Recent Investigations of the Los Rayos – Red Willow Chacoan Landscape

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project: A Multivocal Analysis of the San Juan Basin as a Cultural Landscape" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Los Rayos-Red Willow Chacoan landscape, east of Tohatchi, New Mexico, consists of the Los Rayos great kiva and at least seven surrounding small-house sites, the Red Willow Chacoan great house and associated great kiva and at least seven surrounding small-house sites, and a Chacoan road connecting the Los Rayos great kiva and the Red Willow great house. The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply project right-of-way extends through the Los Rayos road, about halfway between the great house and the great kiva. As a result, PaleoWest conducted excavations and a geomorphological study in the affected portion of the road and non-destructive investigations at both the great house and great kiva, including mapping, surface pottery analysis, and drone-based imaging. This paper presents the results of those analyses and investigations, including an expansion and reconfiguration of site maps, a refinement of the chronology of site and landscape components, aerial imaging of the sites and surrounding landscape, and 3D models of standing architecture.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project: A Multivocal Analysis of the San Juan Basin as a Cultural Landscape   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24198