Creating Symmetry: The Cultural Landscape in the Sand Canyon Locality, Southwestern Colorado

Transcription

1 KIVA Journal of Southwestern Anthropology and History ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: Creating Symmetry: The Cultural Landscape in the Sand Canyon Locality, Southwestern Colorado Grant Coffey To cite this article: Grant Coffey (2016) Creating Symmetry: The Cultural Landscape in the Sand Canyon Locality, Southwestern Colorado, KIVA, 82:1, 1-21, DOI: / To link to this article: Published online: 06 Jul Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at Download by: [ ] Date: 07 July 2016, At: 10:41

2 kiva, Vol. 82 No. 1, March, 2016, 1 21 Creating Symmetry: The Cultural Landscape in the Sand Canyon Locality, Southwestern Colorado Grant Coffey Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Cortez, CO, USA gcoffey@crowcanyon.org Public architecture provides one important line of evidence for examining how people organized themselves and interacted through time. The constellation of these public buildings across cultural landscapes also provides information about how different groups of people mediated relations at different social scales ranging from individual communities to regional networks. This paper uses the location of public buildings to suggest close intercommunity ties between two large ancestral Pueblo communities in southwestern Colorado. It is argued here that the composition, location, and orientation of public structures relative to each other in these two communities reflect a supracommunity level of planning and social organization that was rooted in the Chaco regional system. The suggested dualism of this system mirrors modern social divisions apparent in some Pueblo villages today. La arquitectura pública provee una línea de evidencia importante para analizar las diferentes formas mediante las cuales las personas se han organizado e interactuado a lo largo del tiempo. La plétora de estas construcciones públicas dentro de sus paisajes culturales también provee información acerca de las maneras en las que distintos grupos mediaban sus relaciones en diferentes escalas sociales, que van desde las comunidades individuales hasta las redes regionales. Este artículo utiliza la locación de las construcciones públicas para sugerir vínculos cercanos intercomunitarios entre dos comunidades Pueblo Ancestrales en el suroeste de Colorado. También argumenta que la composición, locación y orientación relativa de las estructuras públicas entre sí, dentro de estas dos comunidades, refleja un nivel supra-comunidad de planeación y organización social basado en el sistema regional de Chaco. El dualismo que sugiere este sistema refleja divisiones sociales modernas visibles en algunas comunidades Pueblo de hoy en día. Copyright 2016 Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society. All rights reserved. DOI /

3 2 GRANT COFFEY keywords Public architecture, Supracommunity organization, Cultural landscape Introduction Ancestral Pueblo people constructed the built environment in ways that reflected deeply held ideas about social order and the broader principles that structured their world (Glowacki 2006; Hegmon 1989; Ryan 2013). These ideas were expressed at several different scales ranging from the construction of features, to structures, sites, and constellations of sites across the landscape (Fowles 2005; Lekson 1999; Lipe 2006; Throgmorton 2012; Van Dyke 2008a; Ware 2014). Whatever the scale of expression, the built environment communicated, in tangible physical form, beliefs about how individuals and social groups interacted with one another and how they oriented themselves to the world around them (Van Dyke 2004, 2008a). In so doing, Pueblo people transformed the physical landscape into a cultural landscape. An extensive literature illustrates how the built environment can reflect ideas about the sociostructural principles of the builder (Bourdieu 1973; Durkheim 1933; Fritz 1978; Hegmon and Lipe 1989; Lekson 1999; Van Dyke 2008a, 2008b; Washburn 2004). Virtually all aspects of building can be imbued with meaning, and patterned variation in building techniques can inform on broader structuring ideas that can be assessed in a historic context. Perhaps most importantly, architecture and associated landscape features can express how people ordered their worlds and connected with each other. This study suggests the constellation of contemporary public structures in the Sand Canyon locality (Lipe 1992:2 3) support collaborative, supracommunity planning at the landscape level. In the discussion that follows, I suggest the built environment created and reinforced a dual social organization that mediated relations between two large ancestral Pueblo communities in southwest Colorado, the Sand Canyon and Goodman Point communities. This organization was likely rooted in historical connections to the regional center at Chaco Canyon, and was related to contemporary developments at the Aztec Ruins complex in northern New Mexico. Historic and ethnographic analogues help interpret the patterns identified and support the idea that symmetry in the location and orientation of the public structures represents a scale of interaction and planning that exceeded individual residential communities. Aspects of this dual organization likely persist in modern Pueblo social organization through social institutions like moiety organization (Fowles 2005; Ortiz 1969). The Study Area The study area for this work, the Sand Canyon Locality in southwest Colorado, has been the focus of sustained archaeological research for over 30 years (Figure 1 [Kohler and Varien 2014; Varien and Wilshusen 2002]). Within this area two separate residential pueblo communities, the Sand Canyon community

