Montezuma Castle and Sunset Crater

A couple of weeks ago I posted on the great wildlife we saw at Montezuma Castle National Monument. It was a really cool place, so when Martin over at Aardvarchaelogy asked for readers to post about their nearest archaeology sites, it immediately came to mind. You can see the previous post for the amazing wildlife we got to see there, I'll focuse more on the anthropology/history in this post.


Montezuma Castle is a set of cliff ruins, built by the Sinagua and occupied between 1250-1400 AD. The name is deceiving, because the place was abandoned before Montezuma (the infamous Aztec emperor) was born. The dwelling you see in the picture had 20 rooms and is estimated to have housed about 50 people at a time.
The Singua were a unique combination of traditions of different cultures brought together in the aftermath of a catastrophe in 1064, the eruption of Sunset Crater. The resulting ash layer created very fertile soil in this area of Arizona (near modern Flagstaff) attracted settlers from several cultures, including the Hohokam, Mogollon, and Anasazi. Their traditions never became completely mixed in a standard new culture, and characteristics of native American settlements in this area show a lot of individual variation between sites.

I've actually gotten to visit that crater while I've been here also. It is an amazing example of an early succession area, the contrast between the lava field and crater with the grassy alpine areas barely a mile away is really stunning. The erosion rate is unbelievable, there are many many trees that have simply fallen down because the soil slipped away from them. It was sad, a sign next to a particularly massive fallen tree said that foot traffic is a big cause of the erosion, it's slightly ironic that people come to the national park to pay respect and appreciate the scenery, but can't avoid altering the "nature" they have come to experience. I also saw an Abert's squirrel (Sciurus aberti) on the hike, but wasn't fast enough to snap a picture of it, unfortunately.

I'm hoping to make it to Wupatki National Monument before the end of the summer, I'll definitely have updates on that as soon as possible if I get to go. It has sites for three different Puebloan cultures, it sounds fascinating.

I'm a zoology major and anthropology minor, and being out west is like a dream come true, there is so much cultural diversity and history in Arizona, in addition to great wildlife, it has definitely been a successful summer so far!