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Sacred Earthen Architecture in the Northern Southwest: The Bluff Great House Berm

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Catherine M. Cameron
Catherine M. Cameron*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, 233 UCB, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0233
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Abstract

This article reports on the excavation of a “berm”—an earthen mound that surrounds the Bluff Great House in southeastern Utah. Comparisons are made to Chacoan-era (A.D. 850–1150) great house mounds in Chaco Canyon and to other berms and mounds at great houses throughout the Chacoan region. Great house mounds in Chaco Canyon and berms outside Chaco Canyon are assumed to have been ritual architecture, and continuity in the use of mounded earth and trash as a sacred place of deposit is traced through time from the Pueblo 1 period to modern Pueblos. The Bluff berm does not seem to have been constructed as the result of ceremonial gatherings (as has been suggested for the great house mounds in Chaco Canyon), but there is intriguing evidence that it continued to be used into the post-Chacoan era (A.D. 1150–1300), perhaps as a result of a restructuring or revival of Chacoan ideas in the northern San Juan region. Examination of the spatial distribution of berms suggests that they are most common at great houses south and west of Chaco Canyon; the northern San Juan region, where Bluff is located, has far fewer such features, possibly because the revival of Chacoan ideas in this region was short-lived.

Résumé

Résumé

Este escrito reporta la excavación de un túmulo—un montículo de tierra que rodea la Gran Casa del sitio Bluff en el suroeste de Utah. Se han hecho comparaciones con montículos de grandes casas de la era Chacoana (850–1150 d.C.) en el Cañón Chaco y con otros túmulos y montículos en grandes casas a lo largo de la region Chacoana. Se ha asumido que los montículos de grandes casas en el Cañón Chaco y los túmulos fuera del Cañón Chaco fueron arquitectura ritual, y la continuidad en el uso de tierra amontonada y basura como un lugar de depósito sagrado es rastreada a traves del tiempo desde el período Pueblo 1 hasta los Pueblos modernos. El túmulo de Bluff no parece haber sido construido como resultado de reuniones ceremonials (como se ha sugerido para los montículos de grandes casas en el Cañón Chaco), pero hay evidencia intrigante de que continuo siendo usado en la era post-Chacoana (1150–1300 d.C.), quizá como el resultado de un reestructuramiento o reavivamiento de ideas Chacoanas en la region San Juan norteña. La examinación de la distribución espacial de los túmulos sugiere que son mas comunes en grandes casas al sur y al oeste del Cañón Chaco; la region San Juan norteña, donde Bluff esta localizado, tiene por mucho un número menor de dichos rasgos, posiblemente porque el reavivamiento de ideas Chacoanas en esta región fue de breve vida.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 67 , Issue 4 , October 2002 , pp. 677 - 695
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2002

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