4 CREATING SYMMETRY 3 figure 1. Location of the Sand Canyon locality within the central Mesa Verde region, also showing Sand Canyon Pueblo and Goodman Point Pueblo. Courtesy of Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. and the Goodman Point community, have been extensively recorded through both survey and excavation (Adler 1988; Coffey 2010, 2014a; Duff 2015a; Kohler and Varien 2014; Kuckelman 2007; Kuckelman et al. 2009; Ryan 2015; Varien 1999b). Following Lipe (1992), the term residential community requires the spatial proximity needed for people to come into regular face-to-face contact, generally thought to be a radius of about 2 km from the center of the settlement cluster or from a definable community center (Murdock 1949; Varien 2002: ). Figure 1 shows the location of the largest, latest villages in both communities, Sand Canyon Pueblo and Goodman Point Pueblo. Prior to the construction of these villages people in both communities lived in more dispersed settlements on the nearby landscape. Both communities appear to have been established about A.D and both persisted until around A.D (Adler 1990; Lipe and Varien 1999; Ryan 2015; Varien 1999a:146). Near the end of this span these were two of the most populous Pueblo communities within the broader Mesa Verde region (Glowacki 2015; Kuckelman et al. 2009; Ortman and Glowacki 2012). The large, late A.D. 1200s canyon-head villages of Sand Canyon Pueblo and Goodman Point Pueblo represent the final occupation of both communities, but these densely occupied villages represent a fundamental change in where and how people were living on the landscape compared to earlier periods (Kuckelman 2007; Kuckelman et al. 2009; Ortman and Glowacki 2012:235). These villages housed hundreds of people each, and aggregation on this scale was likely related to population movement, competition for resources, and the associated potential for conflict (Kuckelman 2007; Varien et al. 2007). At Goodman Point Pueblo, it appears about people lived in a

5 4 GRANT COFFEY single village built around a canyon-head spring from roughly A.D to 1280 (Kuckelman et al. 2009:65). Prior to the construction and occupation of these late aggregated villages, residents of both communities lived in more dispersed, smaller habitations (Adler 1990; Lipe and Varien 1999). Around A.D most residences were built to house only one or two households, or about 5 14 people. These small habitations were spatially dispersed in upland settings near good agricultural soils, but were still close enough to maintain regular face-to-face contact with neighbors (Lightfoot 1993; Ortman et al. 2007). Habitations built at this time were only occupied for about a generation, 20 years or so, and then the inhabitants relocated to other areas (Varien et al. 2007:282). Though habitation sites were relatively short-lived at this time, some public structures built in the A.D. 1000s (e.g., the Harlan Great Kiva) continued to be used until the latter half of the thirteenth century (Coffey 2014b). This suggests a great deal of household mobility in the study area, but also the establishment of more persistent communities that built and maintained long-lived public structures as a tangible symbol of community continuity (Varien 1999a; Varien et al. 2007). Later, from about A.D until the construction of Sand Canyon and Goodman Point pueblos, population in the area continued to grow as larger habitation sites were built using more substantial stone masonry in construction (Adler 1990; Coffey 2010; Varien 1999a). Habitations built at this time appear to have generally persisted longer on the landscape than previously, and in some locations these larger pueblos were more clustered on the landscape (Lipe and Varien 1999; Varien et al. 2007). Larger, longer-lived residences support the development of more stable residential communities and the establishment of socially sanctioned norms for things like land tenure (Adler 1990, 2002:30; Varien et al. 2007). The composition and location of public architecture in both communities changed from A.D to 1280, likely in response to other changes in community organization. Public Architecture in the Study Area The first public structures in both communities were built in the A.D. 1000s and A. D. 1100s (Figure 2 [Adler 1988, 1990; Ryan 2015; Varien 1999a]). In the Sand Canyon community the earliest public structures are found at the site of Casa Negra and site 5MT3954 (Adler 1988). In the Goodman Point community, the sites of Shields Pueblo and the Harlan Great Kiva site display the earliest public buildings. These public structures are separated by about 3 4 km and are a product of a local and regional building tradition that extends back to at least A. D. 600 (Figure 2 [Adler 1990; Coffey 2010; Ferguson 1989; Kuckelman et al. 2009; Lekson et al. 2006; Lipe 2006; Varien 1999a; Wilshusen and Van Dyke 2006]). Tree-ring dates from one of these public structures, the Harlan Great Kiva, indicate some of these buildings continued to be used and remodeled until about A.D (Coffey 2014a), but current data for most of the other structures suggest they were out of use by the mid A.D. 1200s. All of these initial public

6 CREATING SYMMETRY 5 figure 2. Location of the sites with public architecture in the Sand Canyon and Goodman Point communities. Courtesy of Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. structures were decommissioned around A.D when later structures were built at Goodman Point Pueblo and Sand Canyon Pueblo (Kuckelman 2007; Kuckelman et al. 2009).

7 6 GRANT COFFEY The Chaco great house at Casa Negra, in the Sand Canyon community, was recorded during an upland survey conducted by Crow Canyon in the late 1980s (Adler 1988). Architectural and pottery data suggest this site dates from about A. D through the 1100s with some type of use continuing into the A.D. 1200s (Adler 1988:40, 43). Great house architecture in this part of southwestern Colorado is generally suggested to date after A.D and is typically characterized by large buildings, multistory construction, architecturally enclosed kivas, and associated landscape features like roads and berms. Though these general characteristics help define great houses, or Chaco outliers as they are sometimes called outside of Chaco Canyon, there is significant variation in the construction details of these structures in the region through time (Cameron 2009:23; Hurst and Till 2009; Lipe and Varien 1999; Ryan 2013; Vivian 1990:299). The construction of Chaco great houses was an important social development locally; they were architectural expressions of organizing ideas and architectural traditions meant to evoke aspects of the Chaco system (Adler 1988; Lekson 1984; Lipe 2006; Ryan 2013, 2015). The great house at Casa Negra is spatially associated with the earliest great kiva recorded for the Sand Canyon community, site 5MT3954. Based on pottery data recorded during survey this structure appears to date from the late A.D. 900s until around A.D (Adler 1988:40). Great kivas are large (more than 10 m in diameter), circular structures that are a persistent form of public architecture in the area (Adler and Wilshusen 1990:143; Herr 1994; Lipe 2006; Varien 1999a; Vivian and Reiter 1965). One of the earliest great kivas recorded in the central Mesa Verde region, the Dillard site great kiva (Diederichs et al. 2014), appears to date to the A.D. 600s suggesting this form of public architecture has deep roots locally. Great kivas are also part of the suite of structures often associated with great houses, indicating they were one component of a broader public architectural complex around the turn of the twelfth century A.D. (Cameron 2009:22; Lekson et al. 2006; Lipe 2006; Vivian 1990). Excavations at the Harlan Great Kiva site suggest some great kivas established in the A.D. 1000s persisted until the construction of large canyon-head villages in the late A.D. 1200s (Coffey 2014a, 2014b). In part, the persistence of some great kivas and other public structures is probably linked to the development of more stable residential communities in the area (Adler 1990, 2002). Block 100 at Shields Pueblo is considered a possible great house in the Goodman Point community, similar to the one recorded at Casa Negra. Tree-ring dates produced from excavations there suggest much of the architectural block was built in the early A.D. 1100s, with little evidence of new construction after A.D (Duff 2015b:50). Block 100 displays banded masonry, at least one oversized room, an oversized kiva, a position on a high prominence at the site, and a close spatial association with an ancient road extending to Casa Negra. All of these attributes could be interpreted as evidence that Block 100 served as a great house for the surrounding community (Hurst and Till 2009; Vivian 1990); however, archaeologists question whether the building should be classified as such because it lacks other elements of great house construction like obvious multistory construction, blocked-in above-ground kivas, and core-veneer masonry (Duff 2015a:678).

