scholarly journals KINSHIP AND COMMUNITY IN THE NORTHERN SOUTHWEST: CHACO AND BEYOND

2018 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 639-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Ware
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Colorado Plateau ◽  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Great House ◽  
Descent Group ◽  
Nonstate Societies

Archaeogenomic studies of a burial crypt in Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, have demonstrated the presence of an elite matrilineal descent group that spanned most of the 300+ years the great house was occupied, confirming, among other things, the deep antiquity of matrilineal ideologies among the Ancestral Pueblos of the northern Southwest. This article explores the sociopolitical implications of matrilineal descent, matrilocal residence, and Iroquois-Crow alliance structures among the Ancestral Pueblos of Chaco and elsewhere. It argues that matrilineal ideologies helped shape community forms and intercommunity relations throughout the Pueblo Southwest. It argues further that kinship provides insights into Chaco's eleventh-century expansion that dispersed “outlier” great houses over much of the southeastern Colorado Plateau. The article concludes with a call for archaeologists and cultural historians to pay more attention to kinship, the principal idiom of social, economic, and political relations in nonstate societies.

The Chaco Pilgrimage Model: Evaluating the Evidence From Pueblo Alto

2012 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 449-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Plog ◽  
Adam S. Watson
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
Household Activity ◽  
Deposition Patterns ◽  
Data Support ◽  
Great House ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Refuse Disposal

AbstractMost recent attempts to understand the complex nature of the prehispanic occupation of Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico often have postulated that the canyon was a center for pilgrimage fairs and ceremonies that attracted hundreds if not thousands of individuals from the surrounding region who may have resided in the canyon for significant periods of time. Scholars first proposed this model in the 1980s based on what they perceived as the unusual nature of Pueblo Alto, a Chacoan great house. In particular, they suggested that normal household activity and refuse disposal could not explain the deposition patterns in the Alto trash mound, the unusual number of ceramic vessels, and characteristics of the fauna recovered from the settlement. We evaluate this argument focusing primarily on the ceramic and faunal evidence and conclude that neither the ceramic nor the faunal data support the occurrence of periodic fairs, festivals, dances or pilgrimages of the scale that have been postulated.

Great Houses, Shrines, and High Places: Intervisibility in the Chacoan World

2016 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth M. Van Dyke ◽  
R. Kyle Bocinsky ◽  
Thomas C. Windes ◽  
Tucker J. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
Shared Identity ◽  
Ideal Situation ◽  
Ancient Landscapes ◽  
Meaningful Connections

AbstractPhenomenological archaeologists and GIS scholars have turned much attention to visibility—who can see whom, and what can be seen—across ancient landscapes. Visible connections can be relatively easy to identify, but they present challenges to interpretation. Ancient peoples created intervisible connections among sites for purposes that included surveillance, defense, symbolism, shared identity, and communication. In the American Southwest, many high places are intervisible by virtue of the elevated topography and the open skies. The Chaco phenomenon, centered in northwestern New Mexico between A.D. 850 and 1140, presents an ideal situation for visibility research. In this study, we use GIS-generated viewsheds and viewnets to investigate intervisible connections among great houses, shrines, and related features across the Chacoan landscape. We demonstrate that a Chacoan shrine network, likely established during the mid-eleventh century, facilitated intervisibility between outlier communities and Chaco Canyon. It is most likely that the Chacoans created this network to enable meaningful connections for communication and identity. We conclude that the boundaries of the Chaco phenomenon are defined in some sense by intervisibility.

scholarly journals Eleventh-century shift in timber procurement areas for the great houses of Chaco Canyon

2015 ◽  
Vol 113 (5) ◽  
pp. 1186-1190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher H. Guiterman ◽  
Thomas W. Swetnam ◽  
Jeffrey S. Dean
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Ring Width ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Mountain Ranges ◽  
House Construction ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Great House ◽  
Common Era

