The Early Anasazi Occupation of Ladle House

Our knowledge of the Early Anasazi occupation of Ladle House is based on three sources of information: (1) limited surface evidence gathered during survey; (2) limited subsurface evidence gathered during testing and excavation; and (3) abundant documentation from dozens of Early Anasazi sites excavated elsewhere in Montezuma County. In order to discuss the Early Anasazi occupation of Ladle House, we will use what information is directly available to us from the site, and supplement it with information from other excavated sites. The interpretations presented here are therefore obviously speculative, and their accuracy can only be determined through excavation.

During the Early Anasazi period, Ladle House was home to two small family groups. In the 600's, a Basketmaker III family built their home on top of the hill. They placed their semi-subterranean pithouse in a natural swale just south of the ridge top, and located their surface storage rooms and outside work areas just to the north. These people probably lived here for no more than 15 years, and when they left they burned their buildings down. About 100 years later a Pueblo I family reoccupied the site. They placed their home slightly to the east of, and downhill from, the earlier home. Here, they built a row of surface rooms and probably a pithouse.

Architecture and Landscape

Evidence suggests that in the 600's the Basketmaker III people built a two-room semi-subterranean pithouse just below the crest of the ridge. (This pithouse probably resembled the one pictured in the Cultural Overview section). To the southwest of this, they also apparently built a smaller single-room subterranean structure. To the north of their pithouse they built a series of unconnected surface rooms where they probably stored food and household items.

Upon reoccupying the site in the 700's or early 800's, the Pueblo I people built a single row of connected surface rooms. It is most probable that they built a pithouse south of these rooms, but no evidence for such a structure has yet been found. They deposited their refuse in a midden to the southeast of their surface rooms.

Family and Community

During this period, Ladle House was occcupied by two relatively small groups of people. These people were probably members of nuclear or extended families. They were probably also part of larger communities. The Basketmaker III community was apparently composed of more families than was the Pueblo I community.

Economy and Chronology

It is believed that the Early Anasazi inhabitants of Ladle House were subsistence farmers who were self-sufficient in most of their daily needs. Raw materials for building houses, manufacturing clothing and tools, and growing crops were for the most part locally procurred.

While these people were sedentary and primarily focused on their day-to-day subsistence, they were also part of, directly or indirectly, a large exchange network. Like many of their neighbors, they had a few redware bowls which originated from southeastern Utah.

It is hypothesized that during the Early Anasazi period, Ladle House was occupied at two separate times by two separate groups of people: a Basketmaker III group who lived here sometime between the late 600's to early 700's, and a Pueblo I group who lived here sometime between the late 700's to early 800's. This hypothesis is based on the architectural style of the pithouse and surface rooms, on ceramics found on the site, and on tree-ring samples obtained from excavation.

Abandonment of the Basketmaker III houses appears to have been conducted in an ritual fashion, with both subterranean houses having been burned at abandonment. At present, nothing is known about the abandonment of the Pueblo I structures.

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