Chaco Canyon (USA)

Definition: Chaco Canyon is an archaeological site in the state of New Mexico in the American southwest, belonging to the Anasazi and then Chaco cultures. Chaco was the center of the Chacoan empire (which is probably putting it a bit strong), and occupied between about AD 650-1130.

Researchers associated with Chaco Canyon include Richard Wetherill, Edgar Lee Hewett and Neil Judd; and more recently by James Judge, R. Gwinn Vivian, Jeffrey Altschul, Thomas Windes and Ruth Van Dyke. The site is owned by the United States government and managed by the US National Park Service.

Sources

For more details on this interesting site, see the Chaco Canyon profile.

Cameron, Catherine M. 2001 Pink Chert, Projectile Points, and the Chacoan Regional System. American Antiquity 66(1):79-102.

Mills, Barbara J. 2002 Recent research on Chaco: Changing views on economy, ritual, and society. Journal of Archaeological Research 10(1):65-117.

Van Dyke, Ruth M. 2002 The Chacoan Great Kiva in outlier communities: Investigating integrative spces across the San Juan basin. Kiva 67(3):231-247.

Van Dyke, Ruth M. 2004 Memory, Meaning, and Masonry: The Late Bonito Chacoan Landscape. American Antiquity 69(3):413-431.

Vivian, R. G. and Margaret Anderson 2002 Chaco Canyon. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.