Paquimé

Prehistoric archaeological site Paquimé
UNESCO world heritage
Paquime residential complex (Casas Grandes)
National territory:	Mexico
Type:	Culture
Criteria :	iii, iv
Reference No .:	560
UNESCO region :	Latin America and the Caribbean
History of enrollment
Enrollment:	1998  (session 22)

Coordinates: 30 ° 21 ′ 58.6 ″  N , 107 ° 56 ′ 51 ″  W.

Paquimé​

Mexico

Paquimé (often referred to as Casas Grandes ) is an archaeological site located approximately 350 km northwest of the capital Chihuahua of Chihuahua State , Mexico , and half a kilometer from the city of Casas Grandes . Only part of the old settlement has been excavated and (cautiously) restored. The visitor center houses the small museum of the cultures of the north.

On March 30, 2015, the memorial was included in the International Register of Cultural Property under the special protection of the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict .

population

Ball court

Monticle of the Sacrifices

Partly reconstructed living space

Characteristic passages

Paquimé was a pre-Hispanic settlement that influenced the northwest of the Sierra Madre Occidental , most of the west of Chihuahua, and some areas in eastern Sonora . For its part, Paquimé stands in the great cultural context of the archaeological cultures of Mogollon and (a little further away) of Anasazi , which existed in Arizona , Utah , Colorado and New Mexico and are summarized under the name Pueblo culture .

The site is known for its large adobe and tapia structures . They form extensive complexes of adjoining rooms, which in all aspects resemble the large houses of the late Mogollon and Anasazi cultures and their T-shaped doors. Researchers have calculated that the place had around 3500 residents, but their linguistic and ethnic allocation remains unknown. To the west of the village there are a number of buildings made of stone and infill, which were probably covered with lime paint; these were the ceremonial centers. The large building complex in the east frames a long rectangular square that is interpreted as a market. Great importance was given to the irrigation system. Walled canals run through the open spaces, but also through building complexes, which flow into flat, bowl-shaped water reservoirs. Various low artificial mounds are assigned a ritual function. A clear relationship to Mesoamerica is shown by the ball playgrounds , which, however, can also be found far into Arizona.

In Paquimé there are some constructions that are not known so far in other investigated sites: low hills (mounds) apparently took over the function of Mesoamerican pyramids. They also appear in peculiar forms: in the shape of a snake or a short-armed cross with four small mounds. The latter is interpreted as a symbol for the contemporary world because of the far-fetched similarity with the Mesoamerican calendar sign 4 Olin .

Some researchers believe that Paquimé developed independently from the Salado culture. Others claim that the sudden cultural development at this point was the result of an invasion by an elite from the Mexican plateau or from central Mexico. Paquimé is not the only large housing estate in this area. More so far not excavated lie in a similar location in a narrow corridor running to the southwest along the Sierra Madre and seem to point to a trade route that reached as far as the northwestern edge of Mesoamerica (important places: Chalchihuites and La Quemada ).

This created a trading post, which also specialized in the breeding of macaw birds because of their precious feathers, the exchange of mussels, ceramics, copper, etc.

Phases of the Paquimé culture

Around 700 , the Paquimé culture began in the region with the introduction of agriculture and the construction of small, half-sunk adobe houses on the banks of the Piedras Verdes, San Pedro and San Miguel Rivers, all of which flow into the Casas Grandes River .

Charles Di Peso, a North American archaeologist who studied the area and dug it in Paquimé from 1958 to 1961, suggested six phases of development of the culture - the dates are mainly based on very precise tree ring dating , supplemented by radiocarbon dating and obsidian hydration :

I.- Pre-ceramic horizon. Its beginning is unknown and it ends between the 1st and 2nd centuries.

II.- Period of undecorated pottery, from approx. 150 to 700.

III.- Old period, from 700 to 1060. The old period is divided into a) phase Convento (monastery) until 900, b) the short phase Pilón (grain mortar) until 950, c) phase Perros Bravos until 1060.

IV.- Middle period, from 1060 to 1340. It was divided into a) Buena Fe phase until 1205, b) Paquimé phase until 1261, c) Diablo (devil) phase until 1340.

