From Shadows of Chaco Canyon Chapter Two:

     “The ancestors had settled this land in search of peace. Strategically, it had made perfect sense to move to a land no one else wanted to fight for. That was not to imply that the land was worthless but that it was simply waiting for a people who were worthy. The land had a subtle, patient beauty, a spiritual quietness that welcomed those willing to adapt.”

Anasazi is a Navajo word that was commonly thought to mean “ancient ones,” or “ancient foreigners.”  In more literal translations, however, Anasazi can mean “enemy ancestors.”  “Ana’í,” in the Navajo language can mean alien or enemy.  The Navajo word “Sází,” is more complex to translate, but may be used when referring to decomposed corpses whose bones have been scattered.

Ancestral Puebloan people:  Many Puebloan people from the four corners area (New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado) consider Chaco to be their ancestral homeland.  Legends, prayers, and songs honor their spiritual and physical connection to Chaco.  The Hopi and people from all 20 pueblos of New Mexico consider the four corners area to be their ancestral homeland.  The Navajo, while not Puebloan people, refer to Chaco as Tse' biyahnii'a'ah: the home of the Great Gambler.

No one knows what the people of Chaco Canyon called themselves, for their language has been lost.  The people who once lived in Chaco Canyon left behind great houses and even greater mysteries.  These ancestral homes are powerful places; sacred, living sites that some people believe should be allowed to return to the earth.  Perhaps the people of Chaco Canyon didn’t “disappear” or “go” anywhere, but live on through their descendants among the many tribes than inhabit the four corners region.  Many of these tribes have oral traditions that link their ancestry to the people of Chaco Canyon.  Their songs, prayers, beliefs, and traditions reflect this heritage.

The Exodus from Chaco Canyon was a planned one.  Doorways were sealed off.  The roofs of the Great Kivas were destroyed by fire, and the burn marks are still visible on some of the walls.  Yet some believe that the people of Chaco Canyon never fully left, that the spirits of the ancestors remain and the wind carries their voices.

Great North Road: The Great North Road runs within one/half of one degree of true north for 31 miles, incorporating massive land cuts, stairways, and ramps.  There are often two and sometimes four parallel roads.  Much of the Great North Road is a precise 9 meters across, approximately 29.5 feet, and wider than modern two lane roads.  Parallel road segments may have ceremonial significance, as one segment will often exhibit signs of more use.  The artifacts found along the North road tend to be ceremonial in nature—such as highly decorated jars—while artifacts found along the South road tend to be of a more utilitarian design.  These parallel segments are found along both the North and South roads.

The roads are widest when approaching the Great Houses, perhaps partly to increase the dramatic effect of approaching such grand buildings.  Other roads farther away from the main canyon are often half the width, narrowing to 2 meters in remote areas where difficult terrain merits conservancy.  Excavated areas, raised roadways, ramps, and stairways exhibit the same pattern, seldom appearing in roads further away from the Great Houses.  Why were such massive construction projects undertaken by a society that didn’t have the wheel?  Perhaps the lanes were ceremonial in nature.

 From Shadows of Chaco Canyon Chapter One:

     “Kee looked for the sacred order of celestial movement within all things. He believed that in following the natural order of the heavens, peace and harmony could be attained on the earth below.”

Pictograph: Rock Painting.  The super nova depicted near Peñasco Blanco is an example of a pictograph.  This pictograph is believed to record a super nova explosion in 1054 A.D.  The Crab Nebula we see today is the result of this exploding star.  Visible on the vertical face below the pictograph are three concentric circles.  These may be a representation of the appearance of Halley’s Comet in A.D. 1066.  

Petroglyph: Image pecked or carved into rock.

Kiva: The kivas in Chaco Canyon are situated half below ground and half above ground.  This may reference the belief that people emerged from below the earth in the previous world to live on top of the world in the current world.  The circular shape of the kiva draws parallels to the birth canal and the journey from the previous world.  Thus, the six primary directions are honored, north, south, east, west, above, and below.  Most doorways in the kivas of Chaco Canyon are aligned to the north, where the night sky circles the North Star.

Great Kiva: Very large and round subterranean rooms are commonly referred to as great kivas.  These have several features in common, such as: an entryway and antechamber (a room forming the entrance to another and often used as a waiting room), a low masonry bench encircling the base of the room, a raised masonry fire box and deflector, four seating pits for room support beams, and raised floor vaults between the seating pits.  The seating pits are located in the four quadrants of the circle.  Huge sandstone discs were used as foundation stones for the roof support beams, with a layer of adobe inserted between each disc.  A suede leather bag containing powdered turquoise was found beneath the northeast corner of the great kiva of Chetro Ketl.

