Culture and Ecology of Chaco Canyon and the San Juan Basin

------~ --- - ---l34 Chaco Project Synthesishave unusually large firepits, possibly indicative ofspecial preparation areas.Some specialized tasks were carried out at thissite. Lapidary tool kits and a number of turquoisepieces on the bench in Pithouse B and in Plaza Area 5suggest jewelry-making (McKenna 1984:275, 306,Table 5; Mathien 1984). The bone tool kites) on thebench also suggest a variety of other tasks (McKenna1984:335). Although a number of ceramic items thatcould have been part of a potter's tool kit were presentin Pithouse B, the tools were multifunctional in natureand could not be considered representative of a fulltimespecialist's tool kit. Because McKenna believedthat 29S11360 was last used during the winter, andpottery-making was a warm-weather activity, hesuspected that such a tool kit may not be easily seen.A large number of ceramics and the somewhat limitedvariability in certain production traits on black-onwhiteitems also add weight to the proposition ofonsite ceramic production (McKenna 1984:203-204).Several unusual finds led McKenna to entertaina relationship between the inhabitants of29SJ1360 andPueblo Bonito. Bin 1, located north of Room 3/10and east of Room 11 in House 1, resembled a pen forthe confinement of birds. The recovery of five elementsfrom an old macaw in the overburden or backdirtrepresent the only known macaw remains fromChaco Canyon not found in a great house site.Recovery of macaws from several locations andnumerous complete macaw skeletons at Pueblo Bonito(Judd 1964; Pepper 1920) suggests they were kept forspecial purposes. Additionally, one cylinder jar sherdat 29SJ1360 (McKenna 1984:197-191) ties it toPueblo Bonito, which has the greatest numbers ofcylinder jars recovered to date (Pepper 1920; Judd1954; H. Toll 1990).Since McKenna (1984) prepared his report,Akins's (1986) craniometric study of a very limitedsample of human remains from sites in Chaco Canyonprovides another tantalizing clue. She discerned thatthe popUlation buried in the northern or central area ofPueblo Bonito was more closely related to severalindividuals, including \he women found in Pithouse Bat 29S11360, than they were to the popUlation buriedin the western area of Pueblo Bonito. Burial 2 at29SJ1360 is also the only person recovered from anysmall site that had a long strand of 3,889 disc beads asa necklace. The implications of these data for socialinteraction have not been fully explored. If such arelationship existed, there would be no distinctionamong popUlations living in great houses and smallhouse sites; some people may have lived in smallhouses and buried their dead in Pueblo Bonito.29SJ627This site (Figure 5.3), located on the south sideof the Chaco Wash in Marcia's Rincon, is the largestof the small sites excavated by the Chaco Project.Construction and remodeling of a row of rooms alongthe western edge of the room block and its associatedfeatures (ramadas and pit structures) started in themiddle A.D. 700s and continued into the middle A.D.lOOOs (Figure 5.4), suggesting an occupation of morethan 300 years. Changes in pit structure form andfunction (pithouse to kiva) were documented, as werechanges in the use of some of the above-groundstructures. Site use peaked around the middle A.D.looos, yet there is evidence of some use in the earlyA.D. 1100s (Truell 1992).Wall construction at 29SJ627 includes plastereddirt walls, puddled adobe lining, turtlebacks withspalls, upright slab and turtleback foundations, andsingle horizontal masonry. With the exception ofKiva E, pit structure walls were cut into the groundand plastered; there was limited evidence of masonry.McKenna (1986:82) suggested that the simplemasonry in Kiva E and in the southern wall and wingwall of Pithouse C may have functioned as a retainingwall for fill into which the structures had been builtrather than adoption of a masonry style. Throughtime, the pit structures at 29SJ627 tend to decrease insize, become more rounded, and be placed deeperbelow the surface. Placement of floor features becamemore formalized; and the number of these featuresdecreased through time. McKenna (1986:84) indicatedthat orientation of kivas in a north-south alignmentstabilized by the mid-A.D. looos.Truell (1992) divided the 25 rooms into foursuites (A through D). Suites A, B, and C were builtfirst (possibly in the late A.D. 800s, based on thepresence of Red Mesa ceramics). Pithouse C probablyserved all three suites. Suite D was constructed slightlylater and is probably associated with Pit StructureF. Typical of the pattern recorded throughout the