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Catherine M. Cameron
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Catherine M. Cameron is an active scholar and professor at the University of Colorado inBoulder. Her research focuses on the American Southwest, especially in the Chacoan and post-Chacoan area. Cameron’s work has covered topics from prehistoric population movement, theevolution of complex societies as understood through the study of regional social and politicalsystems, methodology of social boundaries in the past and prehistoric architecture. More currentresearch includes pre-state societies’ captives and how they influence cultural transmission.
[1]
Contents
[hide]
1 Background 2 Education 3 Employment History 4 Selected Awards and Elected/Appointed Positions 5 Research Emphasis 6 Books and Monographs 7 Selected Journal Articles 8 Selected Book Chapters 9 External links 10 References
[edit] Background
Cameron was born in Santa Rosa, California, and was raised in the San Francisco Bay area (PaloAlto, Oakland, and Concord). Cameron developed a strong interest in archaeology at an earlyage. In an interview conducted by F. Joan Mathien and Joyce M. Raab for the Chaco Canyon
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Field School Project, Cameron stated that ―[she] had always been interested in history as a kid.
[Her] dad was very interested in history.‖ This early interest made anthropology very appealingwhen she was choosing her career path.
[2] In 1979, she married Stephen H. Lekson, a fellow
southwestern archaeologist. Dr. Lekson also works in the Anthropology department in theUniversity of Colorado Museum of Natural History. Throughout her career Dr. Cameron has
written dozens of published works, and she has presented more than 50 papers at professionalmeetings.
[edit] Education
Cameron received her Bachelors degree in Anthropology at the University of California,Berkeley in 1970. She went on to attain her Masters in Anthropology from the University of New Mexico in 1973. Cameron returned for her Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of Arizona in 1991.
[edit] Employment HistoryAfter receiving her Masters degree, Cameron worked several jobs as an archaeologist and lithicanalyst on the San Juan Valley Archaeological Project (1974-1975), at the National Park Service’s Chaco Center (1975-1982), on the Black Mesa Archaeological Project (1982-1985),and at the Coronado National Forest (1987-1990). While working on her Ph.D., Cameronworked in the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona (1988-1990). Uponcompletion of her Ph.D. in 1991, Cameron began working for the School of American Researchin Santa Fe as an archaeological consultant (1991-1992). From 1992 – 1995, Cameron workedfor the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation which is a Federal agency that promotes thepreservation of historic and archaeological properties. In 1996, Cameron became an Assistant
Professor for the Department of Anthropology and Associate Curator in the AnthropologySection at the University Museum, University of Colorado, Boulder. In 2001 she was promotedto Associate Professor and remains in that position to date (May, 2009).[3] Dr. Cameron expects apromotion to Full Professor by this summer (2009).
[edit] Selected Awards and Elected/Appointed Positions
Dr. Cameron received Colorado University’s Outstanding Graduate Advising Award for 2001-2.She was the Program Chair, for the Society for American Archaeology’s 2002 Annual Meeting.
Cameron has been appointed to many other positions not listed here.
[edit] Research Emphasis
Cameron has emphasized the evolution of complex societies, paleodemography, and resourceprocurement and lithic studies. She has studied these subjects through the sites at Chaco CanyonNational Park
[4] in New Mexico, an early center for the Four Corners region of New Mexico,
Arizona, Utah, and Colorado which dates to about AD 850 to AD 1250. The Bluff Great House in Utah which was a part of the Chacoan Regional System was another major research area for
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Cameron. At Bluff Great House Cameron co-directed the site with Dr. Stephen H. Lekson. Thesite was of particular interest because of its seeming reconstruction during the Post-Chacoan Era,beginning around AD 1150, when many sites were being abandoned in the area.
[5] The Comb
Wash community, Utah is an important area located about 25 km northwest of Bluff Great Houseand contains a site that is believed to be another place which was occupied during and after
Chaco-era. Cameron has focused on the analysis of architecture and its uses, worldwide studieson migration and captive women, and lithic analysis. Cameron emphasizes work with volunteers,presenting her research to the public, and consulting with Native American groups.
[edit] Books and Monographs
Cameron, Catherine M.
2009 Chaco and After in the Northern San Juan: Excavations at the Bluff Great House.University of Arizona Press.
Catherine M. Cameron, editor.
2008 Invisible Citizens: Captives and their Consequences. University of Utah Press.
Cameron, Catherine M.
1999 Hopi Dwellings: Architecture at Orayvi. University of Arizona Press.
Cameron, Catherine M. and Steve A. Tomka, editors.
1993 The Abandonment of Settlements and Regions: Ethnoarchaeological and Archaeological
Approaches. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Winifred Creamer with contributions by Catherine M. Cameron and John Beal
1993 The Architecture of Arroyo Hondo Pueblo, New Mexico. School of American ResearchPress, Santa Fe. Note: Cameron wrote portions of and extensively revised the manuscript
[edit] Selected Journal Articles
Cameron is responsible for writing more than a dozen peer-review articles, some of
which are listed below.
Cameron, Catherine M. and Andrew Duff.
2008 History and Process in Village Formation: Context and Contrasts from the NorthernSouthwest. American Antiquity 73(1).
Cameron, Catherine M. and Phil Geib.
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2007 Earthen Architecture at a Chacoan Great House. Journal of Field Archaeology 32:1-14.
Cameron, Catherine M.
2005 Exploring Archaeological Cultures in the Northern Southwest: What were Chaco and Mesa
Verde? Kiva 70(3):227-254.
Cameron, Catherine M.
2002 Sacred Earthen Architecture in the Northern Southwest: The Bluff Great House Berm.American Antiquity 67(4).
Cameron, Catherine M.
2001 Pink Chert, Projectile Points, and the Chacoan Regional System. American AntiquityVolume 66(1):79-102.
Cameron, Catherine M. and H. Wolcott Toll
2001 Deciphering the Organization of Production in Chaco Canyon. American AntiquityVolume 66(1):5-13.
[edit] Selected Book Chapters
Dr. Cameron has contributed more than 15 book chapters.
Cameron, Catherine M., editor.
2008 Captives in Prehistory: Agents of Social Change. In Invisible Citizens: Captives and theirConsequences. University of Utah Press.
Cameron, Catherine M.
2008 Comparing Great House Architecture: Perspectives from the Bluff Great House. In SalmonRuins: Chacoan Outlier and Thirteenth-Century Pueblo in the Middle San Juan Region, edited byPaul Reed, pp. 251 – 272. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake.
Cameron, Catherine M.
2003 A Consideration of Abandonment from Beyond Middle America In The Archaeology of Settlement Abandonment in Middle America, edited by Takeshi Inomata and Ronald Webb, pp203 – 210. University of Utah Press.
Jalbert, Joseph Peter and Catherine M. Cameron.
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2000 Chacoan and Local Influences in Three Great House Communities in the Northern SanJuan Region. In Great House Communities across the Chacoan Landscape, edited by JohnKantner and Nancy Mahoney, pp. 79 – 90. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
[edit] External links
Faculty Biography, University of Colorado, Boulder.
http://www.colorado.edu/Anthropology/people/bios/cameron.html
Chaco Digital Initiative http://www.chacoarchive.org/
Chaco Canyon National Park
http://www.nps.gov/chcu/
Coronado National Forest http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/coronado/
Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research http://www.ltrr.arizona.edu/
Society for American Archaeology. http://www.saa.org/
University of Colorado Museum. http://cumuseum.colorado.edu/
[edit] References
1. ^ University of Colorado at Boulder, Department of Anthropology. Faculty Bios;Catherine Cameron. http://www.colorado.edu/Anthropology/people/bios/cameron.html
2. ^ Chaco Digital Initiative. http://www.chacoarchive.org/ 3. ^ Catherine Cameron CV.
http://www.colorado.edu/Anthropology/people/bios/uploads/Cameron/CameronCV2008.pdf
4.
^ Chaco Canyon National Park. http://www.nps.gov/chcu/home.htm 5. ^ On the Periphery of the Chaco World; The Bluff Great House. By Christine Ward.http://130.91.80.97:591/PDFs/45-3/Chaco%20World.pdf
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Chaco Culture National Historical Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Chaco Canyon) Jump to: navigation, search
Chaco Culture National Historical
Park
IUCN Category V (Protected
Landscape/Seascape)
The Great Kiva of Chetro Ketl
LocationSan Juan County and McKinley
County, New Mexico, USA
Nearest city Farmington, New Mexico
Coordinates
36°3′30″N 107°57′32″W /
36.05833°N
107.95889°WCoordinates:
36°3′30″N 107°57′32″W /
36.05833°N 107.95889°W
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Area33,974.29 acres (137.4891 km2)
(137.49 km²)
Established March 11, 1907
Visitors (in 2005) 45,539
Governingbody
National Park Service
World
Heritage Site1987
Chaco Culture*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
State Party United States
Type Cultural
Criteria iii
Reference 353
Region**North America
Inscription history
Inscription 1987 (11th Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List.
** Region as classified by UNESCO.
Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park hosting thedensest and most exceptional concentration of pueblos in the American Southwest. The park islocated in northwestern New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Farmington, in a remote canyoncut by the Chaco Wash. Containing the most sweeping collection of ancient ruins north of Mexico, the park preserves one of the United States' most fascinating cultural and historicareas.
[1]
Between AD 900 and 1150, Chaco Canyon was a major center of culture for the Ancient PuebloPeoples.
α[›] Chacoans quarried sandstone blocks and hauled timber from great distances,
assembling fifteen major complexes which remained the largest buildings in North America untilthe 19th century.[1][2] Evidence of archaeoastronomy at Chaco has been proposed, with the "SunDagger" petroglyph at Fajada Butte a popular example. Many Chacoan buildings may have beenaligned to capture the solar and lunar cycles,
[3] requiring generations of astronomical
observations and centuries of skillfully coordinated construction.[4] Climate change is thought tohave led to the emigration of Chacoans and the eventual abandonment of the canyon, beginningwith a 50-year drought in 1130.
