Chaco Canyon: New Mexico

To begin, the mouth of the canyon features a hilly landscape with scars from landslides created from the uplifting of land by the Wasatch Fault. The fault, responsible for the creation of the Wasatch Mountains 25 million years ago, is a normal fault (Eldredge, 2014). Unlike some faults, vertical movement of the terrain is limited and slippage only occurs every several hundred or thousand years. Signs of the fault at work can be seen through the mouth of the canyon with the orange Tintic Quartzite which is dated back to the Cambrian Age. Layered beneath the quartzite is tillite from the Precambrian Age. To the west and separate from the Quartzite and tillite by the Wasatch Vault are limestone sections from the Missippian Age. (Rigby, Hintze, 1968, pg 23).

Starting the comparisons of Teotihuacan and Chaco Canyon, we can say that both being an important civilization centers in their respective region, with Teotihuacan being the major center in Mesoamerica, while the Chaco Canyon was the major center of the Ancestral Puebloan civilization. Another common factor were that they both shared the fact the sites were considered holy areas, which were considered important enough to warrant pilgrimages. Both had religious practices preformed in the centers with rituals in Teotihuacan being performed at the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent, while in the Chaco Canyon religious ceremonies were conducted at one of the 32 kivas located within the great houses. Then finally, both sites were later abandon by

Mesa Verde National Park on the Colorado Plateau contains many geological aspects of interest, including its sedimentary rock layers, its canyons, its alcoves utilized by ancient people and how these alcoves were formed. Mesa Verde National Park is located in the southwest corner of Colorado, close to the Four Corners area, on top of a high mesa overlooking the Mancos River (Harris et al. 2004). The park, covering 81 square miles, consists of several main sedimentary formations that are characteristic to the park (Encyclopedia Britannica 2015). Canyons are carved into the sedimentary rock, with the cave dwellings found high on their steep walls. These dwellings are an especially unique aspect to the Mesa Verde National Park, and are built out of large alcoves. The alcoves were produced by weathering and erosion of the sedimentary rock type. To better understand how these alcoves formed, we must understand the geology of Mesa Verde National Park and how it has developed over history.

Around 650 A.D., the Mesa Verdean peoples initiated construction of apartment-style homes, termed by Spanish explorers as pueblos. The Puebloan architecture is original in that it utilized the local stone and mud deposits of the region to maintain the structural integrity of their burgeoning developments. As this community evolved into the twelfth century, Mesa Verdeans further integrated the geology of their environment into their lifestyles by building homes, known as cliff dwellings, within the naturally formed alcoves of Mesa Verde. By the thirteenth century, the Mesa Verdeans vacated this region due to severe droughts and subsequent social instability. Despite the later abandonment of their cliff dwellings, it is clear that the geology of Mesa Verde National Park impacted the lives of the Ancestral Puebloans significantly. The following sections provide detailed information regarding the rock formations that make up the geological

Long before Europeans explored North America, a group of people now known as The Ancestral Puebloans, migrated throughout the four corners region and finally settled in Mesa Verde. For more than 700 years they and their descendants lived and flourished, advancing their build technologies, and material usage. Eventually achieving a clear understanding of their environment, its changing climates, they manipulating their buildings to take advantage of the natural occurrences their communities peeked. Being simple worshippers and having respect for nature their creations left little negative impact on it relative to others of their time. Once reaching their communal peak they suddenly migrated away and disappeared, still today scientist struggle

Archaeology provides clues to the past when no written record existed, making the field the only way to expand the existing knowledge of the Clovis and pre-Clovis cultures. In South America, there is an abundance of archaeological sites dating to both Clovis and pre-Clovis times, but in North America, specifically on the East coast, there are only a handful of excavated sites. In reference to pre-Clovis, this statement is especially true, with varied sites that have not been fully excavated or are not convincing enough to be considered hard hitting evidence in favor of their existence. These sites are the basis for the debate over who came first and if pre-Clovis really existed or not, making the analysis of excavations a key factor to understanding

Hohokam of the salt and Gila River Valley had art, such as clay figures, copper balls, pottery, and mosaics, ball courts, and platform mounds which show the big amount of Mexico influence on the

Although construction began towards the end of the time of the pueblo people in this region, the cliff dwellings seen at Mesa Verde are some of the best preserved in north America. Their miraculous preservation is bizarre because of their use of such organic materials in construction. The ancestral pueblo people would use a combination of wooden beams, sandstone, and mortar to construct these dwellings which lie right beneath the mesa top, where they would practice agriculture (Breternitz,

If you leave your car behind and join a ranger-led hike in Southwest Colorado's Mesa Verde National Park, you'll find yourself at a spot where the scrubby pinyon-juniper forest drops off. It falls into a sandstone chasm. It reveals a maze of 800-year-old stone dwellings. They are wedged beneath an overhang in the canyon wall. They're so well preserved that it's easy to imagine you've stepped back in time. And that nothing has changed in this high desert landscape since the Ancestral Puebloans built these chambers. They were built in the 12th century.

Other goods excavated in Chaco Canyon brings to light trade goods as well. From the Mayan Complex to the American Southwest, the presence of small copper bells has been noted in the archaeological record. During the excavation of Pueblo Bonito in 1899, George H. Pepper noted “… a small number of bells…” among the many artifacts unearthed at the site, (2Noble, 29). Other sites throughout the American Southwest have produced a total of 672 in 113 sites, with Chaco Canyon included. Current studies have implied that these bells from the American Southwest are the Western Mexico, (Boyce,3,36). Simpler in style than those found in the bells found in the larger Mesoamerican complexes, these bells have an unknown use in the traditions of the American

Although photographed the same year as the two previous photos, this image shows the work of the Central Pacific Railroad Company (“J. Willard Marriott Digital Library”). This image depicts a group of workers in 12-mile Canyon, also known as Palisade Canyon, Nevada. The place in this photo is roughly 435 miles away from Sacramento, California. The Chinese immigrant workers focus on curving iron rail to fit the landscape of the canyon as it twists and turns (“J. Willard Marriott Digital Library”). The line seems to be following a stream, which is seen to the right of the men in the photo. In the background, one can see the completed railroad line stretching off into the distance and disappearing into the mountains. Railroad workers such as the

The ancient world of Mesoamerica entered a long period of change that soon led to the development a mammoth city that would serve as a regional center for more than 600 years. Beginning in about 1000 B.C. the majority of the people in the Valley of Mexico relocated to one of two primary sites, that of Cuicuilco in the southwest corner and Teotihuacan in the northeast. By about 300 B.C., Cuicuilco dominated the region, but its heyday would soon diminish. (Sabloff 2000, p 60)

In the passage, it is mainly talking about three possible theories about how the settlements of Chaco Canyon were used. However, in the lecture the professor points out that these theories are unconvincing by providing three reasonable arguments.

What this photograph shows is the first time me and my Family went to Cancun, Mexico. Many people hear about this awesome place because of the Chichén Itzá. The Chichén Itzá is an ancient Mayan ruin, it is a major tourist stop in Mexico and it is a rugged place of soaring pyramids, massive temples, startling carved columns and do-or-die sports fields. In the background of this picture is the ancient wonder “Chichén Itzá”.

Mayan culture existed a thousand years ago, in what is now part of Central America. Its ruins were almost entirely abandoned by 600 A.D, and were not rediscovered until the early 1500’s, by Spanish settlers. Mayan architecture astounded the early conquistadors, and continues to be of great interest to modern archeologists as well. These scientists have labeled a certain period of Mayan architectural history as the “Classic” period.