The ancient ruins of Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico stir our imagination with questions about their origins, purpose, and demise. Historically, research has concentrated on the stunning architecture and what transpired within the canyon walls. In the past few decades, however, archaeologists have turned to a consideration of Chaco’s tremendous impact across the American Southwest, especially in distant villages that lived in the shadow of Chaco Canyon. In this colorfully illustrated lecture, Southwest archaeologist John Kantner describes how new interdisciplinary research is answering critical questions about the ancient Chacoan world.

Short bibliography and/or website on lecture topic:

Chaco Research Archive, http://www.chacoarchive.org/cra/

Clark, Jeffery J. and Barbara J. Mills (editors). 2018. Chacoan archaeology at the 21^st Century: New Questions and Ongoing Revelations. Special issue of Archaeology Southwest Magazine 32(2–3).

Kantner, John. 2004. Ancient Puebloan Southwest. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kantner, John, and Ronald Hobgood. 2016. A GIS-based viewshed analysis of Chacoan tower kivas in the US Southwest: Are they for seeing or to be seen? Antiquity 90(5):1302–1317.

New Mexico History.org, http://newmexicohistory.org/places/chaco-canyon