[5]
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Composing a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the arid and inhospitable Four Corners region, the Chacoan cultural sites are fragile; fears of erosion caused by tourists have led to theclosure of Fajada Butte to the public. The sites are considered sacred ancestral homelands by theHopi and Pueblo people, who maintain oral accounts of their historical migration from Chacoand their spiritual relationship to the land.[6][7] Though park preservation efforts can conflict with
native religious beliefs, tribal representatives work closely with the National Park Service toshare their knowledge and respect the heritage of the Chacoan culture.[6]
Contents
[hide]
1 Geography 2 Geology 3 Climate 4 Flora and fauna 5 History
o 5.1 Ancestral Puebloans o 5.2 Athabaskan succession o 5.3 Excavation and protection
6 Management 7 Sites
o 7.1 Central canyon o 7.2 Outliers
8 Ruins o 8.1 Great Houses o 8.2 Usage
9 See also 10 Notes 11 Citations 12 References 13 Further reading 14 External links
[edit] Geography
Chaco Canyon lies within the San Juan Basin, atop the vast Colorado Plateau, surrounded by theChuska Mountains in the west, the San Juan Mountains to the north, and the San PedroMountains in the east. Ancient Chacoans drew upon dense forests of oak , piñon, ponderosa pine, and juniper to obtain timber and other resources. The canyon itself, located within lowlandscircumscribed by dune fields, ridges, and mountains, runs in a roughly northwest-to-southeastdirection and is rimmed by flat massifs known as mesas. Large gaps between the southwesterncliff faces — side canyons known as rincons — were critical in funneling rain-bearing storms intothe canyon and boosting local precipitation levels.[8] The principal Chacoan complexes, such as
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Pueblo Bonito, Nuevo Alto, and Kin Kletso, have elevations of 6,200 to 6,440 feet (1,890 to1,963 m).
Summer thunderstorms over Fajada Butte and the Fajada Gap, near the southwestern rim of Chaco Canyon
The alluvial canyon floor slopes downward to the northeast at a gentle grade of 30 feet (9.1 m)per mile (6 meters per kilometer); it is bisected by the Chaco Wash, an arroyo that only
infrequently carries water. Of the canyon's aquifers, the largest are located at a depth thatprecluded the ancient Chacoans from tapping their groundwater: only several smaller, shallowersources supported the small springs that sustained them.[9] Significant surface water is virtuallynon-existent except in the guise of occasional storm runoff coursing through arroyos.
[edit] Geology
After the Pangaean supercontinent split apart during the Cretaceous period, the region becamepart of a shifting transition zone between a shallow inland sea — the Western Interior Seaway — and a band of plains and low hills to the west. A sandy and swampy coastline repeatedly shiftedeast and west, alternately submerging and uncovering the canyon's portion of what is now theColorado Plateau.[10]
As the Chaco Wash flowed across the upper strata of what is now the 400-foot (122 m) ChacraMesa, it cut into it, gouging out the broad canyon over the course of millions of years. The mesaitself comprises sandstone and shale formations dating from the Late Cretaceous,[11] which are of the Mesa Verde formation.[10] The canyon's bottomlands were later further eroded, exposingMenefee Shale bedrock ; this was subsequently buried under approximately 125 feet (38 m) of deposited sediment. The canyon and mesa lie within the "Chaco Core", distinct from the widerChaco Plateau; it is a relatively flat region of grassland with infrequent and interspersed stands of trees. Especially because the Continental Divide is only 15.5 miles (25 km) east of the canyon,geological characteristics and different patterns of drainage differentiate these two regions bothfrom each other and from the nearby Chaco Slope, the Gobernador Slope, and the ChuskaValley.[12]
[edit] Climate
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Fajada Butte: Three or four snowstorms strike the canyon in a typical winter
An arid region of high xeric scrubland and desert steppe, the canyon and wider basin average8 inches (20 cm) of rainfall annually; the park averages 9.1 inches (231.1 mm). Chaco Canyonlies on the leeward side of extensive mountain ranges to the south and west, resulting in arainshadow effect that leads to the prevailing lack of moisture in the region.[13] Four distinctseasons define the region, with rainfall most likely between July and September; May and Juneare the driest months. Orographic precipitation, resulting from moisture wrung out of storm
systems ascending mountain ranges around Chaco Canyon, is responsible for most precipitationin both summer and winter; rainfall increases with higher elevation.
[11] Occasional abnormal
northward excursions of the intertropical convergence zone may bring unusually high amounts of precipitation in some years.
The Chaco Canyon area is also characterized by remarkable climatic extremes: recordedtemperatures range between −38 °F (−39 °C) to 102 °F (39 °C),[14] and temperature swings of upto 60 °F (16 °C) in a single day are not unknown.
[6] The region averages less than 150 days
without frost per year, and the local climate can swing wildly from years of plentiful rainfall tolong droughts.[15] The heavy influence of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation phenomenon on thecanyon's weather contributes to the extreme climatic variability.[14]
[edit] Flora and fauna
Chaco Canyon's flora is typical of that found in the high deserts of North America: sagebrush and several species of cactus are interspersed with dry scrub forests of piñon and juniper, thelatter primarily on mesa tops. The canyon receives less precipitation than many other parts of New Mexico located at similar latitudes and elevations; consequently, it does not have thetemperate coniferous forests that are plentiful in areas to the east. The prevailing sparseness of both plants and wildlife was echoed in ancient times, when overpopulation, expandingcultivation, overhunting, habitat destruction, and drought may have led the Chacoans to strip thecanyon of wild plants and game.
[16] As such, even during wet periods, the canyon was only able
to sustain around 2,000 people.[17]
The canyon's most notable mammalian species include the ubiquitous coyote (Canis latrans);mule deer, elk , and antelope also live within the canyon, though they are rarely encountered byvisitors. Important smaller carnivores include the bobcats, badgers, foxes, and two species of skunk . The park hosts abundant populations of rodents, including several prairie dog towns andsmall colonies of bats, which are present during the summer. The local shortage of water meansthat relatively few bird species are present; these include roadrunners, large hawks (such as
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Cooper's Hawks and American Kestrels), owls, vultures, and ravens, though they are lessabundant in the canyon than in the wetter mountain ranges to the east. Sizeable populations of smaller birds, including warblers, sparrows, and house finches, are also common. Three speciesof hummingbirds are present, including the tiny, but highly pugnacious, Rufous Hummingbird; they compete intensely with the more mild-tempered Black-chinned Hummingbirds for breeding
habitat in shrubs or trees located near water. Western (prairie) rattlesnakes are occasionally seenin the backcountry, though various lizards and skinks are far more abundant.
[edit] History
See also: Timeline of Chacoan history
[edit] Ancestral Puebloans
Chaco was one of many Anasazi sites (beige) spread across the Four Corners, the ColoradoPlateau, and beyond
Archaeologists identify the first people in the broader San Juan Basin as hunter-gatherers designated as the Archaic; they in turn descended from nomadic Clovis hunters who arrived inthe Southwest around 10,000 BC.
[18] By approximately 900 BC, these people lived at sites such
as Atlatl Cave.[19] The Archaic people left very little evidence of their presence in Chaco Canyonitself. However, by approximately AD 490, their descendants, designated as Basketmakers, werecontinuously farming within the canyon, living in Shabik'eshchee Village and other pithouse settlements.
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A small population of Basketmakers remained in the Chaco Canyon area and developed throughseveral cultural stages until around 800, when they were building crescent-shaped stonecomplexes, each comprising four to five residential suites abutting subterranean kivas,
[20] large
enclosed areas set aside for religious observances and ceremonies. These structures have beenidentified as characteristic of the Early Pueblo People. By 850, the Ancient Pueblo population —
also known as the "Anasazi", from a Ute term adopted by the Navajo whose meaning has beenvariously translated as "ancient ones" or as "enemy ancestors" — had rapidly expanded, withmembers residing in larger, denser pueblos. There is strong evidence of a canyon-wide turquoise processing and trading industry dating from the 10th century. At this time, the first section of themassive Pueblo Bonito complex was built, beginning with a curved row of 50 rooms near itspresent north wall.[21][22]
Pueblo Bonito, largest of the Great Houses, abuts the foot of Chaco Canyon's northern rim
The cohesive system that characterized Chacoan society began disintegrating around 1140,perhaps due to an extreme 50-year drought that began in 1130;
[23] chronic climatic instability,
including a series of severe droughts, again struck the region between 1250 and 1450.[24]
Otherfactors included water management patterns (leading to arroyo cutting) anddeforestation.[25][26][27] For instance, timber for construction was imported from outlying
mountain ranges, such as the Chuska Mountains over 50 miles (80 km) to the west.[28]
Outlyingcommunities began to disappear and, by the end of the century, the buildings in the centralcanyon had been carefully sealed and abandoned. Archaeological and cultural evidence leadsscientists to believe people from this region migrated south, east, and west into the valleys anddrainages of the Little Colorado River, the Rio Puerco, and the Rio Grande.
[29]
[edit] Athabaskan succession
Numic-speaking peoples, such as the Ute and Shoshone, were present on the Colorado Plateaubeginning in the 12th century. Nomadic Southern Athabaskan speaking peoples, such as theApache and Navajo, succeeded the Pueblo people in this region by the 15th century; in the
process, they acquired Chacoan customs and agricultural skills.[29][30]
Ute tribal groups alsofrequented the region, primarily during hunting and raiding expeditions. The modern NavajoNation lies west of Chaco Canyon, and many Navajo (more appropriately known as the Diné)live in surrounding areas. The arrival of the Spanish in the 17th century inaugurated an era of subjugation and rebellion, with the Chaco Canyon area absorbing Puebloan and Navajo refugeesfleeing Spanish rule. In succession, as first Mexico, then the U.S., gained sovereignty over thecanyon, military campaigns were launched against the region's remaining inhabitants.
[31]
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[edit] Excavation and protection
Prehistoric roads and Great Houses in the San Juan Basin
The trader Josiah Gregg was the first to write about the ruins of Chaco Canyon, referring in 1832to Pueblo Bonito as "built of fine-grit sandstone". In 1849, a U.S. Army detachment passedthrough and surveyed the ruins.[32] The canyon was so remote, however, that it was scarcelyvisited over the next 50 years. After brief reconnaissance work by Smithsonian scholars in the1870s, formal archaeological work began in 1896 when a party from the American Museum of Natural History — the Hyde Exploring Expedition — began excavating Pueblo Bonito. Spendingfive summers in the region, they sent over 60,000 artifacts back to New York and operated aseries of trading posts.[33]
In 1901 Richard Wetherill, who had worked for the Hyde expedition, claimed a homestead of 161 acres (0.65 km
2) that included Pueblo Bonito, Pueblo del Arroyo, and Chetro Ketl.