8 CREATING SYMMETRY 7 Regardless of the precise interpretation of the architectural block, it displays some Chacoan attributes consistent with great house construction, and it is interpreted as an important, likely central place within the larger Shields Pueblo. In this discussion it is interpreted as a probable great house based on the evidence at hand. The Harlan Great Kiva is located to the south of Shields Pueblo and was a contemporary of Block 100. This long-lived great kiva appears to have been an important public structure for the Goodman Point community for approximately 250 years (Coffey 2014a, 2014b). Combinations of tree-ring and pottery data collected from excavations suggest the great kiva at the site was built in the mid A. D. 1000s and continued to be used until about A.D Multiple remodeling episodes to the great kiva interior throughout this span suggest the structure served as an evolving but persistent architectural symbol of community organization for generations of people living in the Goodman Point community. Located near the great kivas in both communities are other sites that may have functioned in tandem with them, and the nearby great houses, to form a more extensive public and ritual complex. These sites are situated in approximately the same position relative to nearby great kivas and they appear to have been architecturally similar. Both also appear to have been roughly contemporary. Monsoon House, in the Goodman Point community, is one of these sites and it is located to the northwest of the Harlan Great Kiva site (Figure 3). Test excavations at Monsoon House uncovered architectural attributes suggestive of Chaco influence including enclosed plazas, two kivas with subfloor vents, and kivas generally figure 3. Detail of Monsoon House and Harlan Great Kiva site also showing their relationship to other Goodman Point community sites. Courtesy on Crow Canyon Archaeological Center.

9 8 GRANT COFFEY enclosed by surface rooms or other architecture (Coffey and Copeland 2011). The site is also located immediately adjacent to the Goodman Point belt-loop road, a constructed road that appears to run an arcing course from Shields Pueblo in the north to near the northern boundary of the Harlan Great Kiva site (Coffey and Copeland 2011; Davis 2014). The location of the site near the great kiva and the belt-loop road suggest civic planning in the positioning and construction of Monsoon House, planning that incorporated aspects of Chaco-influenced design. Tree-ring dates from the tested kivas at the site suggest large-scale construction there in the A.D. 1170s and 1180s, and continued remodeling of some kivas into the A.D. 1240s (Coffey and Copeland 2011). A more restricted earlier use of the site in the A.D. 1000s is also supported by a combination of architectural and pottery data. This suggests Monsoon House had a public role that was intertwined with the nearby great kiva and belt-loop road, and the dating of the tested kivas indicate this role might have temporally overlapped with, and may have been successive to, that of Block 100 at Shields Pueblo. All of these sites were likely embedded in the broader ritual and political landscape of the Goodman Point community, suggesting their construction, placement, and spatial associations were negotiated via the leadership of that community. In the Sand Canyon community a site called Three Mounds Pueblo is similarly situated in relation to the great kiva at 5MT3954 (Figure 4). Surface evidence at Three Mounds Pueblo indicates it is similar in size, span of use, and overall layout to Monsoon House. Extensive agricultural disturbances at the site make precise interpretations of surface remains difficult but apparent similarities are interesting (Adler 1988). The number and location of architectural areas, and the proximity and orientation of the site to the great kiva suggest this site may have once been very similar in composition to the better preserved Monsoon House in the Goodman Point community (Coffey and Copeland 2011). Pottery data recorded during survey suggest Three Mounds Pueblo was likely built and used in the A.D. 1000s and 1100s and may have been out of use by A.D (Adler 1988:43). That said, the presence of McElmo and Mesa Verde Black-on-white in different parts of the site suggest some type of use continued to at least the late A.D. 1100s (Ortman et al. 2005). Similarities in location, architectural composition, and dating seem to suggest Three Mounds Pueblo and Monsoon House may have been part of broader, great kiva-centered architectural complexes servicing both communities independently prior to the construction of Sand Canyon and Goodman Point pueblos. More chronometric data is needed from Casa Negra and Three Mounds Pueblo to assess, more precisely, how this complex compares to the partially excavated sites in the Goodman Point community. In any case, these public structures were tethered to one another by an important landscape feature, a constructed road that wove them into the social fabric of these two communities (Figures 3 and 4 [Adler 1988; Davis 2014; Duff 2015b). This road physically connects the two great houses (Casa Negra and Block 100 at Shields Pueblo) and was likely built in the same general time frame as those structures (Adler 1990; Davis 2014; Ryan 2015). No other road segments have been documented extending beyond these two communities, suggesting this road was important in physically and symbolically connecting them into a multicommunity social

