Unearthing canyon’s clues
Mysteries of Anasazi revealed in Chaco’s centuries-old corn
By Jim Erickson, Rocky Mountain News

[Scientists have recently] concluded that the Anasazi, also known as the Ancestral Puebloans, hauled corn on their backs more than 50 miles to feed canyon dwellers.

That result is overturning the long-held belief that the Chacoans were agriculturally self-sufficient, growing everything they needed within the canyon through the clever use of captured and diverted surface runoff.

The findings also reinforce the view that Chaco was the ceremonial, administrative and economic center of a vast region spanning northwestern New Mexico’s San Juan Basin.

”We continually underestimate the ability of these people to organize themselves on huge scales without the aid of modern technology,” said University of Colorado archaeologist Linda Cordell, one of the authors of last fall’s paper. …

According to some Navajo clan traditions, [Chaco leaders] included a ruthless ruler known as the Gambler, who gained control of people by defeating them in various games of chance.

”The Navajo will tell you it was a powerful place ruled by a man who misused his power for black magic,” Stein said.

Something unique in this article is the inclusion of the Navajo view of Chaco. The article is worth reading just for that, as long as you take the view with a grain of salt. The Navajo arrived long after it was over, which isn’t to say they know nothing about it, but that they weren’t contemporaries watching their neighbors (and how accurate would that view be, for that matter?). mjh