[34][35]
While investigating Wetherill's land claim, federal land agent Samuel J. Holsinger detailed thephysical setting of the canyon and the sites, noted prehistoric road segments and stairways aboveChetro Ketl, and documented prehistoric dams and irrigation systems.
[36][37] His report, which
went unpublished, urged the creation of a national park to safeguard Chacoan sites. The nextyear, Edgar Lee Hewett, president of New Mexico Normal University (later renamed NewMexico Highlands University), mapped many Chacoan sites. Hewett and others helped to enactthe Federal Antiquities Act of 1906, the first U.S. law to protect antiquities; it was, in effect, adirect consequence of controversy surrounding Wetherill's activities in the Chaco Canyonarea.[38] The Act also authorized the President to establish national monuments: on March 11,1907, Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Chaco Canyon National Monument. Wetherillrelinquished his claims.
[6]
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Hungo Pavi, near the center of Chaco Canyon. A staircase leads out of the complex.
In 1949, Chaco Canyon National Monument was expanded with lands deeded from theUniversity of New Mexico. In return, the university maintained scientific research rights to thearea. By 1959, the National Park Service had constructed a park visitor center, staff housing, andcampgrounds. As a historic property of the National Park Service, the National Monument waslisted on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. In 1971, researchersRobert Lister and James Judge established the Chaco Center, a division for cultural research that
functioned as a joint project between the University of New Mexico and the National Park Service. A number of multi-disciplinary research projects, archaeological surveys, and limitedexcavations began during this time. The Chaco Center extensively surveyed the Chacoan roads,well-constructed paths radiating from the central canyon.[39] The results from such researchconducted at Pueblo Alto and other sites dramatically altered accepted academic interpretationsof both the Chacoan culture and the Four Corners region of the American Southwest.
The richness of the cultural remains at park sites led to the expansion of the small NationalMonument into the Chaco Culture National Historical Park on December 19, 1980, when anadditional 13,000 acres (53 km²) were added to the protected area. In 1987, the park wasdesignated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. To safeguard Chacoan sites on adjacent Bureau
of Land Management and Navajo Nation lands, the Park Service developed the multi-agencyChaco Culture Archaeological Protection Site program. These initiatives have detailed thepresence of more than 2,400 archeological sites within the current park's boundaries; only asmall percentage of these have been excavated.
[39][40]
[edit] Management
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Map of major Chacoan sites
Chaco Culture National Historical Park is managed by the National Park Service, a federalagency within the Department of the Interior; neighboring federal lands hosting Chacoan roads
are controlled by the Bureau of Land Management. In the 2002 – 2003 fiscal year, the park's totalannual operating budget was US$1,434,000.[41] The park has a visitor center, which features theChaco Collection Museum, an information desk, a theater, a book store, and a gift shop.
Prior to the 1980s, archeological excavations within the current park were intensive, involvingthe partial dismantling or demolition of compound walls and extraction of thousands of artifacts.Starting in 1981, a new approach informed by traditional Hopi and Pueblo beliefs led torestrictions on such intrusive excavations, preferring instead methods — including remotesensing, anthropological research into Indian oral traditions, and dendrochronology — that leavethe Chacoan sites relatively undisturbed. In this vein, the Chaco American Indian ConsultationCommittee was established in 1991 in order to allow Navajo, Hopi, Pueblo, and other Indian
representatives a voice in the park’s management.
[6]
Current park policy mandates partial restoration of excavated sites. "Backfilling", which involvesthe use of sand to re-bury excavated sites, is one such technique.[6] Other initiatives include theChaco Night Sky Program, which seeks to eliminate the impact of light pollution on the park'sacclaimed night skies; under the program, some 14,000 visitors make use of the ChacoObservatory (inaugurated in 1998), park telescopes, and astronomy-related programs.[6] However, Chacoan relics outside the current park's boundaries have been threatened bydevelopment: an example was the proposed competitive leasing of federal lands in the San JuanBasin for coal mining beginning in 1983. Since ample coal deposits immediately abut the park,the strip mining would have threatened the web of ancient Chacoan roads. The year-long Chaco
Roads Project thus documented the roads, which were later protected from the proposedmining.[42]
[edit] Sites
Chaco's smaller kivas numbered around 100, each hosting rituals for 50 – 100 worshipers; the 15much larger "Great Kivas" each held up to 400
The Chacoans built their complexes along a nine-mile (14 km) stretch of canyon floor, with thewalls of some structures aligned cardinally and others aligned with the 18.6 year cycle of
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minimum and maximum moonrise and moonset. Nine Great Houses are positioned along thenorth side of Chaco Wash, at the base of massive sandstone mesas. Other Great Houses arefound on mesa tops or in nearby washes and drainage areas. There are 14 recognized GreatHouses, which are grouped below according to geographic positioning with respect to thecanyon.
[edit] Central canyon
The central portion of the canyon contains the largest Chacoan complexes. The most studied isPueblo Bonito ("Beautiful Village"); covering almost 2 acres (8,000 m²) and comprising at least650 rooms, it is the largest Great House; in parts of the complex, the structure was four storieshigh. The builders' use of core-and-veneer architecture and multi-story construction necessitatedmassive masonry walls up to 3 feet (1 m) thick. Pueblo Bonito is divided into two sections by awall precisely aligned to run north-south, bisecting the central plaza. A Great Kiva was placed oneither side of the wall, creating a symmetrical pattern common to many Chacoan Great Houses.The complex, upon completion, was roughly the size of the Roman Colosseum.[4]
Pueblo Bonito
Nearby is Pueblo del Arroyo; founded between AD 1050 and 1075 and completed in the early12th century, it is located near Pueblo Bonito at a drainage outlet known as South Gap. CasaRinconada, hosting a Great Kiva and relatively isolated from other sites in Chaco Canyon, sits tothe south side of Chaco Wash, adjacent to a Chacoan road leading to a set of steep stairs thatreached the top of Chacra Mesa. The kiva stands alone, with no residential or support structures;it once had a 39-foot (12 m) passageway leading from the underground kiva to several above-ground levels. Chetro Ketl, located near Pueblo Bonito, bears the typical D-shape of many othercentral complexes, but is slightly smaller. Begun between AD 1020 and 1050, its 450 – 550 roomsshared just one Great Kiva. Scientists estimate that it took 29,135 person-hours of construction toerect Chetro Ketl alone; Hewett estimated that it required the wood of 5,000 trees and 50 millionstone blocks.[43]
Kin Kletso ("Yellow House") was a medium-sized complex located 0.5 miles (0.8 m) west of Pueblo Bonito; it shows strong evidence of construction and occupation by Pueblo peoples fromthe northern San Juan Basin. Its rectangular shape and design is related to the Pueblo II culturalgroup, rather than the Pueblo III style or its Chacoan variant. It contains around 55 rooms, fourground-floor kivas, and a two-story cylindrical tower that may have functioned as a kiva orreligious center. Evidence of an obsidian-processing industry was discovered near the village,which was erected between AD 1125 and 1130.[44]
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Anasazi, North America: A canteen (pot) excavated from the ruins in Chaco Canyon, NewMexico
Pueblo Alto, a Great House of 89 rooms, is located on a mesa top near the middle of ChacoCanyon, and is 0.6 miles (1 km) from Pueblo Bonito; it was begun between AD 1020 and 1050during a wider building boom throughout the canyon. Its location made the community visible to
most of the inhabitants of the San Juan Basin; indeed, it was only 2.3 miles (3.7 km) north of Tsin Kletsin, on the opposite side of the canyon. The community was the center of a bead- andturquoise-processing industry that influenced the development of all villages in the canyon; chert tool production was also common. Research conducted by archaeologist Tom Windes at the sitesuggests that only a handful of families, perhaps as few as five to twenty, actually lived in thecomplex; this may imply that Pueblo Alto served a primarily non-residential role.[45] AnotherGreat House, Nuevo Alto, was built on the north mesa near Pueblo Alto; it was founded in thelate 1100s, a time when the Chacoan population was declining in the canyon.
[edit] Outliers
In Chaco Canyon's northern reaches lies another cluster of Great Houses; among the largest areCasa Chiquita ("Small House"), a village built in the 1080s AD, when, in a period of amplerainfall, Chacoan culture was expanding. Its layout featured a smaller, squarer profile; it alsolacked the open plazas and separate kivas of its predecessors.[46] Larger, squarer blocks of stonewere used in the masonry; kivas were designed in the northern Mesa Verdean tradition. Twomiles down the canyon is Peñasco Blanco ("White Bluff"), an arc-shaped compound built atopthe canyon's southern rim in five distinct stages between AD 900 and 1125. A cliff painting (the"Supernova Platograph") nearby may record the sighting of the SN 1054 supernova on July 5,1054.
β[›][47]
Petroglyphs near Pueblo Bonito: a crescent moon, a hand, and a supernova
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Hungo Pavi, located 1 mile (2 km) from Una Vida, measured 872 feet (266 m) in circumference.Initial explorations revealed 72 ground-level rooms,[48] with structures reaching four stories inheight; one large circular kiva has been identified. Kin Nahasbas (built in either the 9th or 10thcentury) was another major ruin; it is located slightly north of Una Vida, positioned at the foot of the north mesa. Limited excavation has been conducted in this area.[49]
Tsin Kletzin ("Charcoal Place"), a compound located on the Chacra Mesa and positioned aboveCasa Rinconada, is 2.3 miles (3.7 km) due south of Pueblo Alto, on the opposite side of thecanyon. It lies near Weritos Dam, a massive earthen structure that scientists believe providedTsin Kletzin with all of its domestic water. The dam worked by retaining stormwater runoff in areservoir. However, massive amounts of silt accumulated during flash floods would have forcedthe residents to regularly rebuild the dam and dredge the catchment area.
