Culture and Ecology of Chaco Canyon and the San Juan Basin

98 Chaco Project SynthesisFigure 4.1.Joseph Maloney excavating a slab-lined house near Casa Rinconada in 1936. (Courtesyof the Vivian family, Chaco Culture NHP Museum Archive, Photo no. 70860.)The presence of a great kiva at Shabik'eshcheeVillage was rare; Bullard (1962: 102) found very fewattributable to Basketmaker III. This, and availablesettlement data, prompted him to ask whether valleypopulations lived in a few large villages or a numberof small villages and whether there may have been onelarge village with scattered subordinate settlements.Several pit structures had been discovered asthey eroded out of the wash (R. N. Adams 1951; Judd1922; Roberts 1929:80-71). Others had been buriedby later occupations (e.g., Z. Bradley 1971; Judd1964:21-22). Some were poorly reported (e.g., onebeneath Be 50; Glenn 1939:166-172; Hibben 1937:81-87; Senter 1939) or not reported at all (e.g., sitesexcavated just south of Casa Rinconada [Figure 4.1]by Joseph Maloney as recorded in Brand 1937a:27).Gordon Vivian (Vivian and Mathews 1965:42-45)indicated that in addition to the pithouses located inthe eastern section of the park (Shabik' eshchee Villageand Half House), there were numerous Basketmakersites in Werito's Rincon, on the mesa near PenascoBlanco, south of Tsin Kletzin, and just south of thecanyon escarpment. He had seen very little evidenceof Basketmaker III pithouses between Chaco Canyonand the San Juan River but had noted numerous onesto the south (Gordon Vivian and Mathews 1965:28-29).Based on ceramics, limited architectural data,and a lack of archaeometric dates, it was difficult toplace some sites within a tight chronological sequenceor distinguish subtle changes in construction, settlement,or other cultural manifestations. Gordon Vivian(Vivian and Mathews 1965:28-29) did not fully agreewith Gladwin (1945), who proposed that there hadbeen an early migration into Chaco Canyon from thesouth and west; Vivian thought that populations hadonly shifted and become more consolidated throughtime. He acknowledged R. N. Adams's (1951:291)statement that Half House differed somewhat fromShabik'eshchee Village, and thought that these structuresmay be representative of different cultures in thecanyon at an early date-a hypothesis he explored inmore detail elsewhere (Gordon Vivian and Mathews1965: 108-111). Bullard (1962:55) also had noted thedifferences between his northern and southern Anasaziareas in pottery types and ventilator construction.Both traits cannot be attributed to the samecenter of origin. I have suggested that theventilator originated in the southern part ofthe area, the habitation unit in the northern.The rapidity of the spread is indicativeof the unity of Anasazi culture and ofthe close contacts maintained throughoutthe area. (Bullard 1962: 175)