Ritual Closure in the US Southwest

Ritual has been a significant focus of archaeological research done on past societies in the US Southwest, especially once groups became dependent on agriculture and settled into villages. Much of the research on ritual practices done to date has addressed communal integration, especially in the northern Southwest, where large-scale migrations following drought and conflict led to the development of multiethnic communities that necessitated the establishment of rituals for integrating diverse groups (Adams Reference Adams1991). Other studies have addressed how local groups used facilities such as plazas and great kivas to facilitate cooperation and integration that helped sustain villages as communities (Chamberlin Reference Chamberlin, Glowacki and Van Keuren2011; Creel and Anyon Reference Creel and Anyon2003; Gilman and Stone Reference Gilman and Stone2013; Roth and Romero Reference Roth and Romero2022; Stokes et al. Reference Stokes, Dungan and Sedig2023).

Many of these studies have focused on architecture (Lipe and Hegmon Reference Lipe and Hegmon1989), with some more recent studies addressing the use of artifacts as ritual paraphernalia (Roth et al. Reference Roth, Romero, Lauzon, Stokes, Dungan and Sedig2023; Walker and Berryman Reference Walker and Berryman2023). Still others have focused on ritual practitioners, such as shamans, and their influence on societal cohesion (VanPool and VanPool Reference VanPool and VanPool2023). These studies have contributed to our understanding of the importance of ritual in everyday lives and the role that it played in maintaining social relationships and community cohesion.

As part of this focus on communal ritual, the ritual retirement of communal structures has been investigated in some detail (Adams Reference Adams2016; Creel and Anyon Reference Creel and Anyon2003). These closure events usually served as termination rituals, representing the end of use of these structures. These rituals were community-scale events and were likely associated with other ritual activities such as feasting. Like the process of ritualization discussed by Bell (Reference Bell1992), these were acts that reinforced social ties across the community in which they occurred. They often involved burning and the deposition of specific artifacts associated with closure events.

Much of the focus on ritual activity in the Mimbres region has been on the great kivas used for community integration during the Late Pithouse period (AD 550–1000), many of which were ritually retired by burning, toppling the walls, and leaving retirement artifacts such as ceramic vessels and stone pipes and bowls (Creel and Anyon Reference Creel and Anyon2003; Creel et al. Reference Creel, Anyon and Roth2015). These are viewed as important transformational events for pithouse society, leading ultimately to the pithouse-to-pueblo transition around AD 1000, which is thought to have been tied to changes in ritual practices resulting in the use of smaller kivas and large plazas for community integration (Creel and Shafer Reference Creel and Shafer2015; Gilman et al. Reference Gilman, Thompson and Wyckoff2014).

The ritual closure of households and the way these rituals were encompassed within social strategies for household continuity have not been examined in the same detail as the closure of communal architecture. Household closure events encompassed a range of practices resulting from varying reasons for closure. Knowledge of these closure rituals would have been an important means for denoting household membership and reinforcing those social ties.

Ethnographic data reveal the importance of household rituals, documenting a range of household rituals conducted by pueblo groups in the Southwest (Ortiz Reference Ortiz1969; Saile Reference Saile1976, Reference Saile1981, Reference Saile, Altman and Werner1985; Swentzell Reference Swentzell, Markovich, Wolfgang and Sturm1990). These included rituals conducted when a structure was built, when the house was occupied, and when a structure was no longer used. Saile (Reference Saile1976, Reference Saile1981) described rituals performed when a house was built or renovated to ensure that it was a “proper” house that was safe for its occupants. Offerings such as prayer sticks, feathers, cornmeal, and minerals were placed in specific locations within the house. He argued that space became real or sacred through the repetition of ritual acts and the deposition of these items (Saile Reference Saile1976:22). Although Saile focused primarily on dedicatory objects, he noted that termination rituals were also important practices. Dozier (Reference Dozier1970:200) argued that rituals served to maintain “harmonious balance” in Southwest pueblos. Performance and repetition were essential components of these rituals (Dozier Reference Dozier1970:208).

Archaeological Evidence of Household Ritual Closure

Household closure practices, many of which have been documented cross-culturally, include burning, the use of ash, the deposition of objects specifically related to retirement placed in specific contexts within houses that were no longer occupied, and the intentional breaking of objects such as ceramics and ground stone.

Burning is a common closure activity across North America in general and the Southwest in particular (Adams Reference Adams2016; Adler Reference Adler, Roth and Charles Adams2021; Cameron Reference Cameron1990; Grove and Gillespie Reference Grove, Gillespie and Plunket2002; Mock Reference Mock1998; Montgomery Reference Montgomery1992; Prentiss et al. Reference Prentiss, Edwards, Hampton, Ryan, Bobolinski and Vance2021), although it is sometimes difficult to determine if the burning was related to conflict, the intentional burning of structures because they were decaying, or ritual closure activities. Burning was done for both forgetting—in terminating the use of a structure or site (Adams Reference Adams2016; Mills Reference Mills, Barbara J. and William2008)—or as part of a renewal process if the structure was rebuilt or if the site continued to be occupied. Adler (Reference Adler, Roth and Charles Adams2021:77) notes that “the act of burning creates a pathway to protection, supporting the successful transition from one lived space to another.” Purposeful burying with fill after burning has also been documented in the northern Southwest as part of ritually closing structures and sites (Adams Reference Adams2016; Montgomery Reference Montgomery1992).

