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"Chaco culture -- New Mexico -- Chaco Canyon"
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Chaco Canyon
Explores the lives of the site's builders, traces its discovery and scientific investigation, and discusses future study and conservation efforts.
Book
Climate and Culture Change in North America AD 900–1600
Climate change is today's news, but it isn't a new phenomenon. Centuries-long cycles of heating and cooling are well documented for Europe and the North Atlantic. These variations in climate, including the Medieval Warm Period (MWP), AD 900 to 1300, and the early centuries of the Little Ice Age (LIA), AD 1300 to 1600, had a substantial impact on the cultural history of Europe. In this pathfinding volume, William C. Foster marshals extensive evidence that the heating and cooling of the MWP and LIA also occurred in North America and significantly affected the cultural history of Native peoples of the American Southwest, Southern Plains, and Southeast.
Correlating climate change data with studies of archaeological sites across the Southwest, Southern Plains, and Southeast, Foster presents the first comprehensive overview of how Native American societies responded to climate variations over seven centuries. He describes how, as in Europe, the MWP ushered in a cultural renaissance, during which population levels surged and Native peoples substantially intensified agriculture, constructed monumental architecture, and produced sophisticated works of art. Foster follows the rise of three dominant cultural centers-Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, Cahokia on the middle Mississippi River, and Casas Grandes in northwestern Chihuahua, Mexico-that reached population levels comparable to those of London and Paris. Then he shows how the LIA reversed the gains of the MWP as population levels and agricultural production sharply declined; Chaco Canyon, Cahokia, and Casas Grandes collapsed; and dozens of smaller villages also collapsed or became fortresses.
eBook
Chaco Revisited
Chaco Canyon, the great Ancestral Pueblo site of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, has inspired excavations and research for more than one hundred years.Chaco Revisitedbrings together an A-team of Chaco scholars to provide an updated, refreshing analysis of over a century of scholarship.In each of the twelve chapters, luminaries from the field of archaeology and anthropology, such as R. Gwinn Vivian, Peter Whiteley, and Paul E. Minnis, address some of the most fundamental questions surrounding Chaco, from agriculture and craft production, to social organization and skeletal analyses. Though varied in their key questions about Chaco, each author uses previous research or new studies to ultimately blaze a trail for future research and discoveries about the canyon.Written by both up-and-coming and well-seasoned scholars of Chaco Canyon,Chaco Revisitedprovides readers with a perspective that is both varied and balanced. Though a singular theory for the Chaco Canyon phenomenon is yet to be reached,Chaco Revisitedbrings a new understanding to scholars: that Chaco was perhaps even more productive and socially complex than previous analyses would suggest.
eBook
The Architecture of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
The structures of Chaco Canyon, built by native peoples between AD 850 and 1130, are among the most compelling ancient monuments on earth. Recognized as a World Heritage Site, these magnificent ruins are consistently featured in scholarly books and popular media. Yet, like Chaco itself, these buildings are anomalous in Southwestern archaeology and much debated.
In a century of study, our understanding and means of approaching these ruins have grown considerably. Important tree-ring dating, GIS research, and computer imaging point to the need for a new volume on Chaco architecture that unifies older information with the new.
The chapters in this volume focus on Chaco Great Houses and consider three overlapping themes: studies of technology and building types, analyses of architectural change, and readings of the built environment. To aid reconsideration there are over 150 maps, floor plans, elevations, and photos, including a number of color illustrations.
eBook
The Chaco Meridian
In this return to his lively, provocative reconceptualization of the meaning of Chaco Canyon and its monumental 11th-century structures, Stephen H.Lekson expands--over time and distance--our understanding of the political and economic integration of the American Southwest.Lekson's argument that Chaco did not stand alone, but rather was the first.
eBook
Evidence of cacao use in the Prehispanic American Southwest
Chemical analyses of organic residues in fragments of ceramic vessels from Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, reveal theobromine, a biomarker for cacao. With an estimated 800 rooms, Pueblo Bonito is the largest archaeological site in Chaco Canyon and was the center of a large number of interconnected towns and villages spread over northwestern New Mexico. The cacao residues come from pieces of vessels that are likely cylinder jars, special containers occurring almost solely at Pueblo Bonito and deposited in caches at the site. This first known use of cacao drinks north of the Mexican border indicates exchange with cacao cultivators in Mesoamerica in a time frame of about A.D. 1000-1125. The association of cylinder jars and cacao beverages suggests that the Chacoan ritual involving the drinking of cacao was tied to Mesoamerican rituals incorporating cylindrical vases and cacao. The importance of Pueblo Bonito within the Chacoan world likely lies in part with the integration of Mesoamerican ritual, including critical culinary ingredients.
Journal Article
Chaco Canyon
New Mexico, northwestern corner. Here, amidst the greasewood bushes and clouds of dry, sandy soil, are the silent ruins of colossal mud and wooden houses, a mysterious remnant of an ancient civilization. In Chaco Canyon, readers learn about the discovery of these amazing structures and follow generations of archaeologists as they uncover the secrets of the canyon's past. A veritable early Native American detective story, the book includes numerous sidebars on archaeological techniques, timelines, related sites, photographs and illustrations of the sites and artifacts, and a fascinating interview with archaeologist Gwinn Vivian who grew up in the canyon. Series copy: Buried treasure, high adventure, lost civilizations--Join archaeologists as they dig for the past at exciting sites around the world. From the first excitement of the original find to the excavation and scientific breakthrough, these richly illustrated books team professional archaeologists with established science writers to bring the fascinating world of the archaeological process to life.
eBook
Early Maize Pollen from Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, USA
Pollen concentrations containing abundant Zea mays pollen grains are AMS radiocarbon dated 3940 + 40 to 2450 + 40 14C years BP. The maize pollen is from two prehistoric woodrat (Neotoma) middens that occur in fractures in the south-facing sandstone cliff at Chaco Culture National Historical Park. The diameters of the Archaic-age maize pollen grains are significantly larger than Puebloan and modern maize pollen. The size distributions of the earliest Zea grain populations are not normal, suggesting the possibility that more than one variety of maize is represented by the pollen. The occurrence of large numbers of maize pollen grains as well as pollen from weedy plants indicates the nearby presence of an Archaic cornfield, now buried in alluvial fill adjacent to the cliff. It was also found that the AMS radiocarbon ages of the pollen concentrations differ significantly from the age of twigs from the same woodrat middens. Because of the strong age differences of components of woodrat middens, pollen assemblages should be dated independent of plant macrofossils.
Journal Article
Cultural Identity and the Archaeological Construction of Historical Narratives: An Example from Chaco Canyon
The Bonito Phase (ca. AD 850 to 1140) in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, is widely assumed by archeologists to reflect the growth and decline of a coherent sociopolitical entity, one of the classic examples of emergent social complexity among ancient indigenous North American populations ending in a societal collapse. This understanding of Chaco is based, in part, on the interpretation of temporal changes in material culture as intentional efforts to maintain cultural identity and continuity in the face of social disruption. In this study, I suggest that the Bonito Phase actually encompassed at least one major episode of cultural discontinuity, calling into question the perception of a distinct \"Chaco society.\" Instead, patterns of material production in Chaco point to multiple cultural identities linked to serial reoccupation of the canyon.
Journal Article