Chocolate, Cylinder Jars, and Ritual in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

FAIN: RZ-51417-13

Regents of the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001)
Patricia L. Crown (Project Director: December 2011 to March 2022)

The excavation, analysis, and interpretation of archaeological remains for further evidence about the ritual use of cylinder jars in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico between 1000 and 1140 AD. (36 months)

Recently discovered chocolate residues in cylinder jars raise questions about ritual activity in Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon. Project activities include reexcavation of Room 28 in Pueblo Bonito to obtain dates and residues from the room that held a cache of over 60 percent of all known cylinder jars, and reanalysis of museum collections removed from that room in 1896. The project addresses the Bridging Cultures initiative by exploring ritual and cultural interaction in the past.

Media Coverage

Extra Fingers and Toes Were Revered in Ancient Culture (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Aaron Sidder
Publication: National Geographic News (online)
Date: 7/25/2016
Abstract: Brief popular article describing the findings of the American Antiquity professional article.
URL: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/07/chaco-canyon-pueblo-bonito-social-implications-polydactyly-extra-toes/?no-cache

Associated Products

Micro-scale mapping using Ground Penetrating Radar: an Example from Room 28, Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. (Article)
Title: Micro-scale mapping using Ground Penetrating Radar: an Example from Room 28, Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.
Author: Jennie O. Sturm
Author: Patricia L. Crown
Abstract: Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has become a common method for mapping archaeological sites in the American Southwest. A less tested use for this method is to survey architectural spaces within larger pueblos to map features that may relate to the function, use, and abandonment of a specific room. In Chaco Canyon, GPR was used in a room (Room 28) within Pueblo Bonito prior to excavation to determine the presence and depth of buried features. Comparison with excavation results provides a means to evaluate how well this method mapped features in this small space. Three categories of features within this room, posts/postholes, entryways, and burned materials, were successfully identified in the GPR maps. By comparing this GPR survey with the subsequent excavation, we determined how GPR reflected these architectural features, allowing us to develop a set of expectations for using this method to identify similar features in other interior pueblo rooms.
Year: 2015
Primary URL: http://saa.publisher.ingentaconnect.com/content/saa/aap/2015/00000003/00000002/art00003
Primary URL Description: Advances in Archaeological Practice 3(2):124-135.
Access Model: subscription only
Format: Journal
Publisher: Society for American Archaeology

FOOT NOTES: THE SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF POLYDACTYLY AND FOOT-RELATED IMAGERY AT PUEBLO BONITO, CHACO CANYON (Article)
Title: FOOT NOTES: THE SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF POLYDACTYLY AND FOOT-RELATED IMAGERY AT PUEBLO BONITO, CHACO CANYON
Author: Patricia L. Crown
Author: Kerriann Marden
Author: Hannah Mattson
Abstract: Discussions of polydactyly in the U.S. Southwest describe rock art and skeletal material confirming the presence of six-toed individuals at a variety of sites and in a variety of time periods. A review of Pueblo Bonito collections and archives reveals both skeletal and footprint evidence for six-toed individuals and a large and diverse assemblage of cultural material exhibiting foot-related imagery, including ornaments, sandals, ceramic effigies, and sandal-shaped ground stone. The reiterative nature of these foot-related images, reproduced in a wide range of media, and their frequent associations with highly structured and ritualized contexts, indicates that both five- and six-toed feet had symbolic importance. The evidence also suggests six-toed individuals were accorded special status within Chacoan society.
Year: 2016
Primary URL: http://saa.publisher.ingentaconnect.com/content/saa/aa/2016/00000081/00000003/art00002;jsessionid=11bho17nl3fag.alexandra
Primary URL Description: Society for American Archaeology website link to journal, American Antiquity
Access Model: subscription only for six months, then open
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: American Antiquity
Publisher: American Antiquity, Society for American Archaeology

The House of the Cylinder Jars: Room 28 in Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon (Book)
Title: The House of the Cylinder Jars: Room 28 in Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon
Editor: Patricia L. Crown
Abstract: The House of the Cylinder Jars details the archaeological excavations led by Patricia L. Crown at Pueblo Bonito’s famed Room 28 in Chaco Canyon in 2013. Originally excavated in 1896 by the Hyde Exploring Expedition, Room 28 gained notoriety for its incredible assemblage of 174 whole ceramic vessels. Crown and her team reopened Room 28 after she and Jeffrey Hurst discovered residues of chocolate in cylinder jar fragments from Pueblo Bonito in 2009. Their research revealed the first evidence of chocolate north of the US-Mexico border and possibly linked Chacoan rituals surrounding cacao use to Mesoamerica. The House of the Cylinder Jars documents the re-excavation of Room 28, and places it within the context of other rooms at Pueblo Bonito, and describes the ritual termination by fire of the materials stored in the room. The contributors also offer a modern interpretation of the construction and depositional histories of surrounding spaces at Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/title/house-of-the-cylinder-jars-room-28-in-pueblo-bonito-chaco-canyon/oclc/1220961094&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: WorldCat listing
Secondary URL: https://unmpress.com/books/house-cylinder-jars/9780826361776
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's listing
Access Model: Book
Publisher: Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press
Type: Edited Volume
ISBN: 9780826361776
Copy sent to NEH?: No

---