Ash was a common material used in ritual closure because of its association with both protection and renewal (Roth and Adams Reference Adams, Roth and Charles Adams2021). This would have been especially important in cases where occupation by the household continued after the house was ritually closed. Adams (Reference Adams2016, Reference Adams, Roth and Charles Adams2021) notes that in these cases, ash substituted symbolically for burning and served as a symbol of transformation. It symbolized the end of one stage of occupation of a structure and ushered in a new stage. Adler (Reference Adler, Roth and Charles Adams2021) and Walker and Berryman (Reference Walker and Berryman2023) used data from ethnographic pueblo groups to document the role of ash in “protection from malevolent forces and dangerous situations, curing illnesses, increasing fertility, and rituals of purification” (Adler Reference Adler, Roth and Charles Adams2021:81).

Artifacts associated with ritual closure also had symbolic meanings. These artifacts gained meaning through the depositional process (Bradley Reference Bradley2003). Walker and Lucero (Reference Walker, Lucero, Dobres and Robb2000:133) argue that ritual strategies can be reconstructed in part by looking at the life histories of artifacts to see how objects were treated and what their “ritual pathways” were. For example, Walker and Berryman (Reference Walker and Berryman2023) examined the ritual closure of Jornada Mogollon pueblos in southern New Mexico and argued that deposits used to ritually close pueblos contained objects such as projectile points and minerals used to neutralize anima and offer protection from witchcraft. In many areas, artifacts were intentionally broken (sometimes referred to as “killed”) as part of acts of ritual closure; this was especially common with ground stone artifacts (Manzanilla Reference Manzanilla and Plunket2002; Pollard Reference Pollard, Mills and Walker2008). Lucero (Reference Lucero, Mills and Walker2008:191) argues that termination deposits containing broken and burned items in Maya households were associated with renewal. Ochre is also commonly part of ritual closure events, either by itself or ground and placed on closure artifacts. Finally, burials were sometimes part of ritual closure acts, and this is inferred to represent actions to invoke and appease ancestors. These are generally associated with the end of the occupation of a household.

Household Ritual Closure in the Mimbres Region

Data for addressing household ritual closure comes from two sites in the Mimbres River Valley of southwestern New Mexico: (1) the Harris site, a large pithouse village occupied from AD 550 to 1000; and (2) Elk Ridge pueblo, a Classic period (AD 1000–1130) pueblo located in the northern portion of the valley. Because the focus here is on households, I infer that related kin who lived in these houses conducted the closure rituals and were responsible for ensuring that they were done. Although the direct purpose for ritual closure activities is not entirely clear, it is clear that they were important practices across the Mimbres region and through time. These practices were components of widespread cross-cultural practices that symbolize transformation, ensure the continuity of the kin group, and guarantee their safety and protection.

The Harris site is located on a terrace above the Mimbres River in the central portion of the valley (Figure 1). The site was first excavated by Emil Haury (Reference Haury1936) in the 1930s. Subsequent excavations conducted by archaeologists from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV) documented changes in household and community organization through time as groups became more sedentary and agriculturally focused (Roth Reference Roth2015, Reference Roth and Stokes2019; Roth and Baustian Reference Roth and Baustian2015). The changes in household organization involved the development of extended-family corporate groups who lived alongside autonomous households, all of whom were integrated by sequentially used great kivas surrounding a large central plaza (Roth and Romero Reference Roth and Romero2022). The extended-family corporate groups were identified based on the presence of shared architectural and artifact traits. Most of these had what Roth and Baustian (Reference Roth and Baustian2015) refer to as “anchor” households—superimposed structures built within the same architectural footprint. The superstructure of the lower house was removed prior to the construction of the upper house. Most of these “anchor” houses had burials that Roth and Baustian (Reference Roth and Baustian2015) link to defining ancestry and land tenure and to maintaining social memory. Many of them also exhibit some kind of ritual closure as part of the decommissioning or disuse of the houses.

Figure 1.

Location of the Harris site and Elk Ridge pueblo in the Mimbres River Valley (map by Kara Jones).

Figure 1 Long description

Map of the Mimbres River Valley highlighting archaeological sites. The map includes labeled locations such as Elk Ridge, Harris, Mattocks, Galaz, Nan Ranch, Swarts, and Old Town. The Gila River and Mimbres River are marked, with the Rio Grande to the southeast. An inset map shows the region within the United States, highlighting the area in the southwestern part of the country, including parts of Arizona (AZ) and Texas (TX). A scale bar indicates distances up to 100 kilometers, and a north arrow is present for orientation. The sites are marked with symbols, with Elk Ridge distinguished by a star, indicating its significance.