[50]
Interior of Wijiji, an outlier site occupied between AD 1100 and 1150
Deeper into the canyon, Una Vida ("One Life") is one of the three earliest Great Houses withconstruction beginning around AD 900. Comprising at least two stories and 124 rooms,[48] itshares an arc or D-shaped design with its contemporaries, Peñasco Blanco and Pueblo Bonito,but has a unique "dog leg" addition made necessary by topography. It is located in one of the
canyon's major side drainages, near Gallo Wash, and was massively expanded after 930.[40]
Wijiji ("Greasewood"), comprising just over 100 rooms, is the smallest of the Great Houses.Built between AD 1110 and 1115,[51] it was the last Chacoan Great House to be constructed.Somewhat isolated within the narrow wash, it is positioned 1 mile (2 km) from neighboring UnaVida.
Directly north are communities that are even more remote, including Salmon Ruins and AztecRuins, which are located along the San Juan and Animas Rivers near Farmington; these werebuilt during a 30-year wet period that began in AD 1100.[5][52] Sixty miles (100 km) directlysouth of Chaco Canyon, on the Great South Road, lies another cluster of outlying communities.The largest of these is Kin Nizhoni, which stands atop a 7,000 foot (2,100 m) mesa surrounded
by marsh-like bottomlands.
[edit] Ruins
[edit] Great Houses
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Casa Rinconada, a Chacoan Great House
Immense complexes known as "Great Houses" were key centers exemplifying Chacoanarchitectural and worship styles. Although forms evolved as the centuries passed, the housesmaintained several core characteristics. Most notable is their sheer bulk; most complexes inChaco Canyon averaged more than 200 rooms each, with some reaching up to 700 rooms.[4] Thesizes of individual rooms were substantial, with high ceilings when compared to buildingserected in preceding Anasazi periods. They were also well-planned, with vast sections or wings
erected in a single stage, rather than in increments. Houses are generally oriented to face thesouth, with plaza areas almost always enclosed by edifices of sealed-off rooms or high walls.The predominantly multistory constructions often stood four to five stories tall, with single-storyrooms facing directly onto the plaza; room blocks were terraced so that the tallest sectionscomposed the pueblo's rear edifice. Rooms were often organized into suites, with front roomslarger than rear, interior, and storage rooms or areas.
Doorways, Pueblo Bonito
Ceremonial structures known as kivas were built in proportion to the number of rooms in apueblo. On average, one small kiva was built for every 29 rooms. Nine complexes also eachhosted an oversized Great Kiva, which could range up to 63 feet (19 m) in diameter. All Chacoankivas share distinctive architectural features, including T-shaped doorways and stone lintels. Though simple and compound walls were also built, Great Houses were primarily constructed of core-and-veneer walls: two parallel load-bearing walls comprising dressed, flat sandstone blocksbound in clay mortar were erected. The gap between the walls was filled with rubble, which thenformed the wall's core. Walls were then covered in a veneer of small sandstone pieces, which
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were pressed into a layer of binding mud.[53] These surfacing stones were often placed to createdistinctive patterns. Taken together, the Chacoan constructions required the wood of over200,000 coniferous trees, which were mostly hauled — on foot — from mountain ranges up to70 miles (113 km) away.
[7][54][55]
[edit] Usage
Petroglyphs, Una Vida: Observe reuse (overwriting of symbols) and various artists' styles —
compare the barking dog (left center) to the two rectangular dogs below it. The hand-print(center-left) and foot-print (inside rectangular body, center) are common in Puebloan art. (Imageenhanced for contrast; see unenhanced view.)
The meticulously designed buildings characterizing the larger Chacoan complexes did notemerge until around AD 1030. The Chacoan people combined pre-planned architectural designs,astronomical alignments, geometry, landscaping, and engineering to create an ancient urbancenter of unique public architecture. Researchers have concluded that the complex may have hada relatively small residential population, with larger groups assembling only temporarily forannual events and ceremonies.[7] Smaller sites, apparently more residential in character, arescattered near the Great Houses in and around Chaco Canyon. The canyon itself runs along oneof the lunar alignment lines, suggesting the location was originally chosen for its astronomicalsignificance. If nothing else, this facilitated alignment with several other key structures in thecanyon.[4]
Around this time, the extended Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) community also experienced apopulation and construction boom. Throughout the 10th century, Chacoan constructiontechniques gradually spread from the canyon to neighboring regions.
[56] By AD 1115, at least 70
outlying pueblos with characteristic Chacoan architecture had been built within the25,000 square miles (65,000 km²) that compose the San Juan Basin. Researchers debate thefunction of the buildings, some of which are large enough to be considered Great Houses in theirown right. Some suggest they may have been more than agricultural communities, perhapsfunctioning as trading posts or ceremonial sites.[57]
Thirty such outliers spread across 65,000 square miles (168,000 km²) are connected to the centralcanyon and to one another by a web of six enigmatic Chacoan road systems. Extending up to60 miles (97 km) in generally straight lines, they appear to have been extensively surveyed andengineered.
[58][59] They typically feature depressed and scraped caliche beds approximately
30 feet (9 m) wide; earthen berms or rocks, at times composing low walls, defined their edges.When necessary, the roads used steep stone stairways and rock ramps to traverse majorobstacles, such as cliffs.
[60] Although their overall function may never be known, archaeologist
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Harold S. Gladwin reported that, according to the beliefs of nearby Navajo, the Anasazi had usedthe roads for transporting timber; archaeologist Neil Judd offered a similar hypothesis.[2]
[edit] See also
Archaeoastronomical sites by country
[edit] Notes
^ α: The question of how to date Chacoan ruins was tackled by A. E. Douglass, theearliest practitioner of dendrochronology; consequently, the developmental chronology of Chaco Canyon's ruins is now the world's most extensively researched and accurate.[61]
^ β: The Crab Nebula, now a supernova remnant in the constellation of Taurus, was theresult of the event in question; the original supernova attained peak brilliance on the date
that the Chacoans presumably sighted it.
[47]
[edit] Citations
1. ^ a b Strutin 1994, p. 62. ^ a b Fagan 2005, p. 353. ^ Fagan 1998, pp. 177 – 1824. ^ a b c d Sofaer 1997 5. ^ a b Fagan 2005, p. 1986. ^ a b c d e f g National Park Service 2007 7. ^ a b c Sofaer 1999
8. ^ Fagan 2005, p. 59. ^ Fagan 2005, p. 4310. ^ a b Hopkins 2002, p. 24011. ^ a b Fagan 2005, p. 4712. ^ Fagan 2005, pp. 46 – 4713. ^ Fagan 2005, p. 4414. ^ a b Fagan 2005, p. 4515. ^ Frazier 2005, p. 18116. ^ Fagan 2005, p. 22217. ^ Fagan 1998, p. 17718. ^ Stuart 2000, pp. 14 – 17
19. ^ Stuart 2000, p. 4320. ^ Fagan 2005, pp. 18 – 1921. ^ Noble 1991, p. 12022. ^ Fagan 2005, p. 2023. ^ Fagan 2005, p. 12624. ^ Fagan 2005, pp. 55 – 5725. ^ Diamond 2005, pp. 136 – 15626. ^ Noble 1984, p. 11
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27. ^ Noble 1984, pp. 57 – 5828. ^ English 2001 29. ^ a b Strutin 1994, p. 5730. ^ Strutin 1994, p. 6031. ^ Strutin 1994, pp. 57 – 59
32. ^ Brugge, Hayes & Judge 1988, p. 433. ^ Strutin 1994, pp. 12 – 17
34. ^ Brugge, Hayes & Judge 1988, p. 735. ^ Fagan 2005, p. 3236. ^ Strutin 1994, pp. 18 – 1937. ^ Fagan 2005, p. 16538. ^ Fagan 2005, p. 3339. ^ a b Strutin 1994, pp. 3240. ^ a b Fagan 2005, p. 641. ^ National Park Service 2005 42. ^ Frazier 2005, pp. 120 – 121
43. ^ Strutin 1994, p. 2644. ^ Fagan 2005, p. 11
45. ^ Fagan 2005, pp. 10 – 1146. ^ Fagan 2005, p. 2147. ^ a b Kelley & Milone 2004, p. 41348. ^ a b Fagan 2005, p. 2649. ^ Fagan 2005, p. 9850. ^ Frazier 2005, p. 10151. ^ Fagan 2005, pp. 6 – 752. ^ Fagan 2005, p. 20853. ^ Fagan 2005, pp. 119 – 12154. ^ Reynolds, Betancourt & Quade 2005, p. 106255. ^ Reynolds, Betancourt & Quade 2005, p. 107356. ^ Fagan 2005, p. 20457. ^ Fagan 2005, pp. 202 – 20858. ^ Fagan 1998, p. 17859. ^ Noble 1984, pp. 52 – 5360. ^ Strutin 1994, p. 3561. ^ Fagan 2005, pp. 50 – 55
[edit] References
Brugge, D.; Hayes, A.; Judge, W. (1988), Archeological Surveys of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, University of New Mexico Press, ISBN 0-82631-029-X
Diamond, J. (2005), Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed , Viking, ISBN0-670-03337-5
English, N. B.; Betancourt, J.; Dean et al., J. S. (2001), "Strontium isotopes reveal distantsources of architectural timber in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 58: 11891-11896, doi:10.1073/pnas.211305498
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Fagan, B. (2005), Chaco Canyon: Archaeologists Explore the Lives of an Ancient Society, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-517043-1
Fagan, B. (1998), From Black Land to Fifth Sun: The Science of Sacred Sites, BasicBooks, ISBN 0-20-195991-7
Frazier, K. (2005), People of Chaco: A Canyon and Its Culture, Norton, ISBN 0-393-
30496-5 Hopkins, R. L. (2002), Hiking the Southwest's Geology: Four Corners Region,
Mountaineers, ISBN 0-89886-856-4 Kelley, D. H.; Milone, E. F. (2004), Exploring Ancient Skies: An Encyclopedic Survey of
Archaeoastronomy, Springer, ISBN 0-38795-310-8 United States World Heritage Periodic Report: Chaco Culture National Historical Park
(Section II), National Park Service, 2005, http://www.nps.gov/oia/topics/CHCU.pdf , retrieved August 21, 2009
Chaco Culture National Historical Park , National Park Service, 2007,http://www.nps.gov/chcu/ , retrieved August 21, 2009
Noble, D. (1984), New Light on Chaco Canyon, School of American Research Press,
ISBN 0-933452-10-1 Noble, D. (1991), Ancient Ruins of the Southwest: An Archaeological Guide, Northland,
ISBN 0-87358-530-5 Reynolds, A.; Betancourt, J.; Quade, J. et al. (2005), "87Sr/ 86Sr sourcing of ponderosa
pine used in Anasazi Great House construction at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico", Journalof Archaeological Science 32: 1061 – 1075,http://wwwpaztcn.wr.usgs.gov/julio_pdf/Reynolds_ea.pdf , retrieved August 21, 2009
Sofaer, A. (1997), The Primary Architecture of the Chacoan Culture: A Cosmological Expression, University of New Mexico Press,http://www.solsticeproject.org/primarch.htm, retrieved August 21, 2009
Sofaer, A. (1999), The Mystery of Chaco Canyon, South Carolina Educational Television Strutin, M. (1994), Chaco: A Cultural Legacy, Southwest Parks and Monuments
Association, ISBN 1-877856-45-2 Stuart, D. (2000), Anasazi America, University of New Mexico Press, ISBN 0-826321-
79-8
[edit] Further reading
Plog, S. (1998), Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest , Thames and London, ISBN0-500-27939-X
LeBlanc, S. A. (1999), Prehistoric Warfare in the American Southwest , Salt Lake City:University of Utah Press, ISBN 0-87480-581-3
[edit] External links
Official
"Chaco Culture National Historical Park ". National Park Service.http://www.nps.gov/chcu/index.htm.
