Awatovi Ruins
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Awatovi Ruins
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Scene at the ruins in 1937
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| Location | Hopi Indian Reservation, Navajo County, Arizona, USA |
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| Nearest city | Keams Canyon, Arizona |
| Coordinates | 35°43′7″N 110°16′37″W / 35.71861°N 110.27694°WCoordinates: 35°43′7″N 110°16′37″W / 35.71861°N 110.27694°W |
| Built | 1200 |
| NRHP Reference # | 66000187 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
| Designated NHL | July 19, 1964 |
Awatovi Ruins is a National Historic Landmark in Hopi Reservation, Arizona, United States, designated in 1964. In 1540, Coronado's men visited this village. What remains are the ruins of a five-hundred-year-old pueblo. There are also ruins from a Spanish mission built in the 17th century. It is within the bounds of the Hopi Indian Reservation.
In the 1930s, Hopi artist Fred Kabotie was commissioned by the Peabody Museum to reproduce the prehistoric murals found during the excavation of the Awatovi Ruins.
Awatovi was founded sometime after 1300, according to ceramics recovered from the archaeological excavations of Awatovi. It quickly grew to be the largest and most important village within the Hopi area. It housed members of the Bow Clan and was the largest of the villages on Antelope Mesa. There is some archaeological evidence to suggest that while modern Hopis claim ancestry with the Jeddito Phase sites, including Awatovi, these Jeddito villages may not have been Hopi.
Awatovi was the first of the Hopi villages to be visited and conquered by the Spanish. In the early 16th century AD, Awatovi was one of the largest and most important of the villages. It had already been in existence for about 450 years. The first European visitor, in 1540, was Pedro de Tovar, dispatched by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado to the Hopi villages a week after the capture of Hawikuh. A skirmish occurred when de Tovar arrived, but the inhabitants quickly sued for peace and offered presents of cloth, skins, turquoise, and maize. The five remaining Hopi pueblos then offered fealty to the King of Spain.
The Spanish did not visit Hopi again until 1583, when the Antonio de Espejo expedition spent several days at the Hopi villages before turning southwest to the Verde Valley. Juan de Oñate, in 1598, found the Hopis ready to capitulate formally to the King of Spain. Oñate visited the pueblos again in 1605, and Captain Gerónimo Marquez in 1614, but not until 1629 did the Spanish make any substantial missionary effort among the Hopis. This same year the Spanish friars built the mission of San Bernardo de Aguatubi over the main kiva at Awatovi, following the practice of "supremacy" where the church would be built over the most important site of the heathen religion.
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Wikipedia