by Alex Gugel , all rights reserved
Grand CanyonTusayan Ruin |
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What’s in a name?
The Marketplace
Stories Coming to Life
Many archeologists feel that strong evidence connects the people who lived here and in other sites throughout
the Southwest with the modern Hopi and Pueblo communities of eastern Arizona and the Rio Grande Valley
in New Mexico. Years ago when researchers first explored these sites the Navajo term Anasazi was used to
describe the inhabitants. This term can be roughly translated as “ancient enemies.” Understandably, today’s
Pueblo people do not appreciate having their forefathers referred to as enemies. The Hopi use Hisatsinom
to identify the ancient ones. The National Park Service at Grand Canyon National Park has chosen to use
ancestral Puebloans to emphasize the connection between ancient and modern people and cultures.
The ancestral Puebloan people used the forest for
their supermarket. Piñon (top right) was used for
construction, heating, and cooking. Pine needles,
high in vitamin C, can be brewed as a tea. Its pitch
was used to waterproof baskets, and even as a
bandage to hold cuts together. Pine nuts are high
in fat, protein, and carbohydrates.
As you look over the pueblo before you, imagine
the families who have chosen to make this their
home. They, like you, had dreams and hopes and
worries. They bore children and raised them to
take part in community life. This was home, the
anchor of their world.
Farm Area
Farm Area
Paved Trail
Gravel Trail
The path goes down to the area thought to have
been the fields for this community. Recent stock
tanks and other disturbances have destroyed
much of the evidence. Eight hundred years ago
check dams and terraces caught and held the
scant rain. Seeds were placed deep in the soil in
small plots, much as occurs on the Hopi mesas
today.
To Farming
Area
Living
Area
Yucca (below) provided fibers that could be
twisted or braided into twine or rope or made
into sandals.
The flowers
and seeds pods
could be eaten.
Some native
people still use
yucca root
soap for
ceremonial
purposes.
Parking
Museum
Utah Juniper
Creating a Community
Dating
View of
San Francisco Peaks
They made beautiful baskets. Some so small they
may have been for decoration or toys—evidence
that life was more than mere survival. Why did
they choose this place? Why did these families
stay for only twenty years? What happened to
these people? The villagers took the answers
with them.
Utah juniper (lower right) was also used for
firewood. Its shreddy bark peeled readily and
provided insulation, padding, or the sole of a
sandal. Juniper berries could be eaten raw, but
were more often used as a flavoring for stew or
venison. Ashes of the scale-like leaves were added
to bread as a leavening agent and for flavor.
Storage
Rooms
Kiva
Piñon
Tree ring dating explained on this exhibit helps
determine the age of sites like this one.
Archeologists study pottery sherds found here
and at other sites and develop a time line based
on style, form, color, and decoration.
By law national parks protect all plant and animal
life. Plants are fragile and should be left
undisturbed. Modern digestive systems may not
be prepared for the sudden intake of berries and
wild plants. Please do not pick or eat any plants.
Building size, style, and construction reflect the
Grand Canyon and its people in several ways.
Limestone, the building blocks available here,
is fairly hard and difficult to shape. Piñon and
juniper tend to be short and twisted, but provide
excellent support beams, insulation, and caulking
materials, as well as firewood. The plaza faces
south to take advantage of the warmth of the low
winter sun.
Grand Canyon has been home to people for
thousands of years. Considered sacred by many, it
has been a nurturing place, a place of spiritual
and physical enrichment. Many visitors share this
connection today. The National Park Service
strives to protect the integrity of the experience
and the natural environment. We hope that what
you learned will generate more questions about
the lives of the ancestral Puebloan people. Our
goal is that your enhanced level of interest and
knowledge will help us to preserve and protect
this wonderful legacy.
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
Grand Canyon National Park
Arizona
Tusayan
Ruin
Tusayan Ruin
Painting by Roy Andersen
Grand Canyon National Park
Welcome to Tusayan Pueblo Ruin. As you walk
the relatively flat 0.1 mile (200 meter) trail around
the village, keep in mind that no attempt has been
made to reconstruct the structures. During the
summer of 2001 with funding through the
Vanishing Treasures program, park archeologists
stabilized the ruin in an effort to protect it from
ongoing degradation. Room blocks have been
only partially excavated to allow you to
experience an archeological site.
