  Beginning about 750, Anasazi living arrangements changed rapidly. The jacal storage rooms built near the pithouses grew into rooms of three-room apartments. The Anasazi probably used these as summer homes, then retreated into the better insulated pithouses with the coming of cold weather. Plan of three-room apartments, AD 750. • STOP #3The Anasazi occupied this site continuously for over 300 years. Archeologists know of several other room-blocks and a few pithouses in this area. This room-block was the last to be built. The pattern seen here—a long arc of single-room houses—appeared after 800. Note the sunken floors. Plan of early Pueblo, after AD 800. These houses were built over shallow trenches. The walls were constructed using an interesting mixture of materials and techniques. Most were built of adobe, sometimes with stone slabs set upright along the base. Some were built of rough stones set in thick layers of mortar—the beginnings of true masonry, which the Anasazi would refine in the centuries to come. • STOP #4Fire destroyed this entire block, and claimed a life. In one of these rooms, archeologists found the skeleton of an adult sprawled across the floor. An adobe wall had toppled onto the body, and it appeared that this person was overcome by flames before this hapless victim could escape the flames. {Sandal} • STOP #5This large underground room was a great kiva or ceremonial chamber. Here, perhaps, people from this community and others nearby gathered for rituals marking events important in the lives of all, such as planting and harvest. In this kiva, you will recognize a familiar combination of pithouse features: central hearth, bench, and postholes. Through time, the pithouse was devoted more and more to religious activities. The history of this kiva can be read in the stratigraphy, or layers of colored soil, preserved in the earth opposite this stop. When the pit was dug, the soil was piled around the rim. At some point, fire destroyed part of the kiva roof. The rest was taken apart, the beams probably used elsewhere, and the kiva abandoned. Gradually the soil washed back over the rim and into the ruined structure. After a few feet of dirt had accumulated, people built fires in this area, leaving the dark charcoal stains. Finally the people filled the rest of the kiva with earth and trash and built houses on the fill. {Decorative pattern}
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