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Academic
"Chaco Digital Initiative". University of Virginia. http://www.chacoarchive.org/ .
Imagery
Media related to Chaco Culture National Historical Park at Wikimedia Commons
Travel
Chaco Culture National Historical Park travel guide from Wikitravel "Chaco Culture National Historical Park ". A National Register of Historic Places Travel
Itinerary: American Southwest . National Park Service.http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/amsw/sw28.htm.
Other
"Ancient Observatories: Chaco Canyon". Exploratorium.http://www.exploratorium.edu/chaco/ .
"The Mystery of Chaco Canyon". Solstice Project . http://www.solsticeproject.org/ . "Chaco Canyon National Historical Park ". Traditions of the Sun. University of California.
http://www.traditionsofthesun.org/viewerChaco/ .
Ancient Pueblo Peoples
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park .
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White House Ruins, Canyon de Chelly National Monument.
Ancient Pueblo People or Ancestral Puebloans were an ancient Native American culturecentered on the present-day Four Corners area of the United States.
Archaeologists still debate when a distinct culture emerged, but the current consensus, based on
terminology defined by the Pecos Classification, suggests their emergence around 1200BC,during the Basketmaker II Era. Beginning with the earliest explorations and excavations,researchers have believed that the Ancient Puebloans are ancestors of the modern Pueblopeoples.[1] In general, modern Pueblo people claim these ancient people as their ancestors.
The term "Anasazi" is not preferred by their descendants, though there is still some controversyamongst them on a native alternative. The word Anasazi is Navajo for "Ancient Ones" or"Ancient Enemy."[1]
Contents
[hide]
1 Geography 2 Cultural characteristics 3 Origins 4 Migration from the homeland 5 Warfare and cannibalism 6 Anasazi as a cultural label 7 Cultural distinctions 8 See also 9 References 10 External links
[edit] Geography
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Anasazi territory shown in light brown.
The Ancient Pueblo were one of four major prehistoric archaeological traditions of the AmericanSouthwest. The others are the Mogollon, Hohokam and Patayan. In relation to neighboringcultures, the Ancient Pueblo occupied the northeast quadrant of the area.[2] The Ancient Pueblohomeland centers on the Colorado Plateau, but extends from central New Mexico on the east tosouthern Nevada on the west. Areas of southern Nevada, Utah and Colorado form a loosenorthern boundary, while the southern edge is defined by the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers in Arizona and the Rio Puerco and Rio Grande in New Mexico. However, evidence of AncientPueblo culture has been found extending east onto the American Great Plains, in areas near the
Cimarron and Pecos rivers and in the Galisteo Basin.
Terrain and resources within this massive region vary greatly. The plateau regions are generallyhigh, with elevations ranging from 4500 to 8,500 feet (2,600 m). Extensive horizontal mesas arecapped by sedimentary formations and support woodlands of junipers, pinon, ponderosa pines, and yellow pines, each favoring different elevations. Wind and water erosion have created steepwalled canyons, and sculpted windows and bridges out of the sandstone landscape. In areaswhere erosionally resistant strata (sedimentary rock layers) such as sandstone or limestone overlie more easily eroded strata such as shale, rock overhangs formed. These overhangs werefavored sites for shelters and building sites. The range country in areas such as the San Juan, Gallup and Albuquerque basins is low and arid, supporting desert grasses and shrubs. Streams in
these regions allow the growth of willows and reeds, and were utilized by the Ancient Pueblo foragriculture. Mountains in the region are as tall as 12,000 feet (3,700 m), and provided timber,game, minerals, and the specialized stone used for flaked tools.
In the southwest, access to water was essential. All areas of the Ancient Pueblo homelandsuffered from periods of drought and wind and water erosion. Summer rains could beundependable and often arrived in destructive thunderstorms. While the amount of wintersnowfall varied greatly, the Ancient Pueblo depended on the snow for most of their water. Snow
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melt allowed the germination of seeds, both wild and cultivated, in the spring. Where sandstonelayers overlay shale, snow melt could accumulate and create seeps and springs, which theAncient Pueblo used as water sources. Snow also fed the smaller, more predictable tributaries,such as the Chinle, Animas, Jemez and Taos rivers. The larger rivers were less important to theancient culture, as smaller streams were more easily diverted or controlled for irrigation.
[edit] Cultural characteristics
Pueblo Bonito, the largest of the Chacoan Great Houses, stands at the foot of Chaco Canyon'snorthern rim.
The Ancient Pueblo culture is perhaps best-known for the stone and adobe dwellings built alongcliff walls, particularly during the Pueblo II and Pueblo III eras. The adobe houses were built outof mud and dirt that they had molded together. The best-preserved examples of those dwellingsare in National Parks (USA), parks such as Chaco Canyon or Chaco Culture National HistoricalPark , Bandelier National Monument, Mesa Verde National Park , Hovenweep National
Monument, and Canyon de Chelly National Monument. These villages, called pueblos bySpanish settlers, were often only accessible by rope or through rock climbing.
However, these astonishing building achievements had more modest beginnings. The firstAncestral Puebloan homes and villages were based on the pit-house, a common feature in theBasketmaker periods.
The Ancestral Puebloans are also known for their pottery. In the "Anasazi" (northern) portion of the Ancestral Pueblo world, from about 500 to 1300 AD, the most common decorated potteryhad black painted designs on white or light gray backgrounds. (In northern New Mexico, thelocal "black on white" tradition, the Rio Grande white wares, continued well after 1300 AD.)
Pottery used for cooking or storage was unpainted gray ware, either smooth or textured. TheAncestral Puebloans also created many petroglyphs and pictographs.
[edit] Origins
The period from 700-1130 AD saw a rapid increase in population due to consistent and regularrainfall patterns. From studies of skeletal remains, this growth was due to increased fertility
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rather than decreased mortality. However, this tenfold increase in population over the course of afew generations could not be achieved by increased birthrate alone; likely it also involvedmigrations of peoples from surrounding areas. Innovations such as pottery, food storage, andagriculture enabled this rapid growth. Over several decades, the Ancient Pueblo culture spreadacross the landscape. Anasazi culture has been divided into three main areas or branches, based
on geographical location: Chaco Canyon (northwest New Mexico), Kayenta (northeast Arizona),and Northern San Juan (or Mesa Verde) (southwest Colorado).
Modern Pueblo oral traditions hold that they originated to the north of their current settlements,from Shibapu, where they emerged from the underworld through a lake. For unknown ages theywere led by war chiefs guided by the Great Spirit across North America. They settled first in theAnasazi areas for a few hundred years, then migrated to their current location.
[citation needed ]
[edit] Migration from the homeland
Ancestral Puebloan ruins in Dark Canyon Wilderness, Utah
It is not entirely clear why the Ancestral Puebloans migrated from their established homes in the12th and 13th centuries. Factors examined and discussed include global or regional climatechange (cf. Little Ice Age), prolonged periods of drought, cyclical periods of topsoil erosion,environmental degradation, de-forestation, hostility from new arrivals, religious or culturalchange, and even influence from Mesoamerican cultures. Many of these possibilities aresupported by archaeological evidence.
Current opinion holds that the Ancestral Puebloans responded to pressure from Numic-speakingpeoples moving onto the Colorado Plateau as well as climate change which resulted inagricultural failures. The archaeological record indicates that it was not unusual for ancient
Pueblo peoples to adapt to climatic change by changing residences and locations.[citation needed ] Early Pueblo I sites may have housed up to 600 individuals in a few separate but closely spacedsettlement clusters. However, they were generally occupied for a mere 30 years or less.Archaeologist Timothy A. Kohler excavated large Pueblo I sites near Dolores, Colorado, anddiscovered that they were established during periods of above-average rainfall. This would allowcrops to be grown without benefit of irrigation. At the same time, nearby areas experiencingsignificantly drier patterns were abandoned.
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The ancient Pueblos attained a cultural "Golden Age" between about 900 and 1130. During thistime, generally classed as Pueblo II, the climate was relatively warm and rainfall mostlyadequate. Communities grew larger and were inhabited for longer periods of time. Highlyspecific local traditions in architecture and pottery emerged, and trade over long distancesappears to have been common. Domesticated turkeys appear.[citation needed ] After approximately
1150, North America experienced significant climatic change in the form of a 300 year droughtcalled the Great Drought, which also led to the collapse of the Tiwanaku civilization aroundLake Titicaca.[3] The contemporary Mississippian culture also collapsed during this period.Confirming evidence is found in excavations of the western regions of the Mississippi Valleybetween 1150 and 1350, which show long-lasting patterns of warmer, wetter winters and cooler,drier summers. In this later period, the Pueblo II became more self-contained, decreasing tradeand interaction with more distant communities. Southwest farmers developed irrigationtechniques appropriate to seasonal rainfall, including soil and water control features such ascheck dams and terraces. However, the population of the region continued to be mobile,abandoning settlements and fields under adverse conditions.
