Culture and Ecology of Chaco Canyon and the San Juan Basin

----------------130 Chaco Project SynthesisHosta Butte and Bonito phase sites led Hayes (1981:60-61) to suggest that these two phases of EarlyPueblo III could reflect either two different socialsystems (one partly foreign and possibly Mexican inorigin) or a stratified society (c. f., Grebinger 1973).Both hypotheses would require further investigationthrough excavations.Data on settlement and popUlation changes alongtwo tributaries of the Chaco Wash located west of thecanyon were recorded by Sebastian and Altschul(1986). In both sections, there was decreased use ofupland areas around A.D. 1025 or 1030. Initial constructionof great houses in the Kin Bineola and KinKlizhin communities, however, occurred duringdifferent periods: the late A.D. 800s at Kin Bineola,vs. the mid-A.D. lO00s at Kin Klizhin. Within thefloodplains of the Kin Bineola survey area, there wasan early small Chacoan site in the southern portion.Location of field houses and habitation sites movedslowly upstream through time, eventually clusteringnear Kin Bineola. A dam and water control featuressuggested floodwater farming at a communal level(Sebastian and Altschul 1986; Van Dyke and Powers2006b). In the Kin Klizhin section, general upstreammovement filled all arable land between A.D. 1030and 1130. Here, however, habitation sites were regularlyspaced, and interspersed with field houses. Thepresence of approximately four to five field houses perhabitation site suggested a pattern of dispersed agriculturalfields. Unlike the Kin Bineola section, thepresence of the Chacoan structure here did not indicatea clustering of habitations nearby; instead, manymoved away from this site. Key areas for agriculturehad been settled early; when old fields were exhausted,movement to establish new fields ensued(Sebastian and Altschul 1986).Sebastian and Altschul (1986) recognized somebehavioral similarities for these two sections; e.g., amctior change in A.D. 890, when the number and varietyof site components began to increase. Prior to thistime, components consisted mostly of habitation sitesand scatters with hearths. Between A.D. 890 and1025, components were dominated by field houses andnonstructural sites; habitations became the dominanttype after A.D. 1030 to 1130. Sebastian and Altschulconcluded that these movements were responses tomicroregional shifts in agricultural potential. Therewas probably a gradual expansion of the popUlationfrom their initial habitation space into new areas,possibly in more than one location. Activities that hadtaken place in nonhabitation components during thelater periods had been performed in habitationcomponents during earlier periods. An increase in thesize of room blocks at habitation sites and an increasedclustering of habitations into communities wereconsidered additional evidence for a system in whichsites had narrower or more specialized functions orranges of activities through time. Yet the people livingin these two sections probably were more concernedwith their own well-being than they were with theneeds of a larger social group. They did not see thesetwo communities tightly integrated into Chacoansociety, but Kin Klizhin was thought to have hadcloser ties to the canyon than Kin Bineola.Population estimates for the two areas for theperiod from A.D. 1030 to 1130 were in the rangefrom 878 to 937 for the Kin Bineola area and from137 to 166 for the Kin Klizhin area. When Sebastianand Altschul (1986) reviewed the estimates of howmany people might be supported on the "good" and"fair" agricultural lands defined by A. Cully and Toll(1986), there were more people than could havesupported themselves as farmers. Their peak in populationin A.D. 1030 to 1130 is slightly later thanHayes's (1981) peak, and may be attributable to theirdefinition of the field house component. Hayes (1981)considered one-room structures to be field houses,with pueblos having two or more rooms. During theadditional lands survey, field houses were defined ashaving two or fewer rooms, while habitation sitesconsisted of more than two rooms.In summary, surveys not only documented thelocations for various types of sites or components, butalso indicated major changes through time. Movementfrom uplands to lowlands and the filling up ofgood agricultural lands were completed during theperiod from A.D. 1030 to 1130. There were clustersof sites, some located around great houses and somenot, but the great houses (with a few exceptions thatwere in close proximity to Pueblo Bonito) were locatednear water sources that were tributaries of theChaco Wash. Throughout the Pueblo II and PuebloIII periods, there was an increase in population. Thedefinition and role of field houses, however, needsfurther clarification.