Chetro Ketl

Chetro Ketl
Chetro Ketl from the north mesa
Location	Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico, United States
Nearest city	Gallup, New Mexico
Area	3 acres (1.2 ha)
Elevation	6,000 feet (1,800 m)
Built	945–1070
Architectural style(s)	Ancestral Puebloan
Governing body	National Park Service

Chetro Ketl is an Ancestral Puebloan great house and archaeological site located in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico, United States. The meaning and origin of the name are disputed, but Navajo translations include "broad-house", "house in the corner", and "shining house". Construction began c. 945 and was largely complete by 1070, with significant remodeling occurring as late as 1116. Archeologists estimate that Chetro Ketl once housed approximately 1,500 people. By 1140, after experiencing dramatic crop failures during a period of prolonged drought, the Puebloans began to emigrate north from Chaco Canyon to locations such as Colorado's Mesa Verde, and by 1250 Chetro Ketl had been abandoned.

The great house was re-discovered in 1823 by the Spanish governor of New Mexico, José Antonio Vizcarra. American exploration of the area began in 1849, when Lt. James Simpson, a surveyor with the United States Army Corps of Engineers, documented the physical characteristics of the major ruins in Chaco Canyon. Formal excavations of Chetro Ketl were conducted during 1920 and 1921, and again between 1929 and 1935, by Edgar L. Hewett, president of New Mexico Normal University and director of the first archeological field school in the canyon.

Chaco scholars estimate that it required more than 500,000 person-hours, 26,000 trees, and 50,000,000 stone blocks to erect Chetro Ketl, which is approximately 450 feet (140 m) by 280 feet (85 m) and 1,540 feet (470 m) in circumference; the diameter of its great kiva is 62.5 feet (19.1 m). Chetro Ketl contained approximately 400 rooms, which encompassed more than 250,000 square feet (23,000 m²); it was the largest great house by surface area in Chaco Canyon, covering nearly 3 acres (1.2 ha). The structure was composed of several groups of rooms built three-deep, stacked one to three stories tall, and organized in an D-shaped configuration with an exterior wall that enclosed a raised open space plaza.

Chetro Ketl was built opposite a large opening in the canyon known as South Gap, which helped maximize the building's exposure to the sun, while increasing visibility and access to the south. 20 acres (8.1 ha) of land to the east of the structure are thought to have been irrigated farms fields, but might also have been used to raise frogs and fresh-water shrimp. Chetro Ketl lies 0.4 miles (0.64 km) from Pueblo Bonito, in an area that archeologists call downtown Chaco. Scholars theorize that the area might be an ancestral sacred zone that included Chetro Ketl, Pueblo Bonito, and Pueblo del Arroyo. In the cliffs behind Chetro Ketl are ancient stairways that lead to prehistoric roads on the mesa top. The site contains architectural elements, such as a colonnade and tower kiva, that appear to reflect a Mesoamerican influence. The building has deteriorated significantly since its re-discovery in the early 19th century, and scholars warn that its usefulness as a source of information about Chacoan Culture is slowly diminishing.

Background

Long ago in the north, below from the Place of Emergence, everybody came out. Now when those who are everyone's chiefs came out they all went out. They went down south ... They went along coming from the north, and they began to make towns.

 —Cochiti origin myth

In 1973, archeologist Cynthia Irwin-Williams theorized that the first human presence in Chaco Canyon dates to a hunter-gatherer society, which she named the Oshara Tradition, that developed within the local Archaic population (c. 6,000 to 800 BCE). The Oshara people harvested jackrabbits from the area as early as 5500 BCE and maintained a continuous presence in the region until 400 CE. Using data she collected at Arroyo Cuervo, which lies east of Chaco Canyon, she documented the "long slow progress from small bands of hunters and gatherers to fully sedentary agricultural villages". By 200 BCE, the Basketmaker culture had begun to develop from the Oshara Tradition. At least two groups of transitional Basketmaker II peoples inhabited the San Juan Basin during this period, as increased rainfall allowed for sustained agriculture and permanent settlements by 1 CE, when the water table rose and intermittent steams became more reliable.

The San Juan Basin

Area occupied by the Ancestral Puebloans

During the years 1 to 400, the Basketmaker II peoples began to establish pit-houses at elevated locations near sources of water and arable land. Archeologist Brian M. Fagan notes that the development of pottery in the region c. 300–400, "must have brought a revolution in cooking, allowing the boiling of beans and corn". Parts of the San Juan Basin saw plentiful rainfall during the 5th to 8th centuries, leading to significant expansion of pit-house communities in the region. Population increases during 6th century led to the settlement of the area's lowlands, including Chaco Canyon, as the Basketmaker II peoples transitioned from a hunter-gatherer society to one based on farming. This culture is known as Basketmaker III, and by 500 at least two such communities had been established in Chaco Canyon; the largest and most consequential is known as the La Plata. One of the earliest La Plata settlements, Shabik'eshchee Village, was continuously occupied until the early 700s, when the canyon was home to approximately one hundred people.

