Pueblo Alto ("High Village" in Spanish) is an Ancestral Puebloan great house and archaeological site located in Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico in the United States.
Location
Pueblo Alto is located at the top of a
mesa near the middle of Chaco Canyon, from
Pueblo Bonito. Its location made the community visible to most of the inhabitants of the San Juan Basin; indeed, it was only north of
Tsin Kletsin, on the opposite side of the canyon.
Description
Begun between AD 1020 and 1050, the complex comprises 89 rooms in a single-story layout.
Storage room at Pueblo Alto opened to the outside rather than into the interior rooms.
Pueblo Alto shares its mesa with another great house, Nuevo Alto, both of which are now protected within the borders of Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
Usage
Research suggests that as few as five to twenty families lived in the complex; this may imply that Pueblo Alto served a primarily non-
Residential area role.
The community was the center of a
bead- and
turquoise-processing industry that influenced the development of all villages in the canyon.
Chert tool production was also common. There was a huge
midden containing
pottery and chert, most of which came from the Chuska area 70 km (43 mi) to the west.
Coordinates:
Notes
External links
