The Chaco Experience: Landscape and Ideology at the Center Place

by Ruth M. Van Dyke

In a remote canyon in northwest New Mexico, thousand-year-old sandstone walls waver in the sunlight, stretching like ancient vertebrae against a turquoise sky. This storied place--Chaco Canyon--carries multiple layers of meaning for Native Americans and archaeologists, writers and tourists, explorers and artists. Here, isolation, the arid climate, and dry-laid construction have preserved ruins that are monuments to prehistoric creativity and perseverance. Chaco Canyon draws its power not only from the ancient architecture sheltering beneath its walls, but from the ever-changing light and the far-flung vistas of the Colorado Plateau. Light and shadow, stone and sky come together in the canyon. At the heart of this sky-filled landscape lie twelve massive great houses. The Chacoan landscape, with its formally constructed, carefully situated architectural features, is charged with symbolism. In this volume, Ruth Van Dyke analyzes the meanings and experience of moving through this landscape to illuminate Chacoan beliefs and social relationships.

Genres: Anthropology, Archaeology

328 pages, Paperback

First published February 25, 2008

Reviews

[Jim Collett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a bit different from most other Chaco books. The author focuses a great deal on understanding the landscape and the role it plays in the creation of the Chaco world and some sense of how it functions. To help understand this, she actually spends considerable time walking different "roads" and approaches to the canyon to learn what ancient visitors would have seen. She examines the larger San Juan basin area influenced by Chaco. The book is well-illustrated with diagrams of various great houses, several maps, and various tables, as well as a nice set of color plates. I found it a bit dense reading at times but, eventually, well worth the effort.