V. Late period. From 1340 to 1660. The period is divided into: a) the Robles phase (oaks) until 1519, b) the phase of the first sporadic contacts with the Spanish until 1660.

VI.- Period of the Spaniards. From 1660 to 1821.

During the old period, the first villages were formed and their population practiced rain-fed agriculture, in addition to using the water that ran off the mountains.

During the first two phases of the Old Period, the construction of circular houses began. The houses were sunk halfway into the ground (less than 1 m), such dwellings had an area of ​​about 10 m² and a round door; In the middle of the village a community house was built that was larger than the family dwellings.

During the last phase of the Old Period the size of the houses increased; They began to be butted together, and instead of being circular, they were given a square plan. During this time, decorated ceramics appeared, as well as pieces of shell, necklaces, "cuentecitas" (jewelry pearls) made of turquoise and worked copper.

During the middle period the social structure and impression of the city changed. During the Buena Fe phase, the houses were only one story, the doors are T-shaped and the roofs are made of wooden beams.

During the Paquimé phase the place reached its greatest splendor, trade relations with other peoples were strengthened and ceremonial mounds were built. The place is crossed by a system of irrigation ditches, a ball playground is being built and the construction of multi-storey houses begins, some buildings reach up to four floors.

During the Diablo phase , the settlement is partially abandoned, the decline is triggered by attacks by hostile races. Around 1340 the site succumbs to enemy siege and many of the inhabitants are killed, this can be concluded from the number of human remains found in grotesque positions.

• Works of art: Casas Grandes culture jugs from the collection of the Stanford Museum, USA.

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  jug

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  jug

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  Human-shaped jug

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  Large owl-shaped jug

epilogue

After Paquimé was abandoned, nomadic indigenous peoples occupied the area. A beginning desert culture had died.

In 1562, the Spanish explorer Francisco de Ibarra reported that he had visited unexplored areas inhabited by well-dressed indigenous people who lived in adobe houses, farmed, operated irrigation canals, and had food in abundance. In 1566 he returned to the region and came to Paquimé or Casas Grandes, a place inhabited by the Sumas who did not practice agriculture and lived by hunting and collecting fruits and roots.

Francisco de Ibarra wrote: [The village] is densely built up with magnificent, high and fortified houses, six to seven on top of each other, secured with towers and strong fences like fortresses to protect and defend against the enemies (...) It has large and beautiful courtyards, paved with beautiful, large jasper-like stones, and knife-stones supported the large and beautiful pillars of thick wood that had been brought from afar; the walls of the buildings were tinted and painted white and brightly colored, made of very hard stone .

There were wide canals from the river to the villages that brought water to the houses. They have large and wide stoves on the ground floor of the houses and buildings that protect from the cold that is there a lot, as it snows much of the year and the north wind brings a lot of cold from the plains and mountains where it snows more than usual . There were traces of metals that the natives used to use, as well as millstones.

This large homestead and the cluster of houses are not in one place, but spread out over eight miles downstream (...) Most of the houses were derelict, damaged by water and destroyed, showing the number of years since their owners they had abandoned and depopulated, although there are wild, rustic and run-around people in their vicinity who no longer live in such great houses, but dwell in mud huts like wild animals, exposed to the sun, the wind and the cold. They are hunters and eat whatever they hunt, including wild worms and acorns; walk around naked; the women wear loincloths made of deerskin and some of cowhide (from bison).

literature

• Charles C. Di Peso: Casas Grandes, a fall trading center of the Gran Chichimeca. 3 vols., Dragoon, Amerind Foundation 1974. ISBN 0873580567 .
• Charles C. Di Peso: Prehistory: Southern periphery in: Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 9: Southwest. Washington, Smithsonian Institution 1978. pp. 152-177.
• Arturo Guevara Sánchez: Guía oficial: Paquime y Las Cuarenta Casas. México, INAH, 1991. ISBN 968-32-0348-5 .

Web links

• Paquimé on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ International Register of Cultural Property under Special Protection. UNESCO, July 23, 2015, accessed June 2, 2016 .