The Point of Pines Sites are a set of archaeological sites on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. Located around the settlement of Point of Pines, they are significant for associations with

Ancestral Pueblo The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, a ...

, Mogollon and Hohokam cultures. The sites were chosen as a field school location by Dr.

Emil Haury Emil Walter "Doc" Haury (May 2, 1904 in Newton, Kansas – December 5, 1992 in Tucson, Arizona) was an influential archaeologist who specialized in the archaeology of the American Southwest. He is most famous for his work at Snaketown, a Hohokam ...

because of the unusual presence of all three major prehistoric cultures of Arizona. The field school ran from 1946 to 1960, collecting large amounts of evidence from numerous sites. The site were collectively declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1964. Point of Pines is a region in the eastern interior area of the San Carlos Reservation, occupying a high plain bounded by the Nantack Ridge and the Willow Mountains. The Nantack Ridge is a deeply folded

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''esca ...

, and it and the plain above have extensive evidence of prehistoric occupation for an extended period of time. Due to this wealth of archaeological material, it also a good location for continuing research that had begun by the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

at Kinishba and Forestdale. For most of its early history the sites in the area fit the model of the Mogollon Culture identified by Haury and others. Later on, after the 13th century there was apparently an influx of Anasazi from the Colorado Plateau and possibly the Hohokam of the Safford region. The presence of Jeddito ware, a pottery type associated with the Hopi heartland, indicates at least trade with that area if not actual movement of people. Terah Smiley, a student of Haury's at Point of Pines, excavated and identified the rectangular Western Pueblo style

kiva A kiva is a space used by Puebloans for rites and political meetings, many of them associated with the kachina belief system. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, "kiva" means a large room that is circular and underground ...

, forms of which are still in use today, at several of the sites.

References

External links

McDonald Patterned Corrugated Bowl
collected by

at Point of Pines in 1952.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Point Of Pines Sites National Historic Landmarks in Arizona Buildings and structures in Graham County, Arizona Native American history of Arizona Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona Former populated places in Arizona History of Graham County, Arizona Mogollon culture Pueblo history Former populated places in Graham County, Arizona National Register of Historic Places in Graham County, Arizona Populated places on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona

See also

References

External links