Casa Malpais

Yesterday we visited another archaeological site, Casa Malpais; this one near Springerville, AZ. It is completely different in construction and location from any I have ever seen. It's built with lava rock on terraces created by a shield volcano's lava field. Even the grinding stones were lava rocks. It dates from the mid 13th to mid 14th centuries - there were earlier pit houses (700AD) near the lowest terrace. The site is about 1/2 mile from the Little Colorado River.







Our guide (only guided visits are permitted) thought this was a kiva although there had been no evidence of a roof when the site was researched in the 1990's - maybe just an open plaza area. Anyway, pretty cool.

Here is their seasonal calendar circle. It has openings that align with summer and winter soltice sunrise and sunsets. The alignment goes to petroglyphs on the lava cliffs behind where I'm standing. If you're interested in ancient celestial stuff, check out this link.

Meant to link Fort Apache too! Still figuring out how to do this.