Culture and Ecology of Chaco Canyon and the San Juan Basin

258 Chaco Project Synthesisfunctioned neither as a transportation nor a productioncommunity (Marshall et al. 1979), but may have hada special cooperative function within the system.Marshall and Doyel (1981: 73 -75) proposed the"Chaco halo" model to explain the interrelationshipsbetween Chaco Canyon and neighboring areas. Thearea included in the Chaco halo is oval-shaped, withthe greatest distance east to west (Doyel et al. 1984:Figure 7). It includes the lower Escavada drainage onthe north, where Greasy Hill, the Escavada complex,Kin Indian ruin, and Kimbeto Point sites are articulatedto the northern road system. To the west alongthe lower Kin Klizhin drainage are three areas locatedalong road systems: the Padilla Well complex; theearlier Casa del Rio mound; and Kin Klizhin, with itstower kiva. To the south are Upper Kin Klizhin,Greenlee ruin, and the Chacra Face-Fajada Washcommunities-all established along early road alignments.To the east, a road along the bottom of thecanyon was postulated to link Wijiji and PuebloPintado to the canyon. Thus, the halo (Figure 8.6)would include sites with different functions, all ofwhich would provide support for the canyon. Itwould include ancestral communities that had beenestablished as early as Basketmaker III in areas withgood agricultural lands. During the Late Bonitophase, a period with good precipitation levels, scioncommunities arose in areas with less agriculturalpotential; they were usually smaller and lacked typicalfeatures such as great kivas. Some of these communitiesmay have been used by popUlations thatdispersed throughout the area on a seasonal basis.They may have been tied to different centers withinthe canyon, and Chaco Canyon could have been aregional capital composed of the representative centersof outlying districts.Other components of the regional system wouldinclude settlements from 1) the San Juan area, whereaquatic and riverine associated resources would beavailable; 2) the Chuska slope, where there is a readysupply of construction timbers, lithic materials (e.g.,Narbona Pass chert and trachyte temper), and clays;and 3) the southern Cibola district, where land suitablefor agriculture and an upland pinon-juniper resourcearea were located. Because the resources were dispersed,there would be a need for redistribution ofmaterials (Doyel 1981). This system, however, wasfragile and depended on cooperation from all members.Depending on the amount and type of environmentalstress, centers could wax and wane. Chacodeveloped as the regional capital because it was at acrossroad within this system that included differentethnic, geographical, and environmental boundaries(Doyel 1981).Salmon RuinFrom 1972 through 1978, Cynthia Irwin­Williams (1972; Irwin-Williams and Shelley 1980)adopted a general systems model and used data fromarchaeology and ethnology to test several hypothesesabout the Chacoan adaptation at the Salmon ruinlocated just west of Bloomfield, New Mexico. Toidentify other local communities and to understand therelationships between the building at Salmon ruin andits later occupants, a survey of 3,000 km 2 (1,200 m?)was initiated (Whaley and Yingst 1978). The initialworking hypothesis was that there were distinct butculturally related popUlations in the Animas, San Juan,and La Plata valleys. Although very little informationfrom the site survey was published, Irwin-Williams(1980b:part 12) indicated that 150 sites were recorded.Included were two large great houses (Aztec andSalmon), plus approximately 12 smaller Chacoanstructures (Irwin-Williams 1980a:part 1:6).All known Chaco structures were located at ornear the confluence of a medium-size tributary withthe river valley, much like the earliest great houses inChaco Canyon (Irwin-Williams 1980b: 146). TwinAngels Pueblo, a site that was definitely roadassociated,was the only exception. Some local smallhouse sites were similarly located at tributary confluences,but some also appeared away from suchlocations. At the larger Chacoan outliers (Salmonruin, Aztec ruin, Jacquez, and the Sterling site), thenew buildings were thought to represent a considerablepopUlation increase in an already-inhabitedenvironment.Prior to A.D. 1050, there were a small numberof Chacoan sites in the San Juan area. Bice (1983)documents architectural features at the Sterling ruin,located on the south side of the San Juan River nearFarmington. It has an early Chaco masonry style(type I), as well as later construction and habitation bypeople with Chaco and Mesa Verde ceramic types.