From Shadows of Chaco Canyon Chapter Seven:

     “Grasping one of the smaller pouches containing red, iron-rich ore from First Light Mountain, Kota reverently retraced the outline of the hallowed circle with the color of human life. Inside the circle, in the direction of first light, he used yellow pollen to honor the sun.
     ‘Contractions during the birth of the child from Mother Earth and Father Sun formed the mountains and valleys as life passed through the sipapu, the sacred place where above and below are joined.’
     Kota called to the ancient spirits. He moved to each of the four sacred directions, where a buckskin bag containing powdered turquoise rested beneath each roof-support beam. He knocked softly on each beam before returning to place four pieces of turquoise in the center of the circle. Kota then released the power of the first world by brushing away a small amount of the red powder in the four directions.”

Dendrochronology: tree ring dating.  The age of a tree can be identified by the lines that separate each year of growth.  The annual growth of trees varies considerably due to factors of rainfall, solar activity, insects, and other influences.  Lines with very little space between them reflect years with poorer rainfall and less than optimal growing conditions.  Lines that are farther apart reflect more favorable years.  When a living tree is felled, it is possible to count the lines from the outside to the most inner rings and establish the age of the tree.  By overlapping the growth ring history from ever-older trees, it is possible to identify the age of the trees used in Chaco Canyon.

Over 225,000 logs were used in the construction of the Great Houses in Chaco Canyon.  The Chuska Mountains to the northwest were likely sources for some of these logs.  The ponderosa pines were felled and allowed to dry out to reduce their weight.  The bark was peeled off, then the logs were carried a distance of over 60 miles to Chaco Canyon.  There were also forests 35 miles south, 20 miles east, or 50 miles to the west.  The logs were up to 3 feet in diameter and 60 feet in length and represent an undertaking of massive proportions by a society that didn’t have the wheel.  One of the logs used in Chetro Ketl measures 26 inches in diameter!

Masonry Styles: The oldest buildings were constructed with walls one stone thick interspaced with liberal amounts of mud mortar.  As the masons began building multi-story buildings, they refined their technique by using walls with inner cores of rubble surrounded by thin veneers of stone.  Making the walls thick at the base provided the necessary structural support for a multistory building, while tapering the walls as they rose reduced the load on the foundation.

From Shadows of Chaco Canyon Chapter Nineteen:

     “A man from the Water Society witnessed a miracle in Mockingbird Canyon. A light rain was falling on the mesa above, but a river was rushing down the canyon below. The Water Society was already helping the people, but now they were about to turn this miracle into a gift that would change Chaco Canyon forever.”

Irrigation systems: A major rainstorm falling on the mesa above Chaco Canyon can provide half a million gallons of water to be used for irrigation in the fields below.  Aerial photographs show irrigation systems leading to gardens near Casa Rinconada, Peñasco Blanco, Chetro Ketl, Pueblo Bonito, Tsin Kletzin, Hungo Pavi, Una Vida, and Pueblo Wijiji.  Archeologists have identified remnants of diversion dams, canals, ditches, head gates, and reservoirs.  A series of gardens near Chetro Ketl measure 12 acres, but may have encompassed 24 acres at one time.  The average size of the subdivided plots is about 75 feet by 45 feet or one-thirteenth of an acre.

Weritos Dam: is located just below South Mesa.  The masonry structure is 130 feet long, 5.5 feet thick at the base, and 8 feet high.  Another dam, this one near Cly Canyon, is 120 feet long, 20 feet thick and 7 feet high!

Canals: Most canals are an average of 9 feet wide and between 2 and 5 feet deep.  The canals were lined with stone to minimize evaporative and seepage loss.  A canal near Peñasco Blanco extends for a distance of 750 feet, reaches 15 feet in width, and averages 4.5 feet in depth.  A head gate at the terminus diverts water from another canal and directs water to a series of garden plots that may have been used to grow the three sisters: corn, beans, and squash.

Roads : The Great South Road connects Chaco Canyon with Bee Burrow and Kin Ya’a, near Crownpoint, New Mexico, a distance of  about 30 miles.  The East Road connects Chaco Canyon with Pueblo Pintado, a distance of about 16 miles. 

The Southeast road appears to extend to an area north of Grants, New Mexico, approximately 58 miles.  There is a cluster of 3 outlying pueblos that exhibit the same advanced stonework and floor plans of the great houses in Chaco Canyon. 

Many of the roadways connect the Great Houses in Chaco Canyon with mesas and other high places that could have served as signal towers.  A signal fire at night or flashes using a mica rock during the day can be seen from many of the Great Houses in Chaco Canyon.

