Cretaceous Fossils: Older than Chaco

There are things in Chaco Canyon older than the stone ruins. The stone from which the pueblos were built was cut from the 400-foot-tall sandstone bluffs remaining where the wash has eroded them.

The sandstone formed from a seabed of 60 to 80 million years ago. Any examination of the sandstone quickly reveals things that look like twisted, corroded rebar. It’s not.

During the Cretaceous a shrimp-like crustacean burred into the sandy seabed, creating a network of tunnels. To keep the tunnels from collapsing from sea wave motions, these crustaceans cemented sand particles to the walls.

As the ocean receded, heavy particles of iron, mercury, and other minerals suspended in the water settled into the and filled the crustaceans’ abandoned tunnels. The particles hardened as the seabed dried. The time and the weight of sediments laying on top compressed the sand into sandstone.

So while the crustacean is long gone, its home remains ... just like the Chacoans.

Posted by Bud Russo

If Only The Walls Could Talk!

Type I Wall Type II Wall

Type III Wall Type IV Wall

If these walls could talk what would they say? We’ve all heard that before, but a Chaco Culture NHP, I really wanted the walls to have the power of communication.

We toured Pueblo Bonito, the largest of the great houses, with Ranger Adrian Jones, who talked of the history of the pueblo. He pointed out the four types of walls found in the canyon.

The walls at Chaco were first just slabs of sandstone laid in such a way as to reinforce each other. The wall was relatively weak and would support only a single story. It was also as rough on the outside as it was in the center of the core. But construction evolved at Chaco over the 3-1/2 centuries it was occupied. Builders began to face the rough Type I wall with a veneer. With each successive style ... there are four types of walls ... the veneers became smoother, stones fit tighter, and there was increasing artistry in the construction. “Ah,” I thought. “I see.” Only I didn’t.

Ranger Jones told us, after building the walls, the Chacoans plastered them inside and out. That sort of made sense, too. Lighter colored plaster increased reflection from light sources. Plaster made a smoother wall. It gave the building a uniform consistency.

Why, then, would the people have gone to so much trouble to build walls with beautiful veneers if they were only going to plaster over them? Were they just building styles that reflected changing generational ideas of how things were done and have no particular significance, including artistry? What was the purpose of investing so much time and energy in something no one would see? Was it sort of like a woman wearing fancy underwear no one but her ever sees just because it makes her feel good? Was there a self-serving satisfaction the builders derived knowing beneath the plaster lay their remarkable work?

Or ... is there something more going on? Is there meaning in the distinctive patterns, meanings we can not know? Something of which we are unaware and can never fathom just from looking at the walls?

I sat and studied the patterns. I might as well have been watching paint dry for all the good it did me in expanding my understanding. I photographed each style in various pueblos and I look at them now ... each style is represented in the blog from Type I to Type IV, left to right ... and all I see is artistic architecture that I might find anywhere someone is working with sandstone. You be the judge and help me understand the why.

Posted by Bud Russo

Visiting the Ancient Ones at Bandelier Nat'l Monument

I first visited Bandelier National Monument -- home of an ancient pueblo people -- in 1963. Not much has changed in 47 years. And why would it! The "ruins" are 800 years old. Kendrick Frazier, in his book on Chaco, said "ruins" was "our curiously inadequate work for the tangible remains of culture."

There is both a circular pueblo -- once 400 rooms in two to three stories -- and a series of long houses with both rooms carved into the tuff -- ash from an even more ancient volcano -- and stone rooms built in front of the cliff. As many as 500 people lived in Frijoles Canyon -- site of the pueblo near Los Alamos -- and not all areas were occupied at the same time. The canyon had people living there for perhaps two centuries.

We hiked the trail past the ruins -- climbing a hundred feet above the pueblo to the cliff dwellings. After 3/4 mile, we transitioned to the Alcove House trail another 1/2 mile farther into the canyon. The last 140 feet of this journey was straight up through a series of four ladders and narrow foot paths and stairs. There's only a kiva in the alcove and a great view of the canyon. The houses of the people who lived there are long gone.

The trail took us through Ponderosa pine with its heady scent, past yellow cone flowers, red penstemon, and purple beebaum, and over babbling Frijoles creek.

One highlight of the hike -- if not THE highlight -- was the three-foot-long diamondback rattlesnake we spotted creeping through the underbrush -- minding its own business.

Not only were we immersed in the history of the puebloans but also embraced by the natural beauty of the canyon.

Posted by Bud Russo