TJ Ruin Pueblo
Photomontage of the TJ Ruin CG model upon aerial photo of the actual site - on the edge of a cliff 100 feet above the half mile wide valley of the Gila River, and a view of the Mogollon Mountains beyound, in southwestern New Mexico. View is ooking southeast.
The ceramics collected on surface of the mounds of the unexcavated or trenched ruin indicate this Ancestral Mimbres pueblo was inhabited around 900 to 1150 C.E. The Pueblo appears to contain five masonry room blocks, seven kivas, and a large central plaza, bounded on the north by a 345 foot (105 meters) long masonry wall. A Great Kiva 52 feet (16 meters) in diameter is located at the end of this wall, forming a entrance into the village. The people were farmers, growing the "three sister" crops of maize, beans, and squash in the fertile soil of the flood plane, and also supported their diet with limited huntng and gathering. The room blocks are oriented parallel to the cliff edge, and not the cardinal directions. The plan reconstructec by William Morgon on which this CG 3d model is based proposes 245 main floor rooms and 36 second floor rooms in the five room blocks. There probably were many subsurface pit houses inhabited by Mimbres families in the immediate vicinity of the central pueblo.
Elevation is 1756 meters (5775 feet) above sea level.
Coordinates: 33°13'16.9"N 108°14'22.2"W
33.221368, -108.239496
Materials: Mortarless masonry and adobe roomblock and northside plaza walls, log roof support structure, and brush and wood purlin roof structure with compressed mud/clay topping.
Looking east.
Looking northeast.
Looking north.
Looking south.
Looking southwest.
Looking southwest.
Looking southeast.
Looking northeast.
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Looking northwest.
Looking north.
Photomontaage of CG model on aerial photo of actual site with scale and orientation.
Data for CG model:
1. Mckenna, Peter J. and Bradford, James E., 1989. TJ Ruin: Gila Cliff Dwelling National Monument, New Mexico. Santa Fe: National Park Service.
2. Gila Cliff Dwellings: https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/gicl/adhi/adhi4g.htm
3. Morgan, William N. Ancient Architecture of the Southwest. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994.