Archeology of Chaco Canyon:  Richard Wetherill began exploration and excavation of the Great Houses in Chaco Canyon in 1895.  He returned in the summer of 1896 with Navajo guides and workers, and in August they found over 200 pottery jars, a dozen turquoise pendants, a quiver of arrows, and approximately 300 wooden staffs.  14 skeletons were found in an adjoining room, one of the surprisingly few burial sites in the canyon.  One skeleton had been buried with huge turquoise bands around his wrists and ankles, the pendants surrounding his neck and abdomen contained more than 4000 pieces of turquoise.  A basket with a turquoise-mosaic contained 2,150 turquoise beads, 152 small turquoise pendants, 22 large turquoise pendants, and 3,317 shell beads and small pendants!  In all, enough artifacts to fill a railroad freight car were excavated in 1895.  Yearly excavations continued through 1899, when fears that the scope of excavations constituted vandalism.  Concerns about protecting archeological sites were raised which led to the Antiquities Act of 1906.  This Act addressed the preservation of ruins in the United States, and Chaco Canyon National Monument was created on March 11, 1907.

From Shadows of Chaco Canyon Chapter Seventeen:

     “Because of its beauty, the shaman reached for an elaborate pot honoring the original four clans. The pot had four separate designs drawn upon it in the distinctive black-on-white style perfected by potters working at Chaco Canyon. Medicine Man and Spider Woman, the Snow Twins, and Reed Woman graced its sides.”

Pottery: The pottery of Chaco Canyon is distinctive, with a unique black on white design that is still popular today.  The lunar and solar designs seen in petroglyphs and pictographs are also used on pottery.  Pottery originating in Chaco Canyon has been found in villages hundreds of miles away, leading to speculation that these finely crafted vessels were tradable items.  The pots were also utilitarian items, gradually phasing out the use of baskets for culinary purposes between 400 and 750 A.D.  Unlike baskets, ceramic pots take less time to construct and can be placed directly onto the fire while cooking.  (Baskets can be used for cooking by placing heated rocks inside).  Early pots were utilitarian in nature, built by coiling thick ropes of clay together.  Sanidine Basalt, sand, Andesite, and Quartz were used as temper which is mixed with the clay to increase hardness and heat resistance.  Paint was vegetable or mineral based.  Black paint can be produced by boiling Rocky Mountain beeplant (Cleome serrulata), yellow beeplant (Cleome lutea), and Tansy mustard Descurainia pinnata).  Sunflower seeds mixed with yellow ocher also produce black paint.  Pinon resin produces brown paint, rabbitbrush blossoms produce yellow paint, while Indian paintbrush mixed with juniper bark produces reddish-orange paint.  Iron oxide or charcoal can also be used to produce black paint.

Some pots were used to transport turquoise ore from the Guadalupe Mountains near the Rio Puerco, back to the processing sites in Chaco Canyon. (A distance of approximately 60 miles)  Although it is impossible to have definitive proof from archeological evidence, compelling evidence suggests that turquoise processing flourished in Chaco Canyon between 1020 and 1050 AD.  Evidence of large-scale workshops have been excavated at Pueblo Bonito, Pueblo del Arroyo, Una Vida, and Kin Kletso.  The jewelry was then transported to outlying pueblos in decorative, valuable pots where both jewelry and pots would be sold or traded at a profit.

Threatening Rock: After centuries of effort to halt its collapse, Threatening Rock fell on January 21, 1941.  About 30 rooms in Pueblo Bonito were destroyed.

Atlatl: Atlatls are flat pieces of wood that function as an arm extension, allowing their user to hurl stone darts with added force and accuracy.  Typically 18 inches in length, an atlatl is strapped to the hunter’s throwing arm.  A hook at the tip of the board forms a notch that can hold the feathered end of the dart.  The darts are typically 4 feet in length and have stone tips.  Atlatls were a precursor to the bow and arrow.

Travois: From the French word: travail, a frame for restraining horses.  A travois usually consists of 2 long poles lashed in the shape of an isosceles triangle (having two equal sides).  Cargo is tied or placed on cloth or leather stretched between the two poles.  The pointed end faces forward, allowing a person or draft animal to more efficiently pull the cargo.  More primitive than the wheel, perhaps, but the trailing ends of the poles easily pass over rocks, soft ground, and irregular surfaces that would stop wheeled vehicles.

If You Visit: When the sun goes down, temperatures drop dramatically, sometimes as much as 60 degrees.  This is a land of extremes, with summer temperatures reaching 100 degrees and winter temperatures as low as 30 degrees below zero F.  Due to low humidity, rain will often evaporate before reaching the ground, creating virga, streamers extending below rain clouds, also called female rain.  About a third of the annual rainfall occurs between July and September.  Chaco Canyon Cultural National Historic Park can be reached from the north, via US 550 (previously NM 44), County Road (CR) 7900 and CR 7950.  There are 8 miles of paved roadway and 13 miles of dirt road that can become impassable with rain or snow.  Chaco Canyon Cultural National Historic Park can be reached from the south from Interstate 40.  From exit 53 at Thoreau, follow NM-371 for 13 miles north (past Smith Lake, past Crownpoint), right or east on Highway 9 for 13 miles, left or north on 57 for 20 miles.  This route is not suggested for RV’s and is adversely affected by weather.  It is recommended that you call the park at (505-786-7014) for updated road conditions before attempting either route.

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