Ancestral pueblos of prehistoric American Indian communities - Chaco Culture 353
What and Why
Between the 9th to 12th century CE, the Chaco Canyon was a major centre of culture for the ancestral Puebloans in the region. The Chacoans quarried sandstone from the canyon and and constructed a number of major complexes that remained some of the largest buildings ever built in North America until the 19th century CE. Many of these buildings suggested evidence of sophisticated archaeo-astronomy, and supported by a number helio-themed petroglyphs. The site hence presented and preserved some of the most important aboriginal cultures in the site.
Turns out that climate change is not a new subject. Apparently the Chaco culture dispersed and moved out of the canyon due to climate change, when a 50-year long drought hit the area and hence the entire pueblo moved out.
Toponymy
The most likely possibility is that Chaca / Chaco may be a Spanish transliteration of the Navajo word tsékoh, meaning canyon, as the area reflects. It is unlikely that the word Chaco has anything to do with the South American Gran Chaco. The name of the precinct Nageezi means squash in Navajo language.
See
The entire historic park is somehow arranged in a narrow loop starting from the visitor centre at the entrance. We shall follow the loop.
Una Vida
Una Vida, Spanish for 'one life', is an archaeological site located right at the entrance of the monument life.
The site is surrounded by rock art and petroglyphs that depict human figures, solar signs, and geometric forms.
Hungo Pavi
Hungo Pavi is an ancestral house just 2 km from the ruins of Una Vida. The house measure almost 250 m in circumference and initial explorations revealed 72 ground-level rooms inside the house.
The name itself derives from a Hopi tribal place meaning 'reed spring village, with a name Shongopovi. It is unknown how Hopi place name found its way to the region.
Chetro Ketl
Another very big great house with a huge kiva on the top picture, Chetro Ketl was one of the largest houses in the historic site, and the house is probably the main landmark of the park. One of the main features is the very large and precise circular kiva. The kiva is a Puebloan gathering place / room for a religious or political purposes.
The house and the kiva used to have a roof, but was removed by erosion. The meaning of the name seems to have lost.
Pueblo Bonito
Pueblo Bonito, Spanish for beautiful town, is the largest and best-known great house in the park. It was built between the mid-9th century CE to early 12th-century CE. According to the National Park Service, Pueblo Bonito is the most thoroughly investigated and celebrated cultural site in Chaco Canyon and that Pueblo Bonito is an archeological icon, as famous as United Kingdom's Stonehenge or Peru's Machu Picchu.
There are over thirty other kivas or ceremonial structures in this pueblo, and there are many courtyards. Interior living spaces were quite large by the standards of the ancient Pueblo.
The site incorporates approximately 800 individual rooms covering more than 12,000 m2. In some parts of the village, the structure reached four and five storeys high. The construction technologies used were considered quite advanced, as evidenced by the very precise geometry of the circular kiva.
The site indicates good Puebloans' knowledge and comprehension of solar and lunar cycles; both of which are evidenced by both the petroglyphs and the architecture of Pueblo Bonito itself.
According to the official websites, the highly organised large-scale structures, featuring multi-storey construction and sophisticated coursed masonry, illustrate the increasing complexity of Chaco social structure, which distinguished itself within the regional culture of the ancestral Pueblo and dominated the area for more than four centuries. The high incidence of storage areas indicate the probability that the Chacoans played a central economic role, and the great size and unusual features of the ceremonial kivas suggest that complex religious ceremony may have been significant in their lives.
Pueblo del Arroyo
Another big great house, the Pueblo del Arroyo, meaning village of the stream, suggesting it was, at least historically, located near a river. It was the fourth largest great house in the park.
Pueblo Alto
Pueblo Alto, meaning high village, is located in the higher side of the park.
Casa Chiquita
Casa Chiquita, meaning a small house, is a small great house in the park. It is in the same site as Kin Kletso, meaning yellow house.
Peñasco Blanco
Peñasco Blanco means the white cliff in Spanish, and the main features are the petroglyphs.
One of the very important scientific contributions of these petroglyphs is the supernova pictograph, a major astronomical event SN1054 that happened on 5th July 1054 CE.
Getting There and Around
The historical park falls under the governance of the city of Nageezi which is 50 km away from the park. The place is extremely remote and the dirt road access can be very challenging during driving. There is no other way to reach it other than driving.
As in other national parks of America, the entry fee is USD $25 per vehicle per week. This will spend you a good afternoon of discovery.
UNESCO Inscription
For over 2,000 years, Pueblo peoples occupied a vast region of the south-western United States. Chaco Canyon, a major centre of ancestral Pueblo culture between 850 and 1250, was a focus for ceremonials, trade and political activity for the prehistoric Four Corners area. Chaco is remarkable for its monumental public and ceremonial buildings and its distinctive architecture – it has an ancient urban ceremonial centre that is unlike anything constructed before or since. In addition to the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, the World Heritage property includes the Aztec Ruins National Monument and several smaller Chaco sites managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
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