10 CREATING SYMMETRY 9 figure 4. Detail of Casa Negra, 5MT3954, and Three Mounds Pueblo showing the relationship to the ancient road connecting Casa Negra and Shields Pueblo. Courtesy of Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. framework which is somewhat rare in the central Mesa Verde region (though examples are available for southeastern Utah, see Hurst and Till 2009). Previous research has suggested some Chaco era roads served as umbilical lines connecting past centers with new ones; a physical and cosmological means of recognizing the transference of social prestige and influence among great houses while historically legitimizing the succession of power (Fowler and Stein 1992:119; Van Dyke 2004). In the Sand Canyon locality this road appears to have linked contemporary,

11 10 GRANT COFFEY not successive, great houses in a planned social framework. This may suggest the establishment of a new local alliance that apparently lacks a recognized, historically situated, road connection to previous great houses elsewhere. In the northern Goodman Point community a belt-loop road has also been recorded which seems to physically connect the probable great house at Shields Pueblo with the Harlan Great Kiva site to the south (Figure 3 [Coffey and Copeland 2011; Davis 2014; Hovezak et al. 2004]). This suggests the belt-loop road, the great kiva, Block 100 at Shields Pueblo, and Monsoon House were all part of an extensive public complex servicing that community. No similar belt-loop road has been recorded connecting the Casa Negra great house to the recorded great kiva to the north (5MT3954) but this relatively subtle landscape feature could have easily been masked by agricultural disturbance. The presence of the belt-loop road in the Goodman Point community suggests roads of different types served to both formalize travel between residential communities and organize movement within them (Davis 2014; Hurst and Till 2009). Architectural Symmetry and Social Organization As others have noted, the symmetrical layout of buildings and structures was a key component of the ancestral Pueblo building tradition in the central Mesa Verde region dating back to at least the A.D. 600s. The bilateral symmetry of kiva architecture, in particular, has been recognized and discussed as an expression of a sense of balance in the built environment at the household level (Adler 1989; Cameron 2009; Lekson 1988; Lipe 2006:273; Lipe and Hegmon 1989; Ryan 2013). The usual orientation of these structures along a rough north south line also reflects the importance of directionally situating living and ritual space to reference the natural world. Some ritual features, like sipapus, also connect structures symbolically to ancestors and previous planes of existence (Parsons 1936; Prudden 1914:48). This suggests that by the late A.D. 1000s symmetry in the construction of household residences was a fundamental part of the ancestral Pueblo building tradition. In places like Chaco Canyon, a large regional center built and used from the mid A.D. 800s to the mid A.D. 1100s (Lekson 1984; Lekson et al. 2006), this symmetry as it relates to the natural and social world was expressed writ-large with massive, formally built structures situated to reference each other (Fritz 1978; Van Dyke 2008a), the cardinal directions (Lekson 1999; Vivian 1990), and astronomical and solar events (e.g., solstices, equinox [Sofaer 1997; Stein and Lekson 1992:91 92]). Fritz (1978:43) discusses different types of symmetrical architectural design expressed at Chaco Canyon that contribute to this affirmation of order in the natural and social worlds. Translation, reflection, and bifold rotation of architectural elements and sites are suggested to have expressed the generally perceived equal status of groups living in and using the structures (Figure 5). These different types of symmetry are defined by the motion necessary to superimpose one similar element on the other in reference to a line or point on which this motion

12 CREATING SYMMETRY 11 figure 5. Types of symmetry and interpretation of how they map onto Goodman Point community integrative architecture (after Fritz 1978:43). takes place (Fritz 1978:43; Washburn 1977). It is suggested the nature of their spatial associations is also important in creating a broader architectural and social whole. More precisely, Fritz (1978:50) suggests: that reflective symmetry expressed social equivalence of social aggregates linked in a closed system of balanced duality. The aggregates were (a) participators or observers in activities occurring in kivas, (b) occupants of towns, and (c) occupants of the inner Chaco region. In each case these aggregates were organized into two groups by the placement or relation of architectural features. Their relation was closed in that alterations of number, position, and presumably other attributes of one group could not be changed without concomitant change in the other. Fritz (1978:50) goes on to suggest that although elements of the architectural system were likely constructed independently by different labor groups or social aggregates, the overall symmetrical design of the architectural system required the coordinated, activity of (at least) the leaders of each aggregate. The rotational symmetry present in these systems is suggested to represent sequential alteration within a closed system, that is cyclical change. He suggests this cyclical change is likely linked to alterations in the management of affairs, including possibly ritual or leadership authority that may mirror cyclical change in the natural world. Vivian (1990:435) elaborated on this idea to suggest dualism was important in facilitating rotating sequential hierarchies, in which decision making authority was temporary and transferred among leaders on a structured cyclical basis (following Ortiz 1969). Others (Judge and Cordell 2006:209) have also suggested that in Chaco Canyon leadership authority was derived from control over ritual and esoteric information and that it may have been imbedded in a dual organization that could integrate hierarchies already in place among diverse segments of the canyon population.

