Great Pueblo Architecture of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

After a century of excavation and survey in Chaco Canyon, a new study of Chacoan architecture should be redundant. Oddly enough, this is not true. The most extensive field studies of Chacoan building were the earliest (Holsinger 1901; Jackson 1878), undertaken before the development of tree-ring dating; while the most important dendrochronological studies (Bannister 1965; Robinson et al. 1974) were accomplished without the benefit of concurrent fieldwork. Chaco's archaeological literature, though immense, is marked by curious lacunae. There is no recent reliable, ruin-by-ruin field study. The "old Chaco hands" were so steeped in the canyon and its lore that these baseline data were simply understood; a guidebook was unnecessary for an intelligent exchange of views among the small circle of Chaco scholars. They all knew each other, and they all knew the canyon. For a number of reasons, Chaco is no longer the special province of a local group. Recent media coverage alone should ensure that scholars in New York, or old York, can address the archaeology of Chaco Canyon without fear of breaching academic etiquette. In my opinion, this is the best development in Chacoan archaeology since tree-ring dates. The National Park Service still tends to be a trifle proprietary of its ruins.