Great Houses (Other Keyword)
1-2 (2 Records)
Peer polity interaction has been suggested as a primary driver of interaction among communities with Chaco-style great houses. Unfortunately, the peer polity model lacks underlying theory and therefore using it to empirically examine the relationships between great house groups is difficult. We propose instead that costly signaling theory is a better framework for evaluating the construction of these monumental structures, the ritual or group level activities associated with their use, and...
The origins of Chaco timbers by tree-ring based sourcing (2017)
The regional integration of Chaco Society includes the procurement of goods and materials from distant landscapes. Wood incorporated as roof beams, door and window lintels, and other building elements is no exception. Hundreds of thousands of trees were felled and hand-carried from mountain ranges over 50 km from Chaco Canyon. Using tree-ring width patterns of beams compared to tree-ring chronologies from potential harvesting areas, we have begun to reconstruct the dynamics of timber procurement...