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Chaco Canyon Facts & Worksheets

From the 9th to the 12th century BCE, Chaco Canyon was the center of a pre-Columbian civilization that flourished in the San Juan Basin of the American Southwest.

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From the 9th to the 12th century BCE, Chaco Canyon was the center of a pre-Columbian civilization that flourished in the San Juan Basin of the American Southwest. The Chacoan civilization reflects a unique time in the history of the “Ancestral Puebloans,” a group of ancient people.

See the fact file below for more information on the Chaco Canyon or alternatively, you can download our 22-page Chaco Canyon worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

EARLY SETTLEMENT

  • The building of partly subterranean homes known as pithouses, which gradually became clustered together to form large settlements, was the first evidence of long-term human settlement in Chaco Canyon in the 3rd century BCE.
  • In the 8th century BCE, single-story multi-room buildings began to appear among pithouse villages as residents became more integrated.
  • Chacoan architecture began to change greatly around 850 BCE, setting it apart from that of any other Southwestern region. Most modern buildings in the area had less than ten rooms and were constructed of wooden posts and adobe.
  • The Chacoans started to build “great buildings,” which were massive sandstone masonry structures with thick walls that could accommodate several floors and hundreds of rooms.

GREAT HOUSES

  • Pueblo Bonito, a Spanish name given by Carravahal, a Mexican guide who accompanied a U.S. Army topographical engineer making a survey of the area in 1849 BCE, is one of the earliest built and most magnificent of great houses found inside the canyon’s walls.
  • Over the course of three centuries, Pueblo Bonito was designed and built in stages. It expanded to four or five floors in places, over 600 rooms, and a total area of more than two acres, all while keeping the original D-shaped form.
  • Another monumental great house within the canyon is at Chetro Ketl; the plaza feature is enhanced by its artificial elevation of more than 3.5 meters above the canyon floor.
  • Large, round, usually subterranean chambers known as “kivas” were incorporated into the plazas and room blocks of great houses.
  • Chacoans used a version of the “core-and-veneer” approach to support multi-story great house constructions that contained rooms with floor areas and ceiling heights. These walls were nearly one meter thick at the base, tapering to minimize weight as they climbed.

PLANNED LANDSCAPE

  • Despite the fact that Chaco Canyon had a density of architecture never seen before in the region, the canyon was only a small part of a vast interconnected area that formed Chacoan civilization.
  • Beyond the canyon, there were more than 200 communities with great homes and great kivas that used the same distinctive masonry style and design as those within the canyon, albeit on a smaller scale.
  • Chacoans built an elaborate system of roads to connect these sites to the canyon and to one another by excavating and leveling the underlying ground and, in some cases, adding earthen or masonry curbs for support.
  • These roads typically began at great houses within the canyon and beyond, and then radiated outward in strikingly straight sections. Even with steep landforms common to the American Southwest, Chacoans retained the linearity of these roads.

AGRICULTURE & TRADE

  • Winters in Chaco Canyon, at an elevation of about two kilometers, are long and bitterly cold, shortening the growing season, while summers are scorchingly hot.
  • Despite this, Chacoans used various dry farming methods to cultivate the Mesoamerican triumvirate of corn, beans, and squash.
  • Ceramic vessels was used for storage, hard sedimentary rock and volcanic stone was used to make sharp tools or projectile points, turquoise was turned into ornaments and inlays by Chacoan artisans, and domesticated turkey’s bones were used to make tools and feathers were used to make warm blankets. All imported to the canyon through regional trade.

LEGACY

  • Significant vandalism occurred in the canyon in the second half of the nineteenth century AD, with visitors tearing down portions of great house walls, gaining access to rooms, and removing their contents.
  • Beginning in 1896 AD, the impact of the damage was visible in archaeological excavations and surveys, leading to the creation of the Chaco Canyon National Monument in 1907 AD, which put an end to unchecked looting and allowed systematic archaeological studies to be undertaken.
  • By returning to honor the spirits of their ancestors, pueblo descendants preserve their relationship to a land that serves as a living memory of their shared past.

Chaco Canyon Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the Chaco Canyon across 22 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Chaco Canyon worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the Chaco Canyon which was the center of a pre-Columbian civilization that flourished in the San Juan Basin of the American Southwest. The Chacoan civilization reflects a unique time in the history of the “Ancestral Puebloans,” a group of ancient people.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Chaco Canyon, New Mexico Facts
  • Chaco Profile
  • Word Guess
  • Pueblo Insta
  • Its Legacy
  • Combining Numbers
  • Great Houses
  • Balloon Pop
  • Import Trade
  • True Color
  • Searching New

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Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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