Visiting the horned serpent’s home: A relational analysis of Paquimé as a pilgrimage site in the North American Southwest

Abstract

Paquimé, Chihuahua, was the ceremonial center of the Medio period (AD 1200 to 1450) Casas Grandes world, and the focus of regional pilgrimages. We use a relational perspective to explore the connections that were created and expressed during the pilgrimage. We propose that Paquimé was considered a living city, and that pilgrims actively supported its vitality through offerings of marine shells and other symbolically important goods. A region-wide network of signal fires centered on Cerro de Moctezuma, a hill directly overlooking Paquimé, summoned pilgrims. Ritual negotiations also focused on the dead and may have included at least occasional human sacrifice. While the pilgrimages focused on water-related ritual, they also included community and elite competition as reflected in architectural features such as the ball courts. Central to the pilgrimage was negotiation with the horned serpent, a deity that controlled water and was associated with leadership throughout Mesoamerica and the Southwest. The horned serpent is the primary supernatural entity reflected at the site and in the pottery pilgrims took with them back to their communities. Thus, the pilgrimages were times when the Casas Grandes people created and transformed their relationships with each other, religious elites, the dead, the landscape, and the horned serpent. These relationships in turn are reflected across the region (e.g., the broad distribution of Ramos Polychrome). This case study consequently demonstrates the potential that the relational perspective presented throughout this issue has for providing insight into the archaeological record and the past social structures it reflects.

Keywords

Pilgrimage relationality Casas Grandes culture North American Southwest Paquimé

Skousen (this issue) notes that archaeologists rarely explore the relational aspects underlying pilgrimages reflected in the archaeological record. Nor do they provide detailed descriptions of specific case studies exploring the relationships and social negotiations specific pilgrimages entail. To help fill this need, he provides a framework focused on the relational aspects of pilgrimages. Many archaeologists suggest that Paquimé (the foremost ritual and religious center of the Medio period Casas Grandes culture) was the focus of region-wide pilgrimages (e.g., Di Peso, 1974; Pitezel, 2011; VanPool et al., 2005). We agree for the reasons outlined in VanPool and VanPool (under review), and explore here the implications of Paquimé as a pilgrimage center using Skousen’s insights. Building from the premise that Paquimé was a pilgrimage center, we focus on the interactions between the various groups of people participating in the pilgrimages (elites, commoners, and even the dead) as well as the role that the built environment played in organizing and transforming these interactions. We ultimately conclude that the relationships fostered during the pilgrimages helped culturally unify the Casas Grandes people even as they legitimized and reinforced the status of the Paquimé elites. Further, we suggest that the pilgrimages were likely central to some of the most striking aspects of Casas Grandes archaeology, including the placement of hilltop signal fires throughout the region, the stockpiling of millions of ocean shells at Paquimé, and the wide distribution of Ramos Polychrome, a ceramic type found across most of the southern portion of the North American Southwest. This case study reinforces the arguments presented in this issue and elsewhere (e.g., Renfrew, 2001) regarding the importance of pilgrimages to past societies and the usefulness of their study for understanding the archaeological record.

Paquimé and pilgrimages

The Medio period (AD 1200 to 1450) occupation of the Casas Grandes region of northern Chihuahua, southern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, and eastern Sonora (Figure 1) is characterized by a distinctive polychrome pottery tradition and Mesoamerican-inspired ritual architecture (e.g., West Mexican-style ball courts) that reflects a shared ritual and cosmological system (Harmon, 2008; Mathiowetz, 2011; Rakita, 2009; Searcy, 2010; VanPool and VanPool, 2012a). The ritual center of this phenomenon is Paquimé, which is both the largest and most ritually elaborate Medio period settlement (Di Peso, 1974). Ritual architecture included massively overbuilt adobe walls, two elaborate I-shaped and one T-shaped ball courts, and platform mounds appropriate for public ceremonies (Figure 2). Further, the excavations of only about 50% of the site produced evidence of substantial social differentiation, human sacrifice and some burials that were revisited/manipulated in ritual settings, millions of ocean shells carried at least 750 km from their source, the greatest number and variety of West Mexican copper items north of Mesoamerica, and evidence of specialized production of pottery and other goods such as metates (Di Peso, 1974; Krug, 2018; Krug and Waller, 2015; Rakita, 2009; Rakita and Cruz, 2015; Sprehn, 2003; Topi et al., 2017; Vargas, 2001; Waller, 2017).

