scholarly journals Performance Space, Political Theater, and Audibility in Downtown Chaco

Acoustics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Witt ◽  
Kristy Primeau
Keyword(s):  
Political Theater ◽  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
Modeling Tools ◽  
Performance Space ◽  
Great House ◽  
Ancestral Puebloan ◽  
Great Kivas

Chaco Canyon, NM, USA, was the center of an Ancestral Puebloan polity from approximately 850–1140 CE, and home to a dozen palatial structures known as “great houses” and scores of ritual structures called “great kivas”. It is hypothesized that the 2.5 km2 centered on the largest great house, Pueblo Bonito (i.e., “Downtown Chaco”), served as an open-air performance space for both political theater and sacred ritual. The authors used soundshed modeling tools within the Archaeoacoustics Toolbox to illustrate the extent of this performance space and the interaudibility between various locations within Downtown Chaco. Architecture placed at liminal locations may have inscribed sound in the landscape, physically marking the boundary of the open-air performance space. Finally, the implications of considering sound within political theater will be discussed.

scholarly journals Ancestors and the sun: astronomy, architecture and culture at Chaco Canyon

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (S278) ◽  
pp. 255-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew M. Munro ◽  
J. McKim Malville
Keyword(s):  
Social Dominance ◽  
Temporal Analysis ◽  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
Ancestral Pueblo ◽  
Ancestor Veneration ◽  
Great House ◽  
Previous Proposal ◽  
Construction Activity ◽  
Great Kivas ◽  
East West

AbstractThree architectural traditions with astronomical associations have been identified among the ‘Great Houses’ and ‘Great Kivas’ of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Great Houses and one Great Kiva built during the height of construction activity (AD 1020–1100), the Bonito Phase, include front-facing south-southeast (SSE) orientations, and cardinal north-south and/or east-west (NS/EW) alignments. We present ethnographic material supporting our previous proposal that the SSE orientation is probably linked to migration traditions and ancestor veneration. We also confirm that a majority of Late Bonito Phase Great Houses (built after A.D. 1100) exhibit a third astronomical tradition: five of the principal in-canyon Great Houses built at that time were positioned at or near observing locations that could have functioned as solstice calendrical stations. Through use of these locations for public ceremonies, the Chacoan elite could demonstrate astronomical knowledge and ritual power. These findings provide support for Van Dyke's hypothesis that construction during this period was intended to reinvigorate a faltering system. One ‘Chaco halo’ Great House, Bis sa'ani, incorporates all three traditions. We suggest that temporal analysis of these traditions improves understanding of migration paths and shifting balances of power and social dominance among ancestral Pueblo culture groups.

scholarly journals Reconstructing sexual divisions of labor from fingerprints on Ancestral Puebloan pottery

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (25) ◽  
pp. 12220-12225 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kantner ◽  
David McKinney ◽  
Michele Pierson ◽  
Shaza Wester
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Pottery Production ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Ancestral Puebloan ◽  
The Us ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
And Gender

An understanding of the division of labor in different societies, and especially how it evolved in the human species, is fundamental to most analyses of social, political, and economic systems. The ability to reconstruct how labor was organized, however, especially in ancient societies that left behind few material remains, is challenged by the paucity of direct evidence demonstrating who was involved in production. This is particularly true for identifying divisions of labor along lines of age, sex, and gender, for which archaeological interpretations mostly rely upon inferences derived from modern examples with uncertain applicability to ancient societies. Drawing upon biometric studies of human fingerprints showing statistically distinct ridge breadth measurements for juveniles, males, and females, this study reports a method for collecting fingerprint impressions left on ancient material culture and using them to distinguish the sex of the artifacts’ producers. The method is applied to a sample of 985 ceramic sherds from a 1,000-y-old Ancestral Puebloan community in the US Southwest, a period characterized by the rapid emergence of a highly influential religious and political center at Chaco Canyon. The fingerprint evidence demonstrates that both males and females were significantly involved in pottery production and further suggests that the contributions of each sex varied over time and even among different social groups in the same community. The results indicate that despite long-standing assumptions that pottery production in Ancient Puebloan societies was primarily a female activity, labor was not strictly divided and instead was likely quite dynamic.

Sacred Earthen Architecture in the Northern Southwest: The Bluff Great House Berm

2002 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-695 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine M. Cameron
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
San Juan ◽  
Sacred Place ◽  
Great House ◽  
Earthen Architecture ◽  
Bluff Great House ◽  
Ritual Architecture

This article reports on the excavation of a “berm”—an earthen mound that surrounds the Bluff Great House in southeastern Utah. Comparisons are made to Chacoan-era (A.D. 850–1150) great house mounds in Chaco Canyon and to other berms and mounds at great houses throughout the Chacoan region. Great house mounds in Chaco Canyon and berms outside Chaco Canyon are assumed to have been ritual architecture, and continuity in the use of mounded earth and trash as a sacred place of deposit is traced through time from the Pueblo 1 period to modern Pueblos. The Bluff berm does not seem to have been constructed as the result of ceremonial gatherings (as has been suggested for the great house mounds in Chaco Canyon), but there is intriguing evidence that it continued to be used into the post-Chacoan era (A.D. 1150–1300), perhaps as a result of a restructuring or revival of Chacoan ideas in the northern San Juan region. Examination of the spatial distribution of berms suggests that they are most common at great houses south and west of Chaco Canyon; the northern San Juan region, where Bluff is located, has far fewer such features, possibly because the revival of Chacoan ideas in this region was short-lived.