Along with this change in precipitation patterns, there was a drop in water table levels due to adifferent cycle unrelated to rainfall. This forced the abandonment of settlements in the more aridor over-farmed locations.[citation needed ]
Evidence also suggests a profound change in religion in this period. Chacoan and other structuresconstructed originally along astronomical alignments, and thought to have served importantceremonial purposes to the culture, were systematically dismantled. Doorways were sealed withrock and mortar. Kiva walls show marks from great fires set within them, which probablyrequired removal of the massive roof - a task which would require significant effort. Habitationswere abandoned, tribes split and divided and resettled far elsewhere. This evidence suggests thatthe religious structures were deliberately abandoned slowly over time. Puebloan tradition holdsthat the ancestors had achieved great spiritual power and control over natural forces, and usedtheir power in ways that caused nature to change, and caused changes that were never meant tooccur. Possibly, the dismantling of their religious structures was an effort to symbolically undothe changes they felt they caused due to their abuse of their spiritual power, and thus makeamends with nature.
Most modern Pueblo peoples (whether Keresans, Hopi, or Tanoans) and historians such as JamesW. Loewen, in his book Lies Across America: What Our Historic Markers and Monuments Get Wrong(1999), assert the ancient Pueblo did not "vanish" as is commonly portrayed in mediapresentations or popular books, but migrated to areas in the southwest with more favorablerainfall and dependable streams. They merged into the various Pueblo peoples whosedescendants still live in Arizona and New Mexico. This perspective is not new and was alsopresented in reports from early 20th century anthropologists, including Frank Hamilton Cushing, J. Walter Fewkes and Alfred V. Kidder. Many modern Pueblo tribes trace their lineage fromsettlements. Evidence also suggests that a profound change took place in the Anasazi area andareas inhabited by their cultural neighbors, the Mogollon. For example, the San Ildefonso Pueblopeople believe that their ancestors lived in both the Mesa Verde and the Bandelier areas.
[edit] Warfare and cannibalism
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Stress on the environment may have been reflected in the social structure, leading to conflict andwarfare. Near Kayenta, Arizona, Jonathan Haas of the Field Museum in Chicago has beenstudying a group of Anasazi villages that relocated from the canyons to the high mesa topsduring the late 1200s. The only reason Haas can see for a move so far from water and arable landis defense against enemies. He asserts that isolated communities relied on raiding for food and
supplies, and that internal conflict and warfare became common in the 13th century. This conflictmay have been aggravated by the influx of less settled peoples, Numic-speakers such as the Utes, Shoshones and Piutes, who may have originated in what is today California.
A 1997 excavation at Cowboy Wash near Dolores, Colorado, found remains of at least twenty-four human skeletons that showed evidence of violence and dismemberment, with strongindications of cannibalism. This modest community appears to have been abandoned during thesame time period. (LeBlanc, p. 174) Other excavations within the Ancient Pueblo culture areaproduce varying numbers of unburied, and in some cases dismembered, bodies.
[4] This evidence
of warfare, conflict, and cannibalism is hotly debated by some scholars and interest groups.
[edit] Anasazi as a cultural label
The term "Anasazi" was established in archaeological terminology through the PecosClassification system in 1927. Archaeologist Linda Cordell discussed the word's etymology anduse: {{bquote|The name "Anasazi" has come to mean "ancient people," although the word itself is Navajo, meaning "enemy ancestors." [The Navajo word is anaasází (<anaa- "enemy", sází "ancestor").] It is unfortunate that a non-Pueblo word has come to stand for a tradition that iscertainly ancestral Pueblo. The term was first applied to ruins of the Mesa Verde by RichardWetherill, a rancher and trader who, in 1888 – 1889, was the first Anglo-American to explore thesites in that area. Wetherill knew and worked with Navajos and understood what the word meant.The name was further sanctioned in archaeology when it was adopted by Alfred V. Kidder, the
acknowledged dean of Southwestern Archaeology. Kidder felt that it was less cumbersome thana more technical term he might have used. Subsequently some archaeologists who would try tochange the term have worried that because the Pueblos speak different languages, there aredifferent words for "ancestor," and using one might be offensive to people speaking otherlanguages[5].
However, some translations of "Anasazi" suggest a translation closer to "ancestors that are nowscattered", perhaps referring to a diaspora or exodus.[citation needed ] Some modern Pueblo peoplesobject to the use of the term Anasazi, although there is still controversy among them on a nativealternative. Some modern descendants of this culture often choose to use the term "pueblopeoples". The modern Hopi use the word " Hisatsinom" in preference to Anasazi. [6]
However, Navajo Nation Historic Preservation Department (NNHPD) spokesperson RonaldMaldonado has indicated the Navajo do not favor use of the term "Ancestral Puebloan." In fact,reports submitted for review by NNHPD are rejected if they include use of the term.[citation needed ]
In David Robert's "In Search of the Old Ones: Exploring the Anasazi World of the Southwest"the author explained his reason for using the term "Anasazi" over a term using "Puebloan",
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noting that the latter term "derives from the language of an oppressor who treated the indigenesof the Southwest far more brutally than the Navajo ever did."
[edit] Cultural distinctions
Boy in doorway, Balcony House, Mesa Verde National Park .
Archaeological cultural units such as "Anasazi", Hohokam, Patayan or Mogollon are used byarchaeologists to define material culture similarities and differences that may identify prehistoricsocio-cultural units, equivalent to modern societies or peoples. The names and divisions areclassification devices based on theoretical perspectives, analytical methods and data available atthe time of analysis and publication. They are subject to change, not only on the basis of newinformation and discoveries, but also as attitudes and perspectives change within the scientificcommunity. It should not be assumed that an archaeological division or culture unit correspondsto a particular language group or to a socio-political entity such as a tribe.
When making use of modern cultural divisions in the American Southwest, it is important tocomprehend that current terms and conventions have significant limitations:
Archaeological research focuses on items left behind during people’s activities:
fragments of pottery vessels, garbage, human remains, stone tools or evidence left fromthe construction of dwellings. However, many other aspects of the culture of prehistoricpeoples are not tangible. Their beliefs and behavior are difficult to decipher from physicalmaterials, and their languages remain unknown as they had no known writing system.
Cultural divisions are tools of the modern scientist, and so should not be consideredsimilar to divisions or relationships the ancient residents may have recognized. Modern
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cultures in this region, many of whom claim some of these ancient people as ancestors,contain a striking range of diversity in lifestyles, social organization, language andreligious beliefs. This suggests the ancient people were also more diverse than theirmaterial remains may suggest.
The modern term ―style‖ has a bearing on how material items such as pottery or
architecture can be interpreted. Within a people, different means to accomplish the samegoal can be adopted by subsets of the larger group. For example, in modern Westerncultures, there are alternative styles of clothing that characterized older and youngergenerations. Some cultural differences may be based on linear traditions, on teachingfrom one generation or ―school‖ to another. Other varieties in style may havedistinguished between arbitrary groups within a culture, perhaps defining status, gender, clan or guild affiliation, religious belief or cultural alliances. Variations may also simplyreflect the different resources available in a given time or area.
Defining cultural groups, such as the Ancient Pueblo peoples, tends to create an image of territories separated by clear-cut boundaries, like border boundaries separating modern states.
These simply did not exist. Prehistoric people traded, worshipped, collaborated and fought mostoften with other nearby groups. Cultural differences should therefore be understood as ―clinal‖,
"increasing gradually as the distance separating groups also increases"[7]. Departures from theexpected pattern may occur because of unidentified social or political situations or because of geographic barriers. In the Southwest, mountain ranges, rivers and, most obviously, the GrandCanyon can be significant barriers for human communities, likely reducing the frequency of contact with other groups. Current opinion holds that the closer cultural similarity between theMogollon and Ancient Pueblos and their greater differences from the Hohokam and Patayan isdue to both the geography and the variety of climate zones in the Southwest.
[edit] See also
Anasazi flute Anasazi Indian State Park Cliff Palace Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed Gallina Kokopelli Matrilocality Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument Prehistoric Southwestern Cultural Divisions Poqanghoya
Puye Cliff Dwellings Salmon Ruins Sipapu Taos Pueblo Tsankawi Tsirege Virgin Anasazi Water glyphs
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Zuni
[edit] References
1. ^ a b http://hewit.unco.edu/DOHIST/puebloan/begin.htm
2. ^ The Anasazi or "Ancient Pueblo" from CP-LUHNA3. ^ Mountains of Evidence from American Scientist 4. ^ Tim White, Prehistoric cannibalism at Mancos 5MTUMR-2346 , Princeton, 1992,
ISBN 0-691-09467-5 5. ^ Cordell, pp. 18-19)6. ^ Pueblo culture, scroll down7. ^ Plog, p. 72.
Childs, Craig House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the AmericanSouthwest . Little, Brown and Company, February 22, 2007. ISBN 0316608173.
Cordell, Linda S. Ancient Pueblo Peoples. St. Remy Press and Smithsonian
Institution, 1994. ISBN 0-89599-038-5. Fagan, Brian M. "Ancient North America: Tha Archaeology of a Continent (part
five)." Thames and Hudson, Inc., New York, New York, 1991. ISBN 0-500-05075-9. Jennings, Jesse D. Glen Canyon: An Archaeological Summary. University of Utah
Press, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1966, republished 1998. ISBN 0-87480-584-8. LeBlanc, Steven A. "Prehistoric Warfare in the American Southwest." 1999,
University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, Utah. ISBN 0-87480-581-3. Plog, Stephen. Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest . Thames and Hudson,
London, England, 1997. ISBN 0-500-27939-X. Roberts, David D. In Search of the Old Ones: Exploring the Anasazi World of the
Southwest . Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, 1996. ISBN 0-684-81078-6. Sofaer, Anna , Director. "Mystery of Chaco Canyon." 1999. DVD/VHS. Bullfrog
Films. Blurb: "Unveiling the ancient astronomy of southwestern Pueblo Indians."Sequel to "The Sun Dagger."