The Basketmaker III people perfected their farming techniques during the 8th century, and the well-watered areas of the San Juan Basin grew densely populated. Greater crop yields necessitated the construction of above-ground storage facilities that represent the first large-scale construction projects undertaken in the region. Fagan identifies this as "the time when the first room blocks, the very first pueblos, appeared, ushering in a period of profound social tension, population movements, and political change." In his opinion, "by 800, there was no going back. The people of Chaco and elsewhere were locked completely into economies based on maize and bean cultivation." Archeologists refer to the period starting c. 800 as the Pueblo I Era; by 900 to 925 the large pit-house settlements had been supplanted by modular construction that served as the foundation for the Ancestral Puebloan great houses that followed. During the 10th century, Chaco's population swelled from a steady influx of settlers from the San Juan River, approximately one hundred miles north. Fagan notes, "Within a few centuries, as rainfall became more irregular and life less predictable, the Chacoans embarked on a cultural trajectory that melded ancient traditions with new ideas that were to crystalize into a brilliant and short-lived Southwestern society."

Location and alignment

Map of Chaco Culture National Historic Park

Chaco Canyon is located in northwestern New Mexico 60 miles (97 km) north of the Santa Fe railroad and 130 miles (210 km) from Gallup, the nearest city. The sandstone canyon lies in a desert terrain at an elevation of approximately 6,000 feet (1,800 m). The continental divide is 20 miles (32 km) east. Though most of the Chacoan sites are located at the bottom of the canyon, the group also includes some ruins not in the canyon proper, extending 35 miles (56 km) from Kin Ya'a in the south to Pueblo Alto in the north, and 20 miles (32 km) from Pueblo Pintado to the northeast and Peñasco Blanco in the southwest. In terms of water drainage and cultural affinity, the area is part of the San Juan Basin, which includes Mesa Verde in Colorado and Kayenta, Arizona.

External image
Chaco Research Archive
Interactive map of downtown Chaco

Chetro Ketl lies 0.4 miles (0.64 km) east of Pueblo Bonito, in an area that archeologists call downtown Chaco. Scholars theorize that the area might be an ancestral sacred zone demarcated by a low masonry wall that encloses Chetro Ketl, Pueblo Bonito, and Pueblo del Arroyo. Chetro Ketl's position is symmetrical to Pueblo Bonito; the buildings are equidistant from a north-south axis that runs through the canyon. Archeologist Anna Sofaer proposed that many of the great houses in Chaco Canyon were constructed to emphasize astronomical alignments; during the minor lunar standstill, the full moon rises along Chetro Ketl's back wall.

Chetro Ketl was constructed on the north end of an open space that was later converted into an enclosed plaza. The location is opposite a large opening in the canyon known as South Gap, which helped maximize the building's exposure to the sun while increasing visibility and access to the south. Its rear wall runs parallel to the canyon, and at less than 100 feet (30 m) from the cliffs its proximity allowed inhabitants to benefit from passive solar energy emanating from the rocks. The great house is not perfectly aligned to the cardinal directions, but its nominal southerly orientation further enhanced solar exposure to its tiered rooms.

Construction

Chetro Ketl's north wall

Like other great houses in Chaco Canyon, Chetro Ketl was built over an extended period of time, during which the Ancestral Puebloans almost continuously added to the building, except while diverting their workforce to agriculture. Fagan identifies the period starting c. 1040 as marked by an "explosion of great house construction" following increased rainfall in the region. By 1085, the Puebloans had constructed great houses at Chetro Ketl, Pueblo Alto, and Pueblo del Arroyo, during what he describes as "a time of extraordinary growth and outreach". Archeologist W. James Judge describes the period from 1030 to 1130 as "Chaco's golden century, a period virtually unmatched elsewhere in the pre-Columbian Southwest".

Trees were harvested for construction at Chetro Ketl in regular annual intervals, which contrasts with the sporadic patterns found at other sites in the canyon. Whereas a late summer and early fall harvesting cycle has been documented at other Chacoan sites, the tree felling for Chetro Ketl was undertaken during the spring and early summer. The population of the great house might have been large enough that laborers gathered structural wood during the agricultural season, or this might indicate that groups of Chacoans were dedicated to tree felling irrespective of the farming season, when most others were busy with field preparation and planting.

The most commonly harvested species of tree was ponderosa pine (Latin: Pinus ponderosa); the Chacoans felled approximately 16,000 of them for use at Chetro Ketl, but the species is now noticeably absent from Chaco Canyon. Several scholars, including Hawley and Judd, proposed that a once plentiful forest might have existed in and around the canyon during the 10th and 11th centuries, but was eventually destroyed by over-harvesting. Dean and Warren believe that this "now seems unlikely", but the presence of trees in the canyon during the 20th century "suggests that some pines may have been locally available for use in the large towns". In their opinion, "the harvesting of trees for Chacoan construction must have decimated ponderosa pine stands and forests for many miles in every direction from Chaco Canyon." The nearest such forests are located 47 miles (76 km) distant in the foothills of several mountain ranges that flank the Chaco basin, including the Zuni, Chuska, La Plata, Nacimiento, and San Juan Mountains.

Building periods at Chetro Ketl by Florence M. Hawley

Second period (1030–1070; masonry types II and III)

Second period (1062–1090; masonry type III)

Third period (1100–1116; masonry types III, IV, and V)

Stephen H. Lekson, Thomas C. Windes, and Patricia Fournier, authors of "The Changing Faces of Chetro Ketl", date the beginning of construction at Chetro Ketl at 990; they based their estimate on 1,285 dated elements from the great house. In their opinion, Chetro Ketl was largely complete by 1070, with periodic construction occurring there until 1112, when the great kiva was remodeled.

Archeologist Florence M. Hawley used one hundred and forty-three tree-ring dates and a comparative masonry analysis to assemble a constructional history of Chetro Ketl that included three major periods: 945–1030 (masonry type I), from which no significant elements are observable, 1030–90 (masonry types II and III), when construction and remodeling produced most of the building's extant features, and 1100–16 (masonry types III, IV, and V), which saw renovation of existing features. According to archeologists Dean and Warren, dendrochronology indicates that "no trees were cut for use [at Chetro Ketl] after 1117." Hawley describes the latter part of the second building period as the "classic epoch" of Chetro Ketl, the period with the finest masonry, identified as type III, though types II and III overlapped during this transitional period. In her opinion, the best examples of type III masonry represent the "finest construction ever developed at Chetro Ketl".

Starting with the longest wall, the first phase produced what Fagan described as a central "rectangular room block". The first floor of the central core began two rooms deep, but was expanded to three as second story rooms were added. Several ceiling beams from a first floor room date to 1038, and construction on the second story began contemporaneously or immediately after that, but was intermittent and sectional as Chetro Ketl's growing population required more living space. By 1054, several third story rooms had been completed, and by 1060 the entire back row was three stories tall. Room 42, in the middle row, was built in 1070. The last major construction occurred around that time, with third story additions to central kiva G in masonry style V.

In archeologist Edgar L. Hewett's opinion, it took more than 50,000,000 sandstone blocks to complete the structure. Archeologist Mary Metcalf estimates that the project required more than 500,000 person-hours. Nearly 78 percent of the estimated 26,000 trees harvested for use at Chetro Ketl were felled between 1030 and 1060. More than 7,000 trees were felled for kiva construction, with approximately 750 used in the great kiva.

Abandonment

They didn't abandon this place. It is still occupied. We can still pray to the spirits living in these places from as far away as our pueblo. The spirits are everywhere. Not just the spirits of our ancestors, but tree spirits and rock spirits. If you believe that everything has a spirit, you will think twice before harming anything.

 —Puebloan oral tradition

The Ancestral Puebloans relied on regular rainfalls to sustain their agricultural society. This proved challenging in Chaco Canyon even with consistent precipitation. By 1130, the rains had diminished and the maize crops that the Chacoans depended on began to fail, as the region increasingly suffered from the effects of a fifty-year drought. Judge describes it as "one of the most severe and enduring Southwestern droughts on record". After a continuous occupation of more than six hundred years, the Chacoans began to migrate en masse from the canyon. Fagan states that by 1140 "Chaco was finished". He cites a study of twelfth-century burials in the Gallup, New Mexico area that indicates as many as half of the people who lived during the drought died before the age of eighteen, with 60 percent of all deaths occurring before age thirty-five. The study estimated that for every woman, four children were needed to sustain the agriculture workforce.

The turning point for Chacoan culture prior to the widespread crop failures of 1130 to 1180 were the especially dry years of 1090 to 1095, when emigration from Chaco Canyon increased significantly and Puebloan construction in outlying communities, such as Mesa Verde, Salmon, and Aztec, began to flourish. Despite rapid depopulation in the canyon, Windes believes that Chetro Ketl's great kiva might have been remodeled and used during the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Ceramic evidence indicates that the last inhabitants abandoned it by 1250. Archeologists John R. Stein, Dabney Ford, and Richard Friedman believe that the presence of a haphazardly applied layer of rubble veneer to ceremonial areas in Chetro Ketl's great kiva indicate an "organized closure" that probably included a "termination ceremony".

Re-discovery

Chetro Ketl, facing west, with the north wall at top right

In the years following the Ancestral Puebloan's departure from Chaco Canyon, several migrations to the region occurred. During the 1400s, Navajo people emigrated to the area from northwestern Canada, and in the 1700s Spanish explorers and settlers came from the south. The Spanish investigated parts of the San Juan Basin, but there is no record of them ever finding Chaco Canyon. When cartographer Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco drew a map in 1774 of Spanish land holdings in the region, he labeled Chaco Canyon with the word Chaca, but it is unlikely he ever visited the area. In 1823, the governor of New Mexico, José Antonio Vizcarra, discovered ancient ruins in the canyon during a military campaign against the Navajo. Vizcarra's account is the first historical record of the Chacoan great houses that were "of such antiquity that their inhabitants were not known to Europeans". In 1844, Josiah Gregg made the first published reference to Chaco Canyon in his popular book, Commerce of the Prairies.

