Agate House-petrified wood-
Petrified Forest National Park
Holbrook, Arizona
Ancestral Puebloan people used petrified wood for a variety of purposes including tools such as projectile points, knives, and scrapers. Agate House demonstrates another innovative use of petrified wood: as a building material. The eight-room pueblo was built and occupied sometime between 1050 and 1300 in a location near agricultural fields and petrified wood deposits. The size of the structure and …time necessary to build and maintain it indicates that this was likely a year-round residence for a single family, rather than the temporary residences or field houses common at that time. It may have even served as a meeting place for the surrounding community. The scarcity of artifacts found at Agate House suggest a relatively brief occupation.
Agate House now stands alone on top of a small hill in Rainbow Forest, but it was likely part of a much larger community. Since its excavation in the 1930s, hundreds of similar petrified wood structure sites have been found in the park. Many date to the same time period.
