NAN Ranch Ruin facts for kids

The NAN Ranch Ruin is an ancient village site in New Mexico. It sits along the Mimbres River near Dwyer, New Mexico. This important place was home to people of the Mimbres culture from about 600 to 1140 AD. These people are part of the larger Mogollon culture group.

The NAN Ranch was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. Early digs happened in 1926 and 1927 by Harriet and C.B. Cosgrove. More extensive excavations took place from the 1970s to the 1990s. These digs helped us learn about how the Mimbreños lived. They were both hunter-gatherers and farmers. Their artwork and burials give us clues about their culture and how their social order worked.

Where is the NAN Ranch Ruin?

The Mimbres village at NAN Ranch is in a semi-arid grassland area. It's located about 160 feet (49 meters) northeast of the Mimbres River. The village sits on a terrace about 13 feet (4 meters) above the river. This spot was likely great for agriculture because of its long growing season and plenty of water.

The area has plants like agave, prickly pear, sagebrush, and yucca. There are also riparian plants near the river. Villagers could find douglas fir and ponderosa pine trees within 6.2 miles (10 km) of the site.

Life of the Mimbres People

Homes and Buildings

How Mimbres Villages Changed

Experts like Harry J. Shafer divide the Mimbres culture into different time periods.

• Early Pithouse (200-550 AD): This was the Cumbre Phase.
• Late Pithouse (550-1010 AD): This period included the Georgetown (550-650 AD) and San Francisco (650-750 AD) phases. During the San Francisco phase, maize (corn) became a very important food. The Three Circle phase (750-1010 AD) saw people start to move from pit-houses to pueblo villages. They also relied more on farming corn.
• Classic Period (1010-1140 AD): During this time, people built homes using masonry (stone and mortar). This period included the Classic phase (1010-1110 AD) and Terminal Classic phase (1110-1140 AD).

The NAN Ranch Village Layout

The main village at NAN Ranch has two layers of buildings. It's thought that people didn't live in both layers at the same time.

• The lower, older layer dates to about 850-1000 AD (Three Circle phase). It has 16 pit-houses.
• The surface layer village dates to about 1108 AD (Classic period). It has three main groups of rooms:

* The south block had 10 rooms. * The east block had 49 rooms. * The west block had 50 or more rooms.

The East Room Block had a large, strong room (31 by 33 feet or 9.4 by 10 meters). It was likely used for community ceremonies. This was similar to the round kivas used by later Ancient Pueblo People.

Most homes were connected. People usually entered their living rooms through a ladder from the roof. These rooms often had a fireplace and metates (grinding stones). Some special rooms, likely for ceremonies, had two fireplaces, sunken floors, and double walls.

The South Room Block seems to have been home to important people. More than 40 human remains were found buried under the floor of its central room. This block also had a community room (20 by 20 feet or 6 by 6 meters) with strong double or triple walls. Outside the room blocks, there were outdoor work areas, fire pits, and trash piles (called middens). There was also a place for cremation.

Building continued until 1128 AD, based on tree-ring dating. After 1130 AD, people started to leave the Mimbres valley. They did not return to these settlements. This marked the end of the Mimbres Classic period. Some experts believe the NAN Ranch people moved south to the Chihuahuan Desert and Sonoran Desert. They might have helped populate the Casas Grandes center.

Different Types of Homes

At NAN Ranch, four types of housing were found during the Three Circle phase: 1. Single-family homes: These had living rooms for one family. 2. Extended family homes: These housed larger families and had shared work, storage, and ceremonial rooms. 3. Larger room blocks: These were made up of several extended families. 4. The entire village: This was the largest grouping.

As the community grew, homes became more complex. This helped support farming and keep large family ties strong.

Food and Economy

The Mimbres people used local animals for food. These included jackrabbits, cottontails, rats, mice, roadrunners, doves, and hawks. Animals from higher elevations included bears, elk, and wolfs.

They also gathered or grew plants like maize (corn), common beans, squash, sunflowers, walnuts, and pinon nuts.

As farming became more important, the people needed better ways to manage water. They built canals and reservoirs for irrigation. This need for teamwork likely led to people moving from scattered pit-houses to the central NAN Ranch village.

Corn was ground using manos and metates. Cooking pots were used to prepare food. These tools became more common as people relied more on corn. Extra food was stored in storage pits and granaries. They took care to protect food from spoiling or from rodents.

Tools and Art

Pottery and Artwork

The Mimbres culture is famous for its beautiful ceramic bowls and vessels. These often had red designs on white, and later black designs on white. The paintings showed animals, humans, and scroll patterns.

At NAN Ranch, 75% of the pottery found in burials was first used for cooking. Later, it was placed with the dead. Most of the pottery found at NAN Ranch was made by the villagers themselves. Less than 1% came from trade.

Mimbres art and pottery also show us about their social order. Women are often shown in artwork with aprons. These apron-wearers cared for children, made pottery, and carried hunted animals. Men in the artwork had different hairstyles. They made baskets, farmed, gathered food, and fished. Women were often shown alone, while men were usually in groups. Artwork showing ceremonies, which likely meant power or high status, had more men than women. People with many possessions were probably of higher rank.

One bowl found at the site shows a ceremonial headdress with two human figures. Their bodies are painted black, with a white band across their eyes. This is a common style in Mimbres pottery.

Other Goods

A copper bell was found at NAN Ranch, showing that they knew how to work with copper. Small amounts of turquoise were also found. This included raw material, 10 pendants, and 9 beads. Turquoise was often traded in the American Southwest.

Burial Practices

Archeologists found 222 human burials at NAN Ranch. About 90% were buried indoors, under the ground. The other 10% were outdoor burials, mostly males. Burial practices changed over time. They became more formal and showed a person's status.

Males were buried with jewelry and ceramics. Females were buried with ceramics. One woman's burial included unfired pottery and tools for making pottery. This was from early in the site's history. Children's burials often had many valuable items.

Studies of ancient human remains give us clues about health at NAN Ranch. For example, a man who died around 1000 AD showed signs of receiving care for an illness. He might have been given finely ground corn, possibly as a thin soup.

Women often had more elbow and neck joint problems than men. This was likely due to their work grinding corn. Even though there were different social levels at NAN Ranch, there wasn't a big difference in people's overall health. This suggests there wasn't a long period of starvation. However, there was evidence of anemia, which can be caused by a diet low in iron and protein, or by parasites. Analysis of teeth shows that the NAN Ranch people were closely related to those from the Chihuahuan Desert and Sonoran Desert.

Birds like Eagles, hawks, and turkeys were also buried in graves. These bird burials were covered with stone slabs, just like human burials. This suggests birds had an important role in the Mimbres culture and beliefs. For example, a bird burial was found near human burials under Room 12, a room likely used for ceremonies.

Discovering the Past

Harriet and C.B. Cosgrove, along with their son Burt, were the first to dig at the NAN Ranch site in 1926 and 1927. In the 1970s, the Hinton family invited Harry J. Shafer from Texas A&M University to excavate the site. This led to 25 years of work through the 1990s.

The University of New Mexico Mimbres Foundation, led by Steven LeBlanc, also did important fieldwork at Mimbres sites. Their work helped us understand the Mimbres culture, including the NAN Ranch.