Pueblo (settlement)
A pueblo ( Spanish : " village ") is a form of settlement of the Pueblo Indians , especially in New Mexico and Colorado .
While there were more than 100 such settlements in New Mexico before the European conquest, there are only 19 inhabited today.
They were either built in adobe construction or made of stone, using a mixture of sand , clay and water as mortar . The walls were partially plastered with light-colored clay. A pueblo can have up to five floors and contain several hundred rooms. Example: Pueblo Bonito in the Chaco Canyon with around 800 rooms and over 30 kivas . The higher floors were always set back a little and could be reached via ladders leaning against the outside, so that the complex was given a stepped appearance.
The systems vary in their basic shape, they can be square, D-shaped or oval. Mostly in the center of the pueblo there is an open area with a large kiva. Grouped around these are the blocks of living and storage rooms as well as other kivas. Some of the individual rooms were connected in series with doorways, but could also have separate entrances. In general, access to the rooms was never possible directly from the outside, door openings were always directed towards the interior of the complex. The ruins of the pueblos that are still preserved today also show differences in access to the facilities. On the one hand there were pueblos with an almost completely open side, on others, for example in the Aztec Ruins National Monument , there were several entrances in the outer walls. The settlement could also have a closed outer wall to protect it from enemies. The way in or out then led exclusively via ladders.
Overall, when building the earlier pueblos, the focus was on being able to defend oneself. In contrast, the pueblos that are still inhabited today still show the typical architectural style, but no longer have the character of an almost inaccessible fortress like the old settlements.
The pueblos are similar to the ksour of the Berbers in the Sahara.
See also
Web links
- Pueblo Taos (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ André Maurois : The history of America. Translated by Werner Johannes Guggenheim . Rascher, Zurich 1947, p. 25: "In certain areas, especially in the southeast (Arizona and New Mexico), there were tribes that had settled since prehistoric times and founded cities, the pueblos, which are reminiscent of the Ksours in the Sahara . "