Archaeology of the Southwest, Third Edition by Cordell Linda S McBrinn Maxine & Maxine E. McBrinn

Author:Cordell, Linda S,McBrinn, Maxine & Maxine E. McBrinn [Linda S. Cordell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781315433714
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Great house sites of the Classic Bonito phase in Chaco Canyon are located only on the north side of the canyon. This placement gives them a southern exposure, which would have kept them relatively warm during winter. It might also have allowed direct, line-of-sight visual communication between the great houses via fires built at signaling stations—arc-shaped stone structures with fireboxes situated on high points above the canyon (Lekson 2006). But probably the most important reason the Chacoans built these great houses where they did is that the north side of the canyon receives runoff from the north rim, water that farmers used to irrigate their fields (see chapter 6).

Navajo residents of Chaco Canyon and the early archaeologists who worked there long ago knew that ancient roadways crisscrossed the canyon (Figure 7.12). In the 1970s, researchers discovered that the roadways extended far beyond the canyon's confines (Figure 7.13), and they began systematically trying to define them and trace their extent (Kantner and Kintigh 2006). Chacoan roads are known for their straight courses. They do not turn to avoid cliffs or drainages, and when they change direction, they do so with sharp, angular turns rather than curves. Their builders negotiated topographic obstacles such as cliffs and ledges by means of stairways and ramps.

FIGURE 7.12. The Jackson staircase, Chaco Canyon. Stairways that form parts of Chacoan roads vary from shallowly pecked finger- and toeholds to well-constructed flights of wide steps with treads and risers cut out of the bedrock. This feature was first documented by artist/ photographer W. H. Jackson on May 10, 1877. (Courtesy of the National Park Service)

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