THE SOUTHWEST
SYSTEMS OF INTEGRATION, 1100-850 BP
‚ The Three System Model
- C. Irwin-Williams argues that three different systems
evolved in Pueblo SW:
- nucleated system
- aggregated system
- dispersed system
- these can be seen as distinct
settlement systems with strong, economic, social, and political correlates
- all three systems co-existed in
SW, 1100-850 BP
- nucleated system was most
spectacular, and most short-lived -- seen at Chaco Canyon, Casas Grandes, and
in Hohokam area
‚ The Chaco Phenomenon
- refers to distinctive, nucleated, complex organization
that began c. 1,100 BP and lasted only few hundred years
- at first centred
in Chaco Canyon, on Chaco Wash in NW New Mexico
- later spread to cover San Juan
Basin and adjacent uplands; Chaco outliers -- +53,000 km2
- characterized by small villages (Hosta Butte style) and large towns (Bonito
style) -- at first thought to be sequential phases, later shown (by F.H.
Ellis) to be contemporaneous (Astyles@)
- basic characteristics:
- large
planned towns
- smaller
unplanned villages
- road
systems
- water
control systems
- abundant
luxury goods (turquoise, copper bells, macaw remains, imported ceramics)
- Hosta Butte villages: avg 16 rooms; single storey; simple masonry; open plazas;
small kivas; these villages grew accretionally
(unplanned)
- lack Great kivas, tower
kivas, and luxury goods
Bonito villages: avg 216 rooms;
large rooms; high ceilings; multi-storied (up to 4 floors); core-veneer
masonry; enclosed plazas; small, Great and tower kivas;
abundant luxury trade goods (including timbers for building)
- other Bonito features:
1. control of irrigation systems
2. Bonito towns linked by road systems (straight roads with
stone staircases), 402 km of roads
Pueblo Bonito
- largest of the Chaco Canyon Agreat houses@
- huge, 4-storey, D-shaped
structure covered 0.8 ha; 695 rooms, 33 kivas, 3
Great kivas
- built in planned stages, 1050-850 BP; an unfinished stage
(Afoundation complex@) would have doubled the size of the
pueblo
- two large rectangular mounds also
located in front of pueblo
- lavish use of wood in
construction; abundant material wealth, often found in burials (turquoise,
shell) -- evidence of social differentiation
‚ Chaco Outliers
- after intial
development in Chaco Canyon(?), Chaco Phenomenon spread outside canyon, as far
as 80 km
- about 70 towns, built in Bonito
style, exist; and +5,300 smaller Anasazi villages
- clusters of small villages
organized around a large town, which provide ceremonial facilities
Salmon Ruin
- located c. 70 km north of Chaco
Canyon, linked by road
- 290 rooms, 1 Great kiva, 1 tower
kiva
- built in 3 stages, AD 1088-1106, by local San Juan
population (San Juan pottery) and Chacoan group (Cibolan pottery)
- evidence of economic
specialization -- milling rooms, each with 6-8 milling stones in place; milling
stone production and repair room
- distribution of pottery, special rooms,
and high quality chert suggests Chacoan
group controlled wealth and ceremonialism
- Chacoan group may have had
higher status than San Juan group; or Salmon Ruin population may have had
higher status than surrounding small villages
- post Chacoan
occupation of Salmon Ruin (after 870 BP) shows AMesa
Verde@
affinities (rooms blocked up, lower quality masonry, lack of luxury goods) --
breakdown of nucleated Chaco system, replaced by more typical Anasazi aggregation pattern
‚ Explaining Chaco
- Chaco system complex, nucleated, centralized; why?
1. J. Judge argues Chaco grew out of need to pool resources,
requiring large redistributive centres -- a Central
Place model
2. Marshall/Doyel model: Great
houses Arepresented@ outlier community aggregates
3. several authors: Mesoamerican pochteca model -- but, Aztec pochteca
post-date Chaco
‚ Other Nucleated Systems
1. Casas Grandes, Chihuahua; 950-650 BP; large town or city (Paquimé) in northern Mexico; centre of a large area
(87,000 km2) as seen in distribution of trade goods; luxury trade
goods; high quality architecture; specialization (macaw breeding pens)
2. Hohokam (Colonial,
Sedentary periods); nucleated system organized around Snaketown,
1100-850 BP; caliche-capped platform mounds, craft
specialization (shell, ceramics), long-distance trade to northern Arizona
‚ Aggregated Systems: Mesa Verde
- 4-corners area, NW of Chaco; aggregated system developed
1100-700 BP
- several large settlements (up to
550 rooms; multiple kivas), including cliff-dweller
sites
- but, no evidence of planned communities, public
architecture, craft specialization, regional integration around one or a few centres, or organized long-distance trade
- big sites often have multiple
masonry styles; evidence of lack of centralization
‚ Mimbres
- aggregated system developed
during Mimbres Classic period, 1000-850 BP
- several large villages, like Mesa
Verde, except architecture of poor quality
- best known for well made, painted
ceramics, often found in burials (Akilled@ bowls)
- but, grave offerings do no
socially differentiate burials
- some exotics found (shell, turquoise),
but not in great quantities
- like Mesa Verde, no evidence of
regional integration
- note that aggregated systems
outlived nucleated systems in SW -- probably a more egalitarian and more stable
system
‚ Dispersed Systems
- most common form of cultural
system in SW at all times; rancheria is most common
settlement type
- in Rio Grande valley,
small pithouse settlements predominate
- Jornada (southern) Mogollon: only 5% of sites classified as habitations -- indicative of highly mobile population