Review Questions for Chaco Canyon/Anasazi
I. Chaco
From class:
1. Describe the environmental setting.
2. Briefly describe the three primary models for the development of the Chaco
phenomenon (i.e., economic, ideological and astronomical).
3. What do tree-ring curves tell us about changes in climate during the period
of the Chaco phenomenon? What do we learn from pack-rat middens?
4. How have the Chacoan outliers – sites with impressive Chacoan architecture
outside of Chaco Canyon – been explained? [There are two major explanations.]
5. How does Gwinn Vivian explain the differences between the settlements on
the north and south sides of Chaco Canyon?
6. When does the Chacoan system break down? What changes in the
environment correspond with this breakdown?
7. What sorts of correlations have been found between Chacoan buildings and
astronomical phenomena? What is the significance of the Sun Dagger?
8. What evidence suggests that very few people lived in the Great Houses in
Chaco Canyon? Consider the evidence provided by the buildings themselves as
well as the odd composition of the middens. What functions have been
associated with the Great Kivas?
9. What purposes might the Chacoan “roads” have served? What might the
significance of the tower kivas have been? [Hint: the tower kivas were featured
in the first video.]
10. What terms define the different types of cannibalism and what do they
mean? What evidence is there to support the assertion that cannibalism
occurred in the southwest during the time of the Chacoan phenomenon? What
possible explanations have been offered to explain this behavior? Why do we
believe that is was not associated with warfare? Why has the work of Christy
Turner raised caused so much controversy?
11. What evidence points to some possible connections between Chaco and
Mesoamerica?
From the text:
1. What is floodwater farming? [How does this differ from the approach taken by
the Hohokam? (come back to this after we look at the Hohokam)]
2. When do the first sedentary Anasazi sites occur? Where are they located and
why were they located there?
3. When were the first villages built in Chaco Canyon? What type of houses did
the people live in? How big were the largest communities at this time? Describe
Shabik’eschee. When were the first above-ground rectangular rooms
constructed in Chaco Canyon? When were the first pueblos constructed?
4. What is a “great house?” Describe Pueblo Bonito. What do tree-ring dates say
about the construction of Pueblo Bonito? From how far away were some timbers
used in Chaco Canyon obtained?
5. When did the Chacoan system’s peak in population and size occur? How big
an area did the Chacoan network cover and how many planned, Chacoan-style
towns have been found?
6. What sorts of exotic materials figured in the Chacoan system?
7. When does the Chacoan system begin to decline? Where did the people go?
What further restructuring occurred around A.D. 1300?