Remains of ancient beams in Chetro Ketl

American exploration of the region began following the Mexican–American War of 1846–48 and the United States' acquisition of the New Mexico Territory soon afterward. During a military campaign against the Navajo in 1849, Lt. James Simpson, a surveyor with the United States Army Corps of Engineers, became interested in the canyon's ruins. A group led by the governor of Jemez Pueblo, Francisco Hosta, explored the canyon; its members included Simpson and the brothers Richard and Edward Kern, who were respectively an artist and a cartographer. Simpson was impressed by Chetro Ketl's masonry, which he described as "a combination of science and art which can only be referred to a higher stage of civilization and refinement than is discoverable in the works of Mexicans or Pueblos of the present day." Simpson and company documented their findings, noting the location and style of the great houses, taking measurements, and sketching the canyon's major ruins. They described the kivas as "circular apartments sunk in the ground". Simpson briefly explored Chetro Ketl, documenting six of its kivas and one hundred and twenty-four rooms on the ground floor of the four-story building. He noted an especially well-preserved room where "the stone walls still have their plaster upon them, in a tolerable state of preservation." Archeologist R. Gwinn Vivian credits Simpson's 1850 report detailing their brief exploration of the canyon and Richard Kern's lithographs as the beginning of Chacoan archeology.

Proper archeological investigation of Chaco Canyon began in 1895, when Colorado rancher-turned archeologist Richard Wetherill began his exploration of the canyon. Wetherill was well known for his discovery of some of the largest Ancestral Puebloan dwellings in Mesa Verde, and after an invitation to survey Chaco Canyon he organized a one-month expedition to the region. Soon afterward, he secured financial backing for a full season, and in 1896 excavations began at Pueblo Bonito.

Etymology

Carravahal, a Mexican guide who worked for the first American expedition in 1849, translated Chetro Ketl as "rain town". Nonetheless, the origin and true meaning of the name are unknown. Lekson and archeologist Peter McKenna note that while most of the names given to Chacoan ruins are either Spanish or Navajo, "Chetro Ketl is neither."

In 1889, Navajo historian Washington Mathews reported that, in tribal mythology, the building is referred to as Kintyél or Kintyéli, which means "broad-house". Other Navajo translations include "house in the corner" and "shining house".

Excavation

Excavation map of Chetro Ketl by Florence Hawley (1934), with great kiva (lower right) and central room block (top center)

The first formal excavation of Chetro Ketl was conducted during 1920 and 1921 by Edgar L. Hewett, president of New Mexico Normal University and director of Chaco Canyon's first archeological field school. He visited the canyon in 1902, and in 1916 he arranged for the School of American Research to participate in excavations at Chetro Ketl with the Royal Ontario Museum and the Smithsonian Institution. He made some preliminary studies at the end of 1916, but ongoing concerns about World War I caused the delay of his plans. When work resumed in 1920, financial considerations forced the Smithsonian to withdraw its support. Hewett suspended his research during Neil Judd's 1924 to 1927 National Geographic Society financed excavation of Pueblo Bonito, but returned to Chetro Ketl in 1929 with graduate students from his newly founded Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. Hewett studied the canyon until 1935, and several Chaco scholars worked for or with him during this period, including Gordon Vivian (father of R. Gwinn Vivian), Edwin Ferdon, Paul Reiter, and Florence M. Hawley. Despite having spent several years excavating Chetro Ketl, Hewett never published a detailed account of his research there. His methods have been widely criticized; in a 2015 symposium Stephen Plog commented: "in retrospect, Hewett's Chetro Ketl excavations fell well below the standards of ... the National Geographic Project." Nonetheless, much is known about Hewett's studies through theses and dissertations written by students who worked with him.

Inside Chetro Ketl, facing west

Hawley began her studies with Hewett in 1929, focusing primarily on dendrochronology and ceramic dating. She spent two summers excavating Chetro Ketl's refuse mound, and demonstrated that charcoal found in it could be used for tree-ring dating. Her 1933 doctoral dissertation showed that the mound's layers represent a reverse stratigraphy. Subsequent excavations indicated that the trash mound was likely created by more than typical household waste; numerous layers of the mound are composed of refuse from large-scale feasts that included the ritualistic smashing of pottery. Hawley estimated that Chetro Ketl had once housed approximately 1,500 people. She worked at the site through 1933, and in Fagan's opinion her comparison dating of masonry walls and potsherds significantly enhanced the study of Chacoan culture. He credits her with aiding the establishment of one of archeology's most accurate chronologies. In 1983, as the only surviving member of Hewett's 1929–33 group of researchers, Hawley noted the difficulties of excavating Chaco Canyon during the Great Depression: "The young archeologists and dendrochronologists of today, struggling to reconstruct Chetro Ketl from the notes, maps, and too scanty publications and incomplete collections of the past, know little of the exigencies which have made their task difficult."

