[blam]

GGG Ping.

...And, they ate people. (Christy Turner)

[Steely Tom]

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.

No way. Can't be true. I know for a fact there was no slavery until Ronald Reagan invented it.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

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[TXBubba]

Interesting. Any pictures? It has been a long time since I visited the area as a child.

[Neoliberalnot]

This is a fascinating place. We spent the day there back in June 98 walking over/through the ruins. For the life of me, I can't figure out why the site was selected to inhabit. You have to wonder how much food could be raised/hunted in this barren area.

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.

[conservativeharleyguy]

I love it.

My father was a UNM Anthropology student in the 1930's. He was the expedition Photographer and Civil Engineer for several "digs" at Chaco, Sandia Cave, and many other sites in the 1930's with Frank Hibben and his UNM crew. My mother went on several digs as a Botanist.

I still have a can full of the negatives of what are probably the first color photographs ever taken of Chaco Canyon sitting on my dresser at home. Maybe someday, I'll get prints made.

I also have negatives of pictures of Hibben (with his pipe) and some others sitting in the entrance to Sandia Cave that are artistic in quality. I suppose I should donate them all to UNM.

I wish my father was still alive to talk about all of the different Chacoan Culture theories that have cropped up in the last couple of decades.

Funny thing though. After he left that world, and after the War, he become a Civil Engineer, but he never returned to any of the sites where he dug as a student in the thirties.

[Renfield]

I was at Chaco 3 weeks ago, then at Mesa Verde.

I think the aforementioned acrhaelogist is probably incorrect in his assumptions. The Hopi and Zuni people are descended from the cliff dwellers, and their oral histories don't mention kings, as far as I can determine. Their lives were governed by a complex spirituality that directed every action. They had a numerous clans, and each clan was responsible for certain religious rites, that were repeated at intervals as long as 4 years. Each time a rite was repeated, a new Kiva had to be built for it.

[Dinah Lord]

Thank you for posting, blam.

I needed a hit of Chaco here in NJ today.

I LOVE Chaco. Mesa Verde, too. They are both mystical, magical places of intense beauty. Spectacular. Spiritual.

Renfield, you are a lucky dog and I salute you.

I'm heading out to that part of the country in the next few weeks. Don't know if I'll make Chaco this trip unfortunately.

God bless America.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam.

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[Serb5150]

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[La Enchiladita]

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