New Mexico's Chaco Canyon: A Place Of Kings And Palaces?

Ascribe Newswire ^ | 6-5-2006

[blam]

Mon Jun 5 09:31:01 2006 Pacific Time

New Mexico's Chaco Canyon: A Place of Kings and Palaces?

BOULDER, Colo., June 5 (AScribe Newswire) -- Kings living in palaces may have ruled New Mexico's Chaco Canyon a thousand years ago, causing Pueblo people to reject the brawny, top-down politics in the centuries that followed, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder archaeologist.

University of Colorado Museum anthropology Curator Steve Lekson, who has studied Chaco Canyon for several decades, said one argument for royalty comes from the rich, crypt-style burials of two men discovered deep in a Chaco Canyon "great house" known as Pueblo Bonito several decades ago. They were interred about A.D. 1050 with a wealth of burial goods in Pueblo Bonito, a 600-room, four-story structure that was considered to be the center of the Chaco world, he said.

Archaeologists have long been in awe of the manpower required to build Chaco's elaborate structures and road systems, which required laborious masonry work, extended excavation and the transport of staggering amounts of lumber from forests 50 miles distant, he said. The scale of the architecture and backbreaking work undertaken for several centuries suggests a powerful centralized authority, said Lekson, curator of anthropology at the University of Colorado Museum.

"I don't think Chaco was a big happy barn-raising," said Lekson, chief editor of "The Archaeology of Chaco Canyon: An Eleventh Century Pueblo Regional Center," published in April 2006 by the School of American Research Press in Santa Fe, N.M. "Things were probably quite a bit grimmer than some have imagined."

"Kingship" developed in Mesoamerica about 2,000 years before Chaco, Lekson said, and kings quickly became a constant on the political landscape. "It's not remarkable that there were small-scale kings and states at Chaco in A.D. 1100," he said. "What is remarkable is that it took the Southwest so long to get around to it."

Located in northern New Mexico, Chaco Canyon was the hub of the Pueblo culture from about A.D. 850 to 1150 and is believed to have held political sway over an area twice the size of present-day Ohio. A center of ceremony and trade, the canyon is marked by 11 great houses oriented in solar, lunar and cardinal directions with roads that appear to have connected Chaco to outlying Pueblo communities.

Researchers have long pondered how Chaco rulers wielded control over outlying Pueblo communities in present day Utah, Arizona and Colorado, he said. Such "outliers," located up to 150 miles away, would have required that visitors from Chaco walk up to eight days straight in order to reach them, said Lekson, who is also a CU-Boulder anthropology professor.

The answer may lie in the clarity of the Southwestern skies, the open landscape and the broad vistas that created an efficient "line-of-site" system, he said. "Chaco people could see Farview House at Mesa Verde, for example, and Farview could see Chaco," he said. "I think similar linkages will be found between Chaco and the most distant outliers in all directions in the coming years."'

The roads, some as wide as four-lane highways, may have been used for ceremonial pilgrimages by priests and their followers, Lekson said. "They also could have been used by troops, tax collectors and inquisitors," he said.

Funded by the National Park Service and CU-Boulder, the new book is a collaboration of more than 30 years of fieldwork by hundreds of researchers and students, many of whom participated in a massive NPS Chaco excavation from 1971 to 1982. Scores of academics met around the Southwest during the past several years, discussing the most recent research and latest theories regarding Chaco for the book.

The Archaeology of Chaco Canyon explores the natural environment and architecture, as well as Chaco's economy, politics, history and regional influences. The authors also look at outside cultural influences from all directions, including ties to Mesoamerica, said Lekson. Twenty authors contributed to the book, including Lekson, CU Museum Director Linda Cordell, CU-Boulder anthropology doctoral student Derek Hamilton and Richard Wilshusen, who received his doctorate from CU-Boulder.