Figure 1.

The Casas Grandes region.

Figure 2.

Aerial view of Paquimé. (Photograph courtesy of Tom Baker; side images adapted from Di Peso et al. 1974.)

Paquimé was not alone in the ritual landscape. Other settlements had ball courts, although none were as elaborate as Paquimé’s (Harmon, 2008; Whalen and Minnis, 1996). A system of thermal features/signal fires called atalayas stretched throughout the region (Swanson, 2003). GIS analysis indicates that the atalayas system was centered on Cerro de Moctezuma, an atalaya built on the top of the hill directly overlooking Paquimé (Pitezel, 2007, 2011; Swanson, 2003). Cerro de Moctezuma was the most elaborate atalaya in the region and had unique ritual architecture (e.g., the only masonry habitation structures associated with an atalaya in the Casas Grandes region of Chihuahua) as well as architectural similarities with Paquimé (e.g., a roasting oven, overly-thick walls) (Pitezel, 2007). The geographic proximity (they are within 10 km of each other), elaborately overbuilt architecture (both reflect the most elaborate examples of their kind in the Casas Grandes region), apparent ritual focus, and a possible connecting trail indicates these two ritual centers were linked and were likely controlled by the same people (Blackiston, 1906; Pitezel, 2007, 2011). Other Medio period settlements range from a few large settlements perhaps a quarter the size of Paquimé, to small farming settlements built on floodplains, terrace slopes, and rock shelters (Bagwell, 2006; Cruz et al., 2004; Whalen and Pitezel, 2015).

Although many definitions of pilgrimage have been presented (Collins-Kreiner, 2010), we limit our usage here to one of the most common: a journey to a holy place for religious reasons (Palmer et al., 2012; see Skousen, this issue). VanPool and VanPool (under review) provide a detailed argument for pilgrimages to Paquimé, but we briefly summarize the evidence here:

Evidence of public ceremony and feasting at Paquimé. Paquimé was built to be visually impressive and to accommodate a large number of people for public ceremonies (Figure 2). Enormous roasting ovens for agave indicate the preparation of sweet agave and perhaps alcohol for substantial numbers of people from outside of the settlement (Minnis and Whalen, 2005). Further, elaborate, public ceremonial mounds and the open ball courts reflect ceremonial performances for large gatherings of people (Di Peso, 1974). Paquimé was also built to be visually impressive. For example, many of its adobe walls were unnecessarily thick given their structural requirements (Whalen and Minnis, 2001) and the main roomblock was built on a rise in such a way as to cause it to appear twice as tall as it actually was (Whalen et al., 2010). When the Spanish explorers first visited the site at least 100 years after it was abandoned, they likened its beauty to that of a Roman city with its painted walls and stone mosaic pavements (Gamboa, 2002: 41).

Ramos Polychrome. The best Ramos Polychrome pots were likely made by attached specialists at or near Paquimé (Rakita and Cruz, 2015; Topi et al., 2017), but are found throughout the region, even where other Casas Grandes polychromes were made locally (Whalen and Minnis, 2012). (Local copies of Ramos may have been made elsewhere in the region as well (Carpenter, 2002).) Ramos Polychrome symbolism is standardized and emphasizes religious themes (Hendrickson, 2003; VanPool and VanPool, 2007). We suggest that Ramos Polychrome was given to pilgrims as religiously significant tokens to take home. Pilgrims commonly acquire such sacred souvenirs in historic Southwestern pilgrimages and during pilgrimages worldwide. For example, Akimel O’odham and Tohono O’odham pilgrims to the Magdalena church in Sonora, Mexico, take consecrated ribbons home with them to help ensure they have prosperity and good health for the coming year (Joseph et al., 1949: 85–88).

