Culture and Ecology of Chaco Canyon and the San Juan Basin

The Florescence 163rough-sort method used during the Chaco Project.Based on this test, Windham (1976) was able tosuggest three construction periods that are roughlysimilar to those defmed later by Gillespie (1984c:79-94). Once Una Vida was scheduled to be backfilledin May 1979, Gillespie and Akins cleared floors,completed room excavations, and prepared detailedmaps of the exposed rooms. They focused on a roomblock in the northern comer of the site, paying specialattention to early features in nine of 15 rooms;collected pollen and flotation samples; took archaeomagneticsamples; and provided an accurate descriptionof all floor features (Akins and Gillespie 1979).Construction at Una Vida took place in severalstages. Like Pueblo Bonito and Penasco Blanco, UnaVida has early tree-rings dates in the A.D. 800s(Bannister 1965). Gillespie (Akins and Gillespie1979; Gillespie 1984c) indicated that the tenth-centurylayout and masonry (Judd's type I; thin slabs withcopious mortar) was probably representative of twoconstruction episodes, each with two stories. Stage I(Lekson 1984a:Figure 4.4a) is a small arc of rooms onthe northeast side with two mid-A.D. 800s dates. Thebulk of the western block or lower arc and three suitesin the northeastern section (Lekson 1984a:Figure4.4b) were constructed around A.D. 930 to 950 (stageII). Areas beneath rooms 23, 83, and 84 were identifiedas belonging to an early plaza that may havebeen associated with this early room block (Akins andGillespie 1979). Stage III (A.D. 950 to 960) isrepresented by type I masonry additions to the existingstructure (Lekson 1984a:Figure 4.4c). Stages IV andV occur nearly a century later (A.D. 1050 to 1055,and A.D. 1050 to 1095), when a front row of roomsand kivas was added to the plaza side of the westernsection and several rooms were added onto the originalarc of rooms (Lekson 1984a:Figure 4.4d). Stage VIrepresents construction around A.D. 1070 to 1075,when the southeast block was added and somemodifications were made to the existing structure.Stage VII construction enclosed the plaza sometimeafter A.D. 1095 (Lekson 1984a:Figure 4.4e and f).A range of room functions was documented byAkins and Gillespie (1979), who classified two ofthenine rooms (rooms 18 and 65 built during stage I) asstorage rooms. Rooms 21 (stage I), 23 (stage III), and60 (stage III) were originally built as habitationrooms; Room 60 was later modified into a special-useroom, possibly a kiva. Room 83 (stage V), althoughsquare, possibly functioned as a kiva. Rooms 63(stage III), 64 (stage I), and 84 (stage V) alsocontained floor features indicative ofliving areas. Asat Pueblo Alto and Pueblo Bonito, much evidence ofreuse and change are visible at this site.Kin Nahasbas. In 1935, as part of inquiriesinto the standard features of great kivas, Hewett entrustedthe excavation at Kin Nahasbas to DorothyLuhrs (1935). After clearing the great kiva to the firstfloor and excavating in two rooms in the house moundon the hill above, this site (Figure 5.22) was left open.Information on the great kiva was incorporated intothe report by Gordon Vivian and Reiter (1960), but noother data were published. In 1983, Windes andMathien prepared a historic structure report prior tobackfilling (1fathien and \A/indes 1988). Documentationof the great kiva, the house above, andsurrounding features was undertaken to understand itsrelationship to Una Vida and other structures in thearea (Mathien and Windes 1989).Initial construction at Kin Nahasbas probablyoccurred during the A.D. 900s. A 44 m 2 pit structurefound beneath the earliest great kiva is similar inlayout to other tenth-century pit structures (Truell1986). Although much of the pit structure had beendestroyed by later construction, it contained a firepit,heating pit, two postholes, and possibly sets ofladderrests that would indicate entry through a hatch in theroof.Oriented southeast to northwest, this pit structuresits downslope of a set of rooms designated as OldHouse. The set of rooms is a 283 m 2 irregular roomblock constructed of type I (Hawley 1934) masonryfor which two styles were recorded: a large, crudelyshaped, lenticular set of ashlars that spanned the widthof the wall, and a set of smaller squarish stones. Asmall circular room (1. 8 m in diameter) and a possibletower (4 m in diameter) may represent observationposts (Windes in Mathien and Windes 1988:73).Contemporary with the Old House is Great Kiva 1,also constructed of type I masonry. Today only thenorth wall and a narrow adobe band along thenorthwest side of the structure remain. The size ofthis great kiva is estimated to have been about 136 m 2 •Standard floor features (roof supports, vaults, firebox,and deflector) were present. Because of its location on