Lekson estimates that 95 percent of the Chaco people lived in small pueblos, while an elite 5 percent lived in the great houses. Pueblo Bonito and the other Chaco great houses were "tall, empty monuments" that could have been used for a variety of activities, from ceremonies and storage to inns and even slave cells, he said.

The culture's architecture and settlement patterns changed dramatically in the region about 1300, when sites begin to look more like modern Pueblos.

"Chaco has been characterized in oral histories as a wonderful, awful place where people got power over other people," Lekson said. "Later Pueblo cultures in the region did not develop from Chaco, but rather represent a reaction against it, with people distancing themselves from a bad experience."

[La Enchiladita]

Hovenweep! You found my secret place! I loved it, the one night we camped there and a small wren was looking at me when I opened my eye and looked out from my sleeping bag.

Hardly anyone knows of this place, even though they know the area.

[La Enchiladita]

So glad I found this thread. I LOVE Chaco more than anyone here, I swear it!

Pueblo Bonito! You can walk all through the dwellings and must stoop to walk through the doorways. Were the Anasazi little people or just had the habit of stooping? (Stoopid question, I know.)

I travelled there with a group. Oh yes, the road in is memorable. I recall we encountered a Navajo woman whose land we passed through. We had to stop and talk with her. We were also chasing storms. Anyway, we arrived and then found the campground and chose our places to sleep at night. It was near the full moon, so didn't sleep much, just listened to coyotes. In the morning, I went with one of the guys from our group and a park ranger to walk the canyon and look at petroglyphs.

I enjoyed that so much that when I got home to California, I wrote a letter to the regional supervisor complimenting our ranger on his knowledge and presentation.

After walking around Pueblo Bonito in the afternoon, we all hiked up a gradual slope to a mesa east of Pueblo Bonito, and sat there to watch the sunset. In the meantime, we gazed in the four directions toward other sites that were interconnected to Chaco by roads and visible to one another from a distance. Someone here mentioned that already.

I hesitate to say what I experienced walking down from the mesa, but it was one of the most special moments of my life. Cosmic, I guess, and I wanted to stay that way. It was great.

Also visited the kiva and sat in it for awhile while one of our guys recited some Shakespeare. Normally, I would say Shut up, but it was cool, kind of funny. I loved that kiva and I love the legends of kivas. I remember there was a park attendant who came around to service the bathrooms at the campground and I heard him sort of humming/singing to himself while he worked. So, one day I chanced to speak with him and asked about the singing. He was very nice and said they were Navajo songs.

We were on geography/biology/botany field studies from Santa Monica College. We also camped at Canyon de Chelly, Hovenweep, Mesa Verde, Monument Valley and a couple of other places while travelling the Colorado Plateau. Experienced some great storms as well.

[fieldmarshaldj]

When we went out there in '93, it was right about the time of the Hantavirus scare in the Four Corners. People were cancelling their reservations en masse at the parks and towns, and we were able to sweep up some primo accommodations, especially at Mesa Verde ! ;-)

[La Enchiladita]

ping

[La Enchiladita]

I remember all that hantavirus stuff! We were there in '89. It has been WAY too long since ... I would love to go back.

Oh, how nice you had the Four Corners to yourselves! There were deer all over the place at Mesa Verde!

Not to mention the omnipresent turkey vulture!

[fieldmarshaldj]

You were luck you got to enjoy the camping aspect of things. I'm a bit too "soft" to do that, so always stayed at motels or lodges. Given, too, that that was the first year of the Clintoon escapades, and I was following his moves like a hawk every day, I was horrified to arrive at the lodge in Mesa Verde to discover there was no tv ! :-P

The real difficulty I had at MV was climbing up and down the ladders, not for any other reason than because of my unusually large feet. The Anasazi sure had dainty little feet !

[conservativeharleyguy]

The doors in my 300 year old adobe house are pretty small as well.

From what I understand, a couple of likely reasons the early Puebloeans ( I tend not to use the term "Anasazi") throughout the region (not just at Chaco) made theirs small was two-fold.