scholarly journals Convergence of Evidence Supports a Chuska Mountains Origin for the Plaza Tree of Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon

2020 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 331-346
Author(s):  
Christopher H. Guiterman ◽  
Christopher H. Baisan ◽  
Nathan B. English ◽  
Jay Quade ◽  
Jeffrey S. Dean ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tree Ring ◽  
Pinus Ponderosa ◽  
Ponderosa Pine ◽  
Strontium Isotopes ◽  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
The West ◽  
Potential Growth ◽  
Great House ◽  
Lines Of Evidence

The iconic Plaza Tree of Pueblo Bonito is widely believed to have been a majestic pine standing in the west courtyard of the monumental great house during the peak of the Chaco Phenomenon (AD 850–1140). The ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) log was discovered in 1924, and since then, it has been included in “birth” and “life” narratives of Pueblo Bonito, although these ideas have not been rigorously tested. We evaluate three potential growth origins of the tree (JPB-99): Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, or a distant mountain range. Based on converging lines of evidence—documentary records, strontium isotopes (87Sr/86Sr), and tree-ring provenance testing—we present a new origin for the Plaza Tree. It did not grow in Pueblo Bonito or even nearby in Chaco Canyon. Rather, JPB-99 originated from the Chuska Mountains, over 50 km west of Chaco Canyon. The tree was likely carried to Pueblo Bonito sometime between AD 1100 and 1130, although why it was left in the west courtyard, what it meant, and how it might have been used remain mysteries. The origin of the Plaza Tree of Pueblo Bonito underscores deep cultural and material ties between the Chaco Canyon great houses and the Chuska landscape.

Population Aggregation in the Prehistoric North American Southwest

1996 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 597-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy A. Kohler ◽  
Lynne Sebastian
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
North American ◽  
Demographic Factors ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
Mesa Verde ◽  
Ancestral Puebloan ◽  
Population Aggregation ◽  
North American Southwest

We attempt to clarify the role of demographic factors (size, density, history, and trajectory) in aggregation in the ancestral Puebloan Southwest, which we found obscure in Leonard and Reed (1993). In addition, we question one of the case studies from Chaco Canyon that they used to support their model, and we suggest that data from the Mesa Verde region between A.D. 700 and 1300 argue against the generality of their explanation for aggregation.

Pink Chert, Projectile Points, and the Chacoan Regional System

2001 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine M. Cameron
Keyword(s):  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Chipped Stone ◽  
Considerable Distance ◽  
Data Support ◽  
Great House ◽  
New Models ◽  
Regional System ◽  
Organization Of Production ◽  
Made In

The most unusual aspect of chipped stone in Chaco Canyon is that materials were imported from a considerable distance but used almost exclusively as informal flake tools. Narbona Pass chert from the Chuska Mountains, 75 km away, is the most common nonlocal material found during the Chacoan Era (A.D. 900-1150). There are relatively few number of formal tools found in the Canyon, primarily projectile points, and a significant number of these do not seem to have been made in Chaco. New models of the organization of production offered by Earle, Hagstrum, Peregrine, and Renfrew (this issue) are evaluated using chipped-stone data collected by the Chaco Project during the 1970s. Chipped-stone data support the suggestion made by these scholars that great houses in Chaco Canyon were the focus of periodic communal gatherings. Deposition of quantities of Narbona Pass chert debitage in great house trash middens was apparently a ceremonial aspect of these gatherings, perhaps related to Puebloan concepts of renewal. Some projectile points appear to have been deposited in great house rooms or kivas as ritual offerings.

The Chaco Pilgrimage Model: Evaluating the Evidence From Pueblo Alto

2012 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 449-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Plog ◽  
Adam S. Watson
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
Household Activity ◽  
Deposition Patterns ◽  
Data Support ◽  
Great House ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Refuse Disposal

AbstractMost recent attempts to understand the complex nature of the prehispanic occupation of Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico often have postulated that the canyon was a center for pilgrimage fairs and ceremonies that attracted hundreds if not thousands of individuals from the surrounding region who may have resided in the canyon for significant periods of time. Scholars first proposed this model in the 1980s based on what they perceived as the unusual nature of Pueblo Alto, a Chacoan great house. In particular, they suggested that normal household activity and refuse disposal could not explain the deposition patterns in the Alto trash mound, the unusual number of ceramic vessels, and characteristics of the fauna recovered from the settlement. We evaluate this argument focusing primarily on the ceramic and faunal evidence and conclude that neither the ceramic nor the faunal data support the occurrence of periodic fairs, festivals, dances or pilgrimages of the scale that have been postulated.

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