Saving our National Stories
Please respect this place as you would your own
home. Do not walk or stand on the walls or enter
the rooms. Many stories of the past preserved here
have yet to unfold. The rocks and relics tell the
stories. The artifacts and the context in which they
are found allow archeologists to interpret the lives
of these people. Not only will disturbing the site
destroy valuable information, it is illegal. The high
desert vegetation is also fragile; stay on the trails.
People have lived on the Colorado Plateau for
thousands of years. The Paleo-Indians, nomadic
hunter/gatherers who lived here 5,000-10,000
years ago, left the earliest evidence. The nomadic
Archaic Cultures which followed produced splittwig figurines which they hid in canyon caves.
With the introduction of agriculture about 2000
years ago, villages (pueblos) like this one
developed.
The San Francisco Peaks
Tree ring studies indicate that people lived here
for about twenty years beginning around A.D.
1185. The style of buildings and artifacts is
typical of the ancestral Puebloan culture.
This ruin is one of 4,300 archeological sites
recorded within Grand Canyon National Park.
Neighboring pueblos may indicate a cooperative
effort among families.
On a clear day you can see the distant San
Francisco Peaks, considered sacred by several
tribes. In the Hopi tradition the katsinas, the
spirits, live in these peaks during the winter.
The spirits bring rain and other blessings to the
people. The Hopi are one of more than twenty
Puebloan Indian nations that are descendents of
the people who lived here.
What attracted people to settle here? Everyone
needs food, water, and shelter. How were these
needs met? Wild foods and game supplemented
cultivated corn, beans, and squash. Inhabitants
may have walked several miles to water or did
other sources exist 800 years ago? How would
you use the local resources to build your shelter?
What would be its primary function? In a land of
limited resources, how would you interact with
your neighbors?
As you walk around the ruins, remember that
the history of these people and their culture
exists only through the artifacts found at this
and similar sites and through the stories of their
descendents. You will notice that many
statements in the brochure and on the signs
begin with “perhaps”, “it seems”, or “maybe.”
There are few definitive answers.
luck to build over another room? Such questions
are difficult to answer with the clues that remain.
Why did they live here? A view of the sacred
peaks and a close proximity to the point of
emergence into this world makes this place
aesthetically pleasing. Yucca for weaving baskets,
piñon pitch to seal them, and clay for pottery
exists in this area. Perhaps there was water from
nearby springs or seeps and fertile soil for
farming. Perhaps relatives lived nearby.
Small Kiva and
Unexcavated Area
A kiva, a ceremonial chamber, is one of the
cultural signatures of the ancestral Puebloan
people. Charred wood and other evidence lead us
to believe that this small kiva burned and was
replaced with the larger one in the southeast
corner of the pueblo. Did the community grow
and need a larger ceremonial room? Was it bad
To your left is an unexcavated part of the ruin.
When workers excavate a site, inevitably some
things are missed or destroyed. During the initial
excavation in the 1930s, archeologists purposely
left some areas undisturbed. Perhaps new
technology will allow us to explore this area
without destroying what is below or to discover
new facets of life at this pueblo.
The Plaza
Much of the outdoor living occurred here in the
plaza, the center of community life. The southfacing location allowed for good winter exposure
to the sun and a view of the San Francisco Peaks.
The sides offered protection from the wind. A
visitor to the plaza might have seen women
grinding corn, cooking, and watching children at
play. People feel a connection to earth and home
in the plaza.
Grain Storage Areas
The Kiva
Notice how small these rooms seem. Since no
trace of habitation was found within them, it is
thought that these were used for storage. Imagine
corn still on the cob piled like firewood, or big
clay jars full of beans or pine nuts resting against
the walls. The most common artifacts found
during the 1930 excavation were grinding
stones—the hand-held mano that was slid across
the larger metate to grind corn or seeds. Since
weather determines crop success, the ability to
store food was vital for survival. From each crop,
perhaps one quarter was saved for seed and
another quarter was used for ceremonial
purposes or trade.
Ceremonial activities took place in the kiva.
Notice the banquette (bench) that encircles
slightly more than half of the interior. Braces were
placed along this bench to support the upper
structure. These were covered with brush and
mud to provide the walls and roof of the kiva.
A ventilated fire pit permitted good heating. The
small hole between the banquette and the fire pit
symbolizes a sipapu, the point of emergence for
the Hopi people into this world. The Hopi believe
that the actual place of emergence, the Sipapuni,
is located deep within Grand Canyon.