Chacoan turquoise pendant like those found in Chetro Ketl's great kiva, c. 1000-1040

12th century Chacoan twined sandal

In 1921, Hewett excavated Chetro Ketl's great kiva, where he discovered a more ancient one buried 12 feet (3.7 m) below. He also found several macaw feathers, but no copper bells, like those found at Pueblo Bonito, as he had expected. While Hewett was surprised at the lack of exotic items at the site, where no human burials have been found, a stash of black-and-white stone necklaces and some wooden figures, some of which depict birds, were uncovered there, both of which archeologists consider unique in the region. Barbara J. Mills, author of Key Debates in Chacoan Archaeology, believes the artifacts represent "evidence of intense ceremonial activity" at Chetro Ketl. Lekson notes that after "spectacular amounts of material" were recovered at Pueblo Bonito, "expectations for Chetro Ketl were undoubtedly high", and although Hewett and his students were ultimately disappointed, he describes the wooden artifacts as "an extraordinary collection ... [that] has not dispelled the notion that Chetro Ketl was a 'dry hole'".

In 1931 and 1932, Reiter and Gordon Vivian discovered caches of turquoise beads and pendants while digging in the great kiva. In all, 17,454 beads were recovered from the kiva's buried niches. Twined sandals have also been recovered from Chetro Ketl.

The relative lack of exotic material uncovered at Chetro Ketl, such as shells, copper bells, and macaw feathers, might indicate its lesser importance compared to Pueblo Bonito, where those items have been found in abundance. However, because Chetro Ketl has only been partially excavated definitive conclusions prove elusive. In 1937, W.W. Postlewaite, who had for three seasons directed Hewett's excavation of Chetro Ketl's great kiva, oversaw the final work at the site conducted by the University of New Mexico and the School of American Research. A long period of nearly continuous study at Chaco Canyon ended in 1965, when Vivian and colleague Tom Mathews published their findings on the great house Kin Kletso.

Description

External images
Chaco Research Archive: Chetro Ketl
Interactive map
Image gallery

Chetro Ketl's 400 rooms and 250,000 square feet (23,000 m²) made it the largest great house by surface area in Chaco Canyon; sections of it reached four stories, three of which remain. The building covers nearly 3 acres (1.2 ha), with approximately half of that in the enclosed plaza, which was lined by wings of rooms to the north, east, and west. Its circumference is 1,540 feet (470 m), and its great kiva is 62.5 feet (19.1 m) in diameter. Chetro Ketl is a D-shaped structure; its south facing wall is 280 feet (85 m) long, and the north wall is more than 450 feet (140 m) long. Rooms were constructed three-deep and three or four stories tall, and terraced so that the ground level that faced the plaza in the center of the building was one-story. The great house had twelve kivas, two large ones in the west wing plaza, one of which is a great kiva, and ten in the central room block, including one known as a tower kiva.

The Jackson Staircase behind Chetro Ketl

Chetro Ketl's plaza is raised above the surrounding grade by 5.75 feet (1.75 m), a feature that is unique in the canyon, where the plazas of all other great houses are level with the surrounding landscape. The trash mound was 205 feet (62 m) long, 120 feet (37 m) wide, and 20 feet (6.1 m) tall; it contained between 219,000 cubic feet (6,200 m³) and 275,000 cubic feet (7,800 m³) of debris. The front of the building contains a mysterious feature that includes two closely spaced parallel walls that archeologists call "the moat". The "long, narrow, curving, hall-like room", which runs along the outside wall, appears to have been backfilled around the same time that the plaza was raised, c. 1070. The original purpose of the feature is unknown, but tunnels between rooms are found in more northerly Puebloan sites, and in the opinion of Lekson, Windes, and Fournier: "the moat would have allowed unobserved movement between the east and west wings".

A narrow slit along the north wall's outside surface indicates the presence of an ancient balcony, and at the head of a canyon to the north is the Jackson Staircase, a parallel set of steps cut into the cliff that the Puebloans used to climb out of the canyon. There are several rooms attached to the rear of the structure that lack direct access to the main building; these are believed to have been dedicated to community storage. The interior walls of great houses were typically covered in a rock veneer. Judd identified four distinct types, and his typology is the most commonly accepted in the region. Chetro Ketl's interior walls, particularly those in the eastern wing, were covered in a Type IV veneer characterized by uniform pieces of sandstone with little to no exposed mortar. It is one of two great houses in the canyon with corner doorways, which might have facilitated communication between relatives living in adjacent rooms.

Great kiva

Chetro Ketl's great kiva

From the south

Facing east, with round sitting stones

Whereas most of the great kivas in Chaco Canyon are located adjacent to or isolated from their associated great house, Chetro Ketl's lies within the pueblo's walls. Round sandstone disks that were used for seating are still there. The earliest and lowest floor lies 15 feet (4.6 m) below the current plaza surface. The present floor of the kiva is on average 9.25 feet (2.82 m) below. Several peripheral rooms abutted the structure, which is located in the southeast corner of the space; a smaller round room, known as the Court Kiva, lies 98 feet (30 m) to the west, in the plaza's south-central area.

