Table of Contents
The Ancient Americas channel presents Chaco Canyon as a brief, puzzling boom in Ancestral Pueblo building inside New Mexico’s dry San Juan Basin. Basketmaker pit houses and maize lie underneath. From the ninth century, stacked great houses such as early Pueblo Bonito rise beside smaller hamlets. Between about 1020 and 1115 the work surges, and by mid century the canyon is, in this telling, the basin’s ceremonial and administrative center, with round kivas and D shaped compounds. Timber had to be imported. Pueblo Bonito passed seven hundred rooms, but few hearths imply that most people lived in the small houses. Roads, turquoise, and one rich burial suggest rank without proving a royal capital. Clan memory includes a gambler at Pueblo Alto and Hopi groups who paused in the canyon. Stephen Lekson sets Chaco, Aztec Ruins, and Casas Grandes on a single meridian, an idea the host admires and doubts. Drought from about 1130 empties the great houses by 1150, gradually and without a battle. The channel names that span the Chaco phenomenon and leaves its exact function open.
Key points
- Chaco’s great houses rise from Basketmaker and early Pueblo building and boom between about 1020 and 1115.
- By 1050 the canyon is presented as the San Juan Basin’s main ceremonial and administrative center.
- Pueblo Bonito is huge, but scarce hearths suggest most residents lived in the smaller houses.
- More than two hundred outlier communities repeat Chaco style masonry across the basin.
- Lekson’s north to south meridian is explained and then doubted by the host.
- A long drought from about 1130 empties the great houses by 1150, with no sign the end was a battle.
Short quotes
by 1050 Chaco Canyon had become the Undisputed administrative and ceremonial center of the San Juan Basin
Ancient Americas, The Chaco Canyon phenomenon
The channel dates Chaco’s regional authority to the middle of the eleventh century. Watch at 8:07
those great houses housed very few people
Ancient Americas, The Chaco Canyon phenomenon
Archaeology, in this account, finds surprisingly few residents inside the great houses. Watch at 15:26
there are over 200 documented outliers in the San Juan Basin
Ancient Americas, The Chaco Canyon phenomenon
The canyon is tied to a wide network of similar communities. Watch at 25:31
by 1150 the great houses stood empty and Abandoned
Ancient Americas, The Chaco Canyon phenomenon
The channel dates the end of great house life in the canyon to 1150. Watch at 41:49
Video by Ancient Americas. Watch on YouTube.