Diorama No. 4
THE DEVELOPMENTAL PUEBLO PERIOD—750 to 1100 A. D.
Pictured here is a typical Mesa Verde pueblo of about 850 A. D. The houses are joined together in a long curving row, facing south. In front are two underground ceremonial rooms, one complete, the other under construction. Around the village are the fields and in the head of a small draw at the left is a spring which provides water. The people are engaged in the activities of a September day: gathering the crops, drying food, building houses, carrying water, cooking, dressing hides, making pottery and, in some cases, doing nothing at all.
In the two preceding dioramas, the people were called Basketmakers. From this time on, they will be called Pueblos. Pueblo is a Spanish word meaning village. This period saw the beginning of true pueblo architecture so the new name, Pueblo Indians, is used.
During the preceding period, individual pithouses were built but near the end, the builders began to join the houses together in compact groups. Early in the Developmental Pueblo Period, individual pithouses, used as dwellings, disappeared. The houses became rectangular with vertical walls built of posts and adobe. The rooms were joined together, end-to-end, in long, curving rows. In front were one or more deep pitrooms which served as ceremonial rooms.
Later in the period, stone masonry appeared and houses were built of stones laid in adobe mortar. These villages usually contained from 4 to 15 rooms built in a single compact group. In front were one or more ceremonial rooms, now completely underground. These rooms, now called kivas, served as ceremonial rooms, clubrooms and workrooms and were used chiefly by the men.
About 750 A. D., the people began to use a wooden cradleboard and the baby’s head rested on the hard board without a pillow. This caused the back of the skull to flatten and the head appeared much broader. From this time on, almost every head was noticeably deformed.
During the Developmental Pueblo Period, there was general improvement in everything except basketry which declined as pottery grew in favor. Pottery improved in quality, designs became more common and corrugated pottery appeared. Minor arts and crafts improved and cotton cloth appeared about 900 A. D. Evidently the cotton was imported from warmer regions to the south for it will not mature in the Mesa Verde.
From all appearances, this was a peaceful period, for the population grew rapidly and the people spread over a wide area. Hundreds of small farming villages dotted the Mesa Verde area.
