Sipapu--Anasazi Great House Model

Kin Tl'iish Great House

Click on image to experience java applet (experimental!)

Kin Tl'iish, which means "Snake House" in Navajo, was constructed in the A.D. 1000s in northwestern New Mexico. Backed against sandstone cliffs, the structure is surrounded by interspersed habitations. Whether Kin Tl'iish was also occupied has not yet been determined, but evidence from similar great houses elsewhere in the Anasazi world suggests that the structure served a variety of community functions. Ceremonies were likely held inside, important meetings between leaders may have taken place, and many of the large rooms were probably dedicated to the storage of both food surpluses and religious items. Great houses like Kin Tl'iish, which are usually attributed to the Chaco branch of the Anasazi culture, were found in many if not most communities in a large area of the northern Southwest.
The 3-D model was created using archaeological records from the site, which has only been subjected to test excavations. Metacreations Infini-D is the software that was used. In the future, this model will be featured in an interactive tour not unlike that available for the great kiva. Until then, you can view some images and a 3DMF model of Kin Tl'iish:

View the interior of one of the rooms. The room you are about to see is one of the front rooms, and likely served as an entry way for accessing other rooms in the great house.

View a Quicktime movie (1 mb) showing a fly-through that passes through one of the rooms in Kin Tl'iish. This is a preliminary movie that will be expanded in the future.

Explore an interactive 3DMF model of Kin Tl’iish. To do this, you will need Apple’s Quickdraw 3D plugin and software to view the model. The best choice for this is a shareware program called FlyThrough.

For serious researchers, view detailed data regarding the Chaco community in which Kin Tl'iish is found.

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This page has been visited 33054 times since April 25, 2005.
It was last modified on April 25, 2005.

	View the interior of one of the rooms. The room you are about to see is one of the front rooms, and likely served as an entry way for accessing other rooms in the great house.
	View a Quicktime movie (1 mb) showing a fly-through that passes through one of the rooms in Kin Tl'iish. This is a preliminary movie that will be expanded in the future.
	Explore an interactive 3DMF model of Kin Tl’iish. To do this, you will need Apple’s Quickdraw 3D plugin and software to view the model. The best choice for this is a shareware program called FlyThrough.
	For serious researchers, view detailed data regarding the Chaco community in which Kin Tl'iish is found.