Detail InformationEdit
Casas Grandes (Spanish for Great Houses; also known as Paquimé) is the contemporary name given to a pre-Columbian archaeological zone and its central site, located in northwestern Mexico in the modern-day Mexican state of Chihuahua. It is one of the largest and most complex sites in the region. Developed as multi-storied dwellings about 1350 CE after earlier settlement beginning after 1130 CE, the community was abandoned approximately 1450 CE.
Regarded as one of the most significant archaeological zones in the northwestern region, Casas Grandes is located in a wide, fertile valley on the Casas Grandes or San Miguel River, 35 miles (56 km) south of Janos and 150 miles (240 km) northwest of the state capital, the city of Chihuahua. The settlement relied on irrigation to support its agriculture. Casas Grandes has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The archaeological zone is contained within the eponymous modern municipio (municipality) of Casas Grandes. The valley and region have been inhabited by indigenous groups for thousands of years.
Between CE 1130 and 1300, the area’s inhabitants began to congregate in small settlements in this wide fertile valley. The largest identified settlement is known today as Paquimé or Casas Grandes. It began as a group of 20 or more house clusters, each with a plaza and enclosing wall. These single-story adobe dwellings shared a common water system. Evidence shows that Paquimé had a complex water control system that included underground drain systems, reservoirs, channels for water to get to the homes, and a sewage system.
After being burned about 1340, Casas Grandes was rebuilt with multi-story apartment buildings to replace the small buildings. Casas Grandes consisted of about 2,000 adjoining rooms built of adobe, I-shaped Mesoamerican ballcourts, stone-faced platforms, effigy mounds, a market area. About 350 other, smaller settlement sites have been found in the Casas Grandes area, some as far as 70 kilometers (39 miles) away. Archaeolgists believe that the area directly controlled by Casas Grandes was relatively small, extending out about 30 km (18 miles) from the city. The population may have been about 2,500 in Casas Grandes with perhaps 10,000 people living within its area of control.
At the time of the Spanish Conquest, the district of Casas Grandes was studded with artificial mounds, from which looters took numerous stone axes, metates or corn-grinders, and earthenware pottery vessels of various kinds. Before significant archaeological investigation, sizable portions of buildings from pre-Columbian times were extant about half a mile from the modern community. The ruins were built of sun-dried blocks of mud and gravel, about 22 inches thick, and of irregular length, generally about 3 feet (0.91 m), probably formed and dried in place.
The thick walls seem to have been plastered both inside and outside. A principal structure extended 800 feet (240 m) from north to south, and 250 feet (76 m) east to west. It was generally rectangular, and appears to have consisted of three separate units joined by galleries or lines of lower buildings. A major collection of Casas Grandes pottery is currently held by the Museum of Peoples and Cultures at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Stanford University in California also holds pottery artifacts from here.
Ruins similar to those of Casas Grandes exist near Gila and Salinas in New Mexico, and in Colorado. They may each represent cultural groups related to the Mogollon culture. The early ethnologist Hubert Howe Bancroft, in his The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America (1874), related them to the modern-day Hopi, sometimes known as Moqui during his period. Contemporary scholars have not identified the descendants of the Casas Grandes people.
Casas Grandes was located hundreds of miles from the nearest city state of comparable size. Three theories compete to explain its existence. The archaeologist Charles C. Di Peso advanced the theory that Casas Grandes was a backwater until about 1200 CE when pochteca (traders) from the Aztec empire or other Mesoamerican states to the south turned it into a major trading center.
A diametrically opposed theory is that Casas Grandes was established by the elites of the Anasazi from the north who were fleeing their homeland during its decline. The third theory is that Casas Grandes is purely a local creation, a community that grew over time to dominate its region and adopted some religious and social customs from the civilizations of Mesoamerica.
HistoryEdit
N.A.
Must SeeEdit
N.A.
Visiting TimeEdit
N.A.
Closed OnEdit
N.A.
Best Season to VisitEdit
N.A.
Best Time To VisitEdit
N.A.
Time Required for SightseeingEdit
N.A.
Ticket Required :N.A.Edit
Individual National Adult Rs. :N.A.
Kids Rs. :N.A.
Individual Foreigner Adult Rs. :N.A.
Kids Rs. :N.A.
Still Photo Camera Rs. :N.A.
Video Camera Rs. :N.A.
Guide Required :N.A.Edit
Approximate cost: N.A.
Dress Code (If Any) :N.A.Edit
Dress Require:N.A.
Restaurants NearbyAdd / Edit
- N.A.; N.A.; Ph/M – N.A.; Food Serve – N.A.
How to ReachEdit
Taxi :N.A.
BUS :N.A.
Train :N.A.
Air :N.A.
Others :N.A.
Things to CarryEdit
N.A.
Safety / WarningEdit
N.A.
HelplineEdit
N.A.
Gallery