The Anasazi, who were named by the Navajos, knew how to chart theseasons by detecting the sky. The biggest enigma of Chaco Canyon is why theAnasazidecided to go forth the place that they had built over so many old ages. the one thingthat is rather interesting is that they were able to build such a brilliant piece ofarchitecture without the usage of metal tools or any devices with wheels. Chimney Rock is located about 20 stat mis west of Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Theconstruction is composed chiefly of sandstone which was laid at that place more than 65 millionyears ago.
The territory that Chimney Rock is located in consists of 6.12 square stat mis, has91 identified countries with a sum of 217 different constructions. Most of these countries were grouped into 7 communities that are located at variousplaces within the territory. The Anasazi Indians lived in the Piedra Valley get downing aboutthe tine of Christ.
Most of them lives at lower lifts near the Fieldss and they farmedalong the H2O beds, but some moved up onto the higher parts of Chimney Rock Mesaaround 925 A.D. They may hold moved higher to avoid the cold sink consequence that made thelower countries colder in the winter, or they may hold moved higher to use winter snow asa H2O beginning. Still, most of the Fieldss they planted in spring were along the waterwayson the floor of the vale or on patios in the vales above the river. At Chimney Rockthe people grew maize and beams, but no squash. Although squash was a pillar of theirpeople in other countries, the turning season was likely excessively short in this part for squashto mature before it was killed by hoar.
The population of Chimney Rock is estimated to hold been between 1200 and2000 people. The local Anasazi built in the Northern San Juan Style, each household orextended household constructing its ain place. The masonry was similar to that in the structuresat Mesa Verde. Great kivas were built in about every major Anasazi site between 900 and 1200A.D. One of the several great kivas at Chimney Rock has been excavated. These largestructures likely served for community assemblages and rites. Fourteen storagechambers, were found in the floor of this Great Kiva, presumptively for the storage ofceremonial gear.
Although this Great Kiva has some alone characteristics, it probablywas built harmonizing to a general program used by all the Anasazi. Ninety stat mis to the South, some of the Anasazi were making a new sort of societyin Chaco Canyon. Alternatively of the scattered type of homes found in most Anasazicommunities at that clip, the people at Chaco were constructing Pueblo or great houses. Thisis Pueblo Bonito. They besides created more than 400 stat mis of roads taking to outlyingsettlements, or settlements. Chaco seems to hold been a focal point in the trading ofturquoise from many countries of the Southwest with the civilisations in Central America.
In 1076 the Chacoans built a great house on Chimney Rock Mesa. Their pueblowas high above the others, the highest Anasazi colony known anyplace, and the mostnortheastern of the sites colonized by the Chacoans. Some Chacoan settlements seem tohave been built in places where they could see the fires of other settlements at dark, or, possibly, send signals to each other. The people of Taos Pueblo in New Mexico claim Chimney Rock as one of theirancestral places and say that the two stones pinnacles are a shrine to the Twin Was Gods.
The Anasazi were interested in calendrical uranology as a means to state when to works theircrops. Religious ceremonials were related to motions of Sun, Moon and stars in theheavens, merely as the same motions as alterations of seasons determined the Ir lives. At Chimney Rock they found a natural lunar observatory. Every 18 old ages the full Moon risesbetween the two pinnacles as viewed from the small town. This occurs at the clip of lunarstandstill, the clip when the Moon rises at its furthest point North of E.
The Chacoanpueblo at Chimney Rock may hold been a prehistoric research institute, similar in portion toStonehenge in Great Britain. Dr. Frank Eddy, who has excavated some Chimney Rock sites, feels that thecolonists who moved here may hold been priests, all male, because they brought onlymasculine endowments with them ; for illustration, the manner of masonry, a adult male s undertaking, is clearlyChacoan.
However, the occupants of Chimney Rock did non bring forth typical Chacoanpottery, a adult female s business. Replicas of pots found at Chimney Rock Produced by Clint Swink, a local potterwho specializes in doing transcripts of Anasazi clayware, show a Chacoan manner pot, provingthat there was ongoing trade between the two societal centres. Other artefacts found at Chaco Canyon but made at Chimney Rock Reinforce the trade and cultural links. Evidence that the Chacoan Pueblo was planned and built as a whole is shown bythe uninterrupted rear wall.
The masonry was laid down on bedrock, taking archaeologiststo believe that the rocks and the soil used for the clay howitzer were hauled up from below. The Chacoans stayed at Chimney Rock for merely about 50 old ages. Their Pueblo wasabandoned no subsequently than 1125 A.D. It is thought that the other occupants deserted theregion at about the same clip. Both the Pueblo and the small town edifices were burnedabout the same clip. Chaco Canyon itself was abandoned over a period of old ages between1130 and 1150 A.D. The Anasazi moved often when local resources became depleted.
Even thestunning cliff homes at Mesa Verde were occupied for less than a century. However, the cause of their abandoning the full Colorado Plateau was likely due to a severedrought that occurred between 1276 and 1299. When the rains failed to come, theiragriculture faltered and they were forced to go forth. The Anasazi must hold abandoned thishomeland reluctantly. The former dwellers of Chimney Rock may hold moved to the Rio Grandearea to fall in the Taos Pueblo, or they may hold been one of the groups that temporarilyreoccupied Chacoan shade towns.
For illustration, the ruins at Aztec, New Mexico werebuilt by people from Chaco about 1100, abandoned by 1150, but reoccupied andremodeled by Northern San Juan Anasazis from 1200 to about 1300 A.D. Someinteresting grounds late discovered by Dr. Kim Malville at Mesa Verde may showthat some Chimney Rock Anasazi moved at that place after go forthing their places below thepinnacles. Today Chimney Rock is managed by the U.S. Forest Service.
It was made aNational Historic Site in 1970. In 1987 afire sentinel tower that had been abandoned inthe 1950 s was rebuilt. The tower provides a point of view comparable to the 1 that theChacoans must hold had from the top of their two-storied Pueblo. Ranger-led Tours arethe lone manner to make the ruins. The country is closed except for Tourss to continue the delicatestructures and to protect critical wildlife home ground.
Visitors from all parts of the state and across the universe are intrigued by thearchaeological enigmas of Chimney Rock. Particular occasions, such as the one-year openhouse or a moonrise talk by Dr. Kin Malville, who originated the theory of the importanceof the lunar deadlock at Chimney Rock, attract late crowds. Many consider Chimney Rock the most dramatic of all the Anasazi sites, and bythe magnificant architecture and ruins, who would reason that?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Greer, William W. Chaco Canyon. Johnson Books 1995. Boulder, Colorado 80302
