Corridors of Interaction: Using Chuskan Ceramics and Lithics to Reveal the Larger Sociopolitical Hierarchy of Chaco Canyon

Summary

Unraveling the complex relationships that existed between Chaco Canyon and outlier communities is essential to understanding how and why Chaco rose to prominence and the nature of its sociopolitical authority. Key to this debate is evaluating the interactions between Chaco Canyon and the great house communities of the eastern slope of the Chuska Mountains. This region produced substantial quantities of the lithics, ceramics, timber, and food found within Chaco Canyon. The social conditions that brought these materials to the canyon has been central to various interpretations of the Chaco Regional System. My study aims to shed light on this exchange of materials by comparing the ratio of Chuskan goods (trachyte-tempered ceramics and Narbonna Pass chert) found in San Juan Basin great house communities lying between Chaco Canyon and the Chuska Mountains. This allows us to see where Chuskan goods were being distributed across the San Juan Basin, and whether certain communities were participants in the funneling of goods to meet the material needs of Chaco. This study evaluates several models of the sociopolitical structuring of Chaco and addresses the complex and potentially diverse relationships that existed between Chaco Canyon and outlier great house communities of the San Juan Basin.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16405