What the Imagery Offers: Rock Art in the Study of Ancient Chacoan Culture

Summary

More than a hundred years of archaeological investigation have been focused on Chaco Canyon and, more recently, the Chaco World. Most of that work has been related to Great Houses, Great Kivas and the related material culture found therein. Exhaustive analyses of the archaeological data has brought much to light in our understanding of the Chaco phenomenon, and raised many more questions that are currently being researched. The authors of this paper contend that a wealth of information has yet to be tapped from a prolific Chacoan artifact – the rock art imagery. Thousands of rock art images exist throughout the canyon, some directly associated with the Great Houses and many more spread along cliff faces and boulders between and beyond the impressive architecture. Now that a majority of the carvings and paintings within the Chaco Culture National Historical Park boundaries have been documented, it is time to bring rock art into the mix. This paper illustrates that Chacoan rock-art played an important role in the development of Ancient Chacoan culture, as well as influenced the imagery of surrounding—and farther flung—Ancient Puebloan communities.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage