Bonito Phase Architectural Syntax and Social Change

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In the San Juan basin, two multi-century ancestral Pueblo architectural traditions are well documented: orientations to the south-southeast and to the cardinal directions. Beginning in 2007, new surveys at 21 Great Houses and two stand-alone Great Kivas were conducted under a series of NPS and BLM permits. These surveys confirmed the two aforementioned traditions and identified two additional architectural traditions at Chaco. One group of Great Houses is oriented to the east-southeast, and many Great Houses are built at locations where solstice sunrise or sunset can be observed to interact with local horizon foresights. One or more of these four traditions are confirmed for every assessed structure save three. Temporal analysis of the four traditions provides an additional line of evidence for multi-cultural collaboration at Chaco during the Early and Classic Bonito Phases. In addition, the analysis highlights cosmological associations among Late Bonito Phase Great Houses at Chaco that clarify their likely purpose. Using multiple lines of evidence to provide context, we suggest that Late Bonito Phase Great Houses (esp. “McElmo Units”) were designed as spaces for performative ritual activity conducted by regional antecedent sodalities that had detached from elite lineages during the period after 1100 CE.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 31968