Featured: Explore Scotland (and everywhere else) with our Megalithic Portal iPhone app

Explore Scotland (and everywhere else) with our Megalithic Portal iPhone app

Random Image


Bryn yr Hen Bobl

The Ancient Celts, Barry Cunliffe

The Ancient Celts, Barry Cunliffe

Who's Online

There are currently, 177 guests and 2 members online.

You are a guest. To join in, please register for free by clicking here

Sponsors

More Choices

Contribute to our running costs
Webrings
News Feeds
Megalithic Mysteries
Our Online Shop

<< Our Photo Pages >> Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito - Ancient Village or Settlement in United States in The Southwest

Submitted by bat400 on Friday, 24 February 2017  Page Views: 12487

Multi-periodSite Name: Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito Alternative Name: 29SJ387, LA 226, Bc 253
Country: United States Region: The Southwest Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Farmington, NM  Nearest Village: Cuba, NM
Latitude: 36.060610N  Longitude: 107.96158W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 5 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 4

Internal Links:
External Links:

I have visited· I would like to visit

DrewParsons would like to visit

jeffrep visited on 1st Oct 2015 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 5 Access: 4

bat400 visited on 25th Apr 2012 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 5 Access: 4 An amazing site, the absolute must-see for anyone visiting the park. In the morning I was on a hike that took me to the cliff top above Pueblo Bonita for a striking "aerial" view. By the afternoon, the site was overcast. I think the structure would be particularly beautiful early or late in the day with full sun creating shadows as you walk through the vacant rooms. The trail through the site limits you by which rooms you can enter, but you can completely circuit the outer wall of the pueblo and there is access to most of the plazas and many rooms in the eastern portion. You can linger as long as you like during daylight hours. Various masonary techniques and architectural styles can be seen in the complex. Park ranger tours are available several times a day during high season, see the website for the National Park. An inexpensive guide is also available as you enter the site, or from the Visitor's Center. Wheel chair access is possible for a portion of the site's walking trail, but the path is sand or gravel, not paved. Large chair tires or an assistant would be necessary.

optimistic20814 have visited here

Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 3 Ambience: 5 Access: 4

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by bat400 : Pueblo Bonito Great House, taken from the cliff edge directly north of the site. Photo by bat400, April 2012. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Ancient Village or Settlement in San Juan County, New Mexico
Pueblo Bonito is the premiere site in the canyon; the most massive and having been the subject of the most extensive excavation and other study. Construction took place from 850AD to about 1140 AD. The village covers over four acres, including both community and family kivas, living areas, and storage rooms.

There are over 700 rooms within the complex; as many as 350 ground floor rooms, although many were backfilled during various construction periods to serve as structural support for higher floors of rooms. Along the cliff side it rose to four stories. Although the site was built in stages, there is a consistent design being followed. Pueblo Bonito appears to have been a "planned" community.

In the aerial view, note the alignment to the cardinal directions. The south wall aligns E-W and there is a distinct E-W division with the Great Kiva 'dividing' the site.

There are 32 Kiva structures within the complex. Three are quite large and may have housed large group gatherings. Its been proposed that the many smaller kivas are associated with a clan system or family groups. Several of the larger kivas exist as round free standing structures, but the largest, and many of the smaller ones were housed within square room structures. On excavation no kiva structures were found with intact roofs, but the evidence of the original wooden and earth roofs was found.

Note the damage on the northeast side where a section of canyon wall has split off and crushed a portion of the pueblo. This occurred in the 1940's. During the occupation of the site, the 'Bonitions' were obviously aware of the threat posed by this piece of the cliff because they build a stone block retaining wall at the foot of the cliff. (Natural cliffside degradation exists throughout the canyon, and has been responsible for the destruction of petroglyphs and some portions of stairways the ancient people carved into the cliff walls.)

