118 posts · 60,177 views
A blog discussing a variety of subjects related to Chaco Canyon, the prehistoric American Southwest, and their complex connections to the world today.
teofilo
118 posts
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- May 27, 2011
- 05:14 PM
- 1,055 views
Non-Chacoan Kivas at Chaco
by teofilo in Gambler's House
Implicit in my previous discussion of “Chacoan” kivas was the idea that the term “Chacoan” in this context refers to a specific architectural form defined by a collection of features, rather than to a geographic location. Thus, Chacoan kivas are common at Chaco Canyon, but they are also found at many sites outside the canyon, [...]... Read more »
Fewkes, J. (1908) Ventilators in Ceremonial Rooms of Pre Historic Cliff-Dwellings. American Anthropologist, 10(3), 387-398. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1908.10.3.02a00020
- June 15, 2011
- 10:10 PM
- 942 views
Chocolate Everywhere!
by teofilo in Gambler's House
I mentioned earlier that there was a new paper out on chocolate at Chaco that I needed to read. I read it today, and it’s quite interesting. One of the most interesting things about it is that it’s by a different group of researchers than the first one and uses somewhat different methods. As far [...]... Read more »
Washburn, D., Washburn, W., & Shipkova, P. (2011) The prehistoric drug trade: widespread consumption of cacao in Ancestral Pueblo and Hohokam communities in the American Southwest. Journal of Archaeological Science, 38(7), 1634-1640. DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2011.02.029
- June 29, 2011
- 12:33 AM
- 941 views
Chaco before Chaco: The Basketmaker III Period
by teofilo in Gambler's House
The Basketmaker III period (ca. AD 500 to 750) is a very important time for understanding the prehistoric Southwest. Maize agriculture had been introduced earlier, although exactly how early is still a matter of debate, and it was definitely well-established by the immediately preceding Basketmaker II period, but Basketmaker III saw the introduction of beans, [...]... Read more »
Wills, W., & Windes, T. (1989) Evidence for Population Aggregation and Dispersal during the Basketmaker III Period in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. American Antiquity, 54(2), 347. DOI: 10.2307/281711
- February 16, 2011
- 10:25 PM
- 925 views
Kayenta Warfare
by teofilo in Gambler's House
I’ve written quite a bit here about warfare in the prehistoric Southwest, but I’ve only said a little about one of the areas where it has been most carefully documented and studied: the Kayenta area of northeastern Arizona. This is partly because this area seems to have had very little contact with or influence from [...]... Read more »
Stone, T. (2000) Prehistoric Community Integration in the Point of Pines Region of Arizona. Journal of Field Archaeology, 27(2), 197. DOI: 10.2307/530593
- June 22, 2011
- 12:48 AM
- 925 views
Chipped Stone
by teofilo in Gambler's House
When it comes to stone tools, archaeologists make a basic distinction between “chipped-stone” and “ground-stone” tools. Chipped-stone tools are generally those that need to be sharp, such as projectile points, knives, scrapers, and drills, and are typically made of hard stone that keeps an edge. Some ground-stone tools, such as axes, are also sharp, but [...]... Read more »
Cameron, C. (2001) Pink Chert, Projectile Points, and the Chacoan Regional System. American Antiquity, 66(1), 79. DOI: 10.2307/2694319
- July 4, 2011
- 12:23 AM
- 854 views
The Stars Bursting in Air
by teofilo in Gambler's House
Happy Fourth of July, everyone. The Fourth is actually a pretty important date for the study of Chaco, but in a roundabout (and somewhat controversial) way. It all has to do with a very famous pictograph panel below Peñasco Blanco at the west end of the canyon. While the interpretation of this panel is a [...]... Read more »
Pauketat, T., & Emerson, T. (2008) Star Performances and Cosmic Clutter. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 18(1), 78-85. DOI: 10.1017/S0959774308000085
- June 22, 2011
- 07:05 PM
- 836 views
Warren K. Moorehead, Cartoon Villain
by teofilo in Gambler's House
In the spring of 1892, an expedition headed by Warren K. Moorehead traveled through northwestern New Mexico to collect archaeological specimens for the Chicago World’s Fair to be held the next year. Moorehead was a young man from Ohio who had already conducted considerable excavations there that had drawn the attention of Frederic Ward Putnam [...]... Read more »