One, their were pretty small people to begin with.

Two, was tactical. Only one adversary can fit through the door at a time, and when you're fighting indoors with clubs, thrusted spears, and knives, it's easier to fend them off.

The early Spanish who came later adopted a lot of the Pueblo-style architecture out of necessity, and convenience.

[Renfield]

Instead of reciting Shakespeare, all of you should have chanted "Koyaanisqatsi......Koyaanisqatsi......Koyaanisqatsi.....Koyaanisqatsi......"

[Renfield]

By any chance, did you tour Balcony House? My shoulders are too broad to exit through the tunnel in any normal fashion. I had to go out on my side...almost didn't make it.

[tangerine]

You should scan those negatives, either yourself or have it done, and put the images on a CD. It's very easy to reverse them to positives digitally.

[Neoliberalnot]

So are you suggesting global warming? I would guess an extended drought may have been involved.

I thought real climate change was restricted to Al Gore's campaign. Sarc

[Dinah Lord]

What a wonderful trip that must have been!

I too, had this weird cosmic experience the single time I visited. So much so that I'm currently working with an architect out of Santa Fe designing a contemporary home that incorporates Chacoan elements of architecture.

Forget hantavirus, I've got Chaco Fever!

It has been a really interesting project.
(All doorways will be regular sized. Ha-ha)

[La Enchiladita]

I am just so excited to meet other FReepers who know and love Chaco, i.e., have got the "Chaco Fever." I rarely, if ever, meet anyone who knows what the heck it is.

This has been nice. I hope to return there someday.

[conservativeharleyguy]

A couple of years ago, I watched a PBS special on Chaco that was about the precision of the celestial alignments of the sites to each other and surrounding features ("Mystery of Chaco Canyon").

There is another film in the same series called "The Sun Dagger".

Lots of great animations and computer modeling/simulations.

I wished my father was alive to see them. He would have been very pleased.

When the "Sun Dagger" was first "discovered", he was astounded.

He said they had seen it hundreds of times, and no-one at that time made the leap of assumption that it was anything of it's greater significance.

They thought it was just another odd petroglyph.

[La Enchiladita]

Moon Dagger

[fieldmarshaldj]

"By any chance, did you tour Balcony House? My shoulders are too broad to exit through the tunnel in any normal fashion. I had to go out on my side...almost didn't make it."

I had to go back to my notes from the trip to find out. No, Balcony House was not one I got to see. When we got to that stop in the park, I wrote there were unusually long lines (and a warning about the 30-foot tall ladder, which would be too problematic for me to climb because of my large feet and even larger shoes). It being the middle of the day in July, the heat was above 90, and standing on a long line was not something I preferred to do. Fortunately, I got to see most everything else.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Sun Dagger (Chaco) pics

[Pelham]

It was the beginning of "the Little Ice Age". It was marked by crop failure, famine, and violent storms. There likely was another such event in the 300s that prompted great migrations and helped disrupt the Roman empire in the west.

[La Enchiladita]

That is a WONDERFUL spiral on the rock wall, and when the "Sun Dagger" hits the center of the spiral... well! What can I say?!

I have got to get back to Chaco, muy pronto.

[bert]

......It was near the full moon, so didn't sleep much, just listened to coyotes.......

Sleeping in the Chaco campground is one of my life's greatest nights. The aura is positively awsome.

My wife and I spent nearly two days there taking in only a smattering of the place. We were there on a night when astronomers had gathered and brought a lot of big telescopes. We were treated to a buffet of astronomical views coupled with an indepth presentation about the Chaco astronomers.

My take on the short dooors is short people. I see many very short Mexican Indians hereabouts and am convinced the Chaco dwellers were small statured.

My wife retires in October and I suspect we will return next year.

By the way...... have you read Tony Hillerman....A Thief of Time? Great mystery novel featuring Chaco.