LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Chaco Canyon: Chaco Anasazi
built 606 days ago
Chaco Canyon was an important Anasazi (ancient Native American) cultural center from about 900 through 1130 AD. About 30 ancient masonry buildings, containing hundreds of rooms each, attest to Chaco's importance. Some structures are thought to serve as astronomical observatories or calendars. Archaeologists discovered jewelry made from Mexican and Californian materials in ancient trash heaps. Large well-constructed roadways thought to be built for pilgrims, subjects, or traders, lead from sites 50 miles away to the center of Chaco Canyon. In a very real sense, all roads lead to Chaco.
Source:
Chaco Canyon is perhaps the largest and most complex prehistoric site in the United States. As a source of knowledge of Anasazi culture, it is rivaled only by Mesa Verde. The canyon was inhabited from the 9th century, and was unaccountably abandoned at the end of the 13th. There are 9 major sites within the canyon proper that can be reached from the main road. There are ... 4 sites that can be reached by short day-hikes (3 - 6 miles, round trip).
Source:
During the Chaco fluorescence, population levels swelled within the canyon. Depending on the formula used to calculate populations, the numbers vary from just over 2,000 to well over 5,000 people. An important factor contributing to the success of this period was a favorable climate shift to warmer, wetter conditions. Water diversion systems employed by the Chaco Anasazi were sophisticated and labor-intensive. As there were no permanent streams in Chaco Canyon and the periodic torrents down the central wash were too unpredictable and difficult to control, the prehistoric farmers devised a system of techniques to channel runoff from mesa tops. Designed to maximize water diversion, these techniques involved a combination of ditches, headgates, terraced cliffs, overflow ponds, and masonry irrigation canals and dams.
Source:
After the sixth century A.D., the Anasazi of Chaco Canyon and other settlements abandoned hunting and gathering in favor of cultivating crops such as maize (corn). To grow maize, they needed rain, but the area was dry and rain was sporadic. What rain did fall was hoarded and used sparingly and effectively. Evidence of dams, canals, and other water control features found by archaeologists shows the importance of water to the Anasazi.
Source:
Dr. Ruth Van Dyke, professor of archaeology at Colorado College, specialized in the ancient peoples (Anasazi) of Chaco Canyon and the Four Corners region. Her research interests include landscape, architecture, ritual, and political authority.
Source:
Thirty such outliers spread across 65,000 square miles (168,000 sq. km) are connected to the central canyon and to one another by a web of six enigmatic Chacoan road systems. Extending up to 60 miles (97 km) in generally straight lines, they appear to have been extensively surveyed and engineered.[58][59] They typically feature depressed and scraped caliche beds approximately 30 feet (9 m) wide; earthen berms or rocks, at times composing low walls, defined their edges. When necessary, the roads used steep stone stairways and rock ramps to traverse major obstacles, such as cliffs.[60] Although their overall function may never be known, archaeologist Harold S. Gladwin reported that, according to the beliefs of nearby Navajo, the Anasazi had used the roads for transporting timber; archaeologist Neil Judd offered a similar hypothesis.[2]
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Chaco Anasazi