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Archaeology Southwest Highlights: Ancient Chaco's New History
| Ancient Chaco's New History Posted By: Linda Pierce - January 1st, 2000
Category: Archaeology Southwest Highlights | 
Volume 14, Number 1
Center for Desert Archaeology
Winter 2000
online highlights...
Ancient Chaco's New History
Stephen H. Lekson, University of Colorado, Boulder
Overview to the north of central Chaco Canyon. Casa Rinconada, an isolated Great Kiva, is in the foreground. Pueblo Bonito and Chetro Ketl are in the left and right midground, respectively. Above the cliffs is Pueblo Alto. Photo courtesy of Adriel Heisey. |
Introduction
Chaco Canyon sparks an intense interest in nearly all who see it. Even though it is a national park, Chaco's isolation means that few experience it directly.
This special issue of Archaeology Southwest explores current efforts to synthesize the research of the Chaco Project that conducted large-scale fieldwork between 1971 and 1982. Stephen H. Lekson is the editor of this issue, and he is the principal organizer of the Chaco Synthesis Project (see below). In his introductory article below, Lekson provides key background information. In addition, he has written introductions to each article on the special-topic conferences that have been held to date.
A second theme of this issue is a photo essay by Adriel Heisey, whose remarkable photography is created in an ultra-light airplane. Thirteen of Heisey's photos convey the detail that is of interest to the archaeologist within a landscape-scale perspective that captures the emotional impact of Chaco's ruins.
Ancient Chaco's New History
Chaco is an arid, barren, sandstone canyon in the middle of nowhere. But a millennium ago, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries A.D., ancient peoples not only survived there, they thrived and created an amazing city. Chaco's ruins awe us even today. The people we call the ancestral Pueblo (also "Anasazi") built monumental political and ceremonial buildings that towered, literally and figuratively, above anything previously seen in the Southwest.
The ruins are preserved in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, 175 kilometers (110 miles) west of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Ancient Chaco Canyon was the center of a regional system covering over 100,000 square kilometers (40,000 square miles). The principal excavated ruins are Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl, Pueblo del Arroyo, Pueblo Alto, and Kin Kletso. Hundreds of other buildings, large and small, dot the canyon floor. The largest buildings, called "Great Houses," are usually associated with the "Great Kivas" - 16-meter-diameter (53-feet) subterranean ceremonial chambers, such as Casa Rinconada.
Pueblo Bonito was the largest Great House. Construction began as early as 850 and continued until about 1125; the D-shaped building stood five stories tall, covered .8 hectares (2.2 acres), and contained over 650 rooms, 45 smaller "kivas," and two Great Kivas. The carefully coursed sandstone masonry walls were up to 80 centimeters (2.6 feet) thick. Over 25,000 pine roof beams were transported from distant forests. Chetro Ketl and the unexcavated ruins of Una Vida and Penasco Blanco were almost as large as Pueblo Bonito and had similar construction histories. . . .
The Chaco Synthesis Project
Directed by Stephen H. Lekson, the Chaco Synthesis Project consists of five small working conferences, each focusing on a different aspect of Chaco Canyon archaeology. A "capstone" conference will synthesize the results of these working conferences.
"Economy and Ecology" was organized by R. Gwinn Vivian (Arizona State Museum), Carla Van West (Statistical Research), and Jeffrey S. Dean (University of Arizona) and held in Tucson at the University of Arizona's Desert Laboratory. Participants examined how the Chacoan environment (and its change) influenced the economy in Chaco Canyon. Chaco was a rather simple agricultural society, growing corn, beans, and squash and hunting a range of game animals. How did the desert environment of Chaco support the remarkable construction in the canyon?
"Organization of Production," arranged by Catherine M. Cameron (University of Colorado, Boulder) and H. Wolcott Toll (Museum of New Mexico), was held at the University of Colorado, Boulder. This conference invited scholars to address the production of items used in everyday life and ritual ceremonies, and how that production was organized. Did Chaco have craft specialists? Factories? A political economy?
"Architecture," organized by Stephen H. Lekson (University of Colorado, Boulder), and Thomas C. Windes (National Park Service), will be held at the University of New Mexico and at Chaco Canyon in late summer 2000. Preliminary research on Chaco's famous architecture is already under way and is summarized here.
"Chaco World," organized by Nancy Mahoney (Arizona State University), Keith Kintigh (Arizona State University), and John Kantner (Georgia State University) and held at Arizona State University in Tempe, examined Chaco's (apparent) role as a central place, or a kind of capital. Among the participants in this conference were a group of younger scholars who are on the cutting edge of research on the greater Chacoan World--and understandably skeptical of the grand claims of Chacoan regional domination.
"Society and Polity," led by Linda S. Cordell (University of Colorado, Boulder) and W. James Judge (Fort Lewis College), was held at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. The nature of Chaco's government is obviously central to our understanding of the Chaco Phenomenon; yet the social and political structures that shaped the lives of Chacoan people have been remarkably difficult to unravel from the archaeological ruins and artifacts.
Two other conferences will explore the public fascination with Chaco. The first looks at the general attraction of Four Corners' ruins to writers, poets, artists, and other deeply engaged non-archaeologists. Called "Chaco, Mesa Verde, and the Confrontation with Time," the conference is organized by Patricia Limerick and Stephen H. Lekson (both of University of Colorado, Boulder) and will be held at the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The second "public" conference will focus more closely on the architecture and landscape of Chaco Canyon. Less technical "popular" books are also planned, along with other public media, to disseminate the results of this effort to the widest possible audience.
Additional issue contributions by:
R. Gwinn Vivian, "Economy and Ecology."
Catherine M. Cameron, "The Organization of Production."
Stephen H. Lekson, "The Chaco Synthesis Project," "Architecture," and "Expanding Cultural Perspectives."
Nancy Mahoney, "Chaco World."
Linda S. Cordell, "Society and Polity."
William H. Doelle, "Back Sight."
More Online Highlights:
Browse a Unique Perspective on Chaco Canyon! Tour Adriel Hiesey's Chaco Image Gallery in our Online Exhibits section.
To read the entire Archaeology Southwest issue on Chaco Canyon (as a downloadable PDF file), become a Center for Desert Archaeology member today for complete access to this and other issues in our Members Only section.View All Articles From "Archaeology Southwest Highlights" Category
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