Elk Ridge pueblo is a large (200+ rooms) pueblo located west of the main channel of the Mimbres River and is inferred to have been part of an interacting community focused on maize agriculture and ceramic and turkey exchange (Roth et al. Reference Roth, Romero, Nicolay and Anyon2026). The southern portion of the site was excavated in the early 1990s following looting by the landowner, and salvage excavations provided important data on architecture, burial practices, and exchange (Berryman and Laumbach Reference Berryman, Laumbach and Ludeman2019, Reference Berryman, Laumbach, Ludeman and Diehl2023). UNLV conducted excavations within a series of pueblo rooms and associated features on US Forest Service land in the northern portion of the site. The features were eroding along an arroyo cutting through the western end of the pueblo, and excavations were done prior to the placement of gabions to prevent additional erosion (Figure 2). This resulted in the excavation of 17 pueblo rooms, a turkey pen, a burned ramada, a midden, several extramural surfaces, and 41 burials (Roth and Creel Reference Roth, Creel, Ludeman and Diehl2023). Because the northern portion of the site had not been previously looted, excavation strategies documented ritual closure activities associated with specific room suites. These were probably common practices at Classic period pueblos throughout the valley and developed from a tradition of ritual closure extending back to the Pithouse period.

Figure 2.

Elk Ridge Pueblo: UNLV’s excavation area along the east side of arroyo (map by Jared Miles).

Figure 2 Long description

Map of Elk Ridge Pueblo, located in Mimbres Valley, New Mexico, detailing UNLV excavation areas from 2015 to 2018. The map includes labeled rooms and features, such as Room 100, Room 101, Room 102, Room 103, Room 105, Room 106, Room 107, Room 108, Room 109 (Ramada), Room 111, Room 112, Room 113, Room 115, Room 116, Room 117, Room 118, Room 119, Room 120, and Room 121. The map also shows an arroyo running through the site and a midden area. A scale bar at the bottom indicates distances of 0, 5, and 10 meters, with a north directional arrow. The dashed lines represent boundaries or paths within the excavation site.

Formation processes influenced the analysis of ritual closure events at these sites. Ritual deposits were found in houses that were no longer occupied, so they had been decommissioned or had decomposed in a variety of ways. The lowest floors of superimposed houses at the Harris site were usually stripped of usable materials, including posts, and some colluvial fill accumulated in them through natural processes. Some additional fill may have been intentionally placed to level the surface before an upper floor was built. Many of the upper pithouses in superimposed structures and other pithouses without multiple floors were left to decompose naturally after usable materials were removed, resulting in a variable layer of mixed roof and wall fall. The houses were usually then filled with trash from nearby structures. The pithouses at Harris were dug in natural levels of trash fill, roof fall / wall fall, pithouse fill (if present), floor fill, and floor. Floor fill was defined as the material within 10 cm of the floor, so materials in this level were considered to have been associated primarily with the occupation of the house, although, as discussed below, this was sometimes difficult to determine.

Pueblo rooms at Elk Ridge experienced extensive remodeling that sometimes involved the removal of earlier pueblo rooms before building rooms above them, the blocking of doorways and vents, and the addition of walls and vents. Usable beams were removed from rooms when they were no longer occupied, and the cobble adobe walls generally fell onto the floors, resulting in a layer of roof fall / wall fall above the floor. These rooms were also excavated in natural layers of roof fall / wall fall, floor fill, floor, and subfloor. Unlike the structures at the Harris site, limited trash fill was found in the pueblo rooms at Elk Ridge; instead, a midden was found south of the excavated room block (Roth and Creel Reference Roth, Creel, Ludeman and Diehl2023).

The significance of these formation processes is that they sometimes affected our ability to discern whether items were dedicatory, placed in walls or other features when the structure was built, or were part of the ritual closure process. This was especially true for minerals, quartz crystals, and shell bracelet fragments found in the floor fill. These are known dedicatory objects (Roth and Schriever Reference Roth and Schriever2015), but it was not always possible to determine if they were dedicatory or retirement items. The following cases are those from contexts that were most clearly associated with closure events; several other examples that may have been closure events were found (Roth Reference Roth2015), but the data were too mixed to determine definitively if the deposits were associated with closing a structure.

Perishable materials were likely important components of the assemblages used in ritual closure, but no perishables were preserved in any of the assemblages described here. Ethnographic data document the extensive use of perishable materials in rituals. These include pahos (prayer sticks), cane cigarettes, reeds, miniature atlatls and bows (many of which were painted), and feathers. Flotation analysis was done of the ash deposits recovered on room floors and in hearths at the Harris and Elk Ridge sites, but no evidence of the charred materials was recovered, so it is not possible to determine what they were burning in these deposits. The lack of perishables hinders our ability to fully document the complexity of ritual closure events; we can only assume that perishables were part of these events.

Examples of Household Ritual Closure

Harris Site

Household ritual closure at the Harris site is best illustrated by three cases (Table 1). The first was found in superimposed Pithouse 41/47, located in Cluster 5, an extended-family household located on the western edge of the central plaza (Figure 3; Roth and Baustian Reference Roth and Baustian2015). The ritual closure of the house involved the use of ash, ochre, artifacts, and a burial.Footnote ¹

Figure 3.

Map of the Harris site with pithouse clusters (map by Russell Watters).

