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The Mogollon (IPA pronunciation: [mogəjon]) is the name applied to one of the four major prehistoric archaeological culture areas of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico. The American Indian culture known as the Mogollon lived in the southwest from approximately AD 150 until sometime between AD 1300 and AD 1400. The name Mogollon comes from the Mogollon Mountains, which were named after a Spanish official, Don Juan Ignacio Flores Mogollón.

Contents 1 Cultural history 1.1 Mimbres culture 2 Geographic location 3 Archeological record 4 Descendants 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

Mogollon archaeological record bears some similarities to cultures known as the Hohokam and the Ancient Pueblo (Anasazi) although these similarities might be attributable to trade or other forms of interaction with people living in northern Arizona and New Mexico or southern Arizona.

Mogollon origins remain a matter of speculation. One model holds that the Mogollon emerged from a preceding "Desert Archaic" tradition that links Mogollon ancestry with the first (late Pleistocene) prehistoric human occupations of area (around 9000 BC). In this model, cultural distinctions emerged in the larger region when populations grew great enough to establish villages and even larger communities. An alternative possibility holds that the Mogollon were descendants of early farmers who migrated from farming regions in central Mexico around 3500 BC, and who displaced descendants of the antecedent Desert Archaic peoples.

Mimbres may, depending on its context, refer to a subregion of the Mogollon culture area (the Mimbres branch) or to an interval of time, the Classic Mimbres phase (A.D. 1000-1150, roughly) within the Mimbres branch.

The Mimbres branch is a subset of the larger Mogollon culture area, centered in the Mimbres Valley and encompassing the upper Gila river and parts of the upper San Francisco river in southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona. Differentiation between the Mimbres branch and other areas of the Mogollon culture area is most apparent during the Three Circle (A.D. 825-1000 roughly) and Classic Mimbres (A.D. 1000-1150) phases, when architectural construction and black and white painted pottery assume locally distinctive forms and styles. Classic Mimbres phase pottery is particularly famous pottery, and Classic Mimbres pottery designs were duplicated on Santa Fe Railroad dinnerware during the early 20th century.

Classic Mimres phase pueblos can be quite large, with some comprised of clusters of compounds or roomblocks, each containing up to 150 rooms, and grouped around an open plaza. Ceremonial structures were more similar to the larger Mogollon culture, with semi-subterranean kivas with entry ramps and ceremonial offerings buried under the floor. However, smaller square or rectangular kivas with roof openings are also found.

The pottery produced by the Mimbres subculture, often finely crafted bowl forms, is distinct in style and is decorated by figurative drawing of animals, people and cultural icons. Many of these images suggest familiarity and relationships with cultures in northern and central Mexico. The elaborate decoration indicates that these people enjoyed an elaborate ceremonial life. An early style of Mimbres pottery, called Boldface Black-on-white, is characterized by a figure of a single animal surrounded by complex symmetrical and geometric designs drawn on the rims of bowls. Birds figure prominently on Mimbres pots, with images such as turkeys feeding on insects or a man trapping birds in a garden. Mimbres bowls are often found associated with burials, typically with a hole punched out of the center. Archaeologists usually recover the missing center piece inside or near the burial, indicating that the destruction of the bowl was part of a burial ritual. Some Mimbres bowls have been found covering the face of the interred person. Despite the cultural sophistication of the ware, there is no evidence that any long distance trading occurred. Most Mimbres style pottery has been found within the Mimbres Valley itself.

The Mogollon settled high-altitude desert areas in what is today New Mexico, Sonora, Chihuahua and western Texas. The Mogollon were, initially, foragers who augmented their subsistence efforts by farming. Through the first millennium A.D., however, dependence of farming probably increased. Water control features are common among Mimbres branch sites from the 10th through 12 centuries.

The nature and density of Mogollon residential villages changed through time. The earliest Mogollon villages are little more than hamlets comprised of several pit-houses (houses excavated into the ground surface, with stick and thatch roofs supported by a network of posts and beams, and faced on the exterior with earth). Village sizes increase through time, however, and in the 11th century surface pueblos (ground level dwellings made with rock and earth walls, and with roofs supported by post and beam networks) were common. Cliff Dwellings become common during the 13th and 14th centuries.

Archaeological sites along attributed to the Mogollon culture are found in the Gila Wilderness, Mimbres River Valley, along the Upper Gila river, Paquime and Hueco Tanks, an area of low mountains between the Franklin Mountains to the west and the Hueco Mountains to the east. Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument in southwestern New Mexico was established as a national monument on 16 November 1907. It contains several archaeological sites attributed to the Mimbres branch. At the headwaters of the Gila, Mimbres populations adjoined another more northern branch of the Mogollon culture. The TJ Ruin, for example, is a Classic Mimbres phase pueblo, however the cliff dwellings are Tularosa phase. The name Hueco Tanks has been also given to an historic site, approximately 32 miles (51.5 km) northeast of El Paso, Texas. The site is culturally and spiritually significant to many American Indians, partially due to the pictographs that can be found throughout the region, many of which are thousands of years old.

The area originally settled by the Mogollon culture was eventually filled by the unrelated Apache people, who moved in from the north. However, the modern Pueblo people in the Southwest claim descent from the Mogollon and related cultures, although these people generally assert that their descent was from more than one group and location. Archaeologists believe that the Western Pueblo villages of the Hopi and Zuni are very likely related to the Mogollon.

• Mogollon Rim
• Oasisamerica
• Paquime
• Patayan
• Pre-historic Southwestern Cultural Divisions

• Brody, J.J., Steven Le Blanc and Catherine J. Scott. Mimbres Pottery: Ancient Art of the American Southwest. Hudson Hills Press, New York, 1983.
• Fagan, Brian M. Ancient North America: The Archaeology of a Continent. Thames and Hudson Ltd., London, 1995. ISBN 0-500-05075-9.
• Fewkes, J. Walter. The Mimbres: Art and Archaeology. Avanyu Publishing, Albuquerque, New Mexico, republished 1993. ISBN 0-936755-10-5.
• Noble, David Grant. Ancient Ruins of the Southwest. Northland Publishing Company, Flagstaff, Arizona, 1995. ISBN 0-87358-530-5.
• Plog, Stephen. Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest. Thames and Hudson, London, England, 1997. ISBN 0-500-27939-X.

• People of the Colorado Plateau
• National Park Service official site
• Firecracker Pueblo