Great House origins and population stability at Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico: The isotopic evidence

Abstract

One of the truly remarkable developments in the prehistory of North America was the construction of more than a dozen Great Houses—imposing multi-storied structures that were qualitatively different from the usual small, irregular, single-story homes—in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico from the early AD 800 to the 1100s. Beginning no later than AD 1000, scores of similar large pueblos, often referred to as Chacoan outliers, were erected throughout much of the southern Colorado Plateau in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. A small number of these outliers were connected by formal roads and many others participated in a broad network of exchange and ritual. The largest and most unusual of the Chaco Great Houses and one of the earliest to be built was Pueblo Bonito situated in the heart of the Canyon. Some of the most intriguing aspects of Pueblo Bonito are two clusters of human burials, almost certainly elites, found within its sandstone walls. We present here isotopic proveniencing data (strontium, lead, and oxygen) that situate these burials in a new and unexpected perspective. Our results suggest that almost all individuals interred in Pueblo Bonito had been born in Chaco Canyon or in nearby parts of the southern San Juan Basin. All of these individuals, moreover, likely belonged to the elite component of Bonito society, given their placement in special burial crypts within the walls of the pueblo. These conclusions suggest that the origin of Chaco Canyon Great Houses and the hierarchical society that organized their construction was more likely a product of local sociocultural dynamics than a result of migration of a group of new people into the Canyon from the northern San Juan Basin.