Figure 3 Long description

The map includes five clusters labeled as Cluster 1, Cluster 2, Cluster 3, Cluster 4, and a Possible Cluster 5. Each cluster contains numbered pithouses. Cluster 1 includes pithouses 37 and 38. Cluster 2 contains pithouses 35, 36, 39, and 40. Cluster 3 features pithouses 41/47, 43, and 45/48. Cluster 4 includes pithouses 49, 53, and 54. Possible Cluster 5 has pithouse 41/47. The legend indicates symbols for UNLV primary datum (star), Roth excavation (square), Haury excavation (circle), and PH cluster (oval). The map scale is provided in meters and feet, with a north arrow for orientation.

Table 1.

Pithouse and Pueblo Closure Materials at the Harris Site and the Elk Ridge Pueblo.

Table 1 Long description

Closure materials for pithouses and pueblos at the Harris Site and Elk Ridge Pueblo are intended to be compared, but the table contains no data in the provided input. Without entries, counts, percentages, or category labels, no key materials, differences between sites, or patterns by structure type can be identified. No trends over time, relative frequencies, or notable absences can be confirmed. Provide the table rows and columns to generate an accurate summary of which closure materials occur at each site and how pithouses compare with pueblos.

Pithouse 41/47 dates to the Three Circle phase (AD 750–1000) of the Late Pithouse period and was occupied from the mid-to-late AD 800s. The bottom house, Pithouse 47, was cleaned out prior to abandonment, with all usable posts removed. Half of an intentionally broken incised stone bowl and a complete miniature seed jar were found on the floor, but the house was otherwise cleared of usable artifacts. Approximately 15–20 cm of fill accumulated on the floor, and subsequently, Pithouse 41 was built above it within the same architectural footprint. This house was also cleaned out when it was abandoned. A layer of ash was found above the floor and may have been intentionally deposited. The skull of an adult thick-billed parrot (Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha) was recovered from just above the floor of Pithouse 41. I interpret the presence of this parrot skull as tied to ritual closure activities, a practice that becomes more significant when considering the burial discussed below. This is the only thick-billed parrot associated with the Pithouse period in the Mimbres Valley, and it appears to represent early ritual use of these birds, which became more common during the succeeding Classic period (Gilman et al. Reference Gilman, Thompson and Wyckoff2014; Schwartz et al. Reference Schwartz, Plog and Gilman2022).

Pithouse 41 was left open to collapse, given that no evidence of burning was found as the roof and walls fell. The layer of roof fall and wall fall contained many ochre nodules, which may have been part of the ritual closure, but it is difficult to determine if the ochre nodules were placed intentionally or were incorporated into the walls, because a large quantify of cores were also recovered from these levels and they are interpreted as components of walls. The house was later filled with 40–50 cm of Three Circle phase trash, most likely from surrounding houses.

A 35- to 45-year-old female was buried in the upper fill along the west wall of this house after Pithouse 41 had collapsed and trash fill had accumulated (Roth and Baustian Reference Roth and Baustian2015). The burial was covered with a 15–20 cm layer of ash containing ritual items, including two broken stone palettes and a shell bracelet fragment. The burial pit was dug through the floor of the upper house (Pithouse 41), and the burial was seated on the floor of the lower house (Pithouse 47; Figure 4). Roth and Baustian (Reference Roth and Baustian2015) interpret this burial as illustrating the importance of this woman’s household (and its landholdings) within the community. Four decorated bowls were associated with the burial (two Style I black-on-white, one Style II black-on-white, and one black-on-white bowl fragment).

Figure 4.

Pithouse 41/47 at the Harris site after excavation. Note location of burial that extended from fill through Pithouse 41 and that was seated on the floor of Pithouse 47 (photo by Barbara Roth).

One of the bowl designs is nearly identical to that found in a pit in the central plaza outside the entrance of an early Three Circle phase great kiva (Pithouse 55). The pit contained many smashed ceramic vessels and is inferred to have been associated with a feasting event conducted when the great kiva was ritually retired (Roth and Romero Reference Roth and Romero2022). A layer of ash was found on top of the smashed ceramic vessels, and two palettes—one of which was intentionally broken—were found in the ash. Given the similar bowl decorations, palettes, and ash associations between the burial in Pithouse 41/47 and the feasting pit, Roth and Romero (Reference Roth and Romero2022) suggest that this woman’s household was sponsoring rituals in the kiva and associated plaza. Her burial is interpreted as the final closure of her household, with the placement linked to social memory associated with her household and perhaps lineage (Roth and Baustian Reference Roth and Baustian2015).

The second example of ritual closure at the Harris site comes from superimposed Pithouse 48/45, part of Cluster 3 in Figure 3, an extended-family household located north of the central plaza. These superimposed houses did not use the same architectural footprint but instead exhibited evidence of remodeling, given that the entryway of the upper house (Pithouse 48) was oriented in a different direction from that of the lower house (Pithouse 45). The houses date from the late San Francisco (AD 650–750) through the early Three Circle phases. Pithouse 45 was cleaned out when it was abandoned. A burial of a child, approximately one year old, was found in a floor pit between the entryway and center post. The burial pit was covered with floor plaster, so it was interred prior to the disuse of the house and may have been one of the reasons for the ritual retirement of the upper house. Artifacts found in the grave included two Glycymeris shell bracelets, two turquoise pendants, an Alma neck-banded jar, an Alma Plain jar, a smashed early Style I black-on-white bowl, and portions of a Mogollon red-on-brown bowl.

