Color and Chaco Performance: Spatial Histories of Blue–Green Paint Production at Pueblo Bonito

Abstract

ABSTRACT Vibrant and colorful plaza-based performances are one of the key hallmarks of the Pueblo ceremonial calendar, providing goodwill and communicating community histories, traditions, and knowledge. While the archaeological record may be silent on many details of these performances, a focus on the materiality of performance preparations is possible. In this paper, I rely upon the reanalysis of legacy collections from Pueblo Bonito to consider the production of blue-green paint, a symbolically significant color that is ubiquitous on the most emblematic forms of media used in Pueblo performances. I identify several possible paint production locales and ritual storerooms based on the spatial distributions of blue–green pigment, paint production tools, and painted media recovered from Pueblo Bonito. By considering these preparatory spaces in relation to specific construction sequences, I offer spatial histories of performance to suggest that through time, Pueblo Bonito was incrementally modified to sustain increasingly formalized performances.