13 12 GRANT COFFEY At the Aztec Ruins complex to the north of Chaco Canyon, individual structures and an associated road segment are also interpreted to be symmetrically configured so that collectively they comprise an architectural landscape that both embodies and reinforces ideas established at Chaco Canyon (Glowacki 2015; Lekson 1999; Reed 2008; Van Dyke 2008a, 2008b). This regionally important site is situated along the Animas River in northern New Mexico, and much of the great house construction there took place from about A.D to 1125, with other building taking place at the site into the A.D. 1200s (Lipe 2006:272; Vivian 1990:303). This is approximately the same time that the primary public structures for both the Sand Canyon and Goodman Point communities were built, near the decline of the Chaco regional system (Adler 1988; Coffey 2014a; Lipe 2006; Ryan 2015; Van Dyke 2008a). Others have noted that the cultural landscape of the Aztec Ruins complex appears formally planned to reflect a dualism of the built environment, that directionality was important to this dualism, and that the most obvious antecedent for this type of organization is Chaco Canyon (Glowacki 2015; Lekson 1999; Stein and McKenna 1988; Van Dyke 2008a, 2008b). Lekson has suggested that the formalized planning of the Aztec Ruins complex represents the movement of Chaco elites north to establish a new, smaller-scale version of the same basic regional system developed at the preceding, and larger, center in Chaco Canyon (Lekson 1999; Lipe 2006). Van Dyke (2008b:344) questions direct, wholesale relocation of the Chaco system and suggests that the transition of regional power north to Aztec took time, and that it was not uncontested or necessarily supported by the remaining Chaco establishment. In this later scenario, there may have been a time of overt factionalism that resulted in the creation of a hybrid regional system that retained many of the tenets of the original Chaco system, but which elaborated on or rejected certain ideas and their associated architectural expression, as exemplified by the appearance of tri-wall structures and modification of celestial referents at Aztec (Glowacki 2015; Van Dyke 2008a, 2008b). It is also at this time the early A.D. 1100s that there is a relative boom in great house construction in southwestern Colorado with several great house sites constructed over a wide area (Lipe 2006:275). At both Chaco Canyon and Aztec the spatial association and orientation of individual public structures display a symmetry that reflects planning based on an organizational system that incorporates the landscape, suggesting it is hard to socially reference one structure or suite of structures in the absence of the others or the landscape on which they are situated (Van Dyke 2004, 2008a, 2008b; Vivian 1990). In other words, they comprise an architectural collective that combined to both create and reinforce the social structuring ideas of the builders. The importance of directionality and the spatial translation of material culture have been extended to broader landscapes (Lekson 1999), but often these organizing referents are assessed and described at the village level (Fowles 2005; Ortiz 1969; Ware 2014; White 1962). In the northern Rio Grande area, the importance of directionality in reckoning social relations within more recent Tiwa and Tewa villages is well documented (Ortiz 1969). Fowles (2005:33 35) work at Pot Creek Pueblo suggests the dual moiety organization found at northern Tiwa pueblos extends back to at least the late thirteenth century based on architectural and artifact differences between the earliest components of that village. Differences in the architectural

14 CREATING SYMMETRY 13 layout of architectural blocks on the north and south sides of the village, as well as the placement of artifacts during a ritual closing of a D-shaped kiva, are suggested to reflect directionally situated dual social divisions that are indicative of moiety organization at the village level. The development of this moiety system, or the definition of two social halves comprising the village whole, is suggested to have provided a durable means of promoting village unity while reducing conflict among village members with different cultural histories. Other Eastern Pueblo groups also use dual social organization to mediate social interactions at the village level (Ware 2014). This type of social structure is rooted in the past and appears closely tied to spatial and architectural organization. At Zia Pueblo, White (1962) notes that the division of social identity and ritual responsibility is represented by two kiva groups separated by an east west line roughly dividing the village in half. Though movement between kiva groups is somewhat fluid, this spatial and ritual organization helps define the social roles and individual identities of people living in the village. White (1962) notes that some attempt was made to equalize the size of the two groups comprising these divisions to create a sense of civic and ritual balance. Seminal work by Ortiz (1969) suggests a dual moiety system is the primary means by which social identity and ritual responsibility are organized within Tewa society. He suggests the timing of leader selection and different but intertwined roles amongst these two groups help to create a sense of social symmetry that balance village authority and the overall ritual cycle. Recent work supports strong historical ties between thirteenth-century populations in the central Mesa Verde region and the development of early Tewa social organization (Ortman 2012:337). Based on this work, it seems Tewa moiety organization may have been influenced by previously developed dual social organization operating in places like the Sand Canyon locality. Discussion I propose that dual social divisions in Pueblo society extended beyond the Chaco regional system, and that of the Aztec Ruins complex, and that the constellation and location of public structures in the Sand Canyon locality support a local operationalization of a similar system in which architectural dualism served to promote and legitimize supracommunity social relations. Namely, that these two communities constructed an architectural system in which public structures were built and arranged to reflect a dual sociopolitical entity larger than a residential community, but smaller than a regional system like that centered in Chaco Canyon. As at Chaco, landscape features and the locations of public structures were purposefully oriented to reference those nearby in what appears to be a balanced social system operating on a large spatial scale (Fritz 1978; Van Dyke 2008a). The social mechanisms creating and reinforcing these relations are likely products of the Chaco system, contemporaries of those creating the Aztec Ruins complex, and precursors to the later Pueblo moiety divisions that sought to create civic balance amongst different groups at the village level. It seems likely this dual organization was intended to foster social and political alliances which would have operated much like later moiety organization to increase

