A specialized room or chamber, often semi- or completely underground, of the ancient southwestern US pueblo villages, used for ceremonies or other community activities. They often contain benches and fire pits and are generally circular, sometimes rectangular. They were used primarily by men and were entered by a projecting ladder through an opening in the flat roof. The word means "old house" in Hopi and the structure may have derived from circular pithouses of Basketmaker cultures 100 BC-700 AD.