beauty?  Would we waste less?  

Some cultures believe that just by saying the names of the dead they bring them back to life.  The Pueblo People believe that ancestral sites are still full of previous lives who need to be honored and respected.  We, on the other hand, can barely connect to the present, never mind our past.  So for us they can be ruins, for others, a natural stage in the cycle of life. 

Source: www.desertusa.com