Pueblo I Period

The Pueblo I Period (750 to 900) was the first period in which Ancestral Puebloans began living in pueblo structures and realized an evolution in architecture, artistic expression, and water conservation.
Pueblo I, a Pecos Classification, is similar to the early "Developmental Pueblo Period" of 750 to 1100. It is preceded by the Basketmaker III Period, and is followed by the Pueblo II Period.
People constructed and lived in pueblos, which were surface level, flat-roofed homes. At the beginning of the period pueblos were made with jacal construction. Wooden posts were used to create a frame to supported woven material and a covering of mud. Later in the period, stone slabs were sometimes used around the dwelling foundation.
The pueblos made of several rooms that formed a straight row or in a crescent shape. Sometimes they built the dwellings two rows thick with a combination of living rooms with fire pits and storage rooms.
J. Richard Ambler describes how Pueblo I architectural changes reflect societal changes:
During this period round pit-houses began to evolve into ceremonial kivas.
There was some variability in when and how communities transitioned into and out of the Pueblo I period. Some communities might not have had some of the external or climatic pressures that forced rapid resettlement. As a result, during the early Pueblo I period, there were some communities that lived in Basket Maker settlements.
The Pueblo I villages were larger than the settlements of the preceding Basket Maker period; In the Four Corners region the average of 5 to 10 pit-house per settlement rose to 20 to 30 pit-houses per community. In some cases, the Pueblo I communities were quite large. The southeastern Utah's Alkali Ridge had about 130 rooms built on the surface, with 16 pit-houses and 2 kivas.
The most advanced communities in the Chaco Canyon region had "great houses", roads and elaborate kivas.
By the Pueblo I period, the Ancient Pueblo people were reliant upon agriculture and they faced periods of lower rates of precipitation, like the major drought from 850–900 in the Petrified Forest National Park. It is likely that people also settled on the mesas and ridges to benefit from heavier winter snowfall and summer precipitation. Water management and conservation techniques, including the use of reservoirs and silt-retaining dams also emerged during this period to efficiently utilize their water supply. Large earthenware vessels, sealed with stone lids, were used to store harvested corn and protect it from rodents and rotting.
People also hunted, trapped and gathered wild nuts, plants and fruit.
In the transition from the Basket Maker period, pottery became more versatile, including ollas, pitchers, ladles, bowls, jars and dishware. Plain and neckbanded gray pottery was a standard at Pueblo I sites. White pottery with black designs, the pigments coming from plants, and red ware emerged during this period.
Communities with low-yield harvests often traded pottery for maize. As a result, there was an emergence of beautifully designed black-on-white pottery to promote a successful trade.
The people continued to use many of the materials goods from the preceding Basketmaker, some examples of material goods in this Pueblo period are:
Hard-backed cradle boards emerged during this period to tightly and safely hold babies' necks while their mothers worked. The pressure flattened the back of the youngsters' heads, reflected in changed skulls following this period.
The cultural groups of this period include: