Timeline of Chacoan history

A Timeline of Chacoan history includes Chaco Culture National Historical Park, Aztec Ruins National Monument, Twin Angels Pueblo, Casamero, Kin Nizhoni, Pierre's Site, and Halfway House.

Paleo-Indian Period

;11000 BC: First foragers?

=Archaic Period=

;6000 BC-800 BC: Hunter-gatherers

4th century CE

5th century

;490: Basketmaker farming begins

6th century

;500: Turquoise beads and pendants appear; offerings in great kivas (sites 29SJ423, Shabik' eshchee Village)

7th century

;600-800: La Plata Black-on-White ceramic;700: Population of Chaco Canyon between 100-200 people Fagan, Brian M. (2005). "Chaco Canyon". Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195170431]

8th century

9th century

;800-900: Builders use piñon, juniper, and cottonwood trees that grew close by

;850-925: Large construction projects. (Plog)

;875-1040: Red Mesa Black-on-White ceramics

10th century

;900-1150: Large buildings, mounds, roadways, great kivas, and tri-walled structures are built throughout the San Juan Basin. [Kohler, Timothy A. Sebastian, Lynne. (July 1996). "Population aggregation in the prehistoric North American Southwest." "American Antiquity" v61.n3 : pp597(6). ]

;900-1125: Construction of Penasco Blanco

;900: Emergence of the Chaco Anasazi [ [http://sipapu.gsu.edu/Chacoworld.html The Chaco World Great House Database] ]

;900: Chetro Ketl pueblo begun

;900-1025: Chaco Wash in erosional cycle and cut a paleo-channel. Durand, Stephen R. (Jan 2004). "Relation of "Bonito" Paleo-channels and Base-level Variations to Anasazi Occupation, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico." "American Antiquity" 69.1: 191(1).]

;925-1130: Stable environmental conditions favorable to dry farming throughout the Colorado Plateau. Human populations also stable. Jorgensen, Joseph G. (Winter 2005). "Archaeological sociology in America's Southwest". "Journal of the Southwest" 47.4: 637(28).]

;950: Keet Seel, second largest cliff dwelling. is inhabited ;950: Nonlocal ponderosa is the dominant beam timber; spruce and fir increase

11th century

;960-1020: Unpredictable rainfall. Little building at Pueblo Bonito

;1000: Chaco phenomenon.

;1000-1075:Great House construction, road expansion (Plog)

;1000-1140:Escavada Black-on-White ceramics

;1025-1090: Depositional period during which time the paleo-channel was filling. There is some historical, anecdotal evidence that the inhabitants of Chaco Canyon may have constructed a dam at the west end of the canyon.

;1030:Chacoans seek trees at higher altitudes

;1040: Increased rainfall

;1040-1050: Building resumes at Old Bonito. Pueblo Bonito construction stage II

;1050-1070: Pueblo Bonito becomes more complex. Pueblo Bonito construction stage III

;1050: Imports of copper bells, Macaws, and shells (origin unknown)

;1054: ~July 4 - Cliff painting near Penasco Blanco consisting of three symbols: a large star, a crescent moon, and a handprint, may portray the sighting of SN 1054, the Crab Nebula supernova. [http://www.astronomy.pomona.edu/archeo/outside/chaco/nebula.html]

;1064, 1066: Sunset Crater volcanic eruptions; volcanic debris blankets Jemez Mountains and Bandelier area.

;1080-1100: Great North Road construction. (Lekson 1999)

;1080: Salmon Ruin established. (Lekson 1999)

;1080: Construction of Pueblo Alto begins.

;1090: Drought

12th century

;1075-1123: Pueblo Bonito constructed at Chaco.

;?: Five astronomical observatories are built

;1100: Peak of Chaco culture.

;1100-1104: Tree felling at Pueblo del Arroyo

;1106-1125: Aztec Ruins built.

;1130: Pueblo Bonito is four stories tall and contains 800 rooms [Neitzel, 2003]

;1130-1180: Fifty-year drought in the Southwest. Rain and snow cease to fall. Alluvial groundwater declines, floodplain erosion occurs. Dry-farming zone reduced, crop production potential decreased. Severe arroyo cutting and depression of alluvial groundwater. Severe environmental stress.

;1140–1150: Collapse of the Ancestral Puebloan culture at Chaco Canyon.

;1150: Great Houses empty

;1180: Sunset Crater erupts for the second time.

13th century

14th century

15th century

16th century

;1539: Marcos de Niza erroneously describes the pueblo of Háwikuh as the Seven Cities of Gold.

17th century

;1680-1692: The Pueblo Revolt of the Pueblo people against Spanish colonists in the New Spain province.

;1774: Don Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco identifies the Chaco Canyon area as "Chaca" on a map. The term, a Spanish translation of a Navajo word, is thought to be the origin for "Chacra Mesa" and "Chaco".

18th century

19th century

;1844: Josiah Gregg refers to the Chaco pueblos in his book "Commerce of the Prairies", making its first appearance in popular culture.

;1849: Lt. James H. Simpson leads the Washington Expedition, a military reconnaissance team which surveys Navajo lands and records cultural sites in Chaco Canyon. Illustrations created by the Kern brothers are included in a government report.

;1877: Artist and photographer William Henry Jackson participates in the Hayden Survey of the Western United States, producing maps of Chaco Canyon, but no photographs due to technical problems.

;1888: Richard Wetherill and Charlie Mason find the Cliff Palace, Spruce Tree House and Square Tower House. : Chaco Canyon is surveyed and photographed by Victor and Cosmos Mindeleff of the Bureau of American Ethnology

;1896: Richard Wetherill begins excavating Chaco Canyon

;1896-1899: George H. Pepper from the American Museum of Natural History leads the Hyde Exploring Expedition in excavating Pueblo Bonito

20th century

;1901: General Land Office special agent S. J. Holsinger recommends creating a national park to preserve archaeological sites in Chaco Canyon

;1907: Chaco Canyon National Monument is established.

;1928-1929: American astronomer and University of Arizona professor A. E. Douglass participates in a National Geographic Society research project exploring Chaco Canyon. Using his newly invented technique of dendrochronology, Douglass dates Chetro Ketl and dozens of Chacoan sites

: Expedition under Neil Merton Judd to collect dendrochronological specimens to date habitation of Chaco Canyon

;1937: A Civilian Conservation Corps of Navajo stonemasons repairs Chacoan buildings in Chaco Canyon. A previous group built soil conservation devices, planted trees, and improved roads and trails.

;1941: Heavy rains cause Threatening Rock to fall, destroying ~60 rooms at Pueblo Bonito.

;1960: Floors excavated at Una Vida

;1971-1982: The Chaco Project, conducted by the National Park Service and the University of New Mexico, surveys and excavates Chaco Canyon

;1976-1978: Fourteen rooms at Pueblo Alto excavated by the Chaco Project

;1980: Chaco Canyon National Monument is re-named Chaco Culture National Historical Park with 13,000 acres (53 km²) added. The Chaco Culture Archaeological Protection Site program is created to protect Chacoan sites.

;1982: NASA's Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner (TIMS) detects over 200 miles of a prehistoric (AD 900 or 1000) road system in Chaco Canyon, as well as walls, buildings, and agricultural fields.

;1983: Dean and Warren estimate 200,000 trees were used to build great houses.

;1987: Chaco Culture National Historical Park is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

;2001: Two-thirds of large roof timbers traced to Chuska Mountains and one-third to San Mateo Mountains. [Diamond, 2001]

References