During high temperatures, bring plenty of water, a hat,
bug spray and sunscreen. Watch for cactus where you
step, and be careful of rattle-snakes. On hot days snakes
will be in shady areas; on cool days they will be out in
the sun.
Please leave the site and its archaeological remains
in place - IT IS THE LAW! Picking up and taking even a
small piece of pottery with you is illegal, and can mean
that important scientific information is lost. Please leave
the site as you found it so that it can be enjoyed by
future visitors.
Also remember to carry out any trash you bring - LEAVE
NO TRACE of your visit to your remarkable public lands.
Bureau of Land Management
Rio Puerco Field Office
100 Sun Ave. NE
Pan American Bldg., Suite 330
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87109
505/761-8700 or
El Malpais Ranger Station
505/280-2918
or
www.blm.gov/new-mexico
In case of emergency:
BLM Rio Puerco Law Enforcement – 505/761-8700
Immediate Emergency – 911
BLM 24-hour Santa Fe Law Enforcement –
505/827-9377
BLM/NM/GI-002-006-1220
The Dittert
Site
El Malpais National Conservation Area
S
ometime between A.D. 1000 and 1300, the Dittert
Site was built and occupied by the Anasazi people.
They were the ancestors of modern Pueblo Indian people. The ruin is an L-shaped masonry structure that was
originally two stories high and consisted of 30-35 rooms
and a kiva. The site was named after Alfred “Ed” Dittert
Jr. who along with R.J. Ruppe Jr. excavated it between
1947 and 1949. The two men recorded eight rooms and
the kiva.
All the rooms were built close together, with the kiva
incorporated into the building. The walls are made of
compound masonry with “pecked” sandstone (worked
by hand so the rocks are uniform). The Dittert Site is one
of more than 60 sites in the Armijo Canyon area. These
sites clearly form a community in which the Dittert Site
was probably central.
Is the Dittert Site a Chacoan Outlier?
Between about A.D. 950 and 1150, Chaco
Canyon was an important place for the Anasazi
people. Chaco’s influence spread throughout
the “four corners” region (northwestern New
Mexico, southwestern Colorado, southeastern
Utah and northeastern Arizona). The Chaco
Canyon culture had many “outlier” communities,
usually with a “great house” (an unusually large
building with more than one story and many
rooms) and a kiva that was built within the
block of rooms. These communities often had
associated roads and very large kivas called
“Great Kivas.” The communities in El Malpais
resemble those of Chaco Canyon with scattered
2- to 6-room masonry houses and a great house.
The Dittert Site has a Chacoan appearance with
large rooms, a blocked-in kiva, two roads (networked to
the larger Chacoan communities), and an unroofed Great
Kiva nearby. The architecture resembles that of Casamero Ruin, a Chacoan outlier that is located 60 miles to the
north. In spite of these similarities, Dittert’s excavations
indicated the site was built on the mound of an earlier
ruin. The roof beams he excavated dated to the 1200s,
long after the Chacoan system was dissolved. The question still remains unanswered “Was this site reoccupied
and remodeled 100 years after the Anasazi abandoned
Chaco Canyon?”
What Happened to the People?
Dittert’s survey indicated the area experienced a period
of explosive population growth. During this period, erosion and arroyo formation began. Crop fields would have
been destroyed by flash floods. Tree-ring studies dating
from A.D. 1250 to 1300 show that the area experienced
drought conditions that would have caused crop failures
year after year. These hard conditions led the occupants to abandon the Dittert Site. After abandonment
the site showed signs that the occupants intended to
return. Roofs were still intact, rooms were not burned
and the furniture was left in place. However, no one ever
returned. The people who left this site probably moved
east to join Acoma Pueblo. Present-day Acoma people
consider Dittert an important ancestral site.
When You Visit
The ruin can sometimes be difficult to find, there is
no established trail that leads directly to the site. Follow the map or use these coordinates: N 34°39.552, W
107°58.332. The elevation of the site is 7284 ft.
