PrincessInOz
Thanks for my avatar, Mary Jo!
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2010
- Messages
- 108,006
(Continued from Previous Post)
Chaco Canyon in New Mexico has been on my bucket list for quite a while now. It holds the largest concentration of Puebloan ruins in the US and the Chacoan culture is one of the large cultures in North America in A.D. 1000. Between AD 900 and 1150, Chaco Canyon was a major center of culture for the Ancient Pueblo People. The Chacoans developed a pretty complex web of connections and sites through building Great Houses and signal communication to develop a social system that worked together.
Archeologists have discovered more than 200 Great Houses in a 'tens of thousands' of square miles in the South West. The Mesa Verde region is part of the Chaco Canyon system. Whilst I had visited a number of Puebloan sites in the South West, I just havent gotten round to ticking Chaco Canyon off and being here at Chimney Rock has just made me more determined to go-see it....someday!
What X and Y didn't tell us because they didn't want to spoil the surprise and what our guide had told us at the Stone Circle was that there was a Great House located at Chimney Rock. The surprise was that Chimney Rock, some 100 miles north of Chaco Canyon, was one of the outermost outlier Great Houses for this civilisation. And not just any outlier either!
A Great House of Chacoan construction; so different to the simple stone and mortar construction of the other buildings down below, has this distinctive rock pattern so common in Chaco Canyon. It raises an intriguing question as to what and who was at Chimney Rock given how different the construction techniques are between lower Chimney Rock and upper Chimney Rock as this Great House could only have been built by those master builders from Chaco Canyon.
In any event, it meant that this Great House was in direct line of site to the Great House of Chaco Canyon and would be almost exactly 90 miles away. With a series of Great Houses set exactly 30 miles in a straight line from the Great House at Chaco Canyon, this Great House at Chimney Rock would have been able to build fires in direct line of sight all the way to Chaco for communication purposes. And there would have been straight roads between the various Great Houses to support trade and travel. The ancient Puebloans sure knew how to work out distance precisely over long distances!
Archaeological excavations at the Great House Pueblo were initiated in 1921 by a man called Jeancon. At that time, he noted the walls were fourteen feet high in places and largely still standing. A few of the rooms were suspected of being two-storied and their roofs showed some stylized herringbone latilla patterns. Much of the original masonry could still be seen. Unfortunately, he hadn't been particularly gentle with his excavations.
We were sadly told that much of the historical evidence to be found from the wood used in the Great House construction was lost. Wooden beams excavated at the Great House during the early 1920's were burned for campfires and when the Great Depression began in 1929, the excavated structures were left exposed, resulting in great loss of original structure and fabric.
Two further excavation expeditions were mounted in 1970 and in 2009. From these some tree rings were found and it is believed that this Great House was constructed in 1080 AD.
The structure appears to have contained at least 35 rooms and two Kivas.
In one of the kivas, you'll find the ventilation system. Imagine having air conditioning since 1000 AD!
What makes the Great House architecture distinctively recognisable as a Chaco design is the core and veneer construction of the walls. You'll find an inside one-stone-thick wall, a separate outside wall, also one-stone thick, and the space between filled with stone rubble and mud. It would have been fantastic for food storage and insulation!
I thought we had been lucky with our guide. He was very engaging and had a way of telling us information to make it interesting. Even my boys were fully engaged and interested to learn.
I was just soaking up the information and casting eyes towards the south.
So....why would a Chacoan Great House be located here? No one really knows.
It is believed that Chimney Rock has plenty to do with it.
Being an outlier on a trade route is all very well and good, but the structure here is too fantastic to have only just served for that purpose. Believe it or not, Chimney Rock is one of those natural formations the Puebloans used for astrology. Every 18.6 years, the moon can be seen to rise in a straight line between the two pillars of Chimney Rock.
And it may have also been a religious shrine. When they excavated, they found ceremonial feather holders. At least half a dozen or so. They found the same ceremonial feather holders in the Great House at Chaco Canyon, using the same clay as those used at Chimney Rock. There were only one or two feather holders at Chaco Canyon, indicating that Chimney Rock may have been a more important House for religious ceremonies and rituals. It is speculated that the special times when the moon rises between the Chimney Rock spires when seen from the Great House may have elevated this area in the religious stakes.
I was so pleased to have been encouraged to come here.
Our guide saw us taking pictures and kindly took this family snappy for us.
All too soon, it was time to head back down.
