Culture and Ecology of Chaco Canyon and the San Juan Basin

Related Communities 255foodstuffs kept in storage facilities and the means toredistribute goods could have brought relief to theuneven production of subsistence resources throughoutthe basin. R. Powers et al. (1983:341-342) wereinterested in addressing the issues of interdependencerelated to local specialization and whether redistributionwas the principal mode of exchange. Theythought that if the function of the Chacoan great housein the outlying communities was as a residence forlocal elite and a regional or subregional administrativeor exchange center, then it is reasonable to assume thatthe appearance of Chacoan structures throughout theSan Juan Basin by around A.D. 900 signals the formalparticipation of the individual communities in anextensive regional system and the emergence of aranked society.The mechanisms for exchange were not wellunderstood; there are no, or few, durable goodsrepresent from Chaco Canyon that could be exchangedfor ceramics, lithics, or wood. Perhaps labor to buildthe Chacoan structures was involved. Roads did linkChaco Canyon to diverse ecosystems; yet few roadswent beyond the edges of the Chaco Basin. Becausemost of the goods that were brought into ChacoCanyon did not seem to be redistributed to neighboringsites outside the canyon, the canyon did notappear to function as an effective redistribution center.Even among the Chacoan structures within ChacoCanyon there were discrepancies in expected distributionsof imported materials if these centers wereexpected to control items from sources located at theends of the specific roads they headed. R. Powers etal. (1983:343) realized that much more work wouldneed to be done in order to clarify this point.If a coordination of exchange, or other politicaland ceremonial interactions, did lead to the rise of aregional elite centered in the canyon, the eliteprobably did not appear until around A.D. 1075 to1100, after there was an increase in construction ofChacoan structures in both the canyon and the SanJuan Basin. The possibility of rival elite centers in theSan Juan area (Aztec and Salmon ruins) at this timewas proposed. There was evidence of major constructionat Aztec East in the A.D. 1100s and early A.D.1200s, but major construction episodes in the canyonceased in the early A.D. 1100s. By A.D. 1130, andcontinuing through 1180, a 50-year drought wasindicated in the tree-ring record, possibly causing thedemise of the system in Chaco Canyon, especially ifthe canyon's inhabitants were dependent on food cropsfrom this northern area.In summary, the two initial surveys of outlyingChacoan structures in the San Juan Basin provided ageneral outline for the initial construction ofregionwide Chacoan structures, identified theirlocations in better watered areas of the basin, indicateda hierarchy of Chacoan structure size, and evaluatedthe hypothesis of Chaco as a redistribution center.Although redistribution was not substantiated, thecentrality of Chaco Canyon was accepted, and theprobability of a ranked society to coordinate itsfunctions was suggested. However, the function ofthis center needed further investigation. At the sametime, other investigators were conducting research atseveral of the outlying communities. Their workprovides a closer look at life in these communitiesduring several time periods.Research at Three Great House CommunitiesContemporaneous survey and excavation byother investigators at three communities providedmore detailed information about local adaptations andinterrelations with Chaco Canyon. The Guadalupecommunity in the middle Rio Puerco Valley to thesoutheast has evidence for an initial occupation in thelate Basketmaker-Pueblo I period and for continueduse through Pueblo III (Baker and Durand 2003;Irwin-Williams and Baker 1991). The Bis sa' anicommunity on the Escavada Wash northeast of ChacoCanyon was short lived. It was established aroundA.D. 1100 in an area not previously inhabited, andwas abandoned in the mid- A.D. 1100s (Bretemitz etal. 1982). The Salmon community on the San JuanRiver was established in an area where there had beensome earlier settlement. The great house was constructedin the late A.D. WOOs and was used throughPueblo III (Irwin-Williams and Shelley 1980). Basedon their view of the San Juan Basin from the peripherylooking toward Chaco Canyon, investigators at each ofthese communities suggested models as to howChacoan culture was integrated within their subarea ofthe larger system and how the system operated.