Posted on 06/06/2006 1:57:14 PM PDT by 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."
".....Quit it, I'm envious...."
We also visited Aztec Ruins National Monument, and the Anthropology Musuem at the University of New Mexico :<D
Well!
I've been talking (ahem) about going to either Skra Brae or Tiwanaku. (still talking...)
....And, they ate people.....
I thought the alleged cannibalism occured after the movement from Chaco during the period of decline?.
.....ceremonies and storage .......
The probable use of Pueblo Bonita as storage is most likely. Most spaces have no windows or doors and thus no lighting except from a hole in the roof.In other works he hypothesizes that storing food allowed political control. There are also very large kivas as seperate structures for the ceremonies.
.......Don't know if I'll make Chaco this trip unfortunately. ......
For the record..... Chaco is most important. Everywhere else is derivative.
Also, have you read any Tony Hillerman books? If not, look into them. He writes wonderful stuff and he has written so many books there is bound to be one describing the palces in Arizona or New Mexico or utah or colarado you are going.
I was in Arizona in March but would head to chaco tonite if able.
"I will never forget entering the ruin over a road thru a reservation. We had a rented DeVille and traversed 23 miles of the worst road I can remember -- it took more than an hour to navigate but was worth it. We got there an noticed we were the only vehicle other than an SUV or 4WD. Course, we all know a rent car can go about anywhere. No damage done but was very slow going over a dirt road with rock outcroppings every 100 feet."
Been there, done that. That road was a nightmare.
That has to be the same road. It was not maintained, no gravel, impassable when muddy, and rock outcroppings every where. I had to move all over the road to avoid hitting the oil pan on that caddy.
Yes, they were a fascinating people. Have you read Louis L'Amour and Tony Hillerman, both of which know much about the anasazi. They were geniuses at capturing water--absent that they would have perished look before their time.
I think all the roads leading in are of a similar nature. It is, of course, done deliberately to directly discourage only those not truly interested in seeing this wonderful place (meaning keeping out the old roadhogs driving battlecruisers through our national parks). For those who do brave the journey, it is, as you know, well worth it. ;-)
Satellite imaging helps uncover many of these road systems that can't readily be seen otherwise.
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Speaking of corn...the first time I visited Mesa Verde (many moons ago), we were told that viable corn seed had been found in the ruins. At that time, there was a patch of corn growing that had resulted from the original find of seeds.
Thanks!
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Wow ... way cool ... thanks for the ping ... )
Climate change. The fact that their settlement changed dramatically around 1300 fits with events in Europe.
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