Overview
Bandelier National Monument preserves the remains of ancestral Pueblo communities in Frijoles Canyon, including multi-story stone-and-mortar pueblos and cave rooms carved into the volcanic tuff of the canyon walls. The site was occupied from approximately 1150 to 1550 CE.
Historical significance
Bandelier provides evidence for the ancestral Pueblo migration into the Pajarito Plateau following the abandonment of the northern San Juan region around 1300 CE. The site is central to understanding how Ancestral Puebloan communities adapted to new environments and established the communities that are the direct ancestors of modern Pueblo peoples.
Key discoveries
- Tyuonyi — a circular pueblo of approximately 400 rooms arranged around a central plaza
- Talus houses — rooms carved into and built against the base of the canyon walls
- Kiva depressions at multiple locations indicating active ceremonial life
- Petroglyphs on canyon walls depicting human figures, animals, and geometric designs
- Long House — an extensive series of cave rooms and talus structures extending along the cliff face
About the site
Bandelier National Monument protects approximately 33,000 acres of rugged canyon country on the Pajarito Plateau of northern New Mexico, including the remains of ancestral Pueblo communities concentrated in Frijoles Canyon. The site was occupied between approximately 1150 and 1550 CE, with peak occupation from roughly 1300 to 1500 CE.
The canyon's central pueblo, Tyuonyi, was a large circular structure of approximately 400 rooms arranged in a roughly circular plan around a central plaza containing three kivas. At its peak the pueblo rose two or three stories and housed several hundred people. The structure was built from blocks of the local volcanic tuff — a soft stone easily shaped and mortared.
The canyon walls of soft tuff also permitted the construction of cave rooms — small chambers carved directly into the rock face — which were combined with masonry structures built against the cliff base to create the talus houses that characterize Bandelier. The Long House, extending along the northern wall of the canyon, represents the most extensive of these structures, with carved rooms and blackened ceilings from centuries of cooking fires.
The monument was established in 1916, one year after archaeologist Edgar Lee Hewett conducted initial surveys. Its name honors Adolph Bandelier, a Swiss-American archaeologist who explored the region in the 1880s. The Cochiti Pueblo, Ohkay Owingeh, San Ildefonso Pueblo, Pojoaque Pueblo, Santa Clara Pueblo, Tesuque Pueblo, and Zuni Pueblo all identify as descendants of the people who lived at Bandelier.
Content for this page is derived from the Wikipedia article on Bandelier and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Source: Wikipedia.
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