Tuzigoot-A Great Archeological Site

Who Were They? Why Did They Leave? Where Did They Go? When Did They Leave?

Tuzigoot is a wonderful site on the Verde (Green) River in Arizona. It's a National Monument that is pretty well preserved. In all honesty, the site was excavated in the early 1930's by a crew of WPA workers, so a lot of it is not exactly original. Still impressive, and some of the 'refurbished' parts have been removed.

The site is a former Pueblo built on a steep outcrop/hill in a meander of the Verde River. At it's largest, about 1000 years ago, more than 250 people lived here. The first time I saw this place I was immediately struck by how defensible the place would be. When I saw it recently I had the exact same thought. It would be hard to impossible to attack up that steep hill with a bow and arrows as your heavy weapons.

Nobody knows who these people were, or what they called themselves. They are designated as Sinagua but nobody knows. They are almost certainly related to the Pueblo Tribes in New Mexico but their language has never been written and their oral traditions have been mostly not recorded. The Taos Pueblo in New Mexico has been continuously occupied for over 800 years.

This is the view from the top of the structure looking straight south to the nearest point of the Verde.

The larger of these rooms were public areas and families and individuals lived in the smaller rooms. There are no doorways or windows, all access was through a trap door in the roof with access by ladder. Some of the walls were over 12 feet (4 meters) high. It must have been really imposing in it's day.

There are 110 rooms in this site. All are connected and share common walls. The entire complex was mostly built in 4 stages across about 200 years. The large, finished room at the top of this picture is one of the oldest.

The original excavation included a 'rebuild' of several of the rooms. All but this one (really two rooms, but now exists as one) shows the form if not exactly historically correct. There is a doorway knocked through an exterior wall and installed the steps in this photo.

A view of the roof, but again, it's not quite accurate. This is locally sourced cottonwood trees where the builders used spruce. It is mostly to give visitors a feeling for living here. Those rooms must have been dark and probably stale when people were living in such close proximity.

These people had a mixed diet. They farmed the flood plain of the river raising cotton, corn and squash. They also ate deer, rabbit and turkey. They were accomplished potters, but this place left their pottery unpainted. They were also accomplished traders because there was Zuni pottery and sea shells found here among many other things.

The flat plains that you see all around this site are not natural. The entire area was flooded in copper mine slurry that was mixed with water and pumped here from miles away. There has been native soil put on top and the vegetation is natural.

Why did they leave? The Zuni tradition says that they were migratory people and were on a long, slow planned migration to the north. The Zuni also say that it took perhaps 100 years for this site to empty out completely when the people started moving again.

There is some indication (arrow wounded remains) that another tribe forced them to move. The current hot idea is that a sustained drought made this area unsustainable forcing the move. Nobody knows.

There are many more ruins like this scattered around the area. These are far and away the most complete. Clovis points have been found nearby so there have been people around here for at least 12,000 years. The past is pretty mysterious and Tuzigoot probably asks as many questions as it answers.

All in all, Tuzigoot is a terrific site to view and speculate on. It's a National Monument and a UNESCO Heritage Site. It's important but nobody is exactly sure how or why.

All words and pictures in this post are mine. For better or worse.