The Pueblo
A great upheaval befell Pueblo culture
at the end of the 13th century. The Mesa Verde area was abandoned, while population
exploded in the northern Rio Grande Valley. The related environmental, demographic, and
cultural changes led to the historic Pueblo pattern. Early in the fourteenth century, a
settlement arose at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, five miles southeast of
present-day Santa Fe, New Mexico. Once established, the pueblo grew dramatically from a
few residents to approximately 1,000 people by A.D. 1330, and was much larger than any
previous pueblo. With its 125-year occupation, Arroyo Hondo Pueblo exemplifies the process
of change other pueblos were experiencing immediately prior to the arrival of the Spanish.
The story revealed by research at Arroyo Hondo is a dramatic one involving fierce
interplay between people, their way of life, and revolutionary changes in their natural
and cultural environment. It began during a time of increased moisture, when a small group
of Pueblo people established their new settlement near a free-flowing spring in an area
that offered well-watered soil to support their farming activities, and a diversity of
wild plant and animal resources.
Shortly after A.D. 1335, the population began shrinking dramatically. Within the next
decade its virtual abandonment marked the end of the first phase of occupation. Sometime
during the A.D. 1370s, as precipitation increased, a second settlement was built on the
ruins of the first. At its peak, however, this later village was only one-fifth the size
of the first community, comprising only 200 rooms. After three decades the region
experienced another devastating drought. Within a few years, the drought reached an
unprecedented severity, which brought the occupation of Arroyo Hondo Pueblo to a close.