Stockpiles of shells and other religious goods. The stockpiles of an estimated 3.7 million marine shells at Paquimé is in stark contrast to its general paucity outside of the settlement (Krug and Waller, 2015; Whalen, 2013). Whalen (2013) evaluated several models used to explain the stockpiling of marine shells at Paquimé (i.e., amassed personal wealth, stockpiling for trade, secular prestige good) and finds that only ritual stockpiling of shells as part of water ritual fits the distribution pattern. We suggest that these stockpiles were pilgrim offerings that both reflected and helped reinforce Paquimé’s unique status as a “water city” and the ritual center of the Medio period world (see also Krug, 2018). Likewise, the ritual paraphernalia at Paquimé, from a massive 0.5 meter-tall stone effigy to an elaborate pit tomb burial is uniquely abundant at Paquimé, suggesting it served as a region-wide ceremonial center with ritual facilities and gear not represented elsewhere (Rakita, 2009; VanPool et al., 2005; Whalen and Minnis, 2009).

The ontological underpinnings of the Paquimé pilgrimage

Building on the premise of Paquimé as a pilgrimage center as evaluated in VanPool and VanPool (under review), we explore the relationships among the pilgrims, Paquime’s elites, Paquimé’s build environment, and non-human agents (e.g., the horned serpent). Focusing on the three essential components of pilgrimages identified by Skousen (this volume), we visualize the use of the atalayas signal fires to summon and guide pilgrims to Paquimé by smoke in the day and the light of burning fires at night. (Swanson, 2003 evaluated various hypotheses for the atalayas’ such as their use as a defense warning system, but he found that ceremonial signal fires were the most likely function of Casas Grandes atalayas.) If this is correct, then the atalayas transformed movement during the pilgrimage into a special event, even though people likely traveled the same routes on other occasions. Furthermore, Paquimé had a unique material and spatial vitality on the ritual landscape. The city itself was uniquely elaborate and had a ritual infrastructure designed to inspire and awe. We envision that the visual impact of the massive roomblock and elaborate ritual architecture along with elaborately adorned religious leaders would have created the sensory, emotional, and physiological impacts central to pilgrimages. Public ceremonies were likely administered by religious specialists who were depicted in male ceramic effigies and rock art (VanPool and VanPool, 2007). They are shown wearing ceremonial garb, including elaborate jewelry, serpent and macaw headdresses, elaborate blankets, and distinctive sandals, which would have made them imposing figures (VanPool et al., 2017a). The impact of these leaders and the settlement itself would have been exacerbated through the feasts of roasted agave and other food, the likely consumption of alcohol (King et al., 2017; VanPool et al., 2016), and the noise of thousands of people and the squawking of domesticated macaws and turkeys kept in pens at the city. This experience would have been unparalleled anywhere else in the Casas Grandes world, and indeed in the whole of the contemporaneous Southwest. The 14th century visitors would have been overwhelmed by the vitality of the city and its elites.

Skousen (this volume) notes that the vitality of landscapes and places can create a “spiritual magnetism” that evokes an emotional and spiritual draw to a pilgrimage location. This is certainly true for the historic and pre-Hispanic peoples of the North American Southwest. The Zuni Kachina priests undertake pilgrimages to Sacred Lake (about 130 km to the west of the main pueblo) once every four years (Bunzel, 1932a: 519–520, 538) to visit the home of the Katchinas (supernatural entities that control rain and are associated with masks worn by deity impersonators). There they collect yellow pigment from the lake shore that is later ground and mixed with dried petals of yellow flowers, abalone shells, and other materials (Bunzel, 1932b: 860–861). This mixture, called kachina clay, is then used to paint prayersticks and the bodies and masks of the deity impersonators (Bunzel, 1932b: 860–861; Tedlock, 1983: 94, 103). Likewise, Renfrew (2001) argues that Chaco Canyon, another large ceremonial center in the North American Southwest that predates Paquimé’s rise, was the focus of pilgrimages during the 10th and 11th centuries AD (see also Malville and Malville, 2001). Like Paquimé, the Chacoan structures were overbuilt and designed to inspire awe, which Renfrew (2001) suggests helped people focus on the ritual. These examples reflect the spiritual draw of specific places, whether they are natural or built by humans that are considered uniquely significant in some way (e.g., the home of the kachina). Underlying this vitality is the concept of animism as it is applied by Southwestern people.

