The Late Basketmaker II Era (AD 50 to 500) was a cultural period of

Ancient Pueblo People The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, an ...

when people began living in pit-houses, raised

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

and

squash Squash may refer to: Sports * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling * Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...

, and were proficient basket makers and weavers. They also hunted game and gathered wild foods, such as pinyon nuts. The Early and Late Basketmaker II Eras (

Pecos Classification The Pecos Classification is a chronological division of all known Ancestral Puebloans into periods based on changes in architecture, art, pottery, and cultural remains. The original classification dates back to consensus reached at a 1927 arch� ...

) are often described as one "Basketmaker period". It is preceded by the

Early Basketmaker II Era The Early Basketmaker II Era (1500 BCE – 50 CE) was the first Post- Archaic cultural period of Ancient Pueblo People. The era began with the cultivation of maize in the northern American southwest, although there was not a dependence upon agric ...

, and is followed by the

Basketmaker III Era The Basketmaker III Era () also called the "Modified Basketmaker" period, was the third period in which Ancient Pueblo People were cultivating food, began making pottery and living in more sophisticated clusters of pit-house dwellings. Hunting ...

Communities

The primary dwellings of this era were round or circular pit-houses that were built on open land and partially below the ground surface. The entrance to the house faced east or south. Logs and rocks were often used for the dwellings foundation. The building materials for the walls could include stacked logs,

jacal The jacal (həˈkɑːl; Mexican Spanish from Nahuatl ''xacalli'' contraction of ''xamitl calli''; literally "hut") is an adobe-style housing structure historically found throughout parts of the Southwestern United States and Mexico. This type o ...

or poles and brush. In the center of the dwelling was a

fire pit A fire pit or a fire hole can vary from a pit dug in the ground to an elaborate gas burning structure of stone, brick, and metal. The defining feature of fire pits is that they are designed to contain fire and prevent it from spreading. Some rece ...

. Some early people built their dwellings within the natural protection of rock shelters, especially during the beginning of this period.

Agriculture

The Basketmaker II people raised

and

, the first people of the northern

American southwest The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado ...

to do so, which required them to be located near sources of water and good soil. Carbon isotope analysis of bones of Archaic people compared to Basketmakers indicates that the Basketmakers' diet was rich in maize.''Ancestral Pueblo – Basketmaker III''.
Anthropology Laboratories of the Northern Arizona University. Retrieved 10-14-2011. Manos and

metate A metate (or mealing stone) is a type or variety of quern, a ground stone tool used for processing grain and seeds. In traditional Mesoamerican cultures, metates are typically used by women who would grind nixtamalized maize and other organic ...

s were used to grind maize and other foods. Food was stored below ground in storage cists, often lined with slabs of stone.

Material goods

Excavated items from this period include:''The Ancient Ones''.
Frontier in Transition: A History of Southwestern Colorado. Bureau of Land Management. Retrieved 10-16-2011. * good quality, tightly woven baskets * woven yucca bags, sandals and blankets * robes and blankets made of feather and fur * stone

projectile point In North American archaeological terminology, a projectile point is an object that was hafted to a weapon that was capable of being thrown or projected, such as a javelin, dart, or arrow. They are thus different from weapons presumed to have ...

s, scrapers and knives *

atlatl A spear-thrower, spear-throwing lever or ''atlatl'' (pronounced or ; Nahuatl ''ahtlatl'' ) is a tool that uses leverage to achieve greater velocity in dart or javelin-throwing, and includes a bearing surface which allows the user to store ene ...

and throwing

spear A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fasten ...

s (the main tools for hunting) * bone

stitching awl A stitching awl is a tool with which holes can be punctured in a variety of materials, or existing holes can be enlarged. It is also used for sewing heavy materials, such as leather or canvas. It is a thin, tapered metal shaft, coming to a shar ...

whistle A whistle is an instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a small slide whistle or nose flute type to a lar ...

s, and gaming pieces * cord made from yucca and cedar bark * oval-shaped cradles * stone pipes About AD 200, the middle of this period, there was some experimentation with a crude form of brown pottery.

Cultural groups and periods

The cultural groups of this period include:Gibbon, Guy E.; Ames, Kenneth M. (1998) ''Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America: An Encyclopedia.'' Routledge. pp. 14, 408. . * Ancestral Puebloans – southern

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, southern

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

, northern

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

and northern and central

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

. * Mogollon – southeastern Arizona, southern New Mexico and northern

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. *

Patayan Patayan is a group of prehistoric and historic Native American cultures in parts of modern-day Arizona, west to Lake Cahuilla in California, and in Baja California, from AD 700 to 1550. This included areas along the Gila River, Colorado Riv ...

– western Arizona, California and Baja California.

Notable Late Basketmaker II sites

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 ...

– New Mexico *

Darkmold Site This is a list of Ancestral Puebloan dwellings in Colorado, United States. Pueblo periods Archaeologists have agreed on three main periods of occupation by Pueblo peoples in southwestern Colorado: Pueblo I, Pueblo II, and Pueblo III. * ...

– Colorado * Durango Rock Shelters Archeology Site – Colorado (Basketmaker II

type site In archaeology, a type site is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and Hallstatt led scholars to divide the European Iron A ...

) *

Glen Canyon Glen Canyon is a natural canyon carved by a length of the Colorado River, mostly in southeastern and south-central Utah, in the United States. Glen Canyon starts where Narrow Canyon ends, at the confluence of the Colorado River and the Dirty D ...

– Utah and Arizona *

Hovenweep National Monument Hovenweep National Monument is located on land in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah, between Cortez, Colorado and Blanding, Utah on the Cajon Mesa of the Great Sage Plain. Shallow tributaries run through the wide and deep canyons into t ...

– Colorado * Petrified Forest National Park – Arizona * Virgin Anasazi – Colorado Plateau of Nevada, Utah and Arizona

Communities

Agriculture

Material goods

Cultural groups and periods

Notable Late Basketmaker II sites

References

Further reading