Tuzigoot-A Great Archeological Site

Who Were They? Why Did They Leave? Where Did They Go? When Did They Leave?

Tuzigoot is a wonderful site on the Verde (Green) River in Arizona. It's a National Monument that is pretty well preserved. In all honesty, the site was excavated in the early 1930's by a crew of WPA workers, so a lot of it is not exactly original. Still impressive, and some of the 'refurbished' parts have been removed.

Structure.JPG

The site is a former Pueblo built on a steep outcrop/hill in a meander of the Verde River. At it's largest, about 1000 years ago, more than 250 people lived here. The first time I saw this place I was immediately struck by how defensible the place would be. When I saw it recently I had the exact same thought. It would be hard to impossible to attack up that steep hill with a bow and arrows as your heavy weapons.

directly north.JPG

Nobody knows who these people were, or what they called themselves. They are designated as Sinagua but nobody knows. They are almost certainly related to the Pueblo Tribes in New Mexico but their language has never been written and their oral traditions have been mostly not recorded. The Taos Pueblo in New Mexico has been continuously occupied for over 800 years.

south view from top.JPG

This is the view from the top of the structure looking straight south to the nearest point of the Verde.

The larger of these rooms were public areas and families and individuals lived in the smaller rooms. There are no doorways or windows, all access was through a trap door in the roof with access by ladder. Some of the walls were over 12 feet (4 meters) high. It must have been really imposing in it's day.

Tuzigoot 1.JPG

There are 110 rooms in this site. All are connected and share common walls. The entire complex was mostly built in 4 stages across about 200 years. The large, finished room at the top of this picture is one of the oldest.

Kiva interior.JPG

The original excavation included a 'rebuild' of several of the rooms. All but this one (really two rooms, but now exists as one) shows the form if not exactly historically correct. There is a doorway knocked through an exterior wall and installed the steps in this photo.

wall roof join.JPG

A view of the roof, but again, it's not quite accurate. This is locally sourced cottonwood trees where the builders used spruce. It is mostly to give visitors a feeling for living here. Those rooms must have been dark and probably stale when people were living in such close proximity.

kiva doorway (made).JPG

These people had a mixed diet. They farmed the flood plain of the river raising cotton, corn and squash. They also ate deer, rabbit and turkey. They were accomplished potters, but this place left their pottery unpainted. They were also accomplished traders because there was Zuni pottery and sea shells found here among many other things.

northeast river plain.JPG

The flat plains that you see all around this site are not natural. The entire area was flooded in copper mine slurry that was mixed with water and pumped here from miles away. There has been native soil put on top and the vegetation is natural.

Why did they leave? The Zuni tradition says that they were migratory people and were on a long, slow planned migration to the north. The Zuni also say that it took perhaps 100 years for this site to empty out completely when the people started moving again.

There is some indication (arrow wounded remains) that another tribe forced them to move. The current hot idea is that a sustained drought made this area unsustainable forcing the move. Nobody knows.

west wall.JPG

There are many more ruins like this scattered around the area. These are far and away the most complete. Clovis points have been found nearby so there have been people around here for at least 12,000 years. The past is pretty mysterious and Tuzigoot probably asks as many questions as it answers.

All in all, Tuzigoot is a terrific site to view and speculate on. It's a National Monument and a UNESCO Heritage Site. It's important but nobody is exactly sure how or why.

All words and pictures in this post are mine. For better or worse.

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Sometimes I wonder if there'll be anyone to dig up our cities and the lives we led in one thousand years from now. I don't know, I just feel humanity is on a collision course with it's own demise through negligence.

This is a nice site and I like that it raises more answers than it resolves, some things should never be answered; it keeps us guessing.

Becca 💗

Hey ya Becca! Nice to see you.

I wonder the very same things. Are we doomed to 'move on' and be mostly forgotten and unknown? I'd say that would be a really good possibility. I'd hope there would be enough survivors to dig into our current at some point. Or maybe in the dim and distant future a new species that has yet to arise?

