Culture and Ecology of Chaco Canyon and the San Juan Basin

274 Chaco Project Synthesisgreater number of rooms would hold surpluses; theycould also store some trade items along with foodstuffs.These great houses exhibited increasedformalization in design of the units, the use of someimported beams, and lack of growth by accretion.Judge's (1989) final model incorporated theseconcepts within several periods:The Pre-System Period extended from aboutA.D. 500 to 900 (now A.D. 850). Judge assumedthat Basketmaker III and Pueblo I popUlationsthroughout the Chaco Basin pursued a generalizedsubsistence strategy based on horticulture andgathering of wild plant foods. Although horticulturelimited mobility, storage of domesticated foods,gathering and storage of wild plant foods, and a networkof reciprocal exchanges among kinsmen wouldhave been adequate to ensure stability of the systemuntil a stimulus necessitated change. The BasketmakerIII and Pueblo I populations were primary consumerswhose stability was dependent on the environmentalconditions, especially available moisture.The period from around A.D. 850 or 900 to1000 or 1020 was designated the Initialization Period.Although periodicity of rainfall would not be controlled,if the system sustained itself during the initialperiod of environmental stress in the mid-A.D. 800s,Chaco would attract people for whom mobility was theonly option. Because the canyon lacks many naturalresources, the increased population would tax thesupply of local materials-e.g., lithics, edible flora,and fauna-and inhabitants of Chaco Canyon wouldhave maintained earlier reciprocal relationships withresidents throughout the Chaco Basin. Ties with otherareas to obtain ceramics, timber, and other importswould lead to the establishment of local redistributioncenters. Evidence to support such a relationshipincludes Red Mesa Black-on-white pottery found inthe southern half of the San Juan Basin and probablyimported into Chaco Canyon; during this period it isthe dominant ceramic type in Chaco great house sites,as well as in contemporary small houses (H. Toll1984; H. Toll and McKenna 1997).Because Judge (1979; Judge et al. 1981) assumedthat resource pooling and the redistribution of goodscompensated for fluctuating local environments, heproposed that the earlier reciprocal exchanges of foodsand other items among kinsmen would have becomeincreasingly complex and more formalized throughtime. Those who had improved yield per hectarewould have more food to share in bad times, but theirneighbors would become indebted if such times persisted.Thus, a labor pool would be available for theconstruction of great houses (e.g., stage I at HungoPavi in the mid- to late A.D. 900s; Lekson 1984a:152) or other features, and for craft specialization(e.g., production of turquoise jewelry). Thesemethods of repayment led to the evolution of a newniche for the few leaders who became secondaryconsumers and independent of environmentalconstrictions.Similar developments would occur in wellwateredoutlying areas, where Chacoan structureswould function as places to pool and redistribute localsubsistence resources (Judge 1989:235). Most earlycommunities with great houses are located to the southor west (e.g., Skunk Springs, Kin Bineola, PeachSprings, and EI Rito [R. Powers et al. 1983]). Otherearly Pueblo II outliers (Judge 1989:Figure 22) areWallace, in southwestern Colorado; Sterling, alongthe San Juan River above its confluence with theAnimas; and Guadalupe, to the southeast of Chacoalong the Rio Puerco.Although Chaco Canyon was not considered acentral place at this time and the communitiesprobably were independent with regard to subsistence,Judge proposed that Chaco was taking the lead inturquoise-processing. Guadalupe Ruin, a great housesituated within a larger early community (see Irwin­Williams and Baker 1991) was suggested as a intermediatelink between Chaco and the Cerrillosturquoise mines. Because of the large number ofturquoise objects recovered from sites in the canyonand evidence for turquoise workshops appearing in theA.D. 900s (Mathien 1984a), turquoise production byearly, and probably part-time, craft specialization wasproposed as a means to both stimulate and regulateexchange. Because the canyon is poor in resources,jewelry production would have been an additionalbuffer against hard times. If people in Chaco hadcontrol over turquoise production, then managementof the system would be in the hands of specialists(Judge 1989:237); yet, see discussion above regardingthe amount of control Chaco may have had over theCerrillos turquoise mines.