Old Fort Ruin facts for kids

The Old Fort Ruin is an exciting archaeological site in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico. It holds the remains of an ancient Navajo pueblito, which was a small village or fort. You can also find old hogans (traditional Navajo homes) and many artifacts here. This important site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Exploring Old Fort Ruin

Old Fort Ruin sits on the edge of a high mesa, which is like a flat-topped mountain. It overlooks a very deep canyon. This area is part of the Dinétah, the traditional homeland of the Navajo people.

The site shows us what life was like long ago. It has the remains of eight hogans, which were homes made with forked sticks. There are also 12 ground-floor rooms. All these structures are surrounded by a strong stone wall. This wall still stands almost 2 meters (about 6.5 feet) tall today. People could enter the fort through two special covered passages. These passages led down to a flat area below the cliff.

What Archaeologists Found

Archaeologists are like history detectives. They dug at Old Fort Ruin to learn about the people who lived there. They found many interesting items!

They discovered tools like a metate and manos. These were stones used for grinding corn into flour. They also found smoothers for arrow shafts and an iron axe.

Many pieces of ceramic pottery were uncovered. Some were local types, like Dinetah Gray and Gobernador Polychrome. Other pottery pieces came from trade with different Rio Grande Pueblo groups. These included Ashiwi, Puname, Tewa, Payupki, and Hawikuh polychrome pottery.

Archaeologists also found bones from animals. These included sheep, horses, dogs, mule deer, and even snipe birds. These bones tell us about the animals people hunted and raised for food.

Scientists used a method called dendrochronology to figure out when the site was used. This method looks at tree rings in wood samples. The tree rings showed that the site was active between 1722 and 1749 C.E.