Follow the Pictorial Path: Assessing Rock Imagery and Human Movement at Chaco Canyon

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Interdisciplinary Approaches to Rock Art Documentation, Research, and Analysis" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

A core principle of professional archaeology is the preservation and consideration of context. For studies of rock imagery, this necessitates documenting the context of panels in relationship to the larger cultural landscape. Using landscape theory, I assess the placement of petroglyphs and pictographs at Chaco Canyon, NM, in relation to known and suspected corridors of pilgrimage movement. A central theme built into Chaco is sacralized human movement, with systems of public architecture, roadways, and shrines designed to profoundly shape people’s experience of moving through the canyon. Chaco is popularly interpreted as a regional ceremonial center and pilgrimage destination, in keeping with sacralized movement being an integral aspect of the rituals and ontologies of historic and contemporary Puebloan communities. I asses this model of Chacoan social organization through identifying the spatial relationship of rock imagery to access points and formal routes through Chaco. Rock imagery is ethnographically documented as an integral feature of pilgrimage journeys and cosmographically defining ceremonial spaces in the American Southwest, but the relationship of Chaco’s landscape iconography to formalized movement and ceremonial performance remains largely unassessed. My dissertation research demonstrates the integral role rock imagery played in ritual performance on the topographic stage of Chaco Canyon.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Interdisciplinary Approaches to Rock Art Documentation, Research, and Analysis   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38574.0