The
Ancestral Puebloans were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day
Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern
Utah, northeastern
Arizona, northwestern
New Mexico, and southwestern
Colorado. It is believed that the Ancestral Puebloans developed, at least in part, from the
Oshara Tradition, who developed from the
Picosa culture. They lived in a range of structures that included small family
pit houses, larger structures to house
clans, grand
pueblos, and cliff-sited dwellings for defense. The Ancestral Puebloans possessed a complex network that stretched across the
Colorado Plateau linking hundreds of communities and population centers. They held a distinct knowledge of celestial sciences that found form in their architecture. The
Kiva, a congregational space that was used chiefly for ceremonial purposes, was an integral part of this ancient peoples community structure.