The fill of Pithouse 45 contained a variety of artifacts, some of which were most likely dedicatory objects, including a shell bracelet fragment, two fossils, a piece of azurite, several quartz crystals and a plainware hollow animal figurine fragment (Roth Reference Roth2015). The center post of Pithouse 45 was removed prior to the construction of overlying Pithouse 48, and a layer of light yellow-brown sand and an ochre-covered mano were placed in the posthole. This is interpreted as part of a closure event prior to the construction of Pithouse 48.

Pithouse 48 was built above Pithouse 45 after the collapsed roof fall had been removed. The house was less well preserved than Pithouse 45, in part because Feature 30—a ground stone cache representing a secondary occupation—intruded into the front portion of the house. A large mortar, pestle, and two netherstones were found stored along the southwest wall of Pithouse 48. The mortar contained numerous quartz crystals and a burned substance that has been interpreted as representing part of a closing ritual for the house (Falvey Reference Falvey2014). A ceramic pipe fragment was recovered from just above the floor; given the recovery of pipes in ritual closure deposits in great kivas (Roth et al. Reference Roth, Romero, Lauzon, Stokes, Dungan and Sedig2023), it is possible that this was also associated with ritual closure activities.

The final example of ritual closure from the Harris site comes from Pithouse 38 in Cluster 1. This house was identified as part of an extended-family cluster (with Pithouse 37) because of the shared trait of ceramic vessels plastered into the house floors and the fact that the houses opened onto a common work area (see Figure 3)—a trait associated with extended-family households in the Hohokam area (Henderson Reference Henderson and Craig2001; Howard Reference Howard and Dove1985). A shallow trough metate was found in the roof fall of this structure, with its grinding surface facing down. The entire surface of the metate was painted with red ochre. A compatible mano was found on top of the metate and was designed to fit the mano rest on the metate (Falvey Reference Falvey2014). No pigment was found on the mano. It appears that the metate was painted and placed face down in the roof fall as an intentional act of house closure. An intentionally broken small mortar was found in the trash fill of this house, and a polished, incised carved stone figurine in the shape of a fish was found in the floor fill along with fossils and quartz crystals; these were potentially associated with the ritual closure (Falvey Reference Falvey2014).

Ash and manos were used as closure items in other houses at the Harris site. Of the 20 houses excavated during UNLV’s work at the site, 15 (75%) had hearths with dense ash deposits left in the hearth when the house was no longer used. Several other houses may have had ash-filled hearths, but the hearth was either not found (Pithouse 50) or was disturbed (Pithouse 40, 41). Quartz crystals were found in three of the hearths. A second practice tied to household closure was placing manos in the center post after the post was removed. Five (25%) of the excavated houses at the Harris site had manos in the center posthole, including three covered with red ochre. This behavior was only found in extended-family households. Adams (Reference Adams2016:48) notes that whole manos were often left as closure items at Chevelon Ruin in northern Arizona, representing “offerings associated with discontinuation of the structure or floor.” Although we see similar use of manos as closure items at the Harris site, we did not find evidence of this behavior at Elk Ridge.

Elk Ridge Pueblo

Household ritual closure activities are also evident at Elk Ridge pueblo in the northern portion of the Mimbres River Valley (Table 1). These activities were documented during excavations conducted by UNLV in a room block on the west side of the site that was being exposed by erosion from an arroyo. Several instances of ritual closure were identified during this work. There are some similarities in ritual closure to what has been observed at earlier Pithouse period sites, including the use of ash and ground stone, but a new ritual closure practice occurred during this period involving the use of ceramic vessel caches.

The practice of using caches of broken vessels to close a house (and sometimes a household) was observed in one of the extended-family households identified at Elk Ridge consisting of Rooms 101, 117, and 118 (Figure 5; Miles Reference Miles2025). For this study, I define “cache”—following Ahern (Reference Ahern2024:298)—as “the grouping of objects that were intentionally interred as an offering.” Also following Ahern (Reference Ahern2024:294), these caches are seen as the “physical remains of ritual events.”

Figure 5.

Map of Rooms 101, 117, and 118 at Elk Ridge Pueblo (map by Jared Miles).

Figure 5 Long description

Map of Elk Ridge (LA 78963) detailing Rooms 101, 117, 118, and 119. Room 101 includes features like postholes and an eroded hearth (Feature B10). Room 117 shows ash staining (Feature B8) and multiple burial locations. Room 118 contains a hearth (Feature 118A), while Room 119 is adjacent. Symbols indicate postholes, ash staining, eroded hearths, hearths, adobe lobing, and burial locations. The map includes a scale bar from 0 to 10 meters and a north arrow for orientation. An arroyo is marked near Room 101.