For Southwestern people, animals, plants, clouds, rivers, mountains, unique topographic features, and even rocks and clay have spiritual essences that make them animate beings (VanPool and Newsome, 2012; Walker and Burt, 2009). Architectural features including entire communities were also considered animate beings that actively helped or hampered the wellbeing of the humans who lived there (VanPool and VanPool, 2016). Such features served as both a location of and a participant in the interactions between humans and non-human beings. For example, a stone in the plaza of Zia was the living home of Gacítiwa (Whiteman) who was given offerings of ground maize (by sprinkling maize on the stone) and granted supernatural power to virtuous people (White, 1962: 114). Based on this framework, we suggested that features within Paquimé (e.g., the water reservoir for the city) and the city itself were considered living, animated beings, and the home of important deities, especially the horned serpent (VanPool and VanPool, 2016). As such, Paquimé had a unique vitality that could not be duplicated by other communities and that drew pilgrims. As outlined below, these pilgrims then actively (through ritual offerings) and passively (through simply accepting Paquimé’s centrality) reinforced this vitality. Given this “spiritual magnetism,” the settlement served as a focal point for establishing and transforming the relational aspects of Medio period life through the process of pilgrimage.

The social importance of Casas Grandes pilgrimages

Pilgrimages are fundamentally about relationships, but these relationships themselves are affected during the associated movement, interaction, and negotiation (Skousen, this issue). Turner and Turner (1978) suggest that pilgrimages are times when typical relationships are suspended (anti-structure, as opposed to the structure of typical, daily life) and consequently can be transformed. Others note, though, that existing social structures can be potentially expressed and reinforced during this process instead (Eade and Sallnow, 1991). Further, the relationships expressed and impacted during the pilgrimage extend beyond the pilgrims themselves, and include various groups of humans (including the dead) and non-human agents (including animated locations and spiritually active natural/supernatural entities). As a result, the relational aspects of pilgrimages can transform the social connections at a variety of scales, including: people from different communities, elites and lower status individuals, the living and the dead, people and significant places on the landscape, and people and relevant deities. Pilgrimages consequently are opportunities for social transformation that create, transform, and reinforce/challenge complex webs of relationships. The rest of our discussion will focus on exploring these webs of relationships in the Casas Grandes world.

Social relationships between people from different communities

Perhaps the simplest set of relationships to consider is that among the people of different communities that came together during the pilgrimage. As people from different communities come together, they may have even experienced a form of communitas (the liminal transformation of people into a community through a shared common experience (Turner and Turner, 1978)). Communitas was likely facilitated through the imposing ceremonial stages (e.g., mounds) and elaborate religious practices performed by Paquimé’s religiously-based elites. Certain rites of passage (e.g., warrior initiation, communal puberty ceremonies) possibly could have been completed as part of this activity. Regardless, the public ceremonies created both religious and social cohesion. This is further evident across the Medio period world, especially in the communities that have ball courts and Ramos Polychrome immediately around and to the north of Paquimé, likely extending to settlements such as Joyce Well and 76 Draw in southern New Mexico (Figure 1; see Carpenter, 2002; Skibo et al., 2002; VanPool et al., 2013). Applying the concept of “religion” to Southwestern native peoples is a bit problematic, given the lack of a secular/sacred divide and that even the simplest activities include interactions with spirits and other non-human agents (Fowles, 2013). Native domestic life is consequently an inherently religious activity. As such the pilgrimage to Paquimé would have served as an intense and reinforcing experience fostering group identity and the lived, practical structure of religion and life typical of Medio period people. However, status could also be contested and reinforced (Coleman, 2002).

The ball courts where a version of the Mesoamerican ball game was played are an obvious manifestation of such competition. Harmon (2006) and Whalen and Minnis (1996) note that over 20 ball courts (most of which are simply a set of parallel rock alignments) are found in the region. None of these are as elaborate as those at Paquimé with their formal adobe walls, but Whalen and Minnis (1996) argue they reflect intercommunity competition for status among elites. Given the I-shaped ball courts’ elaborate structure and prominent placement in the open plaza area containing the ceremonial mounds, the ball game was likely a part of the pilgrimage activity. As such, the pilgrimages were a time when communities represented by their own team competed with each other for status within the Casas Grandes world.