Questions. Always questions. I too like questions with out hard and fast answers.

It's interesting to contemplate is it not? I don't think this event is in our lifetimes, but I feel something is coming. Intuition maybe. 🙃

I DO wonder about it from time to time. Is the next sentient species already here? Will humans have to disappear completely for the rise of what ever is next?

Humans are really persistent. Can and will they evolve as needed?

Always questions.

I really love ruins although they bring mixed feelings including a touch of sadness for those who lived there. Having said that, maybe they left for bigger and better things right? The main feeling is one of inquisitiveness; I want to know who they were, what they were like, why they settled there, what their lives were like and where they ended up...The same questions you ask.

Great images mate, and thank you for using my community for this excellent post.

These people lived pretty well, considering the time. There are more 'corn grinders' recovered here than there were people in residence. They had a well organized society. Farmers, hunters, administrators. They wore cotton clothing and skins.

The modern day Zuni claim they were moving North on a purpose and claim some lineage to them. Some claim they moved South to Central America. We have a pretty good track on them for about 2000 years, then they went away.

They traded far and wide. Their pottery is quite distinctive and shows up in a huge circle that includes the Baja and California. They spun and wove cotton. Their arrow points are so fine they are almost delicate.

My next post will be a related and concurrent site. Same people, very different environment. I just love a good mystery...

I can never fathom why people find history boring, this stuff is ultra-fascinating to me. Damn you though, you've added another place I need to go. You're a bad man. But still legit.

The good news for you? There are just astounding sites all over the South West, so you won't have to travel all that distance just for one 😄

I'm with you. I'm just fascinated by history and trying to match what I see with what I feel.

One day huh? I know I've said that before, but I really mean it.

That is really cool. Thanks for the amazing pictures. You did a really good job of making your point with them. I love it. What a strange and mysterious place this must have been. I agree, mounting an assault against this place wouldn't have been fun at all!

Strange and mysterious is a great way to describe Tuzigoot. It seems really improbable to me that they just decided to leave-was food production so low that they couldn't sustain the population? Were they forced out? A couple of pretty war like tribes were getting going at about the right time-Apache and Comanchee with possibly others.

It's all speculation, but it's a pretty cool place to speculate about.

Definitely adding it to my south western bucket list!

There are mysterious and wonderful ruins all over this part of the world. Canyon de Chelly (pronounced de Shay) and Chaco Canyon are both Navajo sites and really need to be seen to be believed. Next up here for me will be Montezuma Castle-in the running for the most tone deaf name ever. It's related to Tuzigoot and another stunning place.

I am looking forward to it!

Archaeological remains like this have always amazed me, that a people that long ago had the engineering expertise to build like that. We often lose ourselves in our own accomplishments and begin to think that anything greater than 100 years ago was the dark ages. These people were brilliant!

Victor! Good to see you.

The site feels like it was built according to a plan, but it was built over a period of 400 years. That's a LONG time to hold to a plan. But the design and execution were very consistent...

There is a place in NE Arizona, Chaco Canyon. Those people laid out an extended site that is engineered to Solar and Lunar standards. It's just amazing the precision over long distances. It's an amazing place that really hasn't even begun to give up it's secrets.

Some of the degradation to places comes of tribal beliefs. Navajo, for instance, believe in maintaining buildings and places to honor the ancestors who used them. Hopi believe that once used a place should be allowed to return to the earth. There is a place in Petrified Forest NP where there are two very similar buildings about 200 yards apart. The Navajo building looks like you could use it today while the Hopi building is mostly down. Both tribes have families come to the place every year. It's amazing.

Safely secured historical structures always interesting to ponder why security was required, was it from man or beast.

Over a hundred years farming and developing the land it would leave one pondering what made them leave, drought, famine, warring tribes.

Places like this always creative in ones imagination when nothing was written.

Enjoyed the photography along with what you have managed to eke out on the historical side.

