Pueblo IV Period

At the end of prior Pueblo III Period, Ancestral Puebloans living in the Colorado and Utah regions abandoned their settlements and migrated south to the Pecos River and Rio Grande valleys.

The puebloan territory of the Pueblo IV Period also included the White Mountains, Verde Valley, Anderson Mesa, and Pecos areas.

[1][2] An upsurge in the lifestyle of the Rio Grande valley residents in the beginning of the Pueblo IV Period was tempered by the 16th century Spanish colonization of the Americas which extended north into New Mexico.

Don Juan de Oñate, the colonial governor of the New Spain province of New Mexico, led 400 soldiers and farmers in 1598 to establish settlements into the Rio Grande valley area.

Glazed pots, created when mineral paints on the pottery surface were fired at high temperatures, emerged in the Ancestral Pueblo sites.

Map of Ancient Pueblo People in the American Southwest and Mexico .

During the Pueblo IV period, Four Corners pueblo settlements were abandoned (northern and central portion of the Ancestral Pueblo region.)
Drawings of kachina dolls, from an 1894 anthropology book.