Intercommunity competition may have been reflected in ritual offerings as well. Various authors argue that the stockpiling of shell and other imported objects (e.g., copper, turquoise, non-Casas Grandes pottery) found at Paquimé were likely ritual offerings related to water symbolism (Krug, 2013; VanPool et al., 2005; Whalen, 2013). Given the large quantity, the elites at Paquimé likely imported much of the shell and copper themselves explicitly for ceremonial reasons, but visiting pilgrims may have brought additional materials as offerings, a practice that would be consistent with Palmer et al.’s (2012) observation that material and personal sacrifices are an important part of pilgrimages. This would also explain why shell, copper, and other exotica are rare outside of Paquimé, despite its abundance at the ceremonial center. While none of the other communities could challenge the supremacy of Paquimé’s size and wealth, the giving of religiously important goods during the pilgrimage may have been a central component of intercommunity competition among the remaining communities. The votive offerings could have been a central means of communicating acceptance of the underlying religious system while actively strengthening the vitality of the pilgrimage center (i.e., competition communicated both economic and spiritual standing).

Elites and lower status individuals

The interplay between community integration and contested space would have also transformed/reinforced the relationships between elite and non-elite people. As the leaders of the pilgrimage performances/ceremonies at both Paquimé and related ritual locations such as Cerro de Moctezuma, the Paquimé elites clearly reinforced their own status. The large number of domesticated turkeys and scarlet and military macaws as well as the expertly-formed and finely decorated Ramos Polychrome vessels, feasting facilities, and large ground stone effigies were ceremonial resources that would have been difficult or impossible for other communities to match (Crown, 2016; Minnis et al., 1993; VanPool and VanPool, 2012a). This is especially true in the case of the kept birds, which were sacrificed but not eaten; the macaws typically were smothered and/or had their necks broken when they were relatively young (likely younger than 4 years old), perhaps between 6 and 12 months of age when their tail feathers first grew (Crown, 2016: 345–351; McKusick, 1974; Whittlesey and Reid, 2013: 173–177; note, McKusick originally suggested that the sacrificed macaws were about a year old, but Crown has questioned that conclusion). These feathers were likely used in ritual (as they are among ethnographically-studied Southwestern peoples) (Crown, 2016); however, more feathers could have been collected if the birds had been allowed to live longer and molt naturally (Whittlesey and Reid, 2013: 176). The birds themselves were a costly sacrifice, given that breeding pairs had to be imported from Mesoamerica, and subsequent birds required feeding, care, and special pens (Somerville et al., 2010). Given that at least 500 macaws were ritually sacrificed and killed (remember that only roughly 50% of Paquimé was excavated, and similar numbers of macaw burials and other ritual goods could be in the unexcavated portion), the husbandry of these birds would have been a massive investment of time and resources for farmers in the dry Chihuahua desert (McKusick, 1974: 276–278). Turkeys were likewise raised in the hundreds, but were sacrificed by decapitation. They also appear in ritual contexts (in a few cases even being buried with decapitated macaws (Whittlesey and Reid, 2013: 176)), and show no additional signs of butchering for eating (McKusick, 1974: 273).

As previously mentioned, Topi et al. (2017) argue that the best Ramos Polychrome pottery was made by attached specialists working for the Paquimé elites, and the large metates and stone effigies used at Paquimé were also likely manufactured by specialists at a quarry near Paquimé (Searcy and Pitezel, 2017; VanPool and Leonard, 2002; VanPool et al., 2017b). The display of such resources during each pilgrimage would have further reinforced the elites’ status, even as it displayed the vitality of the pilgrimage center. Further, the collection of valuable, spiritually charged keepsakes/resources (which can be quite utilitarian) is common in pilgrimages across the Southwest and indeed around the world (e.g., the Tohono O’odham pilgrims collected salt during their pilgrimages to the ocean and the aforementioned ribbons when visiting the Magdalena church). When manufactured by elites, resources such as beautifully painted Ramos Polychrome, beautiful and perhaps ritually important macaw or turkey bird feathers, and even roasted agave could help transform the pilgrim guests into dependent clients of the Paquimé elites.

