Culture and Ecology of Chaco Canyon and the San Juan Basin

The Final Years 241severe drought from approximately A.D. 1130through 1180. The canyon area was consideredmostly depopulated during this period.The Mesa Verde Phase. This phase is datedbetween A.D. 1200 and 1300. Mesa Verde Black-onwhiteand indented corrugated (with rock and sherdtemper) characterize the period. Repopulation occurs;and Aztec East, a large Chacoan site on the AnimasRiver, is constructed.In summary, at the conclusion of the ChacoProject, researchers had better chronological controlofthe carbon-painted ceramic series in Chaco Canyon.The blending of traits visible in Chaco McElmo Blackon-whiteand the recognition that it was made inseveral subregions of the San Juan Basin suggest aneed to discern whether this represents a mixing ofpeople, ideas, or both, beginning around A.D. 1080.The evolution of the carbon-painted ceramic seriesindicates that this was a gradual transition and notmajor migration into the canyon from the north.Due to the lack of ceramic evidence on thesurface of some small sites that were reused in latertimes, there are still problems with the identificationof Mesa Verde phase sites and settlement patterns,both in Chaco Canyon and throughout the San JuanBasin. What is needed is a detailed reassessment ofthe number of sites and their locations; of whetherthey represented single components or the reuse ofpreviously inhabited areas, and of the settlementpatterns (especially the identification of communities).Based on his sample resurvey data, Windes(1987[1]:404) was able to correlate the decreasedpopUlations or possible abandonment between A.D.1130 and 1180, and the final departure of the Pueblopeople from the canyon in the late A.D. 1200s withtwo unusually long drought periods that Bums (1983)indicated would be disastrous for com production.Because so little time was devoted to this period, thesocial implications for the inhabitants of the canyonand the larger region were not pursued.DiscussionA reaction to the stress of major droughts (A.D.1130 to 1180, and A.D. 1276 to 1299) may have beenthe abandonment of the San Juan Basin and FourComers area of the Anasazi region. Yet someevidence for cultural continuity exists. Evidence forthe Mesa Verde phase in the Chaco Basin includessites located in the bottomlands of Chaco Canyon, aswell as in the Chacra Mesa uplands, near PuebloPintado (Pintado Gap, and east of Pintado Gap). Sitesare also documented as far south as Las Ventanas andthe Rio Puerco. Known communities include theChaco East community (Windes et al. 2000); MesaTierra (Marshall et al. 1979; Mathien 2002); the CM100 area, and one settlement to the north (Jacobsonand Roney 1985); Pueblo Pintado; and possibly RatonSprings (Marshall et al. 1979; Wait 1983:181-184).No communities are documented for central ChacoCanyon; but firepits in some of the upper levels offilled rooms in great houses suggest that some activitytook place at least a few times in these sites. Theywere not, however, the centers of activity they hadbeen in earlier years.Based on a review of data on known Mesa Verdephase site locations from the inventory survey ofChaco Canyon, the additional lands survey, and theChacra Mesa sites documented by Jacobson and Roney(1985) (which included Gwinn Vivian's data from thelate 1950s), McKenna (1991) commented on the diversityof site types that were utilized during this lateoccupation. Some were classified as expedient constructions;among these were small talus-bouldershelters and granaries, open adobe rooms, masonrypueblitos on butte tops, jacal buildings and augmentingmasonry rooms, and small boulder-backedpueblos. There was a reuse of existing buildings(e.g., at 29JS633, Be 236, Be 52, Leyit Kin, and Be51), as well as construction of new units (HeadquartersB, Unit III at Leyit Kin, and the area of Kiva6 at Be 51). Some commonalities among sites includesmall, single-story, accretional construction and ablocked-in keyhole-style plastered kiva. Rooms hadsmall firepits located near the walls, paired slabmetates in bins, and subfloor burials. None of thisdata reflect the high labor input that was seen duringthe Classic period.McKenna (1991) suggested that Mesa Verdeceramics included subregional types, but representeda broad regional continuum. If so, what was happeningthroughout the region? When Stein andMcKenna (1988) conducted reconnaissance survey ofgreat houses and other small sites in the Animas