Synthetic Addition

Back Wall of Chetro Ketl

Of all the research done over the past hundred years on Chaco, probably the most influential on current views of the Chaco Phenomenon is that done under the auspices of the Chaco Project, a joint effort by the National Park Service and the University of New Mexico to do a wide-ranging, in-depth analysis of Chaco.  The project began in 1969, and fieldwork took place for roughly the next decade.  Administrative and personnel issues kept active fieldwork from continuing any longer, but publication of the project’s results has continued up to the present day.

Most of the publications resulting from the project were monographs and site reports put out by the Park Service, which are important contributions to the literature but are not particularly accessible, both in the sense of being highly technical in nature and in the sense of being put out in limited printings.  Toward the end of the 1990s, however, some archaeologists in the Park Service began to conceive the idea of putting together some sort of general synthesis of the project that would gather together all of the major results in one place.

The ultimate result of the resulting synthesis effort was a book, entitled The Archaeology of Chaco Canyon, edited by Chaco Project alumnus and all-around archaeological gadfly Steve Lekson.  Lekson, who was tasked with planning and organizing the synthesis, decided it was too big a project for one person and instead put it into the form of a series of working conferences on various aspects of the Chaco Phenomenon and the legacy of the Chaco Project.  After these conferences were completed, the results of them were both published separately in various venues and formats and used as the basis for a final capstone conference.  The proceedings of this conference ended up as the basis for the final book, which contains chapters written by the participants summarizing the results of each of the working conferences as well as others by other scholars addressing other topics relevant to Chaco and the Chaco Project.

Casa Rinconada from Below

I’d say that this rather unusual process resulted in a particularly useful volume that gives a solid, up-to-date account of the state of research on a wide variety of Chaco-related subjects, including both those covered in detail by the Chaco Project and others of equal interest.  As Lekson notes in his engaging introduction, however, this is not a coffee-table book.  Rather, it is a synthesis of scholarly research that, while by no means as technical as the literature it synthesizes, is definitely targeted at a readership that is already well aware of what Chaco is and why it is important.  I would definitely not recommend it as an introduction for total beginners; there are other books that are better for that.

For those who do have the necessary background, which I would say is either an awareness of earlier research on Chaco or a general understanding of southwestern archaeology, however, this is a very good way to get a well-rounded sense of what has been happening in Chacoan studies over the past few years and how that research has shaped current understandings of Chaco.  I could certainly quibble with some of the interpretations offered in various chapters, but the nice thing about the multi-author nature of the book is that the authors of the different chapters differ among themselves in their answers to various questions and their interpretations of various pieces of data, so if there’s something in one chapter I don’t like there’s often something on the same topic in another chapter that I find more congenial.

Research continues unabated, of course, and this book is by no means the last word on any of the topics it covers.  The recent discovery of chocolate residue on cylinder jar sherds is just one particularly spectacular (and potentially far-reaching) discovery among many that are being made now and will continue to be made for years and decades to come.  As a summary of data collected and theories proposed as of a particular recent moment in time, however, this book is invaluable and a necessary part of a complete and in-depth understanding of Chaco.

Kiva Pilasters at Pueblo Del Arroyo

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