Dear @bigtom13 , East Asians like me are surprised and curious about the fact that no Indian civilization countries were born in North America.
Unlike the Aztec Empire in Mexico and the Inca Empire in Peru, what do you think is the reason why the Indians of North America did not build civilized empires?

Oh, but they did. You've likely never heard of the Iroquois Nation or the Mississippian Empire because the white folk that settled in here found it in their best interest to deny or ignore organized civilization.

In 1491 (the year before Columbus) the largest city on earth was right near where St. Louis is today. They controlled the entire Mississippi valley on both sides of the river from the Gulf of Mexico to near where the Canada border is today.

There is some suggestion that the Pueblo people that this place represents were possibly an offshoot of the Mississippian culture due to their fondness for water and their extreme organization. It could be.

Oh, but they did. You've likely never heard of the Iroquois Nation or the Mississippian Empire because the white folk that settled in here found it in their best interest to deny or ignore organized civilization.

Dear @bigtom13, I hope you understand first that I have English conversational skills comparable to that of an American elementary school student.😄

Do you mean that white Americans ignored the existence of the Iroquois Nation or the Mississippian Empire for their own benefit?😦
Perhaps the reason is that when whites acknowledge the existence of Indian civilizations in North America, the white supremacist idea that whites first built a civilized state in North America is destroyed.😯

Are you offended by the fact that I used the word the white supremacist?

In 1491 (the year before Columbus) the largest city on earth was right near where St. Louis is today. They controlled the entire Mississippi valley on both sides of the river from the Gulf of Mexico to near where the Canada border is today.

Wow, I was surprised! East Asians like me don't know about Indian civilization in North America. I thought that the Indians of North America did not build cities and lived as tribal societies in tents! 😦

There is some suggestion that the Pueblo people that this place represents were possibly an offshoot of the Mississippian culture due to their fondness for water and their extreme organization. It could be.

I don't know about the Pueblo people. American western films often featured Apache, Comanche, and Navajo tribes at war with white people.

Thank you for your history lessons! 😄

Not offended at the term at all. I'd probably use another-but no less direct.

They (the colonials) didn't just ignore the nations, they actively tried to erase the past to prove that they were taking over a mostly empty land.

The Apache and Comanche were at least semi-nomadic while the Navajo mostly lived in permanent buildings made of wood, stone or adobe. All three fought courageous battles against a vastly superior force and lost. The Navajos accepted the offered treaty and honored it completely. The Apache and Comanche both had splinter groups that carried the fight on long after the main tribe surrendered to the reservations.

The only purely nomadic tribes came out of the great plains. Once they got horses (by about 1550) it was a life style they embraced and lived.

Speaking of horses, two Spanish explorations found the Mississippian Culture, even though it was breaking up at the time. Both expeditions suffered big losses (and turned loose horses and donkeys) DeSoto died on his trip and his very few survivors rafted to the Gulf of Mexico to escape. Not much history written about that.

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Dear @bigtom13, we need your help!

The Hivebuzz proposal already got important support from the community. However, it lost its funding a few days ago and only needs a few more HP to get funded again.

May we ask you to support it so our team can continue its work this year?
You can do it on Peakd, ecency,

Hive.blog / https://wallet.hive.blog/proposals
or using HiveSigner.
https://peakd.com/me/proposals/199

Your support would be really helpful and you could make a difference.
Thank you!

Having lived in Arizona twice, I am aghast that I have never been there. I was surprised at how much history is out there and still intact. This is an impressive sight and the next time I am out that way, I am sure to make the stop. I was disappointed to be sent out there to work, but, it is one of my favorite places to visit now.

Will we be forgotten? There are some things I hope to never have dredged up again, but, wiped clean (almost) like this? You have to wonder, and who will it be that digs us up? Will they be as impressed with us as some of us are?

As usual, I come over here to see if you are more than an upvote. I should just put your bike on time out.

Hi, Tom! @bigtom13

I cannot believe when I clicked on my post a few minutes ago, there you were! No kidding. You had already visited me hours before I came here. Ha!!