The first written record for the site is a report by U.S. army Lt. James H. Simpson and Carravahal, Simpson's guide from San Juan Pueblo, made during a 1849 military expedition. Carravahal named it 'Pretty Village'. Major excavation programs were the Hyde Exploring Expedition (American Museum of Natural History, directed by George Pepper and Richard Wetherill, 1886 - 1900, and Neil Judd's work for the National Geographic Society (1921 - 1927). More recently Drs. Patricia Crown and Wirt Wills re-examined the Bonito refuse mounds (Chaco Stratigraphy Project.)

Artifacts found at Pueblo Bonito include large, rich caches of pottery, worked gemstones (much of it turquoise), and a store of hundreds of wooden staffs. The large numbers of items mirror the massive building itself and its extravagant use of space. Less obvious treasures from the archeological record abound. Excavations from the 1920's were among the first to provide raw data and make use of the science of Dendochronology, using the many preserve wooden beams to determine construction dates. Finds of macaw feathers and bones and the residue of cocoa reveal trade with the Mesoamerican cultures of what is now Mexico. The ever increasing "enclosure" of Pueblo Bonito by building surrounding walls and closing doorways and other entrances leads to speculation of a hostile world bearing in on the Chaco culture.

The site is located along a paved driving loop. A marked trail (less than a mile) takes visitors through the site and interpretive signs and a trail guide highlight the architecture details characteristic of the Chaco culture.

[Information from National Park Service website, including the brochure, "Pueblo Bonito", the Chaco Research Archive for Pueblo Bonito, among other sources.]

NPS Chaco - Pueblo Bonito.

Note: Archaeogenomic evidence reveals prehistoric matrilineal dynasty. See comment for article.
You may be viewing yesterday's version of this page. To see the most up to date information please register for a free account.


Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by bat400 : Rooms within Pueblo Bonito and the other Great Houses of Chaco are large when compared with Ancestral Puebloan structures in other locations, of the same time period. A suite of rooms on the "ground floor" are connected by doorways, but there is generally no direct entrance to the plaza or exterior. Instead ladders were used, and access was through a ceiling opening. Photo by bat400, April 201... (Vote or comment on this photo)

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by bat400 : The Great Kiva of the Pueblo Bonito complex. This underground room was the largest of its kind within Pueblo Bonito and its assumed to have been used by multiple clans for major ceremonies or public gatherings. There are four larger kivas within the complex and 25 smaller kivas. Photo by bat400, April 2012 (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by bat400 : 'Corner' windows or openings are found in only seven locations in Pueblo Bonito. All were part of extensive construction periods that took place relatively late in the Chaco culture as it existed in the canyon (1075 - 1115 AD.) Some, but not all, of these openings appear to have functions as solstice calendars. Photo by bat400 April 2012. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by bat400 : The signature "T shaped" doorway of the Ancestral Puebloans. It's been postulated that the shape had significance as an entry to a special location, such as a plaza or gathering space, but a lot of variation exists in their locations in the complexes. This shape is also found in Mexico and has frequently been used into the modern era. Researchers differ over where the shape originated and its me... (3 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by bat400 : In this completely excavated block, the floor of both a second and third floor room had collapsed, so the space is now open to the sky, although the floor/roof beams can be seen. The original excavations found wall plaster, much deteriorated, and in some cases traces of decorative paintings. No doors with attachments have been found. For some small doorways, sheets of stone have been found...

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by bat400 : This view shows how sturdy the structure was. The doorway is at the second floor of the Great House. To the left you can see a room on the first floor. Above the room with the doorway is a third floor, and the back wall of a fourth floor. When constructed, all of the interior and exterior surfaces would have been coated with a mud/clay plaster. Photo by bat400, April 2012.

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by bat400 : A view of the eastern half of the complex. Near where the tour is standing there are multiple kivas. These were enclosed within square rooms and are smaller than the one great kiva found in the main plaza of the complex. Photo by bat400, April 2012.

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by bat400 : Detail of window construction. The small logs (aprox 3 inch dia) provide the support for the window opening. Doors were constructed in a similar fashion. Photo by bat400, April 2012.

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by bat400 : Pueblo Bonito Great House, taken from the cliff edge directly north of the site. Photo by bat400, April 2012. (3 comments)

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by bat400 : Pueblo Bonito. Taken from the north western side of the plaza, looking east. April 2012, photo by GCM.

