Casa Rinconada is an Ancestral Puebloan archaeological site located atop a ridge adjacent to a small rincon across from

Pueblo Bonito Pueblo Bonito (Spanish for ''beautiful town'') is the largest and best-known great house in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, northern New Mexico. It was built by the Ancestral Puebloans who occupied the structure between AD 828 and 1126 ...

Chaco Culture National Historical Park Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a United States National Historic Sites (United States), National Historical Park in the Southwestern United States, American Southwest hosting a concentration of pueblos. The park is located in northw ...

, northwestern

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex , Offi ...

, United States. Casa Rinconada II

It is an isolated great

kiva A kiva is a space used by Puebloans for rites and political meetings, many of them associated with the kachina belief system. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, "kiva" means a large room that is circular and underground ...

(out of four in Chaco Canyon) with all the typical elements of great kivas: a masonry firebox, an inner bench, four roof-supporting large seating pits, masonry vaults, and 34 niches, divided into two sizes, encircling the kiva. There is also an unusual 39 foot (12 m) long underground passage, perhaps used in the ceremonies to allow performers sudden entry thus surprising the audience. It was dug out of the sandstone and shale that compose the ridge on which the kiva sits. Casa Rinconada was excavated in 1930-31 by archaeologists Vivian and Reiter and the University of New Mexico/School of American Research field schools. It was reconstructed in part by Vivian in 1933, while Richter of the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational properti ...

worked on capping outer walls in 1955. Casa Rinconada is accessible through the Canyon Loop Drive and 1/2-mile (800 m) trail (round trip) off the Drive. With a diameter of , Casa Rinconada is the largest excavated great kiva in Chaco Canyon.

References

;Bibliography * *

External links

Casa Rinconada
a Photo Gallery * * --> * Archaeological sites in New Mexico Chaco Culture National Historical Park Ancestral Puebloans Historic district contributing properties in New Mexico National Register of Historic Places in San Juan County, New Mexico National Register of Historic Places in McKinley County, New Mexico Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico {{NewMexico-NRHP-stub