PUEBLO

(Spanish: town), community of the Pueblo Indians of the southwestern United States. The construction of the multistoried, permanent, tenement houses they occupy was modelled after the cliff dwellings (q.v.) built by their ancestors, and it began around AD 1300. The pueblo was constructed by stacking large adobe blocks, sun-dried and made from clay and water, usually measuring 8 by 16 inches (20 by 40 centimetres) and 4 to 6 in. (10 to 15 cm) thick. These blocks form the walls of the building, up to five stories tall, and were built around a central courtyard. Usually each floor is set back from the floor below, so that the whole building resembles a zigzag pyramid. The method also provides terraces on those levels made from the roof tops of the level below. Movement between levels is by means of wooden ladders through a hole in the ceiling. Most rooms above the first level can be entered also by doorways from adjoining rooms. Ground floor rooms have no outside, ground level doors and are used exclusively for storage, primarily of grain. If a family had more than one room, which was commonly the case, they were arranged in a line radiating out from the centre of the pueblo. Rooms added to the family's section of the pueblo were added above and below the original rooms. Most likely the elders lived on the lower levels, leaving it to the younger members of the family to climb to upper stories. Each pueblo had at least two, and often more kivas (see kiva), or ceremonial rooms.