The living and the dead

The dead were important at Paquimé; Rakita (2008, 2009) identified ancestor worship as a major focus of Medio period religion. Moro (2013: 331) notes anthropologists often differentiate between “the living dead” and “ancestors”; the living dead continue to be known by name and honored as individuals, whereas ancestors are not remembered individual but are instead honored as a group. Di Peso (1974), Rakita (2009), Waller (2017), and others (e.g., Casserino, 2009; Ravesloot, 1988, 2003) have documented apparent human sacrifice and episodic revisiting of the dead at Paquimé. Several postcranial skeletons were kept in large ollas placed in a small, multiroom structure at the Mound of the Offerings, one of the public ceremonial mounds at Paquimé (Di Peso et al., 1974: 305–315). (This complex also held the previously mentioned 0.5 m tall stone human effigy.) Di Peso (1974: 418–421) and Rakita (2008: 24) identify the postcranial remains as high status individuals whose bones were ceremonially manipulated. The Mound’s prominent placement made movement into and out of the structure containing the skeletons easily observed, making interaction with the bones public events. The skeletons might have even been brought out of the building for public displays of some sort. Given their disposition and individual internment, these individuals were likely individually known, making them among the living dead who could act as individuals to influence the lives of the Medio period people. These interactions with the dead could have served as a focal point for tying the pilgrimage-based ritual to important predecessors, thereby legitimizing the Paquimé elites and reinforcing the religious structure underlying Medio period life.

Other burials likely reflecting human sacrifice are scattered at various locations throughout the site include the ball courts and other prominent, public architectural features (Casserino, 2009; Harmon, 2006; Ravesloot, 2003; VanPool and VanPool, 2016). There is no evidence that these human skeletons were systematically revisited, but their burial locations could have served as important loci of negotiation with ancestors or the living dead. Thus, private ceremonies during pilgrimages at the sites of human sacrifices (and possibly the actual sacrifice of humans) may have been central to renewing and renegotiating relationships with the dead.

People and significant places on the landscape

Paquimé itself was a significant place on the landscape. Although the reason for its initial settlement is unclear, other than it is an excellent location for irrigation agriculture (Doolittle, 1993), Paquimé through time was transformed into an animated “water city” full of ceremonial features that focused on water ritual (VanPool and VanPool, 2007, 2012b; Walker and Burt, 2009; Whalen, 2013). Whalen (2013) argued that the stockpiles of millions of marine shells at Paquimé was central to transforming Paquimé into the watery city as the shells acted as an animating agent to attract and control water. Others (e.g., Di Peso, 1974; VanPool and VanPool, 2016; Walker and McGahee, 2006) identify additional features/ceremonial objects that focused on water ritual. For example, the Mound of the Serpent (a 113 -m long mound resembling a sinuous snake topped by a small platform mound resembling the head of a horned serpent) served as a retaining dam to prevent flooding at the site. The horned serpent was the preeminent Medio period deity, being reflected in pottery, architecture, and rock art at Paquimé and throughout the region (Schaafsma, 2001; VanPool and VanPool, 2007). It was one of the primary deities shown interacting with transformed shamans undertaking their spirit journeys (VanPool and VanPool, 2007), and was a common deity in later prehistoric and ethnographically studied Southwestern cultures (Phillips et al., 2006; Schaafsma, 2001).

