McElmo Phase facts for kids
The McElmo Phase was a special time for the Ancestral Puebloans who lived in Chaco Canyon. This period happened in the late 1000s and early 1100s. During this time, big changes happened in how people made pottery and built their homes.
What Was the McElmo Phase?
The McElmo Phase is known for two main things:
- New Pottery: People started making beautiful black-on-white pottery. Before this, they mostly used plain grey pottery.
- New Building Styles: The way they built their large community buildings, called great houses, changed a lot. These new buildings looked different from older ones.
The McElmo Phase was the last big time of building in Chaco Canyon. It happened at the same time as part of an earlier period called the Bonito Phase (from 850 to 1140).
Where Did These Changes Come From?
When archaeologists first found these changes, they thought new people might have moved to Chaco Canyon. They thought these people might have come from a place called Mesa Verde.
However, later research suggests that the people in Chaco Canyon might have developed these new ideas themselves. It's still a bit of a mystery! Experts are still studying this to find out for sure.
McElmo Style at Chetro Ketl
One important great house where we can see the McElmo style is Chetro Ketl.
- A smaller building nearby, called the Talus Unit, has a floor plan that looks like the McElmo style.
- A special round room, called Kiva G, was built using McElmo-style stone work.
- Archaeologists found many pieces of McElmo-style pottery in the trash heaps around Chetro Ketl. This shows that many people using this style lived there.
- Even parts of the main building, like North Block F, show the McElmo way of building.
This shows how the new McElmo styles spread and became important in Chaco Canyon.
