Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:27:59.648Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Prehistoric Long-Distance Transport of Construction Beams, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Julio L. Betancourt ,
Jeffrey S. Dean  and
Herbert M. Hull
Julio L. Betancourt
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences
Jeffrey S. Dean
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research
Herbert M. Hull
Affiliation:
School of Renewable Natural Resources, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Identification of spruce (Picea) and fir (Abies) construction timbers at Chetro Ketl in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, implies that between A.D. 1030 and 1120 the Anasazi transported thousands of logs more than 75 km. These timbers came from high elevations, probably in mountains to the south (Mt. Taylor) and west (Chuska Mountains) where Chacoan interaction was well established. Survey in these mountains might disclose material evidence of these prehistoric logging activities.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , April 1986 , pp. 370 - 375
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Bannister, Bryant 1965 Tree-Ring Dating of the Archaeological Sites in the Chaco Canyon Region, New Mexico. Southwestern Monuments Association, Technical Series, vol. 6, pp. 117–206. Southwestern Monuments Association, Globe.Google Scholar
Betancourt, Julio L. 1984 Late Quaternary Plant Zonation and Climate in Southeastern Utah. The Great Basin Naturalist 44: 1–35.Google Scholar
Betancourt, Julio L., and Davis, Owen K. 1984 Packrat Middens from Canyon de Chelly, Northeastern Arizona: Paleoecological and Archaeological Implications. Quaternary Research 21: 56–64.Google Scholar
Betancourt, Julio L., and Thomas R. Van Devender, 1981 Holocene Vegetation in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Science 214: 656–658.Google Scholar
Dean, Jeffrey S., and Warren, Richard L. 1983 Dendrochronology. In The Architecture and Dendrochronology of Chetro Ketl, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, edited by H. Lekson, Stephen, pp. 105–240. Reports of the Chaco Center, No. 6. Division of Cultural Research, National Park Service, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Douglass, Andrew Ellicott 1935 Dating Pueblo Bonito and Other Ruins of the Southwest. National Geographic Society Contributed Technical Papers, Pueblo Bonito Series, No. 1. Washington.Google Scholar
Judge, W. James 1983 Chaco Canyon— San Juan Basin. Paper presented at Advanced Seminar on Dynamics of Southwestern Prehistory, School of American Research, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Kennedy, R. W., Sastry, C. B. R., Barton, G. M., and Ellis, E. L. 1968 Crystals in the Wood of the Genus Abies Indigenous to Canada and the United States. Canadian Journal of Botany 46: 1221–1228.Google Scholar
Lekson, Stephen H. 1982 Labor Investment in Chacoan Building. Newsletter of the New Mexico Archaeological Council 4: 21–22.Google Scholar
Marshall, Michael P., Stein, John R., Loose, Richard W., and Novotny, Judith E. 1979 Anasazi Communities of the San Juan Basin. Public Service Company of New Mexico and New Osborn, Neal L. Google Scholar
Mexico Historic Preservation Bureau, Santa Fe. 1966 A Comparative Floristic Study of Mount Taylor and Redondo Peak, New Mexico. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Panshin, A., and de Zeeuw, C. 1980 Textbook of Wood Technology. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Powers, Robert B., Gillespie, William B., and Lekson, Stephen H. 1983 The Outlier Survey: A Regional View of Settlement in the San Juan Basin. Reports of the Chaco Center, No. 3. Division of Cultural Research, National Park Service, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Vivian, Gordon, and Mathews, Tom W. 1965 Kin Kletso: A Pueblo III Community in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Southwestern Monuments Association, Technical Series, vol. 6, pp. 1–115. Southwestern Monuments Association, Globe.Google Scholar
Wright, Herbert E. Jr., , Bent, Ann M., Hanson, Barbara S., and Maher, Louis J. Jr., 1973 Present and Past Vegetation of the Chuska Mountains, Northwestern New Mexico. Geological Society of America Bulletin 84: 1155–1180.Google Scholar