The Pueblo II Period: A.D. 900 to 1150

Overview

This was an exciting time to live in the Mesa Verde region. A vast trade network centered on Chaco Canyon, 120 miles to the south, connected the Pueblo people of the Mesa Verde region with new people, new ideas, and new goods from far beyond their traditional homeland.

After the departure of so many people at the end of the Pueblo I period, only a small population remained in the Mesa Verde region in the early part of the Pueblo II period. But as climatic conditions improved in the early A.D. 1000s, people began returning to the Mesa Verde region, settling in upland areas with good soils for farming. Unlike the communities of the preceding period, those of the late Pueblo II period consisted primarily of small farmsteads loosely clustered around a larger site called a "community center." Community centers had large public buildings that could be used for a variety of purposes, including ceremonies and meetings. Some public buildings may have also served as both storage facilities and distribution points for food and other goods to be shared by members of the community.

Late Pueblo II settlement pattern.

Beginning in about A.D. 1080, something remarkable happened in the Mesa Verde region—something not yet completely understood by archaeologists, though it has been the focus of research for many years. We begin to see evidence of connections to a much larger and more complex social system centered on Chaco Canyon, located approximately 120 miles south in what today is northern New Mexico. The architectural style of many buildings in Chaco Canyon is distinctive: Great houses are large, masonry buildings consisting of one or more kivas inside massive, multistory roomblocks. Archaeologists often find exotic trade goods from as far away as Mexico in these structures, and they have documented an extensive network of roads that connected these sites with distant places, including Pueblo communities in the Mesa Verde region. Chaco influence is seen at many sites in the Mesa Verde region—from great-house architecture, to pottery painted in the Chaco style, to jewelry made with imported materials. Sites in the Mesa Verde region that have Chaco-style architecture and artifacts are called "Chacoan outliers."

But Chaco influence in the Mesa Verde region was short-lived. By about A.D. 1140, Chaco-style great houses were no longer being built in the region, and the people had entered a period of drought. This drought, which lasted from about A.D. 1130 until A.D. 1180, was the longest and most severe ever experienced by the Pueblo people of the Mesa Verde region.


Introduction	Paleoindian Archaic Basketmaker II Basketmaker III Pueblo I Pueblo II Pueblo III Post-Pueblo Historic Today Bibliography
Overview Food Housing Artifacts	The Pueblo II Period: A.D. 900 to 1150 Overview This was an exciting time to live in the Mesa Verde region. A vast trade network centered on Chaco Canyon, 120 miles to the south, connected the Pueblo people of the Mesa Verde region with new people, new ideas, and new goods from far beyond their traditional homeland. After the departure of so many people at the end of the Pueblo I period, only a small population remained in the Mesa Verde region in the early part of the Pueblo II period. But as climatic conditions improved in the early A.D. 1000s, people began returning to the Mesa Verde region, settling in upland areas with good soils for farming. Unlike the communities of the preceding period, those of the late Pueblo II period consisted primarily of small farmsteads loosely clustered around a larger site called a "community center." Community centers had large public buildings that could be used for a variety of purposes, including ceremonies and meetings. Some public buildings may have also served as both storage facilities and distribution points for food and other goods to be shared by members of the community. Late Pueblo II settlement pattern. Beginning in about A.D. 1080, something remarkable happened in the Mesa Verde region—something not yet completely understood by archaeologists, though it has been the focus of research for many years. We begin to see evidence of connections to a much larger and more complex social system centered on Chaco Canyon, located approximately 120 miles south in what today is northern New Mexico. The architectural style of many buildings in Chaco Canyon is distinctive: Great houses are large, masonry buildings consisting of one or more kivas inside massive, multistory roomblocks. Archaeologists often find exotic trade goods from as far away as Mexico in these structures, and they have documented an extensive network of roads that connected these sites with distant places, including Pueblo communities in the Mesa Verde region. Chaco influence is seen at many sites in the Mesa Verde region—from great-house architecture, to pottery painted in the Chaco style, to jewelry made with imported materials. Sites in the Mesa Verde region that have Chaco-style architecture and artifacts are called "Chacoan outliers." But Chaco influence in the Mesa Verde region was short-lived. By about A.D. 1140, Chaco-style great houses were no longer being built in the region, and the people had entered a period of drought. This drought, which lasted from about A.D. 1130 until A.D. 1180, was the longest and most severe ever experienced by the Pueblo people of the Mesa Verde region.
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