Moorehead, W. (1908) Ruins at Aztec and on the Rio La Plata, New Mexico. American Anthropologist, 10(2), 255-263. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1908.10.2.02a00080
- September 8, 2011
- 09:25 PM
- 820 views
More about the Gila Cliff Dwellings
by teofilo in Gambler's House
Despite their impressive preservation, the Gila Cliff Dwellings have gotten surprisingly little attention in the archaeological literature. This is apparently because they were so thoroughly ransacked by pothunters early on that there wasn’t much left intact for archaeologists to study, and possibly also because the early establishment of Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument in 1907 [...]... Read more »
Watson, E. (1929) Caves of the Upper Gila River, New Mexico. American Anthropologist, 31(2), 299-306. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1929.31.2.02a00070
- June 19, 2011
- 10:43 PM
- 815 views
The View from Dolores
by teofilo in Gambler's House
Southwestern archaeology, especially in the Chaco area, is structured chronologically primarily by the Pecos Classification. This system was initially worked out at the first Pecos Conference in 1927, and it was originally interpreted as a series of stages in cultural development, with the assumption that sites with similar characteristics and material culture were roughly contemporaneous. [...]... Read more »
Potter, J. (1997) Communal Ritual and Faunal Remains: An Example from the Dolores Anasazi. Journal of Field Archaeology, 24(3), 353. DOI: 10.2307/530690
Schachner, G. (2001) Ritual Control and Transformation in Middle-Range Societies: An Example from the American Southwest. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 168-194. DOI: 10.1006/jaar.2001.0379
- June 14, 2011
- 01:04 AM
- 806 views
On the Purported Evidence for Feasting at Pueblo Alto
by teofilo in Gambler's House
Many recent interpretations of Chaco Canyon see it as a site of pilgrimage, and this is often specifically seen as taking the form of regular region-wide ritual events involving communal feasting, construction work on the massive buildings in the canyon, trade involving various mundane and exotic items, and ritual breakage of pottery and deposition of [...]... Read more »
Toll, H. (2001) Making and Breaking Pots in the Chaco World. American Antiquity, 66(1), 56. DOI: 10.2307/2694318
Wills, W. (2001) Ritual and Mound Formation during the Bonito Phase in Chaco Canyon. American Antiquity, 66(3), 433. DOI: 10.2307/2694243
- June 20, 2011
- 11:39 PM
- 805 views
Where They Got the Pots
by teofilo in Gambler's House
Pottery is the most important type of artifact for archaeology in the Southwest. This is because the agricultural societies of the prehistoric Southwest made huge numbers of pots and often decorated them in distinctive ways that differed both from place to place and over time, often within quite short periods. With the precision available from [...]... Read more »
Toll, H. (2001) Making and Breaking Pots in the Chaco World. American Antiquity, 66(1), 56. DOI: 10.2307/2694318
- September 10, 2011
- 03:27 AM
- 773 views
The Mysterious Mimbres
by teofilo in Gambler's House
Inspired by my recent visit to the Gila Cliff Dwellings, I’ve been reading about the Mimbres Mogollon culture of southwestern New Mexico. As I noted earlier, the cliff dwellings themselves aren’t actually Mimbres, instead belonging to the Tularosa Mogollon culture more common to the north, and they postdate the “Classic” Mimbres period (ca. AD 1000 [...]... Read more »
Fewkes, J. (1916) Animal Figures on Prehistoric Pottery from Mimbres Valley, New Mexico. American Anthropologist, 18(4), 535-545. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1916.18.4.02a00080
Gilman, P., Canouts, V., & Bishop, R. (1994) The Production and Distribution of Classic Mimbres Black-on-White Pottery. American Antiquity, 59(4), 695. DOI: 10.2307/282343
Hegmon, M. (2002) Recent Issues in the Archaeology of the Mimbres Region of the North American Southwest. Journal of Archaeological Research, 10(4), 307-357. DOI: 10.1023/A:1020525926010
Hegmon, M., Nelson, M., & Ruth, S. (1998) Abandonment and Reorganization in the Mimbres Region of the American Southwest. American Anthropologist, 100(1), 148-162. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1998.100.1.148
Nelson, M., & Hegmon, M. (2001) Abandonment Is Not as It Seems: An Approach to the Relationship between Site and Regional Abandonment. American Antiquity, 66(2), 213. DOI: 10.2307/2694606
- June 28, 2011
- 01:55 AM
- 741 views
How Old Is Pueblo Bonito?
