Travel Corridors and Economic Integration in the Chacoan Regional System

Summary

It is well known that a variety of goods flowed into the center of the Chaco regional system between 980-1140 CE. Previous research demonstrated that these goods were generally consumed within the canyon instead of redistributed to outlying settlements. Yet, a variety of indicators from peripheral areas indicate robust economic expansion during this same period and contraction in the immediate post-Chacoan period (1140-1180 CE). This suggests greater levels of exchange and interaction among outlying settlements during the Chacoan era than previously noted. We employ a novel geocomputational method for determining routes of pedestrian travel to test the extent to which the spatial distribution of outlying great houses was optimized for pilgrimage to the center in Chaco Canyon vs. inter-outlier exchange. We also test the competing hypothesis that great houses were located with respect to water sources as opposed to travel corridors. Results indicate that the model of inter-outlier exchange provides the best fit with available data. These results suggest regional political integration facilitated economic development throughout the Chacoan regional system, and that this system developed as an undirected network more so than one focused on Chaco. We suggest similar approaches may be useful for the study of other regional systems.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Chaco and Hopewell: Rethinking "Interaction Spheres" Through Multiscalar Network Analyses

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