15 14 GRANT COFFEY local security while decreasing competition and conflict between the two communities themselves (Fowles 2005; Ortiz 1969:136; Ware 2014). The orientation of the road forming the primary constructed referent in the system hints at the nature of the association between the communities and may inform on how this proposed dual social organization was operationalized. The road extending from Casa Negra northeast to Shields Pueblo has a bearing of about 55. Interestingly, the summer solstice sunrise when viewed from Casa Negra would be about 60 and the lunar major standstill would be approximately 55 (Pauketat 2012:165; Sofaer 1997). The lunar standstill would be the furthest northerly rising of the moon as seen from Casa Negra, which occurred every 18.6 years (Sofaer 1997:232). If Shields Pueblo is used as the starting point for travel, the road has a bearing of about 235. The winter solstice sun set, when viewed from Shields Pueblo would set at about 240 and the setting of the moon at the lunar major standstill would be at about 235 (Sofaer 1997). The position of the road in relation to astronomically important events may suggest the road, and by extension the great houses, were placed to reference important celestial observances even if the alignments are not exact. Similar placement of structures in relation to astronomical observances has been suggested for sites elsewhere in the Mesa Verde region, at Chaco Canyon, the Aztec Ruins complex, Cahokia, and other cultures in North America (Fritz 1978; Lekson 1999; Malville and Putnam 1989; Munson 2014; Pauketat 2012; Sofaer 1997). The location and orientation of the road connecting the two sites is not the only evidence of planned construction representative of directionally situated social dualism. In the Goodman Point community the Harlan Great Kiva site is located 600 m roughly south of the possible great house at Shields (approximately ). In the Sand Canyon community, the great kiva at 5MT3954 is located roughly north (approximately ) of the Casa Negra great house at two-thirds of the Shields Pueblo/Harlan Great Kiva distance (400 m). Other options for the placement of these great kivas were possible, but these locations and relationships were intentionally selected by the builders from both communities as appropriate for the creation of the cultural landscape. This is interesting given the orientation of the road and the apparent similarities in the composition of the public architectural complexes in each community. Intriguing architectural evidence from the later villages of Sand Canyon Pueblo and Goodman Point Pueblo suggest dual social divisions continued to be important later in time but that this historically situated expression of dualism changed in an atmosphere of increasing aggregation and the movement of people into and out of the area (Bradley 1996; Glowacki 2015; Kuckelman 2007; Kuckelman et al. 2009). The Aztec Ruins complex provides an interesting, and regionally important, comparison for this discussion. There are architectural similarities between the proposed dualistic system in the Sand Canyon locality and the layout of the Aztec Ruins complex. The north wall of Aztec West, the largest and most formally built structure in the group, appears to have been built to align with (at least) important lunar events, like the minor lunar standstill (Baker 2008; Reed 2008; Van Dyke 2008b). This would be similar to the bearing suggested for the road from Casa Negra to Shields Pueblo, which is also apparently related to important lunar alignments.

16 CREATING SYMMETRY 15 figure 6. Comparison of the orientation of major structures in central Chaco Canyon and at the Aztec Ruins complex (after Glowacki 2015; Stein and McKenna 1988; Van Dyke 2008a). Courtesy of Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. An architectural case could also be made that the Casa Negra and Shields Pueblo symmetrical design parallels the architectural and likely social, relationship between Aztec West and Aztec East/ Earl Morris Ruin (Figure 6). At Aztec, the road that bisects the major architectural components runs southeast to northwest; oriented in the general direction of the central Mesa Verde region (Glowacki 2015; Stein and McKenna 1988; Van Dyke 2008a). Though it is somewhat unclear what this orientation meant, it does represent a change in direction compared to the previous Great North Road that extended out of Chaco Canyon approximately due north toward the Aztec Ruins complex. The road that bisects Aztec serves to divide the group, and orient the major structures, suggesting the road was the primary constructed referent. The road connecting Casa Negra and Shields Pueblo is also interpreted as the primary referent for the dual system operating between the Sand Canyon and Goodman Point communities. There are important differences in the composition and orientation of the two systems as well. In the Sand Canyon and Goodman Point communities there are no tri-wall structures identified. The number of these structures at Aztec (three) is anomalous, and the apparent absence of these structures in either of the Sand Canyon locality communities is intriguing (Coffey and Copeland 2011; Glowacki 2015; Ryan 2015). These structures provide a crucial component of the overall symmetry at Aztec, but apparently play no part in the Goodman Point complex. Rather, it appears the juxtaposition of great kivas to great houses largely assumes the reflective role of the tri-wall/great kiva relationship evident at Aztec (Figure 6). Perhaps

