description Puye Cliff Dwellings Overview
Puye Cliff Dwellings are an ancestral Puebloan archaeological site in north central New Mexico, located on a volcanic plateau west of Santa Fe. The settlement includes rooms and other structures built into and along cliffs formed from volcanic tuff. It was occupied by Puebloan communities for centuries and is generally understood to have been abandoned by about 1500 CE, leaving evidence of domestic, ceremonial, and defensive activity.
help Puye Cliff Dwellings FAQ
Where are the Puye Cliff Dwellings?
The Puye Cliff Dwellings are in New Mexico, United States. The site is an ancestral Puebloan settlement built into volcanic terrain.
How were the Puye Cliff Dwellings constructed?
Hundreds of rooms were carved into or built against volcanic tuff cliffs. The use of tuff gives the settlement its distinctive cliff-side appearance.
When were the Puye Cliff Dwellings occupied?
The site was occupied until about 1500 CE. That places its main use within the pre-contact history of ancestral Puebloan communities in the Southwest.
What makes Puye different from an ordinary archaeological ruin?
Puye combines extensive cliff dwellings with hundreds of rooms cut into volcanic tuff. Its scale and cliff construction make it a distinctive ancestral Puebloan archaeological site.
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