An enduring mystery from the great houses of Chaco Canyon is the origin of more than 240,000 construction timbers. We evaluate probable timber procurement areas for seven great houses by applying tree-ring width-based sourcing to a set of 170 timbers. To our knowledge, this is the first use of tree rings to assess timber origins in the southwestern United States. We found that the Chuska and Zuni Mountains (>75 km distant) were the most likely sources, accounting for 70% of timbers. Most notably, procurement areas changed through time. Before 1020 Common Era (CE) nearly all timbers originated from the Zunis (a previously unrecognized source), but by 1060 CE the Chuskas eclipsed the Zuni area in total wood imports. This shift occurred at the onset of Chaco florescence in the 11th century, a time with substantial expansion of existing great houses and the addition of seven new great houses in the Chaco Core area. It also coincides with the proliferation of Chuskan stone tools and pottery in the archaeological record of Chaco Canyon, further underscoring the link between land use and occupation in the Chuska area and the peak of great house construction. Our findings, based on the most temporally specific and replicated evidence of Chacoan resource procurement obtained to date, corroborate the long-standing but recently challenged interpretation that large numbers of timbers were harvested and transported from distant mountain ranges to build the great houses at Chaco Canyon.

scholarly journals Early procurement of scarlet macaws and the emergence of social complexity in Chaco Canyon, NM

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (27) ◽  
pp. 8238-8243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam S. Watson ◽  
Stephen Plog ◽  
Brendan J. Culleton ◽  
Patricia A. Gilman ◽  
Steven A. LeBlanc ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
Political Status ◽  
Great House ◽  
Accelerator Mass Spectrometer ◽  
Ara Macao ◽  
Scarlet Macaw ◽  
Dense Concentration

High-precision accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) 14C dates of scarlet macaw (Ara macao) skeletal remains provide the first direct evidence from Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico that these Neotropical birds were procured from Mesoamerica by Pueblo people as early as ∼A.D. 900–975. Chaco was a prominent prehistoric Pueblo center with a dense concentration of multistoried great houses constructed from the 9th through early 12th centuries. At the best known great house of Pueblo Bonito, unusual burial crypts and significant quantities of exotic and symbolically important materials, including scarlet macaws, turquoise, marine shell, and cacao, suggest societal complexity unprecedented elsewhere in the Puebloan world. Scarlet macaws are known markers of social and political status among the Pueblos. New AMS 14C-dated scarlet macaw remains from Pueblo Bonito demonstrate that these birds were acquired persistently from Mesoamerica between A.D. 900 and 1150. Most of the macaws date before the hypothesized apogeal Chacoan period (A.D. 1040–1110) to which they are commonly attributed. The 10th century acquisition of these birds is consistent with the hypothesis that more formalized status hierarchies developed with significant connections to Mesoamerica before the post-A.D. 1040 architectural florescence in Chaco Canyon.

87Sr/86Sr sourcing of ponderosa pine used in Anasazi great house construction at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 1061-1075 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda C. Reynolds ◽  
Julio L. Betancourt ◽  
Jay Quade ◽  
P. Jonathan Patchett ◽  
Jeffrey S. Dean ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Ponderosa Pine ◽  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
House Construction ◽  
Great House

scholarly journals Possible sources of archaeological maize found in Chaco Canyon and Aztec Ruin, New Mexico

2009 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 387-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
L.V. Benson ◽  
J.R. Stein ◽  
H.E. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Chaco Canyon

Prehistoric Long-Distance Transport of Construction Beams, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

1986 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 370-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julio L. Betancourt ◽  
Jeffrey S. Dean ◽  
Herbert M. Hull
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
The South ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Long Distance Transport ◽  
High Elevations ◽  
Material Evidence ◽  
Distance Transport

Identification of spruce (Picea) and fir (Abies) construction timbers at Chetro Ketl in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, implies that between A.D. 1030 and 1120 the Anasazi transported thousands of logs more than 75 km. These timbers came from high elevations, probably in mountains to the south (Mt. Taylor) and west (Chuska Mountains) where Chacoan interaction was well established. Survey in these mountains might disclose material evidence of these prehistoric logging activities.

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