17 16 GRANT COFFEY importantly, great kivas are not incorporated into great house architecture in the northern system, or are they placed immediately near early great houses. This may suggest a planned, physical separation of the ritual and symbolic function of the two types of structures within the broader social framework of the Sand Canyon locality. The course of the road connecting Casa Negra and Shields Pueblo is also along a very different axis from that bisecting the Aztec Ruins complex. Overall, public structures in the northern Sand Canyon and Goodman Point communities appears to have been planned and constructed following similar notions of directionality, the importance of celestial observation, and social symmetry that are reflected at Aztec (Van Dyke 2004:426). The details of each system, however, vary considerably, suggesting no wholesale translation of the Aztec architectural system north. In fact, as other have noted (Glowacki 2006, 2015), the apparent lack of important features present at Aztec in northern sites may signal a rejection of certain organizing principles represented by the monumental architecture there as well as a local operationalization of ideas common to both locations that originated in or were codified at Chaco Canyon earlier (Vivian 1990). With the data at hand, it seems the architectural system built in the Sand Canyon locality could have either signaled alliance or opposition to the regional sociopolitical influence of Aztec; the general similarities might argue for the former, but the details of each system support the later. Regardless of how this dual organization was perceived by others in the region, it seems likely the directionally situated organizing principle extended to other aspects of social relations between the two communities, perhaps in a way similar to later moiety divisions noted for Eastern Pueblo groups along the Rio Grande (Fowles 2005; Ortiz 1969; Snead and Preucel 1999; Ware 2014; White 1962). For instance, it could have been that the Shields great house was positioned to represent the furthest north celestial rising and this may have translated into a northern or winter identity for that community in the system. Using a modern and historic analogy, among some Tewa groups a winter or northern affiliation in the moiety system entailed association with seasonal ritual responsibilities (primarily in the winter), association with hunting, a generally more male referent, and perhaps an association with the sun (Fowles 2005:30; Parsons 1936). Conversely, the location of the Casa Negra great house may suggest a symbolic connection to the south and perhaps a summer identity for the residents of that community. This might have entailed complimentary and opposing social roles to those of Shields Pueblo. Among the Tewa, some of these southern moiety roles include primary ritual responsibility in the summer, association with agriculture, a more female referent, etc. (Fowles 2005:30; Parsons 1936). Whatever the precise identities or broader responsibilities of the communities, architectural and landscape-level evidence suggest the two comprised a social whole larger than the individual residential communities themselves; a supracommunity collective that was symbolically and ritually intertwined and incomplete without the juxtaposition of the other (Fritz 1978; Ortiz 1969). This social development may have presaged and influenced the development of moiety organization among Eastern Pueblos in the Rio Grande by the late thirteenth century, and was likely a direct legacy of the Chaco system (Fowles 2005; Ortman 2012).

18 CREATING SYMMETRY 17 Acknowledgments I would like thank Mark Varien, Bill Lipe, Tim Kohler, and Ruth Van Dyke for reviewing this article and helping to make it better. I would also like to thank current and former Crow Canyon Archaeological Center employees and participants whose work made this article possible. The Crow Canyon Archaeological Center and the Crow Canyon Research Institute provided the time and financial support to pursue this research. Any errors are strictly the responsibility of the author. References Cited Adler, Michael A Archaeological Survey and Testing in the Sand Canyon Pueblo/Goodman Point Ruin Locality, Montezuma County, Colorado, 1987 Field Season. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Cortez, CO. Report submitted to the Bureau of Land Management, San Juan Resource Area Office, Durango, CO Ritual Facilities and Social Integration in Nonranked Societies. In The Architecture of Social Integration in Prehistoric Pueblos, edited by W. D. Lipe and M. Hegmon, pp Occasional Papers, no. 1.Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Cortez, CO Communities of Soil and Stone: An Archaeological Investigation of Population Aggregation among the Mesa Verde Region Anasazi, A.D Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor The Ancestral Pueblo Community as Structure and Strategy. In Seeking the Center Place: Archaeology and Ancient Communities in the Mesa Verde Region, edited by Mark D. Varien and Richard H. Wilshusen, pp University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City. Adler, Michael A., and Richard H. Wilshusen 1990 Large-Scale Integrative Facilities in Tribal Societies: Cross-Cultural and Southwestern US Examples. World Archaeology 22: Baker, Larry L Salmon Ruins: Architecture and Development of a Chacoan Satellite on the San Juan River. In Chaco s Northern Prodigies: Salmon, Aztec and the Ascendency of the Middle San Juan Region After A.D. 1100, edited by Paul F. Reed, pp The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City. Bourdieu, Pierre The Berber House. In Rules and Meaning, edited by M. Douglas, pp Penguin, Middlesex, England. Bradley, Bruce 1996 Pitchers to Mugs: Chacoan Revival at Sand Canyon Pueblo. Kiva 61: Cameron, Catherine M Chaco and Post-Chaco in the Northern San Juan Region. In Chaco and After in the Northern San Juan: Excavations at the Bluff Great House, edited by Catherine M. Cameron, pp The University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Coffey, Grant D Landscape and Social Scale at Goodman Point, Hovenweep National Monument, Southwestern Colorado. Kiva 76: a Residential Versus Civic Use in the Pueblo II-III Period: A Case Study from the Harlan Great Kiva Site in the Goodman Point Area of Southwestern Colorado. Journal of Field Archaeology 39: b The Harlan Great Kiva Site: Civic Architecture and Community Persistence in the Goodman Point Area of Southwestern Colorado. Kiva 79: Coffey, Grant D., and Steven R. Copeland 2011 Report of 2010 Goodman Point Community Testing, Montezuma County, Colorado [PDF Title]. Date of use:

