Recent Analytical Contributions to Chacoan Archaeology

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

This session highlights recent studies about Chaco Canyon archaeology which emphasize new research approaches to long-standing questions about the social, economic and organizational features that characterized the period of emergent complexity associated with the construction of "great houses" between ca. AD 800 and 1200. Contributions especially explore the role of scientific methods, quantitative analysis and geospatial techniques in addressing a range of critical explanatory issues.

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  • Documents (10)

Documents
  • Chemostratigraphic Analysis of Alluvial Sediments in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lee Drake.

    Complex societies are generally dependent on agrarian economies whose success is contingent on water and nutrient availability. For Chaco Canyon, an Ancestral Pueblo cultural center in northwestern New Mexico with monumental construction dating from the 9th to 12 centuries A.D., the role of local agriculture has been of particular interest. Here, data =are presented from three summers of fieldwork using x-ray fluorescence to identify the geochemical composition of sediments, with a focus on...

  • The Exotic and the Sacred: Evidence for Ritual Uses of Birds and Long Distance Exchange at Chaco and Mimbres (AD 800-1200) (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Adam Watson. Patricia Gilman. Douglas Kennett. Peter Whiteley. Stephen Plog.

    Birds are key actors in Pueblo narratives of emergence and symbolize the six sacred directions in Pueblo cosmology and in some instances religious sodalities and societal divisions; bird feathers are powerful offerings to the supernatural, carrying prayers to the gods who in turn use them for adornment. Simply put, birds are central to modern Pueblo cosmology and social and religious life. Similarly, iconographic representations and the ritual treatment of avian species such as the Scarlet Macaw...

  • Local Visibility and Monumentality in the Chaco World: A Total Viewshed Approach (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Katherine Dungan. Sylviane Déderix. Barbara Mills. Kristin Safi. Devin White.

    Chacoan great houses are considered "monumental," in the sense both of scale and of conveying meaning. Throughout the Chaco World, great houses and other large-scale buildings would have been associated to some degree with a larger, regional Chacoan ideology. At the same time, these structures vary and should be understood in the context of diverse local and regional histories. Visibility can be a key component of monumentality, and it has been suggested that great houses were frequently placed...

  • "Mind the Gap": Social Networks and Chaco Migration Scenarios (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Barbara Mills. Matthew Peeples. Jeffery Clark. Leslie Aragon. Thomas Windes.

    Migration plays an important role in archaeologists’ reconstructions of the origins and development of Chaco society. Scenarios include migration from the northern San Juan to Chaco Canyon and other southern San Juan settlements in the 9th-10th centuries; from Chaco to the central San Juan in the 11th-12th centuries; and from the central San Juan to Chaco Canyon in the 12th century. To evaluate possible migration pathways we compiled a database of 1.8 million ceramics from 340 Chacoan great...

  • The origins of Chaco timbers by tree-ring based sourcing (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Guiterman.

    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...

  • Recent Advancements in Remote Sensing Studies in Chaco Canyon (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jennie Sturm.

    Remote sensing has been an integral part of Chacoan archaeology for several decades, helping to identify and map the broader landscape in and around the canyon. Early remote sensing studies, while pioneering, were often experimental and limited by the available technology. As the technical aspects of remote sensing continue to improve with advancements in computer power and data processing, it is now possible to move beyond experimental studies and broad characterizations of the Chacoan...

  • The Science and Performance of Ritual Drinking in Chaco Canyon (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Patricia Crown.

    Consumption of caffeinated drinks made with cacao and perhaps holly is well documented for Chaco Canyon. Less understood is the context of consumption. Evidence for cylinder vessel production, use and termination particularly reveals aspects of drinking ritual, including frothing. New compositional analysis demonstrates how Chaco potters decorated pots with post-firing pigments on stucco, permitting repeated decoration and cleansing of drinking vessels. Changes in the sizes, shapes, and...

  • Stable Isotope Ratios from Modern and Archeological Fauna from Chaco Canyon, New Mexico (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Marian Hamilton. Lee Drake. Wirt Wills. Emily Jones.

    Stable isotope analysis of archaeological material can reveal aspects of diet, mobility, resource exchange, and social structure in ancient civilizations. Chaco Canyon, New Mexico is a World Heritage site in northwestern New Mexico with peak activity and habitation around 1000AD. The nature of resource management by those inhabiting the Canyon has been long debated. Here, we present carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and strontium isotope data from archaeological faunal remains collected from from...

  • A Three Dimensional Reconstruction of the Pueblo Bonito Mounds (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Chip Wills. Beau Murphy. Heather Richards-Rissetto.

    There are two large mounds on the south side of Pueblo Bonito that were extensively trenched in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Data from the re-excavation of three trenches are combined with new geospatial and remote sensing information to create a three dimensional reconstruction of mound history. Although low walls were built around parts of each mound at some point, there is no evidence that the mounds were ever enclosed by architecture. The mounds consist mostly of household...

  • Toward a Dynamic Geospatial Model of Shifting Hydrologic Regimes and Agricultural Potential at Chaco Canyon: Report from the Field (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Wetherbee Dorshow.

    This paper summarizes objectives, strategies and preliminary findings of ongoing research at Chaco Canyon led by the University of New Mexico and the Puente Institute, and funded by the National Science Foundation. The paper focuses on the use of advanced geospatial technologies for field data collection, analysis, and visualization. Project datasets to be discussed include airborne and terrestrial lidar, stereo panoramic photogrammetry, kite/balloon mapping, GIS-based full-motion video,...