Abstract
An agricultural suitability study for a 3,923 km2 area encompassing Chaco Canyon and the surrounding San Juan Basin in northwest New Mexico is presented with implications for farming during the great house period, ca. AD 850 to 1150 (Bonito Phase). The GIS-based analysis expands previous studies of a smaller geographical area and includes additional variables related to hydrology, soils and vegetation, as well as new or updated data sources for those variables. The results indicate that the largest great houses and surrounding communities were located in extensive areas of highly suitable agricultural lands and also point to previously unrecognized potential agricultural lands in nearby tributary drainages.
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