Architecture and Material Culture of 29SJ1360 Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

In the summer of 1974, the Chaco Center, now the Division of Cultural Research, National Park Service, began its second season of field excavations in Chaco Canyon. The inventory survey of the canyon was essentially complete, and research emphasis had shifted to the study of Pueblo I sites. Excavation of 29SJ1360 (hereafter called 1360) was undertaken as part of an effort to examine the full temporal range of the canyon's Anasazi occupation. As it happened, excavations at 1360 did not produce information on the Pueblo I period, but they did reveal a Pueblo II occupation in a small site of the Early Bonito phase (Judge et al. 1981) or Gladwin's (1945) Red Mesa to Wingate phases, a period of great interest in Chaco because it marks the initial development of Great House communities.

This report contains a description of the architecture and those of other Chaco Center preliminary site reports. Some changes in the original field designations of features have been necessary, partly due to subsequent revisions in terminology (Judge et ale 1976) and partly because some revision seemed warranted. For example, all three pit structures were originally designated as "kivas." This term has been subdivided into three different functional types (kiva, pithouse, and pit structure) for various reasons that will be made clear in the text. The original kiva letter designations (A, B, C) are retained, to assist in correlating this discussion with the field notes and maps. Description and discussion of artifacts vary somewhat in purpose and completeness from class to class. The presentation of data was the primary concern in preparing this volume, and this has been done largely through the voluminous tables. Accordingly, the interpretations offered here are preliminary, incomplete, and speculative. For a broader comparative and synthetic treatment of this material, see McKenna (1983).