Culture and Ecology of Chaco Canyon and the San Juan Basin

Basketmaker III to Pueblo I 111storage rooms were ramadas with low walls oftenmade of adobe turtlebacks or simple masonry inmortar. At this time, the pit structures were locatedcloser to the room blocks; they also had fewerhabitation features. These changes were similar at allsites, regardless of site size.Basketmaker III firepits were multipurposefacilities that served a nuclear group (McKenna1986:32-37). By Pueblo I, there was multifamily useof differentiated features and space (e.g., Pithouse Aat 29SJ724 [McKenna 1986:37; Windes 1976c]).Although there was a trend toward standardizing pitstructure size through time, the function of thesestructures was not always clear. McKenna suggestedthat a Pueblo I differentiation of sites into specialcomponents was possibly related to an amalgamationof populations, which may not have been due toindigenous growth.Truell (1986) summarized pit structures andabove-ground features in shorter time intervals asfollows.A.D. 450 to early A.D. 500s. Because PithouseBat 29SJ423 (Figure 4.5) was located beneath strataattributed to construction and use of the great kiva thatwas dated to the mid-A.D. 500s, this structure is theearliest of the excavated pithouses in Chaco Canyon(Windes 1975: 19). Windes (1975: 17-18) thought thatit could have been an antechamber to a larger pithousedestroyed by erosion or quarried for material for lateruse. It therefore provided little information foranalysis.A.D. 500s to early A.D. 700s. Pithouses atShabik'eshchee Village (29SJ1659) (Figure 4.4),29SJ423 (Figure 4.5), 29SJ299 (Figure 4.6), and 29SJ628 (Figure 4.7) provided a small sample with gooddates. Truell (1986:218-219) found several consistenciesin construction: four floor postholes, wingedwalls, a south or southeast orientation, shallowstructures, and antechambers for all but two. In contrastto McKenna, who related changes in architectureto change through time, Truell identified differencesbetween the pithouses at several sites. AtShabik'eshchee Village, the main chambers of thepithouses tended to be circular to square in shape,with four floor postholes and slab-lined wall bases,but no benches. At other sites, the pithouses wereassociated with antechambers and had D-shapes andthree-quarter benches. Truell suggested that twostyles might have existed contemporaneously or thathouse styles were more consistent for those siteslocated in close proximity to one another. The A.D.600s structures at 29SJ299 and 29SJ628 (1.6 kmapart) were more like each other than they were tothose at Shabik' eshchee Village (5.5 and 7.1 kmdistant).There IS a distinct difference between thepithouses and two excavated large pit structureslabeled great kivas (at Shabik'eshchee Village and29SJ423). The great kivas had at least 13 to 20 m 2more space and their shapes were circular instead ofsquare or D-shaped. They also contained a centralhearth and postholes for roof poles, but few otherfeatures (except possibly ladder rests at 29SJ423)(Truell 1986:235). Because the presence of greatkivas at Shabik'eshchee Village and 29SJ423 wasunusual but not a unique occurrence in the Anasaziregion, Truell (1986:236) questioned whether thesetwo sites should be classified as small sites or largesites. None of the other Basketmaker III sites in theChaco area contained great kivas and none had asdense clusters of pithouses.Other features at the small sites included small,square, slab-lined extramural hearths; roasting pitsthat were very similar in construction, but had anoutward flare to slabs that exhibited intense burning;small subterranean storage bins or circular cists that inChaco contained no food remains; and firepits thatwere located near structures or storage bins in whatwould later be called plaza areas. The pattern for latersite units had been established.Early A.D. 700s to early A.D. 800s. Informationfrom Chaco Canyon sites reflects events notedelsewhere in the San Juan Basin, but the detailsavailable for analysis do not always correlate well(TrueIl1986:250). Gladwin (1945) had separated theAD. 700 to early AD. 900s into three phases: WhiteMound (AD. 750 to 800); Kiatuthlanna (A.D. 800 to870); and Red Mesa (A.D. 850 to 930). Thepredominance of the White Mound Black-on-whitepottery type was not precisely dated. The end of theWhite Mound phase, sometime in the late A.D. 700s,was considered by Gladwin to be the transition fromBasketmaker III to Pueblo I.