Culture and Ecology of Chaco Canyon and the San Juan Basin

~---------------------------------------------------------------------The Florescence 129Although they were nearly evenly located on MenafeeShales or Cliff House Sandstone, there was no concentrationin a particular topographic area. The mostdistinct environmental attribute of these sites wasslope direction to the northeast, followed by atendency to be located in canyon bottoms. Pueblo IIIsmall sites tended to be located on Menafee Shales,frequently in rincons, but on flat lowlands or erosionalescarpments, in contrast to the ridges or dunes notedfor the Basketmaker III sites.Pueblo II small sites had an average of 3.8rooms, a predominance of chaicedony and a lack ofobsidian, and very few projectile points. In contrast,Pueblo III small sites had more rooms and kivas anda wide variety of ceramic types. In addition to chalcedony,lithic materials included chert, quartzite, andsilicified wood. Side-notched projectile points werereported frequently and ground stone implements alsoincreased in numbers.Hayes (1981) addressed the confusion in ceramictypes as described by Hawley (1934b, 1936, 1939)and Roberts (1927) and correlated by Gordon Vivian(1959, 1965). Hayes's goal was to refine the datingand improve knowledge about the extent of the problems.Based primarily on ceramic types and architecturalstyles, Hayes (1981: 19-20) defined five periods:Early Pueblo II (A.D. 900 to 975). Roomblocks often were linear rather than curved, andTohatchi Banded was the diagnostic ceramic type. Atthis time, Red Mesa Black-on-white, Escavada Blackon-white,and Coolidge Corrugated appeared.Late Pueblo II (A.D. 975 to 1050). Walls weremore substantial, especially those in kivas that arenow lined with masonry. Although the Early PuebloII pottery types continue, Gallup Black-on-white andWingate Black-on-red appear. Early construction atgreat houses was not considered distinct enough toseparate them from small house sites.Early Pueblo III (A.D. 1050 to 1175). A dichotomyexisted between contemporary great housesand small house sites. Large pueblos were assigned tothe Bonito phase and small sites to the Hosta Buttephase. These small houses were very similar to earlierones, but tended to be L-shaped in ground plan andslightly more compact. Chaco Black-on-white, a lesscommon ceramic type, appears. There was an increasein carbon-painted wares and a change in utilitywares from Coolidge to Chaco corrugated wares. Ifsherds of these types were not present on a smallhouse site, it was not considered to have lasted intothe Pueblo III period, and many assigned to LatePueblo II did not.Late Pueblo III (A.D. 1175 to 1350). Large,shaped blocks of softer sandstone masonry and thepresence of Mesa Verde Black-on-white ceramicscharacterize sites assigned to this period, which is thesubject of Chapter 7.Hayes was aware that room estimates were notalways adequate to estimate population size. At29SJ627, the survey crew documented three roomsand one kiva, but excavation revealed 25 rooms, sevenpit structures, and a trash midden (Hayes 1981:28;Truell 1992:8). Hayes'S estimates compensated forthis problem and provided a combined Pueblo IIpopulation of estimate of 3,240 people and an EarlyPueblo III estimate of 5,625 people. (For the latterperiod, the Hosta Butte phase or small site populationwas estimated at 2,889 people and the Bonito Phase as2,763 people [Hayes 1981:50-51].)Settlement locations changed considerably betweenEarly and Late Pueblo II. The major EarlyPueblo II site cluster was located in the central canyonaround Pueblo Bonito and Chetro Ketl. There was adecrease in cluster size from earlier periods at SouthGap and Fajada Butte, but the cluster near PadillaWell remained much the same. By Late Pueblo II, thecluster at Padilla Well had grown, and the mesa topsand plains north and south of the canyon were nearlyabandoned. Rather than clusters at definable locations,there was now a string of small sites extendingthe length of the valley floor. During Early PuebloIII, this canyon-floor small-site pattern persisted, butthere was a population concentration, including greathouses, at the mouth of South Gap. Construction ofnew great houses or additions to existing ones hadincreased in scale and frequency. A number of otherarchitectural features (water control, cairns, shrines,stone circles, quarries, and road-related features) wereassigned to the combined Pueblo II-Pueblo III period.Thus, Early Pueblo III represented the peak for populationand construction in the canyon (Hayes 1981).The many new features and the differences between