Room 101, the earliest-occupied house in this room suite, had been partially eroded by the arroyo (Figure 5). It had a rectangular slab–lined hearth and contained 16 burials, including seven adults and nine infants, indicating it was a core household in this room block (following Shafer Reference Shafer2003). Most of the adults were buried with whole, decorated, Style III black-on-white bowls with kill holes (holes punched in the bottom of the vessel), typical of Classic period burials in the Mimbres region (Gilman et al. Reference Gilman, Creel, Gruber, Roth, Gilman and Anyon2018). An adult female was buried in the northeast corner of the room with a Style III black-on-white geometric bowl that had a kill hole placed over her skull. A cache of nine small smashed ceramic vessels was found on the house floor on top of the burial pit (Table 2). I interpret this vessel cache as part of the ritual closure of the house. Four small pockets of ash were found on the floor of Room 101, and a stone pipe fragment was found in the floor fill, which were also likely associated with its ritual closure.

Table 2.

Ceramic Vessel Closure Caches: Elk Ridge Pueblo.

Table 2 Long description

Ceramic vessel closure cache data for the Elk Ridge Pueblo site are not included in the provided table content. Without rows or columns, it is not possible to report what was measured, such as cache identifiers, closure types, vessel associations, quantities, or provenience details. No key values, comparisons among caches, or patterns over time or space can be identified. Any interpretation about how closures were grouped, reused, or deposited would be speculative until the missing entries are supplied. Provide the table superscript subscript’s headers and all rows to generate a complete WCAG-compliant description.

^a Portions from the same polychrome jar.

A second possible closure cache of five broken vessels was found in the center of the room next to the arroyo cut (Figure 5; Table 2). It is possible that these represent an intact floor assemblage, with the vessels smashed by pueblo wall fall and the missing portions of the vessels removed by the arroyo. Given the practice of breaking and dividing vessels found in adjacent Room 117, however, it is more likely that these were used to close the house. Portions of a Mimbres polychrome jar were found near this cache and may have been associated with it; other sherds from this vessel were found in two closure caches in Room 117 (discussed below).

Room 117, part of the Room 101-117-118 suite, had three caches of broken ceramic vessels that we interpret as ritual closure events (Table 2; Roth et al. Reference Roth, Creel and Romero2024). The first closure cache was found in a shallow pit over the center posthole, which contained remnants of a charred post. Ceramics recovered from this pit included portions of both a Late Style III black-on-white bowl with a large waterbird motif in the center and a Mimbres polychrome jar. Portions of the same polychrome jar were recovered from a second vessel cache in Room 117, located along the south wall, which also contained portions of a Style III black-on-white jar and a Mimbres plainware bowl. The locations of the polychrome sherds in both caches indicate that the sherds were placed intentionally within the other vessels. Perhaps more importantly, sherds from the same polychrome jar were found in Room 101 near the possible cache along the arroyo cut. This links Rooms 117 and 101 ritually as well as architecturally; doorways and the construction sequence indicate that they are part of the same extended-family household (Miles Reference Miles2025).

Room 101 was the earliest-constructed of the Room 101-117-118 sequence, and Room 117 apparently became the central room in the household over time. This is supported by the recovery of multiple burials and a dual-compartment slab-lined hearth in Room 117—traits that characterize “core” households in the Mimbres region (Shafer Reference Shafer2003). A three-quarter-grooved green stone axe was found on the floor next to the hearth, and it may have been placed there when the caches were left (see Shafer [Reference Shafer2003] for examples of stone axes used in room closure).

Room 117 was built above an earlier pueblo room, Room 123, that was dismantled when Room 117 was built. A third closure cache was found beneath the floor of Room 123; this included two layers of sherds representing three ceramic vessels underneath a distinctive adobe cap (Table 2). Like the vessel cache in Room 101, this was found above a burial that was in the floor of Room 123. This indicates that the practice of using vessel caches to close a house began during the earlier occupation of this room block.

In addition to these vessel caches, ash was also used to close houses at Elk Ridge, as indicated by a set of superimposed house floors (Rooms 112, 113, 105) south of Rooms 101-117-118 (Figure 6). The upper cobble-adobe rooms (superimposed Rooms 105/113) represent the central core room of another extended-family household consisting of Rooms 113/105, 103, and an unexcavated room to the east connected by a doorway (Figure 6; Miles Reference Miles2025). Room 112, an early Classic period adobe pueblo room, was ritually closed prior to the construction of Room 113 within the same architectural footprint (with some modifications to the south wall). Room 112 was cleaned out and dismantled prior to the construction of Room 113, which included the dismantling of the hearth. Twelve burials were found in the floor of Room 112, and it appears to have been one of the earlier core households in this portion of the site. A layer of ash, interpreted as intentionally deposited based on its depth and context, was found between the floor of Room 112 and the floor of Room 113. A cache of four miniature vessels and a fossil clam-shell pendant was found associated with the ash (Table 2). A blue chrysocolla pigment stick found in the floor fill of Room 112 may also have been associated with this depositional event.

Figure 6.

Map of Rooms 105/113 and 103 at Elk Ridge Pueblo (map by Jared Miles and Kara Jones).

Figure 6 Long description

Map of Elk Ridge (LA 78963) detailing Rooms 103 and 105. Room 105 is marked with postholes, a double compartment hearth (F. 105D & F. 105P), and subfloor pits. Room 103 includes a vent (Feature 103E) and a door (Feature 105S). Burial locations are labeled B-111, B-112, B-113, B-114, B-115, B-116, and B-117. The map indicates an unexcavated room to the east and an arroyo to the west. Room 113's boundary is shaded, with Room 112 directly beneath it. A scale bar shows distances from 0 to 10 meters, and a north arrow is present for orientation.

