Exploring the Post-Chaco Era in Southeastern Utah

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With support from the National Science Foundation, Catherine Cameron and a team of archaeologists and other experts will conduct excavations at the Bluff Great House and the Comb Wash Community in southeastern Utah. These excavations explore the collapse of the 10th - 12th century Chacoan regional system and the transition to the post-Chaco era. The sites are on what was once the northern periphery of the Chaco world, an area called the northern San Juan region. The Chacoan regional system, the most geographically extensive system in the prehistoric Southwest, was centered on a complex of massive, monumental great houses and great kivas (underground ceremonial chambers) located at Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. Throughout the northern Southwest over 150 smaller great houses (including Bluff), were built in the same style as those in Chaco Canyon and (along with prehistoric connecting roads) suggest strong links with Chaco Canyon. These smaller great houses outside Chaco Canyon were surrounded by the residential hamlets of people who used the structures as a focus for their community.About A.D. 1150, the center at Chaco Canyon suddenly collapsed and building on the monumental great houses ceased. Oddly, in peripheral regions like the northern San Juan, some Chacoan great houses (like Bluff) continued to be used and new great houses (like Comb Wash) were built during the post-Chaco era (A.D. 1150-1300). The present project explores this apparent continuation of Chacoan ideas. Southeastern Utah (the westernmost part of the northern San Juan region) is especially interesting, as the territories of two major prehistoric cultures met here: Mesa Verde to the east and Kayenta to the south and west. During the Chaco era, these cultures appear to have been overlain by the pervasive Chacoan culture. The goal of the present project is to explore continuities and discontinuities between the Chaco and post-Chaco eras: 1) How did the construction and use of great houses in southeastern Utah change after the Chaco collapse? 2) Did the residents of Bluff and Comb conduct trade or otherwise interact with other parts of the northern San Juan region during the post-Chacoan era or with more distant regions? If so, how do these interactions compare in scale and direction with regional and interregional interactions during the Chaco era? 3) How did Chacoan and post-Chaco great houses relate to their surrounding communities? Did these buildings continue to serve as community centers or did they become residences themselves? The project furthers understanding of a key transition in Southwestern prehistory and contributes both methodologically and substantively to knowledge of the development and operation of middle range societies (especially at the complex end of the continuum of such societies). It provides an opportunity to explore cultural interaction, especially those aspects of cultural identity that are retained, lost, or reestablished during the development and collapse of a more powerful social system. The project operates as the University of Colorado's Archaeological Field School, involving both undergraduate and graduate students in a high profile research project. Concerned Native American groups are consulted about the project and their visits to the site help students understand the importance of indigenous involvement in archaeology. The project works closely with local archaeological organizations, incorporates volunteers, and communicates results through public outlets. Finally, the project assists the Federal Bureau of Land Management and the private Southwest Heritage Foundation (site landowners) in reaching their management goals.