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by durhamnature : Imagined restoration, old drawing from "American Antiquarian" via archive.org

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by bat400 : The Pueblo Bonito Great House taken from across the canyon bottom at Casa Rinconada. Photo by bat400, April 2012.

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by jeffrep : Pueblo Bonito, the largest and best-known great house in Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northern New Mexico in the U.S. Southwest, was built by the Ancestral Puebloans, who occupied the structure between 828 and 1126 A.D.

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by durhamnature : Old photo, from "Pueblo Bonito" via archive.org

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by durhamnature

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by durhamnature : Pottery from "Pueblo Bonito" via archive.org

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by durhamnature : Old photo, from "Pueblo Bonito" via archive.org

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by durhamnature

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by durhamnature

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by durhamnature

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by durhamnature : Plan of the site, from "Pueblo Bonito" via archive.org

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by durhamnature : Old plan of the area, from "Introduction to the Study of Archaeology" via archive.org

Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito submitted by bat400 : A partial view of the site, taken along the cliff edge. Photo by bat400, April 2012.

Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.
Click here to see more info for this site

Nearby sites

Click here to view sites on an interactive map of the area

Key: Red: member's photo, Blue: 3rd party photo, Yellow: other image, Green: no photo - please go there and take one, Grey: site destroyed

Download sites to:
KML (Google Earth)
GPX (GPS waypoints)
CSV (Garmin/Navman)
CSV (Excel)

To unlock full downloads you need to sign up as a Contributory Member. Otherwise downloads are limited to 50 sites.


Turn off the page maps and other distractions

Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 363m W 279° Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo del Arroyo* Ancient Village or Settlement
 660m S 169° Chaco Culture NHP - Casa Rinconada* Ancient Temple
 673m E 91° Chaco Culture NHP - Chetro Ketl* Ancient Village or Settlement
 920m WNW 304° Chaco Culture NHP - Kin Kletso* Ancient Village or Settlement
 1.0km N 9° Chaco Culture NHP - New Alto* Ancient Village or Settlement
 1.1km NNE 19° Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Alto* Ancient Village or Settlement
 2.7km S 173° Chaco Culture NHP - Tsin Kletzin* Ancient Village or Settlement
 3.1km NW 305° Chaco Culture NHP - Penasco Blanco Trail Petroglyphs* Rock Art
 3.1km ESE 112° Chaco Culture NHP - Hungo Pavi* Ancient Village or Settlement
 4.3km NW 306° Chaco Culture NHP - Supernova pictograph* Rock Art
 4.4km WNW 302° Chaco Culture NHP - Peñasco Blanco* Ancient Village or Settlement
 5.3km SE 124° Chaco Culture NHP - Una Vida* Ancient Village or Settlement
 5.4km ESE 123° Chaco Culture NHP - Una Vida Petroglyph site* Rock Art
 6.5km SE 135° Chaco Culture NHP- Fajada Butte* Rock Art
 8.2km ESE 102° Chaco Culture NHP* Ancient Village or Settlement
 9.1km ESE 115° Chaco Culture NHP - Wijiji Ancient Village or Settlement
 10.6km WSW 251° Chaco Culture NHP - Kin Klizhin* Ancient Village or Settlement
 17.3km WSW 249° Kin Bineola* Ancient Village or Settlement
 27.5km ESE 110° Pueblo Pintado* Ancient Village or Settlement
 44.9km SSW 198° Kin Ya'a* Ancient Village or Settlement
 69.1km S 184° Blue J Ancient Village or Settlement
 71.1km S 187° Casamero* Ancient Village or Settlement
 71.5km N 355° Salmon Ruins* Ancient Village or Settlement
 86.1km N 358° Aztec Ruins National Monument* Ancient Village or Settlement
 89.0km NNE 18° Simon Canyon Ruins* Ancient Village or Settlement
View more nearby sites and additional images

<< Lohbach Quelle

Scots Dyke (Easby) >>

Please add your thoughts on this site

Contribute!

