Culture and Ecology of Chaco Canyon and the San Juan Basin

154 Chaco Project Synthesiswas only available when it rained, or when obtainedthrough seeps along Cly's Canyon and from theEscavada Wash to the north. Thus, the attraction tothis area was probably related to other factors.Among the hypotheses presented was a road-relatedfunction in which Pueblo Alto was the control pointfor people entering "downtown" Chaco (Lekson1984a:272) from the northern San Juan Basin duringthe Classic and Late Bonito phases.Third, no great kivas were found in the PuebloAlto community. The function of court kivas, whichwere defined as being between 5 and 10 m indiameter, vs. smaller clan kivas (less than 5 m indiameter) was evaluated. Windes (1987[1]) doubtedthat their functions were identical. Court kivas,associated with big-room suites, appear between A.D.1050 and 1100 in the large-size units. Around A.D.1080, courtkivas were incorporated with the rooms inthe northeast and northwest areas, and smaller kivaswere placed within living rooms in the West Wing.After A.D. 1100, adjacent to Kiva 10 in thecentral room block (Figure 5.8), Room 147 wasdesignated a possible clan or society room (Windes1987[1]:310). The east and west walls were paintedwith designs (Windes 1987[II]:Figure 2.37), as wasthe north wall of Room 143 in front (Windes1987[II]:Figures 2.30 and 2.31). Fir pollen wasfound in heating pits in both of these rooms.Fourth, Windes (1987a[I]:95-140, Figure 5.2)documented three local uses for the Pueblo Alto roadnetwork (Figure 5.16) that functioned between A.D.1050 and 1140: as I) links to water procurementareas, 2) to terraced farming areas, and 3) for localinteraction between Pueblo Alto and the great housesof Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl, and Penasco Blanco,as well as a community along the Escavada Wash.The great north road (Gwinn Vivian 1972, 1983a)suggests ties to the northern San Juan Basin; thus,Windes included the transport of goods and peoplefrom other sites and areas as another function (cf.,Lyons and Hitchcock 1977b).Possibly related to the roads are several wallsegments that divide the mesa top around Pueblo Altointo discrete areas (Windes 1987[11]:546-554, [I]:Figures 1.4 and 5.2). Major WaIl I, which leaves thenortheast corner of Pueblo Alto and proceeds to theEast ruin, includes the gate documented by Ware andGumerman (1977) and a blockhouse excavated byLoose (as documented in Camilli and Cordell 1983).Major Wall 2 runs from the southeast corner of PuebloAlto toward the trash mound. A passage through thiswall provides easy access between plazas 2 and 3.Major Wall 3 marks the western side of Plaza 3 andcreates an unnamed space similar to the other plazason the southwestern side of Pueblo Alto. OtherStructure 13 (a major wall) juts off the southwesterncorner of Pueblo Alto. Major Wall 6 proceeds fromthe northwest corner of Pueblo Alto and passes theParking Lot ruin and New Alto.The arc and the major walls that divide the outsidespace into discrete areas would have directedindividuals using the road system from Talus Unit No.1 and Chetro Ketl to enter Plaza 1 through OtherStructure 5 and Room 205 (Figure 5.17). In Plaza 3,a prehistoric road spur links with stairways into thecanyon at Talus Unit No. 1 and to the northeast ofChetro Ketl; it enters Pueblo Alto through eitherOther Structure 3 or Room 199. Just east of Room199 is one of the sets of road-related rooms. The areabetween Major Wall 3 and Other Structure 13 receivestraffic from a spur ofRS 33. The main route of RS 33passes west of Other Structure 13 and heads towardthe northwest corner of Pueblo Alto, where another ofthe sets of road-related rooms has been identified.Windes (1987[1]:113-114) suspected that these wallsmay serve to move traffic between local and regionaldirections.Four sets of paired room units at Pueblo Altothat Windes (1987[1]:96-129) identified were associatedwith road functions (Figure 5.17), as weresimilar sets at the Parking Lot ruin, the East ruin, andPenasco Blanco (where he also mapped existing roadsegments: Windes 1987[1]:Figure 5.1). Additionalroad-related storage features were postulated forexterior rows of rooms at Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl,Kin Bineola, Penasco Blanco, and Pueblo Alto, allbuilt between A.D. 1040 and 1085 (Windes1987[1]:Figure 10.3).Fifth, studies in the trash mound revealednumerous layers (Windes 1987[II]:Figure 8.2) thatindicated there were three types of deposits that weredated from around A.D. 1050 to 1100 (Windes1987[11]:561-667). The earliest layers, representing