Ch.5: Regional System

URBAN GENESIS AT CHACO: Case Study of the Origin of Civilizations. Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6

5.7 The Great North Road and the Regional System

Figure 4.27 Following upon Michael Marshall's cosmological interpretation of the Chacoan road system, I propose that the Great North Road was built as a north-south axis in order to establish Chaco as the center of the world. With the canyon itself presented as an east-west axis, marked by the solstices and made explicit with the placement of Peasco Blanco and Kin Nahasbas, the intersection of the of the Great North Road with the canyon would be the intersection of two great cosmic axes. Figure 4.27, which illustrates this point, is essentially a superimposition of figure 4.26a onto the eleventh-century regional system. It also presumes cultural continuity between the Chaco culture and later Historic Pueblo cultures.

By building a wide avenue from the north to Chaco, the Chacoans were explicitly delineating the Origin path onto the landscape. The actual point of origin may not have been critically important; in most Historic Pueblo cultures the location of Shipap is as much metaphorical as literal. However the direction and the terminating point of the road were critical: it went exactly due south and ended at Chaco, clearly marking the canyon as the Middle Place.

If the Great North Road had been oriented only a few degrees west of due north, it would have linked Chaco directly with the communities that existed along the San Juan River. However the road does not link any significant communities. The small great-houses built along it are about one day's walking distance apart, suggesting that they were way stations built to serve travelers along the road. In the north, the road ends--or rather, begins--at the edge of a canyon. The only structure that marks the site is a small crescentic shrine. Despite the apparent disconnectedness of the road from any outlying communities, the Great North Road is the most substantial of all of the Chacoan roads. It has two tracks or lanes for all of its length, and along some segments it has four. Each of these tracks is nine meters wide. For a non-utilitarian roadway, built by a culture that had no wheeled vehicles nor any pack animals, the road is vast. The only imaginable uses for such a wide roadway would be for large processions, or possibly the road was designed for supernatural beings, not for humans at all. However, the presence of way-stations along the route favors the former explanation.

If the east is associated with winter and the west with summer, then Chaco Canyon is the intersection of three of the four cardinal directions. Expression of an axis from the south is unclear, although the view of Hosta Butte, Mount Taylor, and Casa Rinconada from Pueblo Alto may have sufficed as southern markers. Furthermore, an exact cardinal intersection may not have been necessary among the Chacoans. The idea that the Center is marked by an intersection of cardinal axes is cross-cultural and inexact. It applies to Historic Pueblo cultures, but in fact among the Pueblo the Middle Place is marked by the intersection of the six sacred directions, and the natural landmarks associated with north, south, east, and west do not necessarily lie on the compass directions at all.

If this interpretation is correct, the construction of the Great North Road is an elegant means of asserting Chaco as the center. The importance of such a claim to centrality will be discussed in the next chapter, and may explain why the Chacoans expended so much effort on a road that did not link Chaco to any human community.