The Southwestern horned serpent traditions share similarities with Mesoamerican serpent traditions that link feathered serpent deities such as Quetzalcoatl with water (Phillips et al., 2006; Schaafsma, 2001). In the Southwest, horned serpents controlled subterranean water (e.g., springs, rivers), and herded clouds to bring rain. Horned serpents also caused lightning and earthquakes, and could withhold water or cause arroyos to punish human wickedness and disrespect. The serpent mound at Paquimé literally was a horned serpent that controlled the flow of water across the site (VanPool and VanPool, 2016: 321–323). Given that the Mound of the Serpent’s head is a platform mound, which included two stones for eyes (one eye decorated with a Mesoamerican-style serpent image and the other was a heavily-used mortar), the horned serpent was likely a direct participant in Paquimé’s ritual system, as well as being referenced in imagery throughout the site and region. Thus, the elites at Paquimé transformed the settlement into the home of the horned serpent through their investment of time, effort, and resources, as well as the ceremonial offerings of shells and other materials. Given the challenging Southwestern environment with its fertile land but limited water, interacting with the site itself and the horned serpent it housed was likely a central focus of the pilgrimage. Further, the Mound of the Cross was a solstice marker and possibly useful for tracing other astronomic alignments (Di Peso, 1974: 407–409). Among Southwestern groups, community and ceremonial locations are often tied into the movement of the heavens to establish them as the “center place” around which the world moves (Fowles, 2011; William et al., 2006). Similar features have not been found elsewhere in the Casas Grandes region, indicating the Paquimé was indeed a special place.

While Paquimé was special, it was not alone. Cerro de Moctezuma is one of the tallest peaks in the region, rising 400 m above the surrounding plain and directly overlooking Paquimé (Pitezel, 2007). It is the tallest hill in the Rio Casas Grandes drainage, and may have been one of the most significant landforms in the Casas Grandes region. The atalaya built on its peak was readily visible from a distance, and when viewed from Paquimé, Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, sets directly over it (Di Peso et al., 1974: 288). As described above, Cerro de Moctezuma was likely tied to the pilgrimage system focused at Paquimé given its central role in the atalayas system (Pitezel, 2011; Swanson, 2003).

People and deities

As previously mentioned, the horned serpent was of singular importance at Paquimé (Di Peso, 1974: 548; VanPool and VanPool, 2015). Throughout Mesoamerica, plumed/horned serpents are associated with leadership and authority (Evans, 2004: 353; Ringle et al., 1998), making it a natural symbol for the emerging Paquimé elites to use as they adopted West Mexican ritual systems. The horned serpent is associated with shells such as the conch shell trumpets found at Paquimé; among modern/historic groups such as the Zuni, such trumpets are considered animated beings used to depict the serpent’s voice in ceremonial contexts and to summon other supernaturals such as the kachina (the ceremonially important masked deity impersonators) (Mills and Ferguson, 2008). Ethnographic evidence also links the horned serpent to human sacrifice (Geertz and Lomatuway’ma, 1987: 179–181; Parsons, 1939: 185). For example, Tewa legend states that the horned/plumed serpent would provide “abundance if a human life was offered to him every month” (James, 1927: 127–138). Archaeological evidence indicates this association may extend deep into prehistory. For example, a kiva mural from Pottery Mound depicts a horned/plumed serpent attacking/eating a human (Hibben, 1975: Figure 42), and figures wearing horned serpent headdresses are depicted decapitating humans on Mimbres bowls (AD 1000 to 1115 in southwestern New Mexico) (Brody, 1983: Figure 123). Paquimé has direct evidence of ritual human sacrifice, which is unusual in Southwestern settlements (Ravesloot, 2003). This evidence includes staged burials at ritually significant locations such as ball courts (Harmon, 2006), apparent child sacrifices associated with other ceremonial offerings (VanPool and VanPool, 2016), and highly fragmented internments treated differently than other burials (Casserino, 2009). It is possible that these sacrifices were part of the pilgrimage ceremonies and related to negotiations with the horned serpent and potentially other deities. Such patterns of human sacrifice certainly are part of the Mesoamerican ritual traditions that the Paquimé elite adopted as part of their religious system (e.g., the ball game).

Beyond the Casas Grandes World

Ramos Polychrome is found outside of the Casas Grandes region (e.g., Lekson, 2002; Putsavage, 2015). Several explanations could account for this including down-the-line trading of pots, but it is also possible that the pilgrimages at least on occasion attracted visitors from outside the region. Although speculative, these visitors could have brought the 52 Salado bowls (from of a neighboring culture in south/central Arizona and western New Mexico) that were placed in the same storage area (Room 18-8) containing the aforementioned shells. Other Salado bowls were found in various contexts throughout Paquimé, indicating that there was no prohibition against their use, so the placement of these bowls is atypical (Lekson, 2000) and perhaps related to their placement as ritual offerings.