19 18 GRANT COFFEY Davis, Aaron T Chacoan Roadways in the Goodman Point Region in Southwest Colorado. Unpublished Master s Thesis, California State University, Northridge. Diederichs, Shanna R., Steven R. Copeland, and Caitlin A. Sommer 2014 The Basketmaker Communities Project Annual Report, 2013 Field Season. Season [PDF Title]. http :// text_2011.pdf. Date of use: Duff, Andrew I. 2015a Synthesis: The Community Through Time. In The Archaeology of Shields Pueblo (Site 5MT3807): Excavations at a Mesa-Top Community Center in Southwestern Colorado, edited by Susan C. Ryan, pp b Chronology: Shields Pueblo Through Time. In The Archaeology of Shields Pueblo (Site 5MT3807): Excavations at a Mesa-Top Community Center in Southwestern Colorado, edited by Susan C. Ryan, pp Durkheim, Emile The Division of Labor in Society, translated by George Simpson. The Free Press, New York. Ferguson, T. J Comment on Social Integration and Anasazi Architecture. In The Architecture of Social Integration in Prehistoric Pueblos, edited by W. D. Lipe and M. Hegmon, pp Occasional Papers, no. 1. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Cortez, CO. Fowler, Andres P., and John R. Stein 1992 The Anasazi Great House in Space, Time, and Paradigm. In Anasazi Regional Organization and the Chaco System, edited by David E. Doyel, pp Anthropological Papers, no. 5. Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Fowles, Severin M Historical Contingency and the Prehistoric Foundations of Moiety Organization among the Eastern Pueblos. Journal of Anthropological Research 61: Fritz, John M Paleopsychology Today: Ideational Systems and Human Adaptation in Prehistory. In Social Archaeology: Beyond Subsistence and Dating, edited by Charles L. Redman, Mary J. Berman, Edward V. Curtin, William T. Langhorne, Nina M. Versaggi, and Jeffrey C. Wanser, pp Academic Press, New York. Glowacki, Donna M The Social Landscape of Depopulation: the Northern San Juan, A.D Unpublished Ph. D. Dissertation. School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe Living and Leaving: A Social History of Regional Depopulation in Thirteenth-Century Mesa Verde. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Hegmon, Michelle 1989 Social Integration and Architecture. In The Architecture of Social Integration in Prehistoric Pueblos, edited by W. D. Lipe and M. Hegmon, pp Occasional Papers, no. 1. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Cortez, CO. Hegmon, Michelle, and William D. Lipe 1989 Introduction. In The Architecture of Social Integration in Prehistoric Pueblos, edited by William D. Lipe and Michelle Hegmon, pp Occasional Papers, no. 1. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Cortez, CO. Herr, Sarah A Great Kivas as Integrative Architecture in the Silver Creek Community, Arizona. Unpublished Master s Thesis, University of Arizona, Tucson. Hovezak, Timothy D., Leslie M. Sesler, Mark D. Varien, and Chris Goetze 2004 An Archaeological Survey of the Goodman Point Unit of Hovenweep National Monument, Montezuma County, Colorado. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Cortez, CO. Report submitted

20 CREATING SYMMETRY 19 to the Colorado Historical Society, Denver, and the Southeast Utah Group of the National Park Service, Moab, Utah. Hurst, Winston B. and Jonathan D. Till 2009 A Brief Survey of Great Houses and Related Features in Southeastern Utah. In Chaco and after in the Northern San Juan: Excavations at the Bluff Great House, edited by Catherine M. Cameron, pp The University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Judge, W. James, and Linda S. Cordell 2006 Society and Polity. In The Archaeology of Chaco Canyon: An Eleventh-Century Pueblo Regional Center, edited by Stephen H. Lekson, pp School of American Research Press, Santa Fe. Kohler, Timothy A., and Mark D. Varien (editors) 2014 Emergence and Collapse of Early Villages: Models of Central Mesa Verde Archaeology. University of California Press, Berkeley. Kuckelman, Kristin A. (editor) 2007 The Archaeology of Sand Canyon Pueblo: Intensive Excavations at a Late-Thirteenth-Century Village in Southwestern Colorado [HTML Title]. Date of use: Kuckelman, Kristin A., Grant D. Coffey, and Steve R. Copeland Interim Descriptive Report of Research at Goodman Point Pueblo (Site 5MT604), Montezuma County, Colorado, [PDF Title]. Date of use: Lekson, Stephen H Great Pueblo Architecture of Chaco Canyon. Publications in Archaeology, no. 18B. National Park Service, Washington, DC The Idea of the Kiva in Anasazi Archaeology. The Kiva 53: The Chaco Meridian Centers of Political Power in the Ancient Southwest. Alta Mira Press, Walnut Creek, CA. Lekson, Stephen H., Thomas Windes, and Peter J. McKenna 2006 Architecture. In The Archaeology of Chaco Canyon: An Eleventh-Century Pueblo Regional Center, edited by S. H. Lekson, pp School of American Research Press, Santa Fe. Lightfoot, Ricky R Synthesis. In The Duckfoot Site, Volume 1: Descriptive Archaeology, edited by R. R. Lightfoot and Mary C. Etzkorn, pp Occasional Papers, no. 3. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Cortez, CO. Lipe, William D Introduction. In The Sand Canyon Archaeological Project: A Progress Report, edited by W. D. Lipe, pp Occasional Papers, no. 2. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Cortez, CO Notes from the North. In The Archaeology of Chaco Canyon: An Eleventh-Century Pueblo Regional Center, edited by Stephen H. Lekson, pp School of American Research Press, Santa Fe. Lipe, William D., and Michelle Hegmon (editors) 1989 The Architecture of Social Integration in Prehistoric Pueblos. Occasional Papers, no. 1. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, Cortez, CO. Lipe, William D., and Mark D. Varien 1999 Pueblo II (A.D ). In Colorado Prehistory: A Context for the Southern Colorado River Basin, edited by William D. Lipe, Mark D. Varien, and Richard H. Wilshusen, pp Colorado Council of Professional Archaeologists, Denver. Malville, J. McKim, and Claudia Putnam 1989 Prehistoric Astronomy in the Southwest. Johnson Books, Boulder, CO. Munson, Gregory E Using Architectural Documentation to Assess Architecture and Features Associated with Astronomical Observations: Case Studies at Mesa Verde National Park. In Astronomy and Ceremony in the Prehistoric Southwest: Revisited, edited by Gregory E. Munson, Todd W. Bostwick, and Tony Hull,