The Archaeology of the Bonito Paleochannel Cycle at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico: Implications for Communal and Household Level Investment in Water Management

Abstract

This study examines the archaeological record for water management in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, in relation to the Bonito Paleochannel cycle, ca. AD 1075–1150. We present evidence for a canal system at Pueblo Bonito that was destroyed by the entrenchment of the paleochannel. This canal system is associated with the peak of great house construction. Other water control features throughout the canyon were small and date to the period of paleochannel aggradation or afterward. We suggest that while the Pueblo Bonito canals represent some degree of corporate group investment, small features were managed at the household level. The limited archaeological evidence for formal water control infrastructure can be explained at least in part by the physical geography of Chaco Canyon, which we view as essentially a regional-scale water harvesting structure.

Este estudio examina el registro arqueológico para el manejo del agua en el Cañón del Chaco, Nuevo México, en relación con el ciclo del Paleocanal Bonito, ca. 1075 a 1150 d.C. Presentamos evidencia de un sistema de canales en Pueblo Bonito que fue destruido por el atrincheramiento del paleocanal. Este sistema de canales está asociado con el apogeo de la construcción de grandes casas. Otras características de control del agua a lo largo del cañón eran pequeñas y datan del período de agradación del paleocanal o posterior. Sugerimos que si bien los canales de Pueblo Bonito representan cierto grado de inversión de grupos corporativos, pequeñas características fueron administradas a nivel de los hogares. La limitada evidencia arqueológica de una infraestructura formal de control del agua puede explicarse, al menos en parte, por la geografía física del Cañón del Chaco, que consideramos esencialmente como una estructura de captación de agua a escala regional.

KEYWORDS:

• Chaco Canyon
• Bonito Phase
• Bonito Paleochannel
• water harvesting
• labor investment

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Additional information for individual archaeological sites and features referenced in the text or supplemental materials can be obtained from the Chaco Culture National Historical Park Archives at the University of New Mexico Hibben Archaeological Center (esp. Vivian 1971, 1972, 1980). The specific location of some sites has been withheld in accordance with National Park Service policy and can only be visited with permission.

2 Production time spans for ceramic types in Chaco Canyon are taken from three commonly cited online sources (Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico; Museum of Northern Arizona; Archaeology Southwest). There can be considerable variation between these sources that may reflect regional differences. In reality no ceramic types can be expected to begin and end exactly on the dates used by investigators and we have tried to avoid implying that sort of specificity in our analysis. In most cases, we have utilized the date range published online by the New Mexico Office of Archaeological Studies (http://ceramics.nmarchaeology.org).

3 Scarborough et al. (2018) also identified a canal below the low cliffs at Rincon 1–2 (Figure 12 this publication) dating to the Basketmaker III period (ca. AD 500–750) based on an OSL date of AD 600 + 100. No cultural material is reported and the topographic context is similar to runoff channels that form throughout the Chaco drainage and tributaries where there are low cliffs. These natural erosional channels are especially common upstream from the Chaco and Escavada confluence. We are not suggesting that this feature in the Rincon 1–2 was unimportant in conveying water to the floodplain but the evidence for a “canal” might be better supported with data for cultural construction. We are also aware that while the definition of a canal in civil engineering is an artificial waterway designed for drainage management over large areas (the basis for our interpretation of the Pueblo Bonito canals) and ditches generally are small trenches that drain water away from infrastructure, archaeologists in the northern US Southwest seem prone to describe any man-made channel of any size as a canal.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Science Foundation [grant number BCS 1523224].