About 800 years ago, there appeared a sudden influx of people, perhaps migrating from dryer areas of the Four Corners. People began living together in much larger groups creating villages (pueblos) with as many as 40 rooms.

This increase in population marked a cultural explosion. The Anasazi here began employing crude tools to scoop out dwellings from the soft volcanic tuff walls of the Pajarito Plateau fronting cave-like with multistory masonry buildings supported by wooden beams. These villages can be seen today for more than a mile along the talus slopes of Frijoles Canyon.

In the 13th century, the Anasazi constructed Tyuonyi, the circular two-story Pueblo in the bottom of Frijoles Canyon, just behind the Monument's Visitor Center. This high-walled village boomed in the 15th century, hosing as many as 100 people. About 1500, with the emergence of the Spanish into the Desert Southwest, the residents left the canyon, never to return. 

Their descendants probably lived in Cochiti and San lldefonso pueblos a few miles east on the Rio Grande River.
Subsequent archeological surveys have revealed thousands of sites throughout the plateau.

Reported Phenomena

We have heard several rumors over the years that this place may be haunted. Since burials are located on site, the rumors often incite the "Indian burial ground" cause for the haunting.

We spent 8 hours at several of the ruins to attempt to locate any unusual EM fields or EMR. The only place where we found something of interest was in one of the kivas. There was a fairly consistent EM reading of 7 nt at 15Hz down in the kiva itself. We were unable to locate a natural or manmade source for this field. When we returned to the kiva later, the field was gone. we found nothing else of interest at this location. This investigation does show that just because a place is an "Indian Burial ground" does not mean that it is haunted.

Photographs