This lecture covers what is known as the Chaco Phenomenon. The Chacoan world spread-out over hundreds of miles. It encompasses great houses, ritual roads, petroglyphs and sacred landscapes. In just over a century the people of Chaco Canyon turned their home into what the people called the Center place, a massive ritual site attracting thousands of people to worship the power of solar and lunar cycles.
The legacy of this place will have an impact in this region for centuries to come.
Ruth Van Dyke has five important points to remember when thinking about and studying the Chaco World:
Sacred Geography:
Unusual and highly visible landscapes such as mountains and springs are likely shrines. Line of sight and roads link these places
Visibility:
Architectural prominence, site positions, and line of sight connections likely express a Chacoan concern with visibility. “Classic Bonito” architecture is positioned to be very visible. Many buildings and other features are place to be within sight of meaningful topographic landscapes
Movement
Roads, ramps, and staircases may have enhanced or restricted access and likely served as routes of procession.
Memory:
Chacoan architects worked within a storied and ancient landscape. References to the distant past, ritual renewal, and other dimensions of social memory are incorporated into the architecture and the landscape.
Cosmography:
Cardinal directions, balanced dualism, and center place are tied to the landscape and the architecture. They were likely tied to the movements of the sun and the moon.
Further notes:
Arguably no site in Native American history has spawned so much research and so much controversy. Not only among the native peoples who are still here, but also seasoned archaeologists, “new age philosophers” and alien hunters. The bibliography for this lecture is massive. It also barely scratches the surface.
I have read hundreds of articles and dozens of books for this lecture. I have also visited the site on three separate occasions. However, the master narrative is primarily derived from three sources, each of which of course had to be reconciled based on other research and my own knowledge of architecture and history.
1. Ruth Van Dyke, The Chaco Experience: Landscape and Ideology at the Center Place (Santa Fe, NM: School for Advanced Research, 2014)
2. Stephen Lekson, A History of the Ancient Southwest (Santa FE, NM: School for Advanced Research Press, 2009).
3. David Stuart, Anasazi America: seventeen centuries on road from Center place 2nd Ed. (2014)
(Stuart’s title had to be defended in his book, and he refused to change it from the 2000 to 2014 edition, for reasons explained in Conflicts of Naming slide below)
In addition, while many of the drawings are extracted from articles and books, some are my own. These as based upon my own measurements and observations on site. These may be controversial as they may conflict with some archaeologists’ interpretations of the architecture.
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