Great Drought. (2008). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved September 30, 2008,from Encyclopædia Britannica Online:http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/243212/Great-Drought
[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ancient pueblo people
Bandelier National Monument Virtual Museum Exhibit and Lesson Plans, from NationalPark Service
Chaco Culture National Historic Park Virtual Museum Exhibit, from National Park Service
People of the Colorado Plateau
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An Early Population Explosion on the Colorado Plateau The People of the Mountains, Mesas and Grasslands Cliff Palace of the Anasazi Photo 1054 Supernova Petrograph The Chaco Meridian
Oral Tradition and History of the Ancient People Life Lists at SmithsonianMag.com: Mesa Verde
Mesa Verde National Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Mesa Verde National Park
IUCN Category II (National Park )
Entrance to the park
LocationMontezuma County, Colorado,
USA
Nearest city Cortez
Coordinates 37°11′02″N 108°29′19″W /
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37.183784°N
108.488687°WCoordinates:
37°11′02″N 108°29′19″W /
37.183784°N 108.488687°W
Area52,121.93 acres (210.93 km2)
51,890.65 acres (209.99 km2) federal
Established June 29, 1906
Visitors (in 2006) 557,248
Governing
bodyNational Park Service
Mesa Verde National Park*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
State Party United States of America
Type Cultural
Criteria iii
Reference 27
Region** Europe and North America
Inscription history
Inscription 1978 (2nd Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List.
** Region as classified by UNESCO.
Mesa Verde National Park is a U.S. National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site locatedin Montezuma County, Colorado, United States. The park occupies 81.4 square miles (211square kilometers) near the Four Corners and features numerous ruins of homes and villagesbuilt by the ancient Pueblo people known as the Anasazi. The Anasazi made this stone villagetheir home in A.D. 1200s. It is best known for several spectacular cliff dwellings — structuresbuilt within caves and under outcroppings in cliffs — including Cliff Palace, which is thought to
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be the largest cliff dwelling in North America. The Spanish term Mesa Verde translates intoEnglish as "green tableland."
Contents
[hide]
1 Geography 2 History
o 2.1 Spanish explorers o 2.2 Richard Wetherill o 2.3 Gustaf Nordenskiöld o 2.4 Vandalism
3 National park o 3.1 Park services
4 Architecture 5 Notable sites 6 Culturally modified trees 7 See also 8 References 9 External links
[edit] Geography
Mesa Verde National Park is located in the lower south-western corner of the state of Colorado
Elevations in the park range from about 6,100 feet (1,860 meters) to about 8,400 feet (2,560 m).The terrain in much of the park is dominated by ridges and valleys running roughly north andsouth; many of these ridges peak at an east – west crest near the park's northern border whichturns more northerly – southerly towards the park entrance. The northernmost point is 13.2 miles(21.2 kilometers) farther north than the southernmost; the westernmost point is 11.9 miles (19.2kilometers) farther west than the easternmost.
[edit] History
Although explorers from Spain went through the general region in the 18th century, actual sightof the cliffs dwellings by outsiders seems to have first occurred in the latter half of the 19thcentury. The fame of Mesa Verde soon began to spread thanks to the Wetherill ranchers and thearcheological work of Gustaf Nordenskiöld. Vandalism led to the President Teddy Roosevelt'ssupport of protecting the area as a national park in 1906.
[edit] Spanish explorers
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Spanish explorers seeking a route from Santa Fe to California in the 1760s and 1770s were thefirst Europeans to reach the Mesa Verde (green table) region, which they named after its high,tree-covered plateaus. But they never got close enough, or into the needed angle, to see theancient stone villages, which would remain a secret for another century.
[edit] Richard Wetherill
Occasional trappers and prospectors visited, with one prospector, John Moss, making hisobservations known in 1873. The following year he led eminent photographer William HenryJackson through Mancos Canyon, at the base of Mesa Verde. There Jackson both photographedand publicized a typical stone cliff dwelling. In 1875 geologist William H. Holmes retracedJackson's route. Reports by both Jackson and Holmes were included in the 1876 report of theHayden Survey, one of the four federally financed efforts to explore the American West. Theseand other publications led to proposals to systematically study Southwestern archaeological sites.They did not lead to action for some years.
Meanwhile, ranchers were beginning to settle the Mancos Valley. Some climbed up into MesaVerde and observed more and larger stone structures. Looting of artifacts began, both for homedisplay and for sale cheaply to visitors to the region. In a dismal two decades of despoliation, themost responsible ranchers were members of the Wetherill family, who also had the best relationswith the local Ute tribe on whose territory Mesa Verde was located. The Wetherills collectedartifacts for sale to the Historical Society of Colorado as well as private collectors, and beganassembling a small library of relevant publications. They also saw the tourist potential of the cliff dwellings they now sought out systematically. Over several years they reoriented their ranchtoward guiding tourists through the cliff dwellings, and became the first experts on them.Although they continued to dig in the ruins, knocking down some walls and roofs and gatheringartifacts without extensive documentation, the Wetherill's actions were more responsible and
considerate than those of the other looters that preceded them. Modern archaeological opiniongenerally agrees that the Wetherill family were reasonable caretakers in an era beforearchaeological standards and federal oversight and protection.
[1]
House of Many Windows
One noteworthy early visitor was a New York newspaper reporter named Virginia McClurg, whose efforts over a period of years helped lead eventually to park status for Mesa Verde.Another, in 1889 and 1890, was photographer and travel writer Frederick H. Chapin. He
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described the landscape and structures in an 1890 article and 1892 book, The Land of the Cliff- Dwellers, whose many excellent photographs were the first extensive view of Mesa Verdeavailable to the public. Like other visitors in the early years, he was guided by the Wetherills.
[edit] Gustaf Nordenskiöld
Perhaps the most important early visitor was Gustaf Nordenskiöld, son of Finnish-Swedish polarexplorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, in 1891. Nordenskiöld, a trained mineralogist, introducedscientific methods to artifact collection, recorded locations, photographed extensively,diagrammed sites, and correlated what he observed with existing archaeological literature as wellas the home-grown expertise of the Wetherills.[2]
The Cliff Palace in 1891, photo by Gustaf Nordenskiöld
Local opposition surfaced, however, and, after it was learned that Nordenskiöld's artifacts wouldbe shipped to a museum in northern Europe, he was arrested and charged with "devastating theruins." Rumors of lynching circulated. Only intervention by several Washington cabinetsecretaries freed Nordenskiöld.
On return to Sweden, Nordenskiöld published, in 1893, the first scholarly study of the ruins, TheCliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde, which put Mesa Verde on the map in the internationalcommunity. Nordenskiöld's activities remained controversial for many decades but are generallyrecognized as highly valuable today. Nordenskiöld's collection of Mesa Verde artifacts — in theNational Museum of Finland — is the largest outside the U.S. Former Mesa Verde National Park superintendent Robert Heyder summed up Nordenskiöld's contributions:
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The Cliff Palace todayI shudder to think what Mesa Verde would be today had there been no Gustaf Nordenskiöld. It is through his book that the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde becameknown and his volume might well be called the harbinger of Mesa Verde National Park as we know it today.
[edit] Vandalism
Yet vandalism continued. By the end of the 19th century, it was clear that Mesa Verde needed
protection from unthinking or greedy people. An early Mesa Verde National Park superintendent, Hans Randolph, described the situation at the best known cliff dwelling, Cliff Palace:
Parties of "curio seekers" camped on the ruin for several winters, and it is reported thatmany hundred specimens therefrom have been carried down the mesa and sold to privateindividuals. Some of these objects are now in museums, but many are forever lost toscience. In order to secure this valuable archaeological material, walls were brokendown...often simply to let light into the darker rooms; floors were invariably opened andburied kivas mutilated. To facilitate this work and get rid of the dust, great openings werebroken through the five walls which form the front of the ruin. Beams were used for
firewood to so great an extent that not a single roof now remains. This work of destruction, added to that resulting from erosion due to rain, left Cliff Palace in a sadcondition.
[edit] National park
Spruce Tree House
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Long view of Spruce Tree House
As concern grew over the archaeological well being of Mesa Verde's ruins, and those in othernearby sites, the area was established as a national park on June 29, 1906. As with all historicalareas administered by the National Park Service, the park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. It was designated a World Heritage Site on September 6, 1978. The park was named with the Spanish for green table because of its forests of juniper andpiñon trees.
A set of six buildings built by the National Park Service in 1921, the Mesa Verde AdministrativeDistrict, was designated a National Historic Landmark on May 29, 1987. It consists of the firstbuildings constructed by the National Park Service which are based on cultural traditionsrepresented in the park area. The principal designer believed that structures could be used forinterpretive purposes to explain the construction of prehistoric dwellings in the Park, and becompatible with their natural and cultural setting.
In the summers of 2000 (twice), 2001, 2002, and 2003, the park, which is covered with pinyonpine and utah juniper forests, suffered from a large number of forest fires; parts of it were closed.All areas of the park have since re-opened, but some areas show significant damage from the
fires.
[edit] Park services
Mesa Verde's park entrance is about 9 miles (15 kilometers) east of the community of Cortez. The visitor center is 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the entrance, and Chapin Mesa (the mostpopular area) is another 6 miles (10 kilometers) beyond the visitor center.
The park's Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum provides information about the AncientPuebloan civilization and displays findings and artwork.
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Park Ranger giving a tour at Mesa Verde National Park
Three of the cliff dwellings on Chapin Mesa are open to the public. Spruce Tree House is openall year, weather permitting. Balcony House and Cliff Palace are open except in the winter;visitors may tour them only on ranger-guided tours. The cliff dwellings on Wetherill Mesa,including Long House and Step House, can be reached via a 12 mile (19.2 kilometer) long
mountain road leading southwest from the park visitor center. Many other dwellings are visiblefrom the road but not open to tourists.
In addition to the cliff dwellings, Mesa Verde boasts a number of mesa-top ruins. Examples opento public access include the Far View Complex, Cedar Tree Tower, and the Sun Temple, all onChapin Mesa, and Badger House Community, on Wetherill Mesa.
Also in the park are hiking trails, a campground, and facilities for food, fuel, and lodging; theseare unavailable in the winter.
