Pueblo de Los Muertos facts for kids

Pueblo de Los Muertos, which means "City of the Dead," is an amazing ancient ruin in Arizona, USA. It is about 5 miles west of a city called Chandler. This large settlement was built by the Hohokam people long ago in the southern Salt River valley.

Where is Los Muertos?

Los Muertos is located in southern Arizona, near the cities of Chandler and Tempe. It is in the beautiful Salt River valley. The site covers more than 2 square miles. It stretches along an ancient canal or artificial river for almost 6 miles. Another ruin, Pueblo de las Acequias ("City of the Canals"), is about 6 miles away from Los Muertos.

Discovering the Ancient City

In 1887, a brave explorer named Frank Hamilton Cushing led a team to explore these ruins. He called the place "El Pueblo de los Muertos," or "The City of the Dead." In the center of the ruins, he found many large houses where people lived together. Beyond these, he found remains of smaller neighborhoods stretching for 2 miles.

Homes of the Past

The biggest house at Los Muertos was even larger than the famous Casa Grande. Smaller buildings surrounded it. The whole group of houses was protected by a thick wall made of adobe (a type of clay brick). This wall kept enemies out and gave privacy to the people living there.

The houses had windows and small openings, but no doors on the ground level! People used ladders on the outside walls to climb up. Then, they entered their homes through trap doors in the roofs. The walls were made by piling up layers of clay until they reached the top. These thick walls protected the people from hostile tribes and the desert's hot summer sun. In some nicer homes, the inside clay walls were rubbed smooth until they shined. The floors between stories were made of small tree trunks covered with reeds, and then a layer of cement-like clay.

Daily Life and Discoveries

In the yards and streets of Los Muertos, Cushing found large public ovens. He also found big cooking pits lined with clay. The largest of these pits was 14 feet across and 7 feet deep!

Inside the houses, explorers found many items from daily life. They discovered dishes, tools, and pottery. There were also stones for grinding corn, stone axes, hammers, and hoes. They found pieces of cotton cloth, tools for preparing animal skins, and bone needles. Many other items used for hunting, war, and religious ceremonies were also uncovered. They even found tiny stone carvings, some less than 1 inch tall.

How People Lived

In some rooms, people were buried in special vaults. Other people were cremated (their bodies were burned), and their ashes and bones were placed in pottery urns with lids. Two skeletons found at Los Muertos were almost 6 feet tall. However, most of the people were shorter.

John Wesley Powell, who was in charge of the U.S. Bureau of Ethnology, believed that Los Muertos was a very busy place. He estimated that at least 13,000 people lived there!