Moon House facts for kids

Masonry and jacal structure at Moon House, 2006

Outside view of the Moon House structure.

Moon House (sometimes written as Moonhouse) is a Pueblo III-period cliff dwelling located in southeastern Utah on Cedar Mesa. It was created by the Ancestral Puebloan peoples between 1150 and 1300.

Interior view of Moon House showing some of the designs on the surfaces of the structures.

Overview

3 sections of the Moon House complex are identified by Bloomer (1989); M-1, M-2, and M-3. These are discussed briefly. Structures from the M-1 cluster yield tree-ring dates from between 964 and 1267, with most rooms clustering between 1125 and 1250. Structures from the M-2 cluster date from between 1109 and 1268. Structures in the M-3 cluster date from between 1044 and 1266, with most dates between 1150 and 1255.

Both Dean and Bloomer postulate different rooms served different functions, and each section of the Moon House complex had a different function. M-1 seems to represent a residential area, with approximately 5 households, while M-2 primarily functioned as a storage area and M-3 as a ceremonial unit dominated by a large kiva. Bloomer found no other kivas within the canyon where Moon House is located, indicating that perhaps Moon House served as a local ceremonial center, servicing the ceremonial needs of the residents nearby in the canyon as well as possibly from the mesa tops.

Moon House derives its name from the unique pictographs located within Room I within the M-1 cluster.