Pueblo Floor Plan

El Cuartelejo pueblo was built with stone from the surrounding hills, with walls plastered inside and out with adobe and a roof of willow poles or brush covered with mud. When it was first excavated, abundant charcoal, burned tools and adobe, and quantities of charred corn showed that the pueblo had been destroyed by fire. There were no indications of doors or windows, and small paired post holes in the corners of most rooms suggested that entry was by ladders through openings in the roof. After 1899, much more erosion and disintegration took place. When the Kansas State Historical Society re-excavated the pueblo in 1970, portions of the hearths, two sections of outer wall, and several post holes were all that remained. These surviving features, together with the descriptions of 1899, were used to reconstruct the ruins as they appeared when first uncovered.

Kansas · United States