· NEW: I have visited
· I would like to visit
· Submit an Image
· Add a description
· Give accurate position
· Add a comment or news about this site

Stone Journals - journeys to the mysterious standing stones of Europe by Patrick Ford

Stone Journals - journeys to the mysterious standing stones of Europe by Patrick Ford

Sponsors

Auto-Translation (Google)

Translate from English into:

"Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Bonito" | Login/Create an Account | 7 News and Comments
  
Go back to top of page    Comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.
Study of Chaco Canyon Excavation Reveals Maternal Lineage by bat400 on Friday, 24 February 2017
(User Info | Send a Message)
A new study led by Douglas Kennett (Head, Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University) finds that the complex society at Chaco Canyon passed down power through its maternal line. This is a kinship process still followed by modern pueblo society in the American Southwest.

"The finding is a remarkable one, as the ancestral Puebloan society at Chaco Canyon didn't leave a written record of its way of life. Scientists made the discovery by analyzing the genomes of nine individuals who were buried in elaborate graves. The researchers found that all were related through a maternal line.

"Moreover, the matrilineal dynasty wasn't a short fluke; it lasted 330 years, from A.D. 800 to 1130, when the society collapsed, the scientists found.

"Researchers carried out the investigation on a crypt found in the Pueblo Bonito settlement, a multistoried masonry building, containing about 650 rooms, that archaeologists first excavated in 1896. Since then, researchers have wondered how the people at Pueblo Bonito governed themselves — that is, whether they had patrilineal or matrilineal dynasties, or if they chose leaders based on abilities and achievements."

Researchers analyzed an elaborate multi-individual crypt (2 by 2 meters) beneath a floor at Pueblo Bonito. Structured graves of two or more layers are rare among the Ancestral Puebloan cultures, but this gravesite was unique for size, complexity, and burial goods.

Earlier work showed one "... grave in the crypt contained the remains of a man in his 40s who died from a lethal blow to the head. The man's body was found in the center of the room, adorned with more than 11,000 turquoise beads; 3,300 shell beads; and other artifacts, including several abalone shells from the Pacific Coast, making it 'the richest burial known in the North American Southwest,' the researchers wrote in the study."

Along side, "...the archaeologists found the grave of another individual, who was buried with about 5,800 turquoise pieces. A wooden floor covered both graves, and on top of them, archaeologists found the remains of 12 bodies..."

"Researchers studied the genomes of nine individuals within the crypt to determine whether they were related, said Douglas Kennett, a professor of environmental archaeology.

" 'We used [a] unique combination [of] high-resolution radiocarbon dating in combination with state-of-the-art genomics technology to address these questions,' Kennett told Live Science in an email.

"The results showed that the nine people had identical mitochondrial DNA, genomic material that mothers pass down to their children, which indicated that the society had a matrilineal dynasty.

"In addition, the researchers analyzed the individuals' regular DNA to look for familial relationships. 'Using DNA sequences from the nuclear genome combined with the radiocarbon dates, we identified a mother-daughter pair and a grandmother-grandson relationship,' Kennett said in a statement.

"The results reveal Pueblo Bonito's ruling structure, said study co-researcher Steve Plog (University of Virginia.)

" 'For the first time, we're saying that one kinship group controlled Pueblo Bonito for more than 300 years,' Plog said in the statement. 'This is the best evidence of a social hierarchy in the ancient Southwest.' "

"Archaeogenomic evidence reveals prehistoric matrilineal dynasty" published online (Feb. 21) in the journal Nature Communications.

Story summarized from Live Science.
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Ancient Culture Prompts Worry for Arid Southwest by Anonymous on Thursday, 17 April 2014
I live near this - about 100 miles south. It is an amazing place and there is much speculation as to why it was abandoned and whether the pueblos nearby are their decendants. There is also a spot away from the dwellings where a spiral is pecked into a cliff wall behind a rock with a crack in it that sends a 'knife' of light strait through the middle on the Winter Solstice (if i remember right).
[ Reply to This ]

Massive Turquoise Trade Network of Ancient Pueblos Revealed by bat400 on Thursday, 10 April 2014
(User Info | Send a Message)
About a millennium ago, the ancestral Pueblo Indians in the Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico obtained their precious turquoise using a large trade network spanning several states, new research reveals.
In the new study, researchers traced Chaco Canyon turquoise artifacts back to resource areas in Colorado, Nevada and southeastern California. The results definitively show, for the first time, that the ancestral Puebloans — best known for their multistoried adobe houses — in the San Juan Basin area of New Mexico did not get all of their turquoise from a nearby mining site, as was previously believed.