Fladd and Barker (Reference Fladd and Barker2019) documented the use of miniature vessels in the closure of ritual spaces at Homol’ovi I in northern Arizona. Excavated kivas contained higher proportions of miniature vessels than expected, and Fladd and Barker (Reference Fladd and Barker2019:118) link these to ritual practices. One ritual storage room contained a concentration of 27 miniature vessels, and miniature vessels were found in closure deposits of two store rooms that were demolished, over which a plaza was subsequently built. The closure deposits also contained ash, other artifacts, and a neonate burial, and Fladd and Barker (Reference Fladd and Barker2019:121) argue that the miniature vessels “formed an important component of deposits tied to the symbolic conversion of this space for later ritual use.” It appears that the layer of ash and miniature vessels between Rooms 112 and 113 served similar roles in closing and converting Room 112.

A final case of closure at Elk Ridge is illustrated by the burial of an adult female, interpreted as the final closure of the 101-117-118 household. The burial was placed above Room 118 and several superimposed pueblo floors below it (Rooms 120 and 121; Roth et al. Reference Roth, Creel and Romero2024). Room 118 was burned, but very little burned roofing material was found on the floor, and no remnant of the center post was found, indicating that the material was cleared out before approximately 20 cm of fill accumulated. A partition wall was then built in the fill within the footprint of Room 118, abutting the east and west walls of the room (see Figure 2). This partition wall created what was classified in the field as Room 119. It now appears that Room 119 was specifically constructed for Burial 131, an old adult female (50–59 years). The burial pit originated from the top of Room 118’s fill, extending onto the hearth and floor of Room 118. The burial pit was capped with stone slabs that were then covered with a layer of ash. This burial dates to the Late Classic period and appears to represent the final closure of the household that occupied Room 101-117-118 for several generations. Its similarities to the burial described above in Pithouse 41/47 at the Harris site that was used to close that household is striking—namely, in the placement of an older adult female touching the floor of an earlier house and the use of ash above the burial pit. It appears that some of the household closure practices observed at Elk Ridge had long histories in the Mimbres Valley.

Two other instances of ritual closure of Classic period pueblo rooms were found in the southern portion of Elk Ridge during salvage excavations conducted after this portion of the site was looted prior to the implementation of the New Mexico state burial law in 1989. Berryman and Laumbach (Reference Berryman, Laumbach, Ludeman and Diehl2023) report on two interconnected pueblo rooms, Rooms 84 and 85, with evidence of ritual closure. Room 84 was burned and had an intentionally broken metate on its floor, along with a burned and broken stone stool, a stone bowl, burned corn, several broken manos, a corrugated jar, and a decorated bowl (Berryman and Laumbach Reference Berryman, Laumbach, Ludeman and Diehl2023:26). Adjacent Room 85 contained an Amazona parrot bone, which is the only specimen of Amazona found in the Mimbres region (Berryman and Laumbach Reference Berryman, Laumbach, Ludeman and Diehl2023:31). Berryman and Laumbach (Reference Berryman, Laumbach, Ludeman and Diehl2023:31) suggest its presence reflects ritual activity in this room. A Transitional phase kiva (Room 35A) found below these pueblo rooms was also ritually retired by burning.

Other Examples of Household Ritual Closure

In addition to the cases described above, several other cases of ritual closure have been documented in the Mimbres region. Roth and Schriever (Reference Roth and Schriever2015) reported the closure of a Georgetown phase structure dating to circa AD 400–500 at the Pithouse period La Gila Encantada site above Little Walnut Creek, west of the Mimbres River Valley. According to Roth and Schriever (Reference Roth and Schriever2015:194),

This represents the earliest documented case of ritual retirement in the Mimbres region, but it is likely that this was becoming a common practice as groups settled down and focused on agriculture—meaning that kin ties, land tenure, and therefore social memory were becoming increasingly important.

Roth (Reference Roth, Roth and Charles Adams2021) previously highlighted the use of ash in closing one of the pithouses at the Lake Roberts Vista site in the Mimbres region. The Lake Roberts Vista site is located above Sapillo Creek in the Sapillo Valley, northwest of the Mimbres River Valley. The site consists of a small (10–15 room) Classic period Mimbres pueblo and a Late Pithouse period component with an associated great kiva. In Pithouse 4 at the site, a thick layer of ash with a Mexican brown-bear mandible on it was found separating a lower San Francisco phase pithouse and an early Three Circle phase pithouse built in the same architectural footprint (Roth Reference Roth and Barbara J.2007). Roth (Reference Roth, Roth and Charles Adams2021) argued that this represents ritual closure of the lower house, noting that bears are symbols of power in Puebloan society.

