America's architectural heritage: Chaco Canyon, New Mexico - Part 1

Was Chaco Canyon culturally related to the Pacific Coast of South America?

In the April 1, 2010 article on the Early Farmers of the Southwest, it was pointed out that until 800 AD the architecture of the indigenous peoples of the American Southwest was quite primitive. Most structures were simple; one room homes built from adobe walls and sapling shed roofs.  After 700 AD some Southwestern communities built up to fiver residential units together on isolated farmsteads.

Somewhere around 750 AD a new cultural influence entered the Chaco Canyon. The relatively small number of residents was a direct continuation of the Basketmaker Culture peoples.  However, they started building crescent shaped, single story apartments containing 4 or 5 units built around small kivas.  Some pottery making occurred for the first time. Construction methodology changed from post frames with adobe packed around to them to fine stone ashlar masonry constructions. Kivas are round, subterranean spaces used for ceremonial purposes.

Around 900 AD, the population growth of the region accelerated as there was a simultaneous flowering of the culture.  Construction began on the Pueblo Bonito mega-structure.  Traditionally, the semi-circular shaped building has been labeled an apartment building by archaeologists.  However, three dimensional studies by architects of the so-called “apartment buildings” of Chaco Canyon have revealed that they actually had very few residents in proportion to their size.  Pueblo Bonito could have had as few as 50-70 residents solely residing on its ground floor. The most likely use of the upper levels was storage rooms for food reserves or spaces for ceremonies.  Very few of the upper rooms have hearths for cooking or heat.

Chaco Canyon appears to have been the location of the cultural elite that dominated a large area of the Colorado Plateau between 900 AD and 1250 AD.  Food production, by necessity, was dispersed over the region among many medium and small villages.  The production of turquoise jewelry and trade stones seems to have been concentrated in Chaco Canyon.

External influences on the people of Chaco Canyon

The study of Southwestern indigenous peoples suffers from the same problem as the study of Southeastern indigenous peoples.  The “peer review” system has encouraged scholars of recent generations to quote each other rather than do original research. The “copycat” syndrome is accentuated by the proliferation of amateurs, who write books or create web sites on the Southwestern Indians. Journalists replicate these statements and past them on to the general public.

One of the favorite quotes found today, even among archaeologists, is that “beginning around 900 AD Mesoamerican type architecture appeared in Chaco Canyon.”  Amateur web sites go a step further and state that the buildings of Chaco Canyon are typical Toltec architecture. Mesoamerican means the indigenous cultures of central Mexico, southern Mexico and upper Central America.  The statement is justified by the discovery of parrot skeletons and some artifacts believed to have originated in Mexico.  The teeth of skeletons that archaeologists believe belonged to Chaco Canyon’s elite were filed and sometimes inlaid with turquoise in a manner similar to Mesoamerican elites.

The people of Chaco Canyon very likely traded with the peoples of northern Mexico.  However, the people of northern Mexico were NOT Mesoamericans.   Parrots once lived along the coasts of northern Mexico, but the region was not typified by large temples and advanced cultures. Those people could have obtained parrots and Mesoamerican artifacts through village to village trading.  As was pointed out in the April 1, 2010 article, the Valley of Mexico (Toltec Empire) is much closer to the frontier of the Southeastern Ceremonial Culture than it is to Chaco Canyon.  Because Chaco Canyon was once owned by Spain, and for a brief time, by Mexico, the general public thinks of it being close to the cultural heart of Mexico.

The architecture of Chaco Canyon during its fluorescence (900 AD – 1250 AD) bears no resemblance to Totonac, Toltec or Post Classic Maya architecture – its contemporaries.  The Mesoamerican cultures did not build freestanding ashlar masonry walls. Their temples were constructed on solid earth & rubble pyramids.  Both commoners’ homes and temples were [post, wattle & daub,] [prefabricated post ditch] or [stacked stone rubble plastered with lime plaster to hold them in place.]

Where one does find fine stone ashlar masonry construction is on the Pacific Coast of Peru and Colombia.  Ashlar is common immediately prior to the sudden cultural changes in Chaco Canyon.  The later cultures, such as the Incas, tended to use much larger dressed stones in their construction.  This known as coursed asymmetrical stone construction.

The Wari Cultural Period South America’s Pacific Rim lasted until about 1000 AD.  However around 800 AD it began to become unraveled. Several ethnic cultures flowered within the loose political controls of the Wari.  These included the LIma, Moche and Nazca.  Commoners and refugees from less sophisticated small towns could have easily paddled or sailed up the coats of Mexico to reach the outlet of the Colorado River in the Gulf of Baja California.  The Purepeche arrived on the western coast of Michoacan State about the same time that Chaco Canyon began construction of large ashlar buildings. The Purepeche also constructed buildings from ashlar.

Sub-surface round kivas, stone interior walls and tee-shaped doorways are the architectural signatures of buildings constructed in Chaco Canyon. They also may be found in Peru during the period from 100 AD to 1000 AD, and to a lesser extent until the early 1500s when Peru was conquered by the Spanish.  Human sacrifice also has a long history in Peru.  Some evidence of human sacrifice and cannibalism has been found at Chaco Canyon.

The only absolutely certain way to prove a South American ancestry for the elite of Chaco Canyon would be comparative DNA analysis.  Until then it must remain a theory that fully explains the high culture at Chaco Canyon.