CHACOAN CHRONOLOGY
Tom Winde
From http://www.colorado.edu/Conferences/chaco/
Numerous chronologies for the Chacoan Period in the San Juan Basin exist, which poses confusing and vexing problems for students of Chacoan archaeology. The table presented here gives structure to the latest thinking of time, phases, and major cultural historical events. Earlier phases assigned to Chacoan archaeology by Gladwin, Gordon Vivian, and others, which were based on architectural traits overlapping in time, have been discarded. While the present chart is not tight and concise, it does provide a framework that should be useable to the participants in this roundhouse on Chaco. Note that the framework is segmented more than normal to try to encorporate changes seen in the archaeological record with a temporal framework that does not quite fit into the Pecos Classification. This framework should be considered a working model to improve communication and discussion of the Chacoan Phenomenon.
| Pecos Class | Chaco Project Phases | Period A.D. | Ceramic Assemblage (dominant types) |
Major Architectural events | Other events |
| Late PIII | Mesa Verde | 1200-1300 | Mesa Verde B/w, indented corrugated (rock & sherd) | Major re-population | |
| PIII | McElmo | 1140-1200 | McElmo, indented corrugated (rock/sherd/sand) | Major depopulation/severe drought | |
| Early PIII | Late Bonito | 1090-1140 | Chaco-McElmo/Gallup B/w, indented corrugated (sand) | Major greathouse constr. north of San Juan River | Major population increase, then decrease |
| Late PII | Classic Bonito | 1040-1100 | Gallup B/w, indented corrugated (sand & trachyte) | Major greathouse constr. | Major depopulation. Varied climate:drought, major surplus |
| PII | Early/Classic Bonito | 1000-1100 | Kivas appear. | ||
| Early PII | Early Bonito | 900-1040 | Red Mesa B/w, narrow neckbanded (sand). | Small-house aggregation & sharp number increase. Greathouses appear in numbers in San Juan Basin | Major population rise, rise of turquoise industry/crafts, corn ubiquitous in sites. Water control systems appear. |
| Late PI-Early PII | Early Bonito | 875-925 | Kiatuthlanna & Red Mesa B/w, Lino Gray & Kana'a Neckbanded | Above ground slab house sites; small to moderate size? | Shift from dry to wet period. |
| PI | White Mound | 800-875 | Whitemound B/w, Lino Gray | Classic above ground slab row house sites; small to moderate size.1st greathouses appear. | Major increase in storage facilities |
| Early PI | White Mound | 700-800 | Whitemound B/w, Lino Gray | Deep pithouses, dispersed. | Sparse storage facilities? |
| Late BMIII | La Plata | 600-700 | La Plata B/w, Lino & Obelisk Grays | Shallow pithouses, dispersed. | Moderate storage facilities (surface cists) |
| BMIII | La Plata | 500-600 | La Plata B/w, Lino & Obelisk Grays | Shallow pithouses. Two aggregated great communities with great kivas appear. | Moderate storage facilities (surface cists) |
| Late BMII | brownware | 400-500 | Obelisk Gray & brownware | Unknown. | Unknown. |
| Archaic | -- | pre 1AD | none | Unknown. | Unknown. |