Sections:
1. The Mogollon Culture
2. Chodistaas and Grasshopper Pueblos
3. Classic Mimbres Culture
4. The Sinagua Culture
Readings
Chapter 6, "The Mogollon", The Archaeology of Ancient Arizona
Study Terms
| Emil
W. Haury Paul Sidney Martin John B. Rinaldo Joe Ben Wheat Kinishba Pueblo Mogollon Village Harris Village Bluff Village Bear Village Tla Kii Pueblo Grasshopper Spring pithouses extended burial Mogollon pottery |
Chodistaas
Pueblo Grasshopper Pueblo Turkey Creek Pueblo Point of Pines Pueblo Forestdale Valley Mimbres Valley Point of Pines Early Pit House Period (A.D. 200-600) Late Pit House Period (A.D. 600-1150) Mogollon Pueblo Period (A.D. 1150-1400) Gila Pueblo Archaeological Foundation three-quarter grooved axes vertical-occipital head deformation ritual architecture |
Discussion
The Mogollon were adapted to the mountains of central Arizona and west central New Mexico. With the publication of The Mogollon Culture by Emil Haury in 1936 the concept of the Mogollon initiated over twenty years of controversy concerning its antiquity and distinctiveness. The original work by Haury at Mogollon and Harris villages in New Mexico along with later fieldwork in the Forestdale Valley and at Point of Pines combine to provide convincing evidence for the Mogollon being distinct from Anasazi and Hohokam.
The Mogollon cultural sequence is divided into three periods – Early Pit House Period (A.D. 200 to 600), Late Pit House Period (A.D. 600 to 1150), and Mogollon Pueblo Period (A.D. 1150 to 1400). From the time they began making pottery around A.D. 200 until shortly after A.D 1,000, the Mogollon lived in pit house villages. Mogollon pit houses are constructed by digging a large pit into the ground to form much of the vertical walls. Four large posts are set into the floor to support a roof and upper walls of poles, thatch, and dirt. A ramp entrance, usually on the east side, also provided ventilation for the circular hearth dug into the floor near the center of the house.
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Mogollon pottery was predominately brown plain, red-slipped, or corrugated. Except for the Mimbres Mogollon, they had a weakly developed tradition of decorated pottery, characterized by red-on-brown and painted corrugated.
After A.D. 1000 in New Mexico, and several centuries later in Arizona, the Mogollon moved from pit houses to above-ground masonry pueblos with rooms built around an open plaza. Other traits characteristic of the Mogollon Pueblo Period are three-quarter grooved axes, cradle boards that result in vertical-occipital head deformation, and mortuary ritual with extended body placement.
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By A.D. 1400 the mountain Mogollon, many of whom were hunters, gatherers, and indifferent gardeners to the very last moment, had become fully committed farmers in search of more productive agricultural lands beyond the mountains. Archaeologists do not know where they went, although Emil Haury thought the Rarámuri (Tarahumara) were likely descendants. The historical Western Apache, unrelated to the Mogollon, illustrate what a Mogollon adaptation to the mountains would have been like prior to the total adoption of corn agriculture. This is another example of "ethnographic analogy," as discussed in the section on the Patayan.
