KiVas

Kivas are ceremonial rooms used by Puebloan peoples of the American Southwest. They are typically subterranean or partially underground spaces that served as centers for religious rites, social gatherings, and initiations within both ancient Ancestral Puebloan societies and modern Pueblo communities.

Most kivas are round and built with a plastered floor and walls, though some are polygonal. They are constructed with a roof supported by a ring of wooden beams called vigas, with smaller branches called latillas forming the roof. Inside, a central fire pit or hearth is surrounded by a seating bench, and the floor usually includes a sipapu—a small hole or pit symbolizing a doorway to the ancestral world. A ventilation shaft or air hole provides light and smoke ventilation. Some kivas feature a roof opening used to observe the sky or as an access point, typically reached by ladder from a doorway at floor level; grand kivas, larger and more elaborately decorated, appear in settlement centers known as great houses and plazas, and they often serve as central ceremonial spaces.

Origins and use: Kivas appear in archaeological sites across the Southwest dating from late prehistoric to historic periods; they are especially associated with Ancestral Puebloans and Hopi and Zuni and other Pueblo peoples. In modern times, kivas remain in use in many Pueblo communities for rites such as initiation, seasonal ceremonies, and communal gatherings; access is often restricted to men and to initiated participants, though practices vary by community. The term kiva is derived from Puebloan languages and is used by archaeologists and communities to describe these ceremonial rooms.