The outer walls of the great kiva are 2.5 feet (0.76 m) to 3 feet (0.91 m) thick, and date to 1062 to 1090. Hawley identified the masonry as Type III, with a crude Type IV veneer covering the bench that postdates the final construction period (1100–16). An 18 foot (5.5 m) by 10 foot (3.0 m) antechamber is attached to the north end of the space; the passage way between them contained a stairway that rose 8 feet (2.4 m) in nine steps from the kiva floor. Though few remains of it were found, the great kiva most likely had a flat rather than a domed roof, as was typical of smaller kivas in Chaco Canyon.

Thirty-nine crypts, measuring approximately 1 foot (0.30 m) in height, 1.1 feet (0.34 m) wide, and 1.25 feet (0.38 m) deep, have been uncovered in the great kiva. They are spaced approximately 5.3 feet (1.6 m) apart and located around the inner circumference of the outer wall. A large bench, measuring 3.33 feet (1.01 m) wide by 2.75 feet (0.84 m) tall, encircles the inside of the space. A firebox, measuring 4.83 feet (1.47 m) by 5.3 feet (1.6 m) and 1.6 feet (0.49 m) tall, was located 5 feet (1.5 m) south of the center of the kiva, and a fire screen that helped supply draft air was located 5 feet (1.5 m) away from the firebox.

Colonnade

The site contains a colonnade that Lekson, Windes, and Fournier describe as "possibly the defining form at Chetro Ketl or even at Chaco. It was prominent, even dominating, within the plaza." It is not only unique to Chaco Canyon, but also to Ancestral Puebloan architecture as a whole, with "no comparable features" in the region; the nearest similar structure is located more than five hundred miles away at Casas Grandes, in Mexico. The colonnade's placement and orientation to the canyon indicate that it was intended to be viewed from inside the building. It was later filled-in with masonry to accommodate additional living space.

Ferdon proposed that the colonnade was inspired by a Quetzalcoatl cult from Mesoamerica. In his opinion, the influence was brought to the region by pochteca traders, and can also be seen in the site's tri-wall structure and tower kiva. Vivian puts him among a large group of scholars, including Charles C. Di Peso, who detect a Toltec influence in Chacoan architecture. Lekson, Windes, and Fournier believe that the architectural parallels between the colonnade at Chetro Ketl and those at places like Tula, Hidalgo in central Mexico, "are probably attributable to the adoption of Mesoamerican symbols appropriated by the flow of ideas carried by merchants, which were modified for the Southwestern situation". In their opinion, the Mesoamerica-Chaco connection "may have been the result of an interaction mechanism of indirect contact between nuclear Mesoamerica and Chaco though northwestern Mexico ... [but] the development and dispersion of traits such as the colonnaded halls cannot be attributed to the Toltecs."

Agriculture

Chaco Canyon is watered by winter storms and localized summer rains that fill the arroyos. Chaco Wash is deep, and it drains to the water table located 20 feet (6.1 m) below the canyon floor. Farming terraces on the mesa wall behind Chetro Ketl might have been used for growing specialized crops such as tobacco, and canals running from Pueblo Bonito to Chetro Ketl probably carried drainage water. Chetro Ketl's position in downtown Chaco and its proximity to South Gap further aided agricultural efforts near the great house, as summer storms tended to linger in the opening, which helped to funnel moisture to the area.

In Fagan's opinion, the land east of Chetro Ketl contains one of the canyon's best-known examples of Ancestral Puebloan farming. Approximately 20 acres (8.1 ha) of land were divided into plots measuring 75 feet (23 m) by 45 feet (14 m), with parallel irrigation canals that supplied water to individual parcels. Several scholars have disputed this interpretation, suggesting that the area might be the location of an unfinished great house, or it could have been used for mixing mortar or raising frogs and freshwater shrimp. Soil analysis indicates that the fields received water from both Chaco Wash and side canyons.

Purpose

Lekson and Windes believe that Chetro Ketl was not actually a pueblo, as it was most likely not occupied by scores of families, as early archeologists had concluded. They also note that, while most if not all round rooms in the canyon have been labeled as kivas, the smaller ones, such as those found at Chetro Ketl, were most likely not kivas, "but the final and most elaborate form of the pit-house", which had served as the primary housing structure during the five hundred years prior to the settlement of Chaco Canyon. Because so many of the rooms in Chacoan great houses are interior spaces that lie below several stories, great house construction might have been motivated by what architects call massing, building structures with the primary intention of impressing onlookers.

The rooms of Chetro Ketl might have served as storage space for ritual paraphernalia, and the great house may have been occupied primarily by groups of priests, while also housing pilgrims during community events, when the population of the canyon increased dramatically. In Judge's opinion, these pilgrims probably assisted in the construction of Chetro Ketl, while "confirming their affiliation with the larger ritual alliance". The featureless area between Chetro Ketl and Pueblo Bonito might have served as a central location for these rituals. He notes that, because the Chacoans relied on rainfall to enable their agricultural pursuits in a particularly arid environment, the focus of their ceremonialism was likely "appeals for moisture".

