Chaco Culture National Historical Park Map

          Our first stop was at Chetro Ketl, the second largest village with over 650 rooms.  It had the usual curved front wall, tower kiva, great kiva, and a straight line back wall.  All were built and occupied by Chacoans and later reoccupied by Puebloans, as evidenced by numerous round kivas inside square rooms.  The great kiva was a lunar site because it had 28 niches in the wall.  We could see the four post bases and each was a different diameter, perhaps because each one was the base of a different bunch of sacred trees lashed together.  The sacred trees are Ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, cottonwood, and aspen.  It is a huge site.

Kiva at Chetro Ketl

Ruins at Chetro Ketl

Original vigas

Room at Chetro Ketl

Great Kiva at Chetro Ketl

Great Kiva at Chetro Ketl

Masonry at Chetro Ketl

Straight back wall at Chetro Ketl

Vigas and masonry at Chetro Ketl

            Some of our group walked past a bunch of petroglyphs on our way to the next site.  On the cliff wall we saw lizard man, frog man, bear claw, snake, caterpillar, mountain lion, etc.  Glyphs with men on horses and crosses, signifying Spaniards and maybe other missionaries, were added much later by Navajos.  There were several areas along the same cliff face that were used for sharpening tools.

Frog man petroglyph

Petroglyphs

Petroglyphs

Tool sharpening area

            Pueblo Bonito is the largest site, with maybe 800 rooms.  There are 2 great kivas - East and West - and a large flat, hard packed surface that was probably a ceremonial dance floor.  There are walls built using all five types of masonry: Puebloan I, II, III, IV, and Mc Elmo.  Type I was more adobe than stone; II and III had four thin slab layers then one layer of bread loaf size blocks; IV was so tight and neat it needed no mortar; and McElmo was unlayered large rocks probably built by the latest inhabitants.

Pueblo Bonito construction phases

Map of Pueblo Bonito

Pueblo Bonito as seen from Casa Rinconado

Pueblo Bonito

Pueblo Bonito

Great Kiva at Pueblo Bonito

Varieties of masonry at Pueblo Bonito

Masonry Types

Type 1 masonry at Pueblo Bonito

Pueblo Bonito

Corner door at Pueblo Bonito

            We had another sandwich picnic lunch and then some of us walked out to look at Una Vida, which was an early site (maybe 850 AD) and had 100 ground level rooms with second and third levels above them.  It is unique because it has been left as it was found in 1848.  The straight wall here is in line with the maximum southern moonset.

Chacoan masonry at Una Vida

Una Vida ruins

            Pueblo de Arroyo has another large great house, a tri-walled kiva with no explanation as to why three walls with maybe four feet between them were built around it.  This was a later site and had many examples of Type III, IV, and McElmo walls.  It was obviously reoccupied and there are no typical features apparent in the kivas.

Pueblo Del Arroyo

Pueblo Del Arroyo

Tri-wall construction as Pueblo Del Arroyo

           Casa Rinconada was a different kind of place.  There are six to ten groups of rooms with very poorly made single course walls.  These rooms may have been used by the laborers who built some of the other great structures.  There are pottery shards lying around on the ground and they were not very fancy.  There was also evidence of cannibalism in some of the excavated rooms.  One theory is that this was a way of forcing compliance of the people.  Much of this site has been backfilled.

            On a nearby hill, the highest on the canyon floor, is one more Great Kiva - the largest.  It has two large mystery boxes, two T doors, a large fire pit, a double bench, and a ramp for performers to enter from below the floor level in a cloud of smoke.  It is also a lunar site with 28 niches.  It is built right at the intersection of the georitual north-south and east-west lines.

Casa Rinconada

Great Kiva at Casa Rinconada

           We stopped at the Sun Dagger on Fajada Butte on our way out of the park.  The “sun dagger” is three large slabs of rock aligned to cast a shadow over a solar coil and a lunar coil (petroglyphs) on every maximum and minimum solstice of the sun and moon.  It is very clever.

Google "Fajada Butte" and/or "Sun Dagger" for more information on this fascinating subject

Fajada Butte