Saturday, 17 June 2023

Chaco Culture in New Mexico

Chaco National Historic Park is a few hours SW from Mesa Verde but in New Mexico. We spent the day in Farmington appeasing the kids with a fun waterpark and appeasing me by visiting Aztec--another set of Ancient Puebloan ruins with a reconstructed big kiva you could go into (its cool too but kids can only take so many ruins and there are MANY in this area).

Then we headed into the desolate world of Chaco Canyon on mostly bumpy, cattle-guard ridden roads. The last 20km were the worst and we went slow. Traveling in is kinda part of the experience as you feel like you are way out there but yet in a place that at one point (1000AD-1200AD) this was the center of a civilization. Unlike Mesa Verde which was green and lush, Chaco canyon wasn't and there are no trees (there was 1 cottonwood in a wash in our campground but no much else). I wouldn't say it was desolate, but Chris would (see photo below-- you can deside! and it is still the end of Spring so there were flowers and grasses. One flower, perhaps the Desert Verbena in our campground, became wonderfully fragrant at night---a perfect combination with the amazing stars and the coyote yips. No need for a fly on the tent most nights in the desert! The campsite was cool as it was filled with rock art and even a cliff dwelling from ancient farmers. So many ruins and so much rock art that most weren't even listed on the map! Just meant to explore and find.

The next day we headed into the main site. I had woken pre-dawn and gone for a run to a set of ruins a few km up a trail near the campground and we had all listended to the incredibly long and varied call of the Northern Mockingbird which can set off and go for minutes without stop. We had been advised by a ranger at Mesa Verde to do the hike above the ruins to look down so we headed off to look at some ruins and to hike up and over. The start of the hike ascended a cliff that you couldn't tell there was a trail. I'm pretty sure it was an ancient route (in Chaco there were actual 'roads' quite large and straight) up and down the canyon as when I went down my fingers slipped into a couple of finger holds shaped by years (or centuries of walking).

Does this look like a route up? Ancient Chaco cliff hike Up on the ridge was hottish (28C doesn't really feel hot anymore) so the kids complained but the views of the ruins were amazing and along the way there were interesting fossils (shrimp tunnels and clams). As well, 800-1000 year old pottery shards and even this pecked out bowl into the rock (for extra water collection or ceremonial use)?
There was clearly something a bit different going on in Chaco and the current theories think it was a religious, trade or general gathering place that people came to on ancient roads that went in all 4 directions to a ring of other pueblan settlements (like Aztec) and even as far south as to the actual Aztec in Mexico as there are trade items like macaws and technology that was passed in both directions. The ruins have MANY close kivas and there is evidence that they were built over centuries, astronomically aligned and contained very few domestic items but lots of trade or ceremonial. One room in the dark had been filled with macaws, others with golden eagles. One room had ceremonial buried women from a matrolineal line going back 300 years. Priestessess? Revered leaders? Many mysteries. The coolest piece was the neat roadways and "staircases"--carved stairs into the cliff that people would have used to come in and out of the canyon.
Again, earlier than Mesa Verde the canyon was left to very few individuals. It is a pretty dry place now but our ranger indicated that when it was initially settled it would have likely been forested and had a very regular river (now just a seasonal dry wash) so perhaps it was climate again. Foretelling for our future as a society perhap? Great Kiva- home and ceremonial places of the pueblan people
We then headed on towards Santa Fe to the mountains around to Bandolier National Monument to see one place where Chacoans or Mesa Verdans went to after they left.
at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Trip Summary- Highlights and Looking forward

 We arrived home later on July 11 to a very happy kitty and with very happy kids to see something familiar. Since then we've been enjoyi...