Chaco Canyon was a major social and political center in the northern part of the American Southwest for almost three centuries (A.D. 850 – 1150).  The enormous Chacoan great houses, such as Pueblo Bonito built in the canyon, have intrigued archaeologists for over a century. The source and nature of power wielded by Chacoan leaders have been especially contested.  This lecture will discuss what is known of the Chacoan regional system and then focus on a project that hopes to add to our knowledge of the development of social complexity at Chaco through an analysis of a seemingly mundane artifact type: ground stone.  Ground stone – for example, corn milling tools known as metates--- is often ignored by archaeologists, but it promises new understandings of the development of power in Chaco. 
Professor Cameron’s research project in Chaco Canyon was partially funded by the Retired Faculty Association. In describing some of the results of her fieldwork in Chaco Canyon, she reports: “We did find kill holes in the metates!  They had been described as “worn out” but that is clearly not true.  There is definite evidence of efforts to break a hole through the bottom of the grinding space.  One had a hole about a quarter size, but others were about 10 cm in diameter.  Some had circular areas pecked out of the distal end of the metate that may be described as “pour-off” when materials were ground that might produce liquids (cactus?).  We were able to distinguish a particular group of metates made on thin slabs with very carefully made shallow troughs.  When we were at the American Museum of Natural History in New York we saw one just like this that was covered with red pigment.  Although we haven’t begun to analyze the data we’ve collected, my guess is that we’ll argue for a ceremonial rather than utilitarian purpose for these special metates.”  
 

Biography
Catherine M. Cameron is a professor emerita in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado. She has worked in the northern part of the American Southwest, focusing especially on the Chaco and post-Chaco eras (AD 900–1300). Her research interests include prehistoric demography, the evolution of complex societies, and processes of cultural transmission. She has worked in southeastern Utah at the Bluff Great House, a Chacoan site, and in nearby Comb Wash, publishing a monograph on this research in 2009 (Chaco and After in the Northern San Juan, University of Arizona Press). She also studies captives in prehistory, including their role in cultural transmission.  
 

Zoom session will be available.