What's more, the study reveals the Puebloan people in the Moapa Valley of southern Nevada obtained some of their turquoise from as far away as Colorado and New Mexico, suggesting the trade network ran in both directions.

Over the years, archaeologists have found more than 200,000 turquoise pieces at various sites in the Chaco Canyon. The gems were very important to the Puebloan culture, and akin to modern-day diamonds, Hull told Live Science.

Initially, scientists thought the gems came from the nearest turquoise deposit more than 124 miles (200 kilometers) away — the Cerrillos Hills Mining District near present-day Santa Fe, N.M. But the discovery of other extensively mined turquoise deposits throughout the southwestern United States led some scientists to believe the Chaco residents acquired some of their gems through long-distance trade networks. However, the evidence was mostly circumstantial, as chemical analyses weren't able to link the artifacts with specific mining sites.

Hull and her colleagues began their study by creating a comparative database, consisting of 800 isotope analyses from 22 resource areas in the western United States and northern Mexico.

"To establish a successful database, you have to find discriminators that have less variation within a mine than between mines," Hull said. "Copper isotopes don't work and hydrogen isotopes don't work. But between the two, you have an isotope overlap that is pretty distinct for each resource." If the copper-to-hydrogen isotope ratio for a turquoise artifact matches the distinctive ratio of a mine, it would mean the artifact came from that specific turquoise deposit.

Next, the team analyzed the ratios of copper to hydrogen isotopes of 74 turquoise artifacts from Puebloan sites in the San Juan Basin, southern Utah and the Moapa Valley in Nevada. After comparing the artifacts' isotope ratios with those of the turquoise mines, they were able to accurately identify the geological source of 42 artifacts.

Specifically, the team found that artifacts from the Chaco Canyon came from turquoise deposits in Colorado and New Mexico, as well as resource areas in southwestern California and Nevada. Interestingly, the people from different sites used different turquoise procurement strategies.

For example, the inhabitants of Pueblo Bonito, the largest great house in the canyon, heavily favored nearby resource areas, while people from some of the smaller Chaco sites got all of their turquoise from deposits in the far west (at least according to the artifacts the researchers could source). This suggests the people of Pueblo Bonito mined the nearby deposits themselves and either monopolized the mines or, more likely, had unique knowledge about the deposit locations.

The team saw similar turquoise procurement patterns for other Puebloan sites in the San Juan Basin area — the people of Aztec Ruin got much of their turquois from nearby deposits, whereas the inhabitants of Salmon Ruin sought out turquoise from the west. Additionally, they found the Puebloans in Eagle's Watch in southern Utah and the Moapa Valley in southern Nevada procured their turquoise from deposits both near and far.

The team is now looking to further map the movement of the blue-green mineral across the southwestern United States, in hopes of learning more about the individual g

Read the rest of this post...
[ Reply to This ]