Chacoan system

Prehistoric roads and great houses in the San Juan Basin, superimposed on a map showing modern roads and settlements

On the mesa behind Chetro Ketl is an ancient road that leads to Pueblo Alto. Several ancient roads meet at the location, which is central to Chaco's ruins. Although the greater significance of the structure is unknown, it housed an estimated five to twenty families during the late 12th and early 13th centuries. There are low masonry walls nearby that are similar to the ones that enclose Chetro Ketl, Pueblo Bonito, and Pueblo del Arroyo, and Fagan believes that this might indicate a symbolic connection between the mesa and the canyon floor. Chetro Ketl and Pueblo Bonito are located equidistant from a north-south line that bisects Chaco Canyon from Pueblo Alto to Tsin Kletsin.

In 1982, archeologist Robert Powers noted that, because "the roads enter Chaco Canyon near the locations of several of the large- and medium-sized Chacoan structures", the area might represent a locus of control, or what Fagan calls "the apex of Chacoan power". He believes great houses like Chetro Ketl dominated outlying communities in the area, and in 1993 archeologist David R. Wilcox proposed that a state-level society might have developed at Chaco, with an administrative center at Pueblo Bonito or Chetro Ketl. In a 2003 study of artifacts from Pueblo Bonito, Frances Joan Mathien stated that the number of warrior-class individuals that would have been needed to support such a state − Wilcox estimated 500–1,000 − precludes his theory, and Wilcox is assuming "greater Chacoan organizational complexity than any other scholar to date".

According to Judge, "virtually all researchers recognize a strong ritual component to Chacoan authority and view the Chacoans as having formed a regional center with a compelling and integrating body of ceremony at its core". He notes that preliminary population estimates for the canyon ranged as high as 10,000 people, but in his opinion a figure closer to 2,000 is more likely. He views Chaco as a ceremonial center and a "place of ritual architecture", which pilgrims from throughout the San Juan Basin's two hundred great house communities would periodically visit. At its peak, the Chacoan system covered an area approximately the size of Portugal, an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 square miles (78,000 to 104,000 km²).

Deterioration

Chetro Ketl from the mesa top, facing west (2008)

In 1983, Lekson and McKenna noted that since the re-discovery of Chetro Ketl in the early 19th century, the building's "pace of dissolution increased alarmingly ... [it] has deteriorated at a faster rate over the last century and a half than in the previous six ... early observers saw a great deal more standing". Chetro Ketl's wooden elements have proven especially vulnerable in an area that lacks tree cover, with soldiers, cattlemen, and transients "stripp[ing] the beams from Chacoan ruins"; the rear balcony was present in 1901, but by 1921 the beams had been removed by people scouring the canyon for wood. The process of uncovering beams during excavation has further hastened their deterioration. Chaco Wash, which deepens and widens during summer rain showers, also threatens the canyon's ruins.

According to Lekson and McKenna, the once prominent trash mound has been "all but destroyed by repeated trenching and by re-channeling a small arroyo that runs between it and Chetro Ketl". Treasure hunting, livestock grazing, and National Park Service stabilization efforts have also contributed to the degradation of the structure, as have deep excavations that left the wash prone to flooding. Archeology was responsible for the catastrophic effects of the 1947 flood in the vicinity, which destroyed the walls of twenty rooms and collapsed 40 feet (12 m) of the north wall. It also toppled the tallest remnants of the great house. Lekson and McKenna note that, "the visible building is far from pristine. Most walls have undergone generations of structural and cosmetic treatment ... Chetro Ketl is an artifact deteriorating before our eyes. If the reader is inspired to questions that cannot be answered by the present study, be advised that Chetro Ketl's ability to answer in detail is slowly, but surely, disappearing."