Conclusions

Our discussion focused on the relational aspects of Medio period pilgrimages to Paquimé, the ritual and religious center of the Casas Grandes region. Through regional negotiation, those living at Paquimé created the conditions that allowed them to become the center of the Casas Grandes ritual system but also convinced others to help strengthen their position. For example, the large quantities of shells at Paquimé, and its relative paucity in the rest of the region, suggest a pattern of ritual gift giving, a practice that helped increase Paquimé’s vitality, even as it also strengthened the elite status of the city’s priesthood (Krug, 2018; VanPool et al., 2005). Although speculative, the shells may have been direct offerings to the horned serpent that somehow attracted him to the city and/or kept him content. It isn’t just shells, though. Obsidian, copper items, turquoise, and other unusual/valuable goods are disproportionately stockpiled at Paquimé, often in ritual contexts (Di Peso et al., 1974; Rakita, 2009; Rakita and Cruz, 2015; VanPool et al., 2000; Vargas, 2001), and pots with religious symbolism made by specialized producers flowed from Paquimé by the thousands. Creating the “spiritual magnetism” to attract pilgrims was likely part of the motivation to legitimize the ceremonial infrastructure at Paquimé and the associated ritual center on Cerro de Moctezuma, but, we suggest, the pilgrims themselves help strengthen this magnetism through their own actions of movement, ritual offerings, and the acceptance of gifts from Paquimé, including the Ramos Polychrome bowls and perhaps bird feathers, and roasted agave.

Through their participation in the pilgrimages, the pilgrims, religious elites at Paquimé, elites from other communities, the named dead and unnamed ancestors, and non-human agents (including the settlement itself and the horned serpent) became interconnected with each other. We present a relational analysis to explore these important relationships. The pilgrimages likely fostered cultural unity, perhaps even a form of communitas, as they also served as the location for competition among communities and their elites. Ritual negotiation included the dead using public ceremonies focused on the postcranial remains in the Mound of the Offering and maybe through direct human sacrifice. Cross-culturally belief systems focused on ancestor worship usually have a day or week set aside each year in which the “dead” are considered closer to the living (Moro, 2013). It is during this time the living and dead can talk. The recently dead are thought to be able to hear more clearly the prayers of the living and take them to the land of the dead when they resume their trip into the spirit world. Following the idea of Paquimé being the home of the horned serpent, who better to talk to this powerful deity than the dead? By the same token, the shamanic ritual reflected in Ramos Polychrome is also focused on horned serpent imagery. As a result, the pilgrims, the dead, the ritual leaders, and the horned serpent itself could enter into a form of metaphorical communitas, as Paquimé was transformed into the horned serpent’s metaphorical home. There pilgrims sought to interact with it directly in the form of a public ceremonial mound, and indirectly through symbolism and ritual offerings found across the site and on the Ramos Polychrome pottery they took home. Our analysis consequently reflects both the conceptual importance pilgrimages may hold in past societies and the potential of using pilgrimage studies to untangle the complex relationships that structured the past.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

An early version of this research was presented at the 2017 SAA symposium “Rethinking Archaeologies of Pilgrimage.” We appreciate Jacob Skousen’s initial invitation to participate in the session and his comments on this manuscript. Two anonymous reviewers and Lynn Meskell provided excellent comments. We also thank Kyle Waller, Steven Swanson, and Andrew Krug for their useful suggestions and ideas.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author Biographies

Todd L VanPool earned his BA at Eastern New Mexico University and his MA and PhD from the University of New Mexico. He is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Missouri—Columbia. His research focuses on archaeological method and theory, quantitative analysis of anthropological data, prehistory of the North American Southwest, and stone artifact analysis.

Christine S VanPool earned her BA at Eastern New Mexico University and her MA and PhD from the University of New Mexico. She is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Missouri—Columbia. Her research interests include pottery analysis, iconographic analysis, anthropological theories of religion, archaeological method and theory, and prehistory of the North American Southwest.

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