Pueblo I Era

The Pueblo I Period (750 to 900) was the first period in which Ancestral Puebloans began living in pueblo structures and realized an evolution in architecture, artistic expression, and water conservation.

Pueblo I, a Pecos Classification, is similar to the early "Developmental Pueblo Period" of 750 to 1100.

People constructed and lived in pueblos, which were surface level, flat-roofed homes. At the beginning of the period pueblos were made with jacal construction. Wooden posts were used to create a frame to supported woven material and a covering of mud. Later in the period, stone slabs were sometimes used around the dwelling foundation.

The pueblos made of several rooms that formed a straight row or in a crescent shape. Sometimes they built the dwellings two rows thick with a combination of living rooms with fire pits and storage rooms.

Reconstructed image of a post and adobe village in Mesa Verde Source: National Park Service

Sketch of Pueblo I crescent-shaped village (Mesa Verde site 2022) Source: National Park Service

J. Richard Ambler describes how Pueblo I architectural changes reflect societal changes:

The change in village layout would seem to reflect a basic change in village social organization from a loosely integrated group of related families to a tightly integrated group, and also a change in ceremonial organization from a largely shamanistic and individualistic orientation to communal ceremonies organized around the calendrical round.

During this period round pit-houses began to evolve into ceremonial kivas.

There was some variability in when and how communities transitioned into and out of the Pueblo I period. Some communities might not have had some of the external or climatic pressures that forced rapid resettlement. As a result, during the early Pueblo I period, there were some communities that lived in Basket Maker settlements.

The Pueblo I villages were larger than the settlements of the preceding Basket Maker period; In the Four Corners region the average of 5 to 10 pit-house per settlement rose to 20 to 30 pit-houses per community. In some cases, the Pueblo I communities were quite large. The southeastern Utah's Alkali Ridge had about 130 rooms built on the surface, with 16 pit-houses and 2 kivas.

The most advanced communities in the Chaco Canyon region had "great houses", roads and elaborate kivas.

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