Basketmaker
Basketmaker is a Formativum ( Neolithic ) culture in the southwestern United States , primarily in Utah and Arizona . It was defined by Richard Wetherill . The name refers to the typical basketry in bulge technique, which has been preserved in the dry climate of the southwest. Today they are considered to be the first two phases of the Anasazi or Ancestral Pueblo culture.
At that time no ceramics were used. Alfred Kidder (1915) assumed that the carriers of the Basketmaker II culture (BM II) had immigrated. M. Berry derives the western BM II from the ceramic San Pedro Cochise culture , in which others see the roots of the Mogollon culture . A distinction is made between the classic western and eastern Durango facies of the BM II culture. Hunters and gatherers lived north of the basketmaker culture.
| Culture | Dating | features |
|---|---|---|
| Basketmaker I. | hypothetical, no longer represented today | |
| Basketmaker II | 400 BC Chr. - 400 AD | aceramic |
| Basketmaker III | AD 400-700 | Ceramics, pit houses |
| Pueblo I | 700-900 AD | Above-ground huts, weaving and pottery are more important than wickerwork |
| Pueblo II | around 1000 AD | Largest expansion of the Anasazi tradition , stone-built settlements |
| Pueblo III | until 1281 AD | Abandonment of many smaller settlements, concentration on multi-storey residential buildings |
| Pueblo IV | A.D. 1281-1450 | few large settlements (after 1450 the Spaniards invaded the southwest) |
| Pueblo V | since 1450 | today's Indian peoples in the Pueblo tradition |
Important sites are on the Black Mesa and the Cedar Mesa . Some of the sites are in areas that are easy to defend and there are often burnt buildings. Stephen LeBlanc concludes from this that there are frequent armed conflicts. Skeletons with head injuries were found in Green Mask Cave in Utah and Red Canyon. Twenty headless burials were found in Woodchuck's cave. Among the 13 people buried in the Battle Cave were some who had died of violent injuries. Children and women are underrepresented; they may have been forcibly kidnapped.
The basketmakers grew corn , which they stored in stone-clad storage pits. They also knew pumpkins and zucchini . They used spear throwers for hunting . From 100 AD they built pit houses in small villages. They are round, inside are bell-shaped storage pits. In a later phase the entrances are clad with sandstone slabs. Sandals made from rushes are known from the durango facies, in the west yucca fibers were used.
See also
literature
- F. Blackburn, R. Williamson: Cowboys and cave-dwellers: Basketmaker archeology in Utah's Grand Gulch . Santa Fe, 1997.
- CW Ceram : The First American . the discovery of Native American cultures in North America. Hannelore Marek and Artemis & Winkler Verlag, Munich and Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-7608-1928-1 .