Yes, I know this is another Kiva photo. But I learned something important on the ranger tour down here. One of the visitors was an engineer, and he explained that one reason that the Native Americans built round buildings below ground level and square buildings above ground, even within the same pueblo, is that circular walls are the most efficient way to hold back the pressure of the dirt. When building up above ground, it’s easier to balance walls using right angles. That’s one reason why I saw round ball courts at Wupatki, round pit dwellings at more primitive sites and round kivas at important ceremonial sites, even as the majority of buildings at the same sites are rectangular.

Pecos is fascinating for multiple reasons, which explains why it was promoted to a historic park. One being that the archaeologists who excavated the pueblo roughly 100 years ago sent many human remains to Harvard University and Andover Academy for study, and they were repatriated in 1999, mainly reburied near relatives at a nearby pueblo community. Another is that here is where the Pueblo Revolt against the Spanish was planned and executed in 1680. Furious over their treatment by the domineering missionaries, the Native Americans orchestrated simultaneous uprisings across the southwest in the largest and only truly successful Native uprising against a colonial power in North America. And if that wasn’t enough, Pecos is also the site of the Civil War battle of Glorieta Pass, which prevented the Confederacy from taking over the southwest. As the Russians are belatedly learning in Ukraine, it all came down to supply line logistics. Kudos to the park ranger for explaining everything.