by teofilo in Gambler's House
The “Chacoan era” is a period of about 100 years in the eleventh and early twelfth centuries AD during which Chaco Canyon was at the center of some sort of system that covered a large portion of the northern Southwest. The exact nature and exact extent of that system are endlessly debated, but the period [...]... Read more »
Windes, T., & Ford, D. (1996) The Chaco Wood Project: The Chronometric Reappraisal of Pueblo Bonito. American Antiquity, 61(2), 295. DOI: 10.2307/282427
- October 30, 2009
- 08:40 PM
- 734 views
Replication
by teofilo in Gambler's House
When I was working at Chaco, we would often get visitors who would complain about how hard it was to get there. They usually focused on the road in and asked why there wasn’t more effort to pave it and make it more accessible to the American public. After all, isn’t that what national parks [...]... Read more »
Pepper, G. (1905) Ceremonial Objects and Ornaments from Pueblo Bonito, New Mexico. American Anthropologist, 7(2), 183-197. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1905.7.2.02a00010
- December 31, 2010
- 10:33 PM
- 728 views
Cowboy Wash Is Not an Easy Place to Live
by teofilo in Gambler's House
If you stand at the Four Corners monument and look in the direction of Colorado you will see Sleeping Ute Mountain dominating the view. From this direction you are looking at the southwest side of the mountain, and in front of it you see the southern piedmont. On the right side of the piedmont, though [...]... Read more »
Huckleberry, G., & Billman, B. (1998) Floodwater Farming, Discontinuous Ephemeral Streams, and Puebloan Abandonment in Southwestern Colorado. American Antiquity, 63(4), 595. DOI: 10.2307/2694110
Lambert, P. (2002) Rib lesions in a prehistoric Puebloan sample from southwestern Colorado. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 117(4), 281-292. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.10036
- November 3, 2009
- 11:21 PM
- 715 views
Building a Religion: The Rock Art Evidence
by teofilo in Gambler's House
The idea that the kachina cult was not an indigenous development among the Pueblos but was instead introduced from the south seems to have originated with a 1974 article by Polly and Curtis Schaafsma. As they note, while some previous scholars had noted some elements of the cult that suggested Mesoamerican influence, the general consensus [...]... Read more »
Schaafsma, P., & Schaafsma, C. (1974) Evidence for the Origins of the Pueblo Katchina Cult as Suggested by Southwestern Rock Art. American Antiquity, 39(4), 535. DOI: 10.2307/278903
- January 18, 2010
- 10:52 PM
- 689 views
The Linguistic Evidence for Navajo Origins
by teofilo in Gambler's House
Although it can be rather difficult to define what it means to be Navajo, it is quite clear from a variety of lines of evidence that speakers of Athapaskan languages, including Navajo and the various Apache languages, have not been in the Southwest for very long compared to most of the other language groups there, [...]... Read more »
Sapir, E. (1936) Internal Linguistic Evidence Suggestive of the Northern Origin of the Navaho. American Anthropologist, 38(2), 224-235. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1936.38.2.02a00040
- January 22, 2010
- 08:57 PM
- 682 views
Better Linguistic Evidence for the Spread of Agriculture
by teofilo in Gambler's House
Since it seems to be Linguistics Week here at Gambler’s House, here’s another post on Jane Hill’s theory that the spread of agriculture into the Southwest was associated with a migration of speakers of Proto-Northern-Uto-Aztecan (PNUA) from somewhere in Mexico. Previously I discussed an article of hers from 2001 in which she tried to show [...]... Read more »
Hill, J. (2008) Northern Uto‐Aztecan and Kiowa‐Tanoan: Evidence of Contact between the Proto‐Languages?. International Journal of American Linguistics, 74(2), 155-188. DOI: 10.1086/587703
- March 12, 2010
- 02:45 PM
- 679 views
Chasing Datura
by teofilo in Gambler's House
When I was discussing the archaeoacoustics of Chaco earlier, I mentioned that I was a little dubious about some of the stuff John Stein and Taft Blackhorse had said about Navajo connections to the Chaco Amphitheater. They associate it with a ceremonial tradition involving the ritual use of datura. There’s an immense anthropological literature on [...]... Read more »
Wyman, L., & Thorne, B. (1945) Notes on Navaho Suicide. American Anthropologist, 47(2), 278-288. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1945.47.2.02a00070
- December 12, 2010
- 05:34 PM
- 658 views
Speaking of Ester Boserup
by teofilo in Gambler's House
The paper I discussed earlier on the connection between plow-based agriculture and highly inegalitarian gender roles was based on a theory proposed by Ester Boserup. Boserup was a Danish economist who had a lot of interesting ideas about the relationship between population growth and agricultural intensification. She’s best known for arguing that intensification of agricultural [...]... Read more »
Stone, G., & Downum, C. (1999) Non-Boserupian Ecology and Agricultural Risk: Ethnic Politics and Land Control in the Arid Southwest. American Anthropologist, 101(1), 113-128. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1999.101.1.113
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