The Mesa Verde National Park Post Office has the ZIP Code 81330.[3]
[edit] Architecture
Plan of entire Spruce Tree House from above, cut from a Laser scan
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Laser scan section of the four-story Square Tower House.
Mesa Verde is best known for a large number of well preserved cliff dwellings, houses built inshallow caves and under rock overhangs along the canyon walls. The structures contained withinthese alcoves were mostly blocks of hard sandstone, held together and plastered with adobe
mortar. Specific constructions had many similarities, but were generally unique in form due tothe individual topography of different alcoves along the canyon walls. In marked contrast toearlier constructions and villages on top of the mesas, the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde reflecteda region-wide trend towards the aggregation of growing regional populations into close, highlydefensible quarters during the 1200s.
While much of the construction in these sites conforms to common Pueblo architectural forms,including Kivas, towers, and pit-houses, the space constrictions of these alcoves necessitatedwhat seems to have been a far denser concentration of their populations. Mug House, a typicalcliff dwelling of the period, was home to around 100 people who shared 94 small rooms andeight kivas built right up against each other and sharing many of their walls; builders in these
areas maximized space in any way they could and no areas were considered off-limits toconstruction [4].
Not all of the people in the region lived in cliff dwellings; many colonized the canyon rims andslopes in multi-family structures that grew to unprecedented size as populations swelled[5]. Decorative motifs for these sandstone/mortar constructions, both cliff dwellings and non-,included T-shaped windows and doors. This has been taken by some archaeologists, such asStephen Lekson (1999), as evidence of the continuing reach of the Chaco Canyon elite system,which had seemingly collapsed around a century before
[6]. Other researchers see these motifs as
part of a more generalized Puebloan style and/or spiritual significance, rather than evidence of acontinuing specific elite socioeconomic system.[7]
[edit] Notable sites
Overhead view of Square Tower House
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Round tower, Cliff Palace. Photo by Ansel Adams, 1941
Mesa Verde from a northern view, May, 2007.
Photo of a modern visitor next to the hand holds used to reach the mesa top by the originalinhabitants of Cliff Place.
For most of the 12th and 13th centuries, known archaeologically as the Classic Period, theAncient Puebloan Indians lived in the cliff dwellings. The reason for their sudden departureabout 1275 remains unexplained; theories range from crop failures due to droughts to anintrusion of foreign tribes from the North.
Cliff Palace
Main article: Cliff Palace This ruin is the largest and best-known of the cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde. The site has150 identified rooms and 23 kivas. Although this and other Mesa Verde sites are largeand well constructed, they demonstrate a long history of occupation and theirarchitectural design is an aggregation of dwellings and storage spaces that developed
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slowly and randomly. Accurate archaeological information from this site has been limiteddue to several decades of digging and collecting at the turn of the Twentieth century.
Mug House
This ruin situated on Wetherill Mesa was professionally excavated in the late 1960s byarchaeologist Arthur Rohn. The structure contains 94 rooms, in four levels, including alarge kiva, with simple vertical walls and masonry pilasters. This ceremonial structurehas a keyhole shape, due to a recess behind the fireplace and a deflector, that isconsidered an element of the Mesa Verde style. The rooms clustered around the kivaformed part of the courtyard, indicating the kiva would have been roofed.
Spruce Tree House
Located on Chapin Mesa, this cliff dwelling is easily accessible and well preserved. Theruins include a kiva with a restored roof which visitors can enter. Excavations indicate
that this structure, like many other dwellings in Mesa Verde, was probably occupied forless than a century.
Square Tower House
The tower that gives this site its name is the tallest structure in Mesa Verde. This cliff dwelling was occupied between AD 1200 and 1300.
Mesa Verde Reservoirs
These ancient reservoirs, built by the Ancient Puebloans, were named a National Civil
Engineering Historic Landmark on September 26, 2004.
[edit] Culturally modified trees
In February 2008 the Colorado Historical Society has decided to invest a part of its 7 milliondollar budget into a Culturally modified trees project in the National Park .
[8]
[edit] See also
Mesa Verde Wilderness
Bandelier National Monument Canyons of the Ancients National Monument Navajo National Monument Puye Cliff Dwellings
[edit] References
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FitzGerald, Michael C., "The Majesty of Mesa Verde" in Wall Street Journal, 2009March 13, p. W12.
Kantner, John. "Ancient Puebloan Southwest". Cambridge University Press, Cambridge2004. ISBN 9780521788809
Noble, David Grant. "Ancient Ruins of the Southwest". Northland Publishing, Flagstaff,
Arizona 1995. ISBN 0-87358-530-5 Nordenskiöld, Gustaf. Ruiner af Klippboningar I Mesa Verde's Cañons, Stockholm: P. A.
Norstedt & Söner, 1893. Nordenskiöld, Gustaf. The Cliff Dwellings of the Mesa Verde, Chicago: P.A. Norstedt &
Söner, 1893. Oppelt, Norman T. "Guide to Prehistoric Ruins of the Southwest". Pruett Publishing,
Boulder, Colorado, 1989. ISBN 0-87108-783-9.
1. ^ Reynolds, Judith, Reynolds, David. Nordenskiold of Mesa Verde Xlibris Corporation,April 2006. ISBN 1425704840, paperback.
2. ^ FitzGerald, Michael C., "The Majesty of Mesa Verde" in Wall Street Journal, 2009
March 13, p. W12.3. ^ "ZIP Code Lookup" (JavaScript / HTML). United States Postal Service. January 2, 2007. http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/citytown.jsp. Retrieved January 2 2007.
4. ^ Kantner, John (2004). "Ancient Puebloan Southwest", pp. 161-665. ^ ibid.6. ^ Lekson, Stephen (1999). "The Chaco Meridian: centers of Political Power in the
Ancient Southwest". Walnut Creek, Altamira Press7. ^ Phillips, David A., Jr., 2000, "The Chaco Meridian: A skeptical analysis" paper
presented to the 65th annual meeting of the Society of American Archaeology,Philadelphia.
8. ^ State Historical Fund awards more than $7M in grants, in: Denver Business Journal,14. February 2008].
[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mesa Verde National Park
Mesa Verde National Park (official NPS site) Mesa Verde National Park Page Mesa Verde Digital Media Archive (creative commons-licensed photos, laser scans,
panoramas), data on Spruce Tree House, Fire Temple, and Square Tower House from aTexas Tech University / CyArk research partnership
Mesa Verde National Park travel guide from Wikitravel
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Canyon de Chelly National Monument
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search Canyon de Chelly National Monument
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Monument
Canyon de Chelly, 1904, Edward S. Curtis
Location: Apache County, Arizona, USA
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Nearest city: Chinle, Arizona
Coordinates:
36°08′01″N109°28′10″W / 36.13361°N
109.46944°WCoordinates:
36°08′01″N
109°28′10″W / 36.13361°N109.46944°W
Area: 83,840 acres (33,930 ha)
Visitation: 881,783 (2004)
Governing
body: National Park Service
Designated
NMON: April 1, 1931
Designated
NRHP: August 25, 1970
Canyon de Chelly National Monument was established April 1, 1931, as a unit of the NationalPark Service and is located in northeastern Arizona within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation. It preserves ruins of the early indigenous tribes that lived in the area, including the AncientPueblo Peoples (also called Anasazi) and Navajo. The monument covers 131 square miles(339 km2) and encompasses the floors and rims of the three major canyons: de Chelly, delMuerto, and Monument. These canyons were cut by streams with headwaters in the Chuskamountains just to the east of the monument.
Contents
[hide]
1 Description of Canyon de Chelly 2 Name 3 Gallery 4 See also 5 References 6 External links
[edit] Description of Canyon de Chelly
Canyon de Chelly is unique among National Park service units, as it consists entirely of NavajoTribal Trust Land which remains in the ownership of the Navajo Nation and is home to thecanyon community, while park matters are administered by the National Park Service.
[1] Access
to the canyon floor is restricted, and visitors are allowed to travel in the canyons only whenaccompanied by a park ranger or an authorized Navajo guide. The only exception to this rule is
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the White House Ruin Trail. Most park visitors arrive by automobile and view Canyon deChelly from the rim, following both North Rim Drive and South Rim Drive. Ancient ruins andgeologic structures are visible, but in the distance, from turnoffs on each of these routes. Tours of the canyon floor can be booked at the visitor center. There is no fee to see the canyon.
The National Monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 25,1970.[2]
The park's distinctive geologic feature is Spider Rock, a sandstone spire that rises 800 feet(240 m) from the canyon floor at the junction of Canyon de Chelly and Monument Canyon.Spider Rock can be seen from South Rim Drive. It has served as the scene of a number of television commercials. According to traditional Navajo beliefs the taller of the two spires is thehome of spider woman.
[3]
[edit] Name
The name Chelly (or Chelley) is a Spanish borrowing of the Navajo word Tséyiʼ , which meaning"canyon" (literally "inside the rock" < tsé "rock" + - yiʼ "inside of, within"). The Navajopronunciation is IPA: [tséɣiʔ]. The Spanish pronunciation of de Chelly [detʃeʝi] was adapted into
English, apparently through modelling after a French-like spelling pronunciation, and is nowpronounced /dəˈʃeɪ/ (dəshā').
[edit] Gallery
White House Ruins Spider Rock Canyon de Chelly,1941, Ansel Adams photograph
False-color Landsat 7 image of the canyon(more information)
Satellite image of area withCanyon de Chelly NationalMonument marked as (CdC)
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[edit] See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Canyon de Chelly
Ancient Pueblo Peoples Mesa Verde National Park
[edit] References
1. ^ Brugge, David M.; Wilson, Raymond (1976). Administrative History: Canyon deChelly National Monument, Arizona. United States Department of the Interior NationalPark Service.
2. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National
Park Service. 2009-03-13. http://www.nr.nps.gov/ . 3. ^ Tobert, Natalie; Pitt, Fiona (1994). Taylor, Colin F.. ed. Native American Myths and
Legends. Salamander books ltd. p. 35. ISBN 0861017536.
Grant, Campbell. "Canyon de Chelly: Its People and Rock Art " . University of ArizonaPress, 1983. ISBN 0-8165-0523-3.
[edit] External links
National Park Service: Canyon de Chelly National Monument
National Park Service Geology Fieldnotes Canyon de Chelly Video