Research Team Finds Evidence Cacao Ritually Used in Chaco Canyon by bat400 on Wednesday, 09 December 2009
(User Info | Send a Message)
Inhabitants of Chaco Canyon apparently drank chocolate from cylinders like these about a thousand years ago. That’s the finding in a paper published this week by PNAS, a publication of the National Academy of Science and written by Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Patricia L. Crown and her Collaborator at the Hershey Center of Health and Nutrition W. Jeffrey Hurst.
Crown has long been fascinated by ceramic cylinders excavated at Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon excavated in the Hyde Exploring Expedition from 1896-1899 and the National Geographic Society Expedition from 1920 to 1927. Only about 200 of the cylinders exist and most were found in a single room at the site. The cylinders are now housed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. and at the American Museum of Natural History.
Archaeologists generally agree the vessels were used for some ritual, but there has been great disagreement about the specific use of the vessels. Crown was thinking about how the Maya drank chocolate from ceramic cylinders, and wondered whether the cylinders found at Chaco might have been used in the same way. It was clear that the Maya used the cylinders for chocolate. Experts could read the glyphs on the vessels that made it clear they were chocolate containers.
From 2004-2007 UNM graduate and undergraduate students had excavated the trash middens directly south of Pueblo Bonito and uncovered thousands of pottery fragments that could be used for analysis. Crown selected sherds that were from cylinders or pitchers. She could tell they were dated between 1000 and 1125 A.D. based on the decorative style. She selected a few sherds and worked with a graduate student to grind off the edges for testing, then sent the material to W. Jeffrey Hurst at the Hershey Center. He tested the powder using an analytical method he had developed and found the presence of theobromine, a marker for Theobroma cacao or chocolate.
The finding is the first concrete evidence that the people of Chaco Canyon or anywhere in the Southwestern U.S. traded for cacao beans. It’s long been known there was trade with the Maya in the southern lowlands of Mexico from evidence of copper bells, cloisonné and skeletons of scarlet macaws. Until this discovery, cacao had been found no further north than central Mexico.


For more, see http://www.physorg.com.
[ Reply to This ]
    Photo of "chocolate pot" by bat400 on Wednesday, 09 December 2009
    (User Info | Send a Message)
    A Chaco culture pot of the same type as described in the article can be seen at Chicago's Field Museum.
    [ Reply to This ]

Ancient Culture Prompts Worry for Arid Southwest by bat400 on Tuesday, 10 July 2007
(User Info | Send a Message)
"Chaco Canyon is a stark and breathtaking ruin, nestled under soaring, red sandstone cliffs. For climate scientists Jonathan Overpeck and Julie Cole, it was worth the journey to experience this remote corner of northwestern New Mexico.

"GB Cornucopia, a park ranger, is taking the two professors from the University of Arizona and their family on a tour of the site of a major climate catastrophe. Here in New Mexico, a civilization grew and thrived for centuries before disappearing in the face of a 50-year drought.

" 'Well, once a lot of people lived here, or at least came here to visit and then they went away,' Overpeck explains. 'And one of the reasons we think they went away was, in part, because it got dryer. And it got so dry that it was difficult to live here.'

"Over the course of 300 years, people known as the Anasazi built more than 150 large buildings under these cliffs; but whether they were living quarters, temples, or something else entirely is a mystery.

"Cornucopia leads the family toward the ruins of one of the most impressive of these structures, a house called "Bonita."
Bonita was once four or five stories tall. The walls look like intricate mosaics — a testament to the engineering and artistic talents of the Anasazi. Little is known about these people, but they were traders, astronomers and above all else, master builders.

"It's easy to draw parallels from Chaco to life in the Southwest today. Once again, there's a thriving civilization. Once again, people are completely dependent on scarce water resources and there's the threat of a devastating drought."

For more, including the radio broadcast and photos of Puebo Bonita, see National Public Radio. Descriptions of the mysterious rooms of Bonita and possible similarities between the Ancestral Puebloans and modern cities.
[ Reply to This ]

Your Name: Anonymous [ Register Now ]
Subject:


Add your comment or contribution to this page. Spam or offensive posts are deleted immediately, don't even bother

<<< What is five plus one as a number? (Please type the answer to this question in the little box on the left)
You can also embed videos and other things. For Youtube please copy and paste the 'embed code'.
For Google Street View please include Street View in the text.
Create a web link like this: <a href="https://www.megalithic.co.uk">This is a link</a>  

Allowed HTML is:
<p> <b> <i> <a> <img> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <tt> <li> <ol> <ul> <object> <param> <embed> <iframe>
We would like to know more about this location. Please feel free to add a brief description and any relevant information in your own language.
Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
Quisieramos informarnos un poco más de las lugares. No dude en añadir una breve descripción y otros datos relevantes en su propio idioma.