Bibliography

• Betancourt, Julio L.; Dean, Jeffrey S.; Hull, Herbert M. (April 1, 1986). "Prehistoric Long-Distance Transport of Construction Beams, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico". American Antiquity. 51 (2): 370–75. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Dean, Jeffrey S.; Warren, Richard L. (January 1, 1983). "Dendrochronology". In Lekson, Stephen H. (ed.). The Architecture and Dendrochronology of Chetro Ketl. pp. 105–237. ASIN B000YMNT48. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Ellis, Florence Hawley (January 1, 1983). "Foreword". In Lekson, Stephen H. (ed.). The Architecture and Dendrochronology of Chetro Ketl. pp. xxiii–xxxviii. ASIN B000YMNT48. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Fagan, Brian (2005). Chaco Canyon: Archaeologists Explore the Lives of an Ancient Society. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-517043-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hawley, Florence M. (1934). The significance of the dated prehistory of Chetro Ketl, Chaco Caänon, New Mexico. University of New Mexico Press. OCLC 328211. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Jolie, Edward A.; Webster, Laurie D. (2015). "A Perishable Perspective on Chacoan Social Identities". In Heitman, Carrie C.; Plog, Stephen (eds.). Chaco Revisited: New Research on the Prehistory of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. University of Arizona Press. pp. 96–130. ISBN 978-0-8165-3160-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Judge, W. James (2004). "Chaco's Golden Century". In Nobel, David Grant (ed.). In Search of Chaco: New Approaches to an Archaeological Enigma. School of American Research Press. pp. 1–6. ISBN 978-1-930618-42-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lekson, Stephen H. (January 1, 1983). "Preface and Acknowledgments". In Lekson, Stephen H. (ed.). The Architecture and Dendrochronology of Chetro Ketl. pp. xxxix–x1. ASIN B000YMNT48.
• Lekson, Stephen H. (January 1, 1983). "Appendix C". In Lekson, Stephen H. (ed.). The Architecture and Dendrochronology of Chetro Ketl. pp. xxxix–x1. ASIN B000YMNT48.
• Lekson, Stephen H.; McKenna, Peter J. (January 1, 1983). "Introduction: Chetro Ketl and this Study". In Lekson, Stephen H. (ed.). The Architecture and Dendrochronology of Chetro Ketl. pp. 1–10. ASIN B000YMNT48.
• Lekson, Stephen H.; McKenna, Peter J. (January 1, 1983). "Excavation Notes". In Lekson, Stephen H. (ed.). The Architecture and Dendrochronology of Chetro Ketl. pp. 11–49. ASIN B000YMNT48.
• Lekson, Stephen H. (2004). "Architecture: The Central Matter of Chaco Canyon". In Nobel, David Grant (ed.). In Search of Chaco: New Approaches to an Archaeological Enigma. School of American Research Press. pp. 23–31. ISBN 978-1-930618-42-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lekson, Stephen H.; Windes, Thomas C.; Fournier, Patricia (2007). "The Changing Faces of Chetro Ketl". In Lekson, Stephen H. (ed.). The Architecture of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico (Chaco Canyon Series). University of Utah Press. pp. 155–78. ISBN 978-0-87480-948-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Marshall, Anne Lawrason (2003). "The sitting of Pueblo Bonito". In Neitzel, Jill E. (ed.). Pueblo Bonito: Center of the Chacoan World. Smithsonian Books. pp. 10–13. ISBN 978-1-58834-131-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Mathien, Frances Joan (2003). "Artifacts from Pueblo Bonito: One Hundred Years of Interpretation". In Neitzel, Jill E. (ed.). Pueblo Bonito: Center of the Chacoan World. Smithsonian Books. pp. 127–42. ISBN 978-1-58834-131-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
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• Plog, Stephen (2015). "Understanding Chaco: Past, Present, and Future". In Heitman, Carrie C.; Plog, Stephen (eds.). Chaco Revisited: New Research on the Prehistory of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. University of Arizona Press. pp. 3–29. ISBN 978-0-8165-3160-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Reed, Paul F. (2004). The Puebloan Society of Chaco Canyon. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-32720-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Simpson, James H. (2003). McNitt, Frank (ed.). Navajo Expedition: Journal of a Military Reconnaissance from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to the Navaho Country, Made in 1849. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-3570-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Stein, John R.; Ford, Dabney; Friedman, Richard (2003). "Reconstructing Pueblo Bonito". In Neitzel, Jill E. (ed.). Pueblo Bonito: Center of the Chacoan World. Smithsonian Books. pp. 33–60. ISBN 978-1-58834-131-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Swentzell, Rina (2004). "A Pueblo Woman's Perspective on Chaco Canyon". In Nobel, David Grant (ed.). In Search of Chaco: New Approaches to an Archaeological Enigma. School of American Research Press. pp. 48–53. ISBN 978-1-930618-42-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Van Dyke, Ruth M. (2004). "Chaco's Sacred Geography". In Nobel, David Grant (ed.). In Search of Chaco: New Approaches to an Archaeological Enigma. School of American Research Press. pp. 78–85. ISBN 978-1-930618-42-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Vivian, Gordon; Reiter, Paul (1965). The great kivas of Chaco Canyon and their relationships. University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0-8263-0297-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Vivian, R. Gwinn (2004). "Puebloan Farmers of the Chacoan World". In Nobel, David Grant (ed.). In Search of Chaco: New Approaches to an Archaeological Enigma. School of American Research Press. pp. 7–13. ISBN 978-1-930618-42-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Vivian, R. Gwinn; Hilpert, Bruce (2012). The Chaco Handbook: An Encyclopedic Guide (2 ed.). University of Utah Press. ISBN 978-1-60781-195-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Vivian, R. Gwinn; Watson, Adam S. (2015). "Reevaluating and Modeling Agricultural Potential in the Chaco Core". In Heitman, Carrie C.; Plog, Stephen (eds.). Chaco Revisited: New Research on the Prehistory of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. University of Arizona Press. pp. 30–62. ISBN 978-0-8165-3160-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Windes, Thomas C. (2003). "This Old House: Construction and Abandonment at Pueblo Bonito". In Neitzel, Jill E. (ed.). Pueblo Bonito: Center of the Chacoan World. Smithsonian Books. pp. 14–32. ISBN 978-1-58834-131-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Windes, Thomas C. (2004). "The Rise of Early Chacoan Great Houses". In Nobel, David Grant (ed.). In Search of Chaco: New Approaches to an Archaeological Enigma. School of American Research Press. pp. 14–21. ISBN 978-1-930618-42-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• National Park Service – Chetro Ketl
• Chaco Research Archive