At the Galaz site in the central Mimbres Valley, Pithouse 29 exhibited evidence of ritual closure (Anyon and LeBlanc Reference Anyon and LeBlanc1984). The house had two floors, with evidence of remodeling between the two occupations. The lower floor had a pit containing 10 infant and fetal burials. Similar to the child burial in Pithouse 45 at the Harris site described above, a second subfloor pit contained a child buried with many grave goods, including a Style I black-on-white ladle; a Style I black-on-white bowl with a pitcher inside it; a plain brownware jar base converted into a bowl; a plainware pitcher; a small plainware jar; two stone palettes, including one with two shell pendant fragments sitting on it; a palette blank; two turquoise pendants; a shell bracelet; and a quartz crystal (Anyon and LeBlanc Reference Anyon and LeBlanc1984:72). The upper house had been ritually closed, given that it had an ash-filled hearth that contained six rabbit skulls covered in red ochre placed in the upper portion of the ash. The house was then intentionally burned, with the burned roof collapsing directly onto the floor.

Abundant evidence of household ritual closure has also been found in the Jornada Mogollon region in southeastern New Mexico, east of the Mimbres region. Walker and Berryman (Reference Walker and Berryman2023) describe the use of ash, projectile points, shell, and minerals—including pigments—in closing Cottonwood Pueblo. They see the ritual closure of pueblo rooms as prophylactic acts to protect the former inhabitants from dangerous forces.

Miller’s (Reference Miller and Wright2024; Miller and Graves Reference Miller and Graves2009) work at El Paso phase (AD 1300–1450) pueblos in the Jornada region has illustrated the significance of ritual closure events related to the Jornada landscape. He describes the recovery of bundled deposits at Madera Quemada and Sacramento pueblos, where “fossils, crystals, cave speleothems, minerals concretions, and pigments” were used in closure deposits (Miller Reference Miller and Wright2024:173). He sees these as representing metaphors for mountains and caves found across the desert region; he refers to this as “pieces of places” (Miller Reference Miller and Wright2024:174). Bundling—placing a group of ritual objects together in a deposit—has also been described as an important component of ritual activities in other areas, including the Plains (Zedeño Reference Zedeño2008). One interesting aspect of the ritual closure activities described here for the Mimbres Pithouse and Pueblo periods is that no evidence of bundling is present, given that the vessel caches contained only one artifact type. This implies that bundling activities were not a component of ritual practices in this area, which differentiates them from practices of the Jornada area and the Paquimé region of northern Mexico (VanPool and VanPool Reference VanPool and VanPool2023).

Miller (personal communication 2025) also describes a “closure room” found at a pithouse village complex in the eastern Tularosa Basin in the Jornada region. The structure was a small, deep room with a floor assemblage containing several whole ceramic vessels, stone balls, crystals, minerals, shell, fossils, and pigments—materials usually associated with termination rituals in the Jornada area. One unusual artifact was recovered: a stone disk with a circular grooved impression on one side (that fits the stone balls) and an engraved terrace on the other. Miller (personal communication 2025) interprets this feature as being associated with the closure of a pithouse cluster, most likely a household. This is unique in that a separate specialized structure was used to close the cluster instead of domestic structures. This type of ritual closure has not been observed in the Mimbres area, where closure activities appear to have been confined to either domestic or communal structures.

Comparison of Household- and Communal-Scale Ritual Closure

A comparison of the ritual closure of Mimbres communal and domestic structures reveals some distinct differences in closure activities between the two. Creel and Anyon (Reference Creel and Anyon2003:77) note that large Three Circle phase great kivas in the Mimbres Valley were retired in “carefully planned and coordinated” ways, through intense intentional burning followed by wall toppling. They argue that the great kivas were built using prescribed construction methods, with the ultimate goal of ritual retirement. Ash used in the closure of domestic structures may have substituted for intense burning, with the fire and smoke associated with these events reflecting similar practices of transformation and renewal.

Ritual retirement items left on the floors of great kivas include “grinding slabs, stone pipes, stone bowls, pottery vessels, and projectile points” (Creel and Anyon Reference Creel and Anyon2003:77). Projectile points appear to have been important ritual retirement artifacts in great kivas (Roth et al. Reference Roth, Romero, Lauzon, Stokes, Dungan and Sedig2023), and they have been found in domestic retirement contexts in the Jornada region (Walker and Berryman Reference Walker and Berryman2023) but not in the Mimbres region. Dedicatory items embedded in the architectural fabric of great kivas include turquoise, fragmentary shell bracelets, and quartz crystals (Creel and Anyon Reference Creel and Anyon2003), similar to those found in Mimbres pithouses (Roth and Schriever Reference Roth and Schriever2015). Great-kiva dedicatory items also include broken stone palettes, stone bowls, and pigment grinding slabs; these have not been found as dedicatory items in pithouses, but palettes, stone bowls, and other ground stone were used in pithouse closure deposits.

After the great kivas were burned, the center post was removed and retirement items were placed in the center posthole. This is most clearly demonstrated at the Harris site, where the center postholes of the early Three Circle phase great kiva Pithouse 55 and the later Three Circle phase Pithouse 10 contained remarkably similar items, including mica, quartz crystals, broken shell jewelry, and two nearly identical slate pendants. These types of ritual deposits in center postholes have not been found in domestic structures, but, as noted above, manos were important retirement objects placed after the center post was removed, perhaps because of their ties to domestic activities.