Above: back wall of Aztec Ruin, one of the largest outlier great-houses.
Right: aerial view of Kin Bineola, an outlier near Chaco Canyon.
URBAN GENESIS AT CHACO: Case Study of the Origin of Civilizations. Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6
In the previous two chapters, Unit Pueblos and Great-Houses were
described in detail. The premeditated wall layouts, the enclosed plazas,
and the very large kivas clearly distinguish the public Great-Houses
from domestic Unit Pueblos. Typically Great-Houses are larger than
nearby dwellings. But size alone should not be considered a
distinguishing feature, because the largest dwellings within Chaco
Canyon are larger than the Great-Houses built in outlying areas.
So far we have examined Great-Houses within Chaco Canyon. The
archaeological record indicates that Chaco is where the Great-House
building type emerged out of Unit Pueblo architecture. During the
mid-eleventh century, new Great-Houses were built across the San Juan
Basin, and beyond the Chuska Mountains to the west. These new
Great-Houses share the same features as Chacoan Great-Houses, including
the extraordinarily fine masonry work. In fact, the styles of masonry in
outlying Great-Houses changes contemporaneously with masonry styles in
the Canyon.
Together with the road system, these new outlier Great-Houses are the clearest indication that the Chaco Culture extended control over the surrounding region during the eleventh century. Outliers varied in size depending upon the local population. Kin Ya'a, located on a small rise on the featureless plain south of Chaco, is the size of a typical Unit Pueblo. Aztec Ruin, in the relatively fertile the San Juan River valley, is as large as the biggest Great-Houses in Chaco itself. However, it is still considered an Outlier because it appears to have been newly-built in the Chacoan style, after Great-Houses appeared in Chaco Canyon.
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