Who would have thought there was a Great Chacoan House up here?
Chaco Canyon in New Mexico has been on my bucket list for quite a while now. It holds the largest concentration of Puebloan ruins in the US and the Chacoan culture is one of the large cultures in North America in A.D. 1000. Between AD 900 and 1150, Chaco Canyon was a major center of culture for the Ancient Pueblo People. The Chacoans developed a pretty complex web of connections and sites through building Great Houses and signal communication to develop a social system that worked together.
Archeologists have discovered more than 200 Great Houses in a 'tens of thousands' of square miles in the South West. The Mesa Verde region is part of the Chaco Canyon system. Whilst I had visited a number of Puebloan sites in the South West, I just havent gotten round to ticking Chaco Canyon off and being here at Chimney Rock has just made me more determined to go-see it....someday!
What X and Y didn't tell us because they didn't want to spoil the surprise and what our guide had told us at the Stone Circle was that there was a Great House located at Chimney Rock. The surprise was that Chimney Rock, some 100 miles north of Chaco Canyon, was one of the outermost outlier Great Houses for this civilisation. And not just any outlier either!
A Great House of Chacoan construction; so different to the simple stone and mortar construction of the other buildings down below, has this distinctive rock pattern so common in Chaco Canyon. It raises an intriguing question as to what and who was at Chimney Rock given how different the construction techniques are between lower Chimney Rock and upper Chimney Rock as this Great House could only have been built by those master builders from Chaco Canyon.
In any event, it meant that this Great House was in direct line of site to the Great House of Chaco Canyon and would be almost exactly 90 miles away. With a series of Great Houses set exactly 30 miles in a straight line from the Great House at Chaco Canyon, this Great House at Chimney Rock would have been able to build fires in direct line of sight all the way to Chaco for communication purposes. And there would have been straight roads between the various Great Houses to support trade and travel. The ancient Puebloans sure knew how to work out distance precisely over long distances!
Archaeological excavations at the Great House Pueblo were initiated in 1921 by a man called Jeancon. At that time, he noted the walls were fourteen feet high in places and largely still standing. A few of the rooms were suspected of being two-storied and their roofs showed some stylized herringbone latilla patterns. Much of the original masonry could still be seen. Unfortunately, he hadn't been particularly gentle with his excavations.
We were sadly told that much of the historical evidence to be found from the wood used in the Great House construction was lost. Wooden beams excavated at the Great House during the early 1920's were burned for campfires and when the Great Depression began in 1929, the excavated structures were left exposed, resulting in great loss of original structure and fabric.
Two further excavation expeditions were mounted in 1970 and in 2009. From these some tree rings were found and it is believed that this Great House was constructed in 1080 AD.
The structure appears to have contained at least 35 rooms and two Kivas.
In one of the kivas, you'll find the ventilation system. Imagine having air conditioning since 1000 AD!
What makes the Great House architecture distinctively recognisable as a Chaco design is the core and veneer construction of the walls. You'll find an inside one-stone-thick wall, a separate outside wall, also one-stone thick, and the space between filled with stone rubble and mud. It would have been fantastic for food storage and insulation!
I thought we had been lucky with our guide. He was very engaging and had a way of telling us information to make it interesting. Even my boys were fully engaged and interested to learn.
I was just soaking up the information and casting eyes towards the south.
So....why would a Chacoan Great House be located here? No one really knows.
It is believed that Chimney Rock has plenty to do with it.
Being an outlier on a trade route is all very well and good, but the structure here is too fantastic to have only just served for that purpose. Believe it or not, Chimney Rock is one of those natural formations the Puebloans used for astrology. Every 18.6 years, the moon can be seen to rise in a straight line between the two pillars of Chimney Rock.
And it may have also been a religious shrine. When they excavated, they found ceremonial feather holders. At least half a dozen or so. They found the same ceremonial feather holders in the Great House at Chaco Canyon, using the same clay as those used at Chimney Rock. There were only one or two feather holders at Chaco Canyon, indicating that Chimney Rock may have been a more important House for religious ceremonies and rituals. It is speculated that the special times when the moon rises between the Chimney Rock spires when seen from the Great House may have elevated this area in the religious stakes.
I was so pleased to have been encouraged to come here.
Our guide saw us taking pictures and kindly took this family snappy for us.
All too soon, it was time to head back down.
Who would have thought there was a Great Chacoan House up here?
And the views look amazing too!
Thanks Ruthie. 
