TY - JOUR
T1 - 87Sr/86Sr sourcing of ponderosa pine used in Anasazi great house construction at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
AU - Reynolds, Amanda C.
AU - Betancourt, Julio L.
AU - Quade, Jay
AU - Patchett, P. Jonathan
AU - Dean, Jeffrey S.
AU - Stein, John
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Taft Blackhorse for collection of samples from Hosta Butte, Nathan English and Clark Isachsen for advice on lab protocols, and Dick Warren for help with retrieving archived samples. We also thank Bruce Allen for discussions on the nuances of New Mexico geology, and Tom Windes and Camille Holmgren, and four anonymous reviewers for comments on the manuscript. This work was funded by the Chaco Sites Protection Program of the Navajo Nation, the U.S. Geological Survey, and an NSF-IGERT Fellowship in Archaeometry at the University of Arizona (to ACR). Sampling permits were granted graciously by the Navajo Nation, the USDA Forest Service, and the National Park Service.
PY - 2005/7
Y1 - 2005/7
N2 - Previous analysis of 87Sr/86Sr ratios shows that 10th through 12th century Chaco Canyon was provisioned with plant materials that came from more than 75 km away. This includes (1) corn (Zea mays) grown on the eastern flanks of the Chuska Mountains and floodplain of the San Juan River to the west and north, and (2) spruce (Picea sp.) and fir (Abies sp.) beams from the crest of the Chuska and San Mateo Mountains to the west and south. Here, we extend 87Sr/86Sr analysis to ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) prevalent in the architectural timber at three of the Chacoan great houses (Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl, Pueblo del Arroyo). Like the architectural spruce and fir, much of the ponderosa matches the 87Sr/86Sr ratios of living trees in the Chuska Mountains. Many of the architectural ponderosa, however, have similar ratios to living trees in the La Plata and San Juan Mountains to the north and Lobo Mesa/Hosta Butte to the south. There are no systematic patterns in spruce/fir or ponderosa provenance by great house or time, suggesting the use of stockpiles from a few preferred sources. The multiple and distant sources for food and timber, now based on hundreds of isotopic values from modern and archeological samples, confirm conventional wisdom about the geographic scope of the larger Chacoan system. The complexity of this procurement warns against simple generalizations based on just one species, a single class of botanical artifact, or a few isotopic values.
AB - Previous analysis of 87Sr/86Sr ratios shows that 10th through 12th century Chaco Canyon was provisioned with plant materials that came from more than 75 km away. This includes (1) corn (Zea mays) grown on the eastern flanks of the Chuska Mountains and floodplain of the San Juan River to the west and north, and (2) spruce (Picea sp.) and fir (Abies sp.) beams from the crest of the Chuska and San Mateo Mountains to the west and south. Here, we extend 87Sr/86Sr analysis to ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) prevalent in the architectural timber at three of the Chacoan great houses (Pueblo Bonito, Chetro Ketl, Pueblo del Arroyo). Like the architectural spruce and fir, much of the ponderosa matches the 87Sr/86Sr ratios of living trees in the Chuska Mountains. Many of the architectural ponderosa, however, have similar ratios to living trees in the La Plata and San Juan Mountains to the north and Lobo Mesa/Hosta Butte to the south. There are no systematic patterns in spruce/fir or ponderosa provenance by great house or time, suggesting the use of stockpiles from a few preferred sources. The multiple and distant sources for food and timber, now based on hundreds of isotopic values from modern and archeological samples, confirm conventional wisdom about the geographic scope of the larger Chacoan system. The complexity of this procurement warns against simple generalizations based on just one species, a single class of botanical artifact, or a few isotopic values.
KW - Architectural timber
KW - Botanical
KW - Chaco Canyon
KW - Provenance
KW - San Juan Basin
KW - Southwestern U.S.A.
KW - Strontium isotopes
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jas.2005.01.016
DO - 10.1016/j.jas.2005.01.016
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:20444417064
SN - 0305-4403
VL - 32
SP - 1061
EP - 1075
JO - Journal of Archaeological Science
JF - Journal of Archaeological Science
IS - 7
ER -