Culture and Ecology of Chaco Canyon and the San Juan Basin

The Classic Adaptation 199and fir beams (Dean and Warren 1983). Initial inferencesthat wood beams came from long distances (theChuska Mountains and the Mount Taylor area) haverecently been confirmed (Durand et al. 1999; Englishet al. 2001). (Either members of the local populationmade trips to these areas on a regular basis to obtainthe timbers, or the timbers were brought into thecanyon by those living in the distant areas or theirdown-the-line neighbors. Lekson (1984a) assumed theformer in his labor calculations-see below.)Construction techniques are fairly easy todeduce. Analyzing the sequence on the basis of choiceof site, area leveling or preparation, laying of foundations,constructions of walls (usually one story at atime, with roofs used as platforms for the upper story)was complicated mostly by the razing of older sectionsand rebuilding in the same aiea. Sometimes foundationswere ignored when walls were laid (see Windes1987[11] for examples of offset walls at Pueblo Alto).The change in use of single-width stones with thickmortar to cores with tightly compacted stone veneers(Figure 6.2) that would add strength sufficient to holdup several stories suggests improvement 1D constructiontechniques through time.Tree-ring dates suggested several major constructionperiods for great houses (Lekson 1984a, 1984b).The earliest pattern (A.D. 900 to 940, with the initialconstruction now placed in the late A.D. 800s byWindes and D. Ford [1996]) is visible in PuebloBonito, Penasco Blanco, and Una Vida. It consists ofa multi storied , arc-shaped building composed of suitescontaining a ramada/living room in front, with a largeroom and paired storage rooms behind. In front ofevery two to three suites is a pit structure. Firepits infront rooms suggest domestic functions. Althoughthese buildings were similar in layout to that of contemporaneoussmall sites, the increased amount ofspace per unit, the higher ratio of rectangular roomsper round room, and the increased labor investmentwere interpreted as the appearance of local leaders orelite within a community comprised of a great houseand surrounding small sites. Great houses providedincreased storage area for goods needed to carry outthe elite's functions within the community. The threeinitially identified settlements were located at theconfluence of major side drainages that flowed intoChaco Canyon (Judge et al. 1981), possibly givingthese communities an advantage with regard to wateravailable for agriculture.During the 80 years between A.D. 940 and1020, within the central canyon only Hungo Pavi wasbuilt at the mouth of Mockingbird Canyon, a smallerside drainage. Although there are a number of smallsites near this great house, the cluster is not asconcentrated as those around the initial three greathouses. Hungo Pavi is similar in size but differs fromits predecessors in that the back wall is straight ratherthan arcuate. This form, which is dated between A.D.990 and 1010 at Hungo Pavi, becomes the standardfor all later construction at new great houses; e.g.,Pueblo Alto (a road-related building) and Chetro Ketl.Between A.D. 1020 and 1050, constructionbegan at Pueblo Alto and Chetro Ketl, and PuebloBonito gained an exterior row of storage rooms.Neither Pueblo Alto nor Chetro Ketl were located atconfluences with side drainages; rather, they are nottoo distant from Pueblo Bonito in the area that Leksonproposed as becoming "downtown" Chaco. Leksonsuggested that Chetro Ketl and Hungo Pavi mightrepresent an association with sites outside the canyon.Although the individual units at great houses continueto resemble those at small sites from A.D. 900 to1050 in form, and firepits continued to appear in frontrooms, Lekson (1984a:264) noted that the ratio ofround to rectangular rooms at small sites had increasedthrough time (1:2.7 during the A.D. 800s; 1:3.6during the middle A.D. 900s; and 1:6.0 during theearly A.D. lO00s); and that at great houses it is stilllarger, at 1: 9.3. If the rectangular rooms are devotedto storage, the great houses have much larger storagecapacity than small house sites.The only new great house constructed betweenA.D. 1050 and 1075 is Pueblo del Arroyo, but therewere additions to several existing large pueblos; e.g.,rear-row rooms, upper stories, and massive blocks ofrooms that have little access from the exterior. Forthis period, Lekson (1984a:60) distinguished betweentower kivas (kivas with more than one story), clankivas (kivas built on the second story of a buildingthat may have had domestic use), and great kivas thatwere located in the plazas. The elevated circularrooms had no clear associations with room suites.There was also a decrease in the size difference