Where did the Ancestral Pueblo get their construction materials?
Ancestral Pueblo builders used local adobe mud for walls and cottonwood, pinyon pine, and juniper for most roofs. For the massive West Ruin, however, the people cut and carried ponderosa pine, spruce, Douglas-fir, and aspen from mountains tens of miles away for the roofs, while masons cut and carried stone from quarries up to three miles away for its thick walls. Q: What is a kiva? A: “Kiva” is a Hopi word meaning “ceremonial chamber.” Small round kivas were probably used by families or clans for meetings, ceremonies and ceremony preparation. “Great” Kivas like the reconstructed example at Aztec probably were for more communal activities and ceremonies. Q: How many people lived at Aztec’s West Ruin? A: Archeologists once thought of West Ruin as a massive apartment building. Many archeologists now theorize it was built early in the 1100s as a regional center for ceremonies and other uses. If so, perhaps fewer than 300 people lived here year round. By the 1200s, however, it was used prim
