Chaco Canyon
Archaeologists have discovered that the Anasazi civilization of present-day southwestern United States flourished even after environmental problems had reduced crop production and virtually eliminated timber supplies in Chaco Canyon,the center of the Anasazi population.Despite these problems,or because of the solutions the Anasazi found to them,the canyon’s population continued to increase,particularly during a big spurt (sudden and brief increase)of construction that began in A.D.1029.Such spurts went on especially during wet decades,when more rain meant more food,more people,and more need for buildings.A dense population is attested not only by the famous great houses (such as Pueblo Bonito)spaced about a mile apart on the north side of Chaco Canyon,but also by holes drilled into the northern cliff face to support roof beams,indicating a continuous line of residences at the base of the cliffs between the great houses,and by the remains of hundreds of small settlements on the south side of the canyon.The size of the canyon’s total population remains unknown and much debated. Many archaeologists think that it was less than 5,000 and that those enormous buildings had few permanent occupants except priests and were just visited seasonally by peasants at the time of rituals.Other archaeologists note that Pueblo Bonito,which is just one of the large houses at Chaco Canyon,by itself was a building of 600 rooms and that all those post holes suggest dwellings for much of the length of the canyon,thus implying a population much greater than 5,000. Such debates about estimated population sizes arise frequently in archaeology.
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