"Turquoise, Trumpets, and Tchamahias: The Wealth of Chaco Canyon" by Dr. John Kanter

The stunning monumental buildings in Chaco Canyon have yielded some of the most amazing artifacts ever found in ancient North Americat. Thousands of turquoise ornaments, copper bells and chocolate from Mesoamerica, and shell trumpets from the Pacific Ocean are just some of the rare and beautiful objects found by archaeologists in the 1,000-year-old edifices of this remote canyon. But while today we marvel at these treasures, what did they mean to the ancient Puebloan people who lived in the Chaco World?
Dr. John Kantner has spent almost three decades conducting archaeological investigations of Chaco Canyon and the villages that helped to sustain the thriving pilgrimage center. Much of his work considers what was valuable to Chaco-era people and how wealth may have been used in the past. In this illustrated lecture, Dr. Kantner discusses what we know about Chacoan notions of wealth and value, and how these concepts may have changed over time.
This virtual lecture was delivered to the AIA South Pennsylvania Society on February 9th, 2021.
Short bibliography and/or website on lecture topic:
Chaco Research Archive, www.chacoarchiv...
Clark, Jeffery J. and Barbara J. Mills (editors). 2018. Chacoan archaeology at the 21st Century: New Questions and Ongoing Revelations. Special issue of Archaeology Southwest Magazine. Vol. 32 Nos. 2-3.
Kantner, John. 2004. Ancient Puebloan Southwest. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
New Mexico History.org, newmexicohistor...

[@johnnyzee969]

I hear a lot about the practical and secular aspects of the Chacoan society but nothing about the spiritual or religious influences which I would imagine play a greater role than many Western cultures today as seen in many Native American societies today.

[@ozoneswiftak]

That's because there are no spirits. That's just imaginary.

[@susanna5252]

Then they would have to mention the medicine women and matrilineal culture.

[@pinchevulpes]

@@ozoneswiftakare u slow dude that wasn’t even the statement

[@harirao12345]

Fantastic talk

[@flipflopski2951]

The idea that these buildings were kept empty because they didn't find any artifacts there seems ridiculous. High status people might have wanted to clean the place out very thoroughly before they left which would have been much easier with a bunch of slaves around... and yeah no mention of slave trading which seems almost obvious to an unbiased observer.

[@cameronsmith5868]

Why is the cannibalism ignored and soft pedaled? Turner’s writings in Man Corn are very compelling. Together with Lekson’s work, Navajo and Hopi oral histories. It seems like Chaco was a mesoamerican slaver built palace for a few elites with some awfully horrible stuff happening all around the Four Corners region. The Park Service website states “Aztec” ruins is a misnomer but I think it fits like a glove. They found a dead baby on a board there and cannibalism. I guess this doesn’t fit the shiny happy Puebloan utopian narratives needed to get research grants. When politics are allowed to interfere with science it robs us all of the truth. Why did Chaco have a child’s skeletal remains carefully wrapped around an upper level support post-(Turner)? What is pot polish on bones? What is anvil abrasion? Why are bone piles in trash heaps crushed with burn marks on the ends? There are a lot of burned out kivas with the remains of men women and children, babies and fetus’. If you want any credibility get real about what was found out there. It’s a disservice to the victims to ignore what happened out there. The sites should be dug like crime scenes, there’s enough sites i’d call it a genocide. The native peoples of this area have a right to know How the mesoamericans came and enslaved them and scalped and killed and ate their ancestors and literally shat on their burned corpses. The proof is there if you look. Is this inconvenient?

[@dankeith6522]

Why not return the stolen artifacts? Put them in the museum that happens to be on site? Fix the ac so the relics from New Mexico can be in New Mexico where they were actually crafted, buried, and found. Then talk to the Navajo elders and hang out. Listen to the true history, instead of trying to rewrite it. Still.

[@josem.deteresa2282]

A very interesting talk, and I have a couple more questions. Since copper bells and macaws are attested in Chaco Canyon, the inhabitants must have sustained some trade with Mesoamerica, so we must conclude that a few long trade routes must have existed, even if used in a somewhat sporadic form. Do we know if the macaws could be obtained from southern Sinaloa state in Mexico, or they must have come from even futher to the south? And what might have been the source of the copper artifacts found in Chaco, other than the Pur'hepecha sphere in Michoacán? Finally, I suppose that something was exchanged in order to obtain both kinds of goods. Even if the pilgrims coming to the San Juan basin finally wanted to give those objects as a ritual and solely voluntary offering, in exchange for the chance to amplify their social relations, they in turn must have gotten them in exchange for something else. So are there any ideas about what was traded for macaws and copper bells, perhaps halfway in the route from Mesoamerica to the San Juan basin? Thank you.

[@VaultBoy1776]

How does one get a 'macaw' to Chaco alive and then, of course, why does one get a 'macaw' to Chaco? Seems impossible. Have you been to that area? Chaco is important to human history, but why is a bit of a mystery.

[@onemorecowswag]

Navajo oral history says that the chaco people were slave traders. Take that however you will but I trust the Navajo understand their own people's history. The trail you're wondering about is now referred to as "El Camino Real." It runs from Ohkay Owingeh/Espanola, New Mexico all the way down to Tenochtitlan/Mexico city and was built upon the trails that were already established by generations of indigenous civilizations. The spanish used the royal road to conquer the south and midwest of the US.

[@flipflopski2951]

@@onemorecowswag Yes... and all the evidence I'm seeing seems to support slave traders.

[@STWLandO]

So there was a significant and Ancient "Old Copper Culture" in the Northern Midwest going back to roughly 6500 BC. The area has the largest deposits of native copper in the entire world, they flooded North America with copper artifacts and I'd bet my bottom dollar with Chacos extensive trade network, that's how they got their hands on it. The Macaw - I'd say almost certainly came from Central America. Trading exotic animals was a valuable trade in the ancient world across the globe

[@josem.deteresa2282]

@@STWLandO Your suggestion seems to be a good one. I later saw that one of the exchanged goods was serpentine from the Southwest.

[@jeffhildreth9244]

Are we prohibited from recording the uhs and ums ?

[@ozoneswiftak]

Let's talk about the elongated skulls.

[@01Lenda]

They used boards, against the skull, when a child was young to elongate them. It was considered a beauty standard, of the time and culture.

[@STWLandO]

Nah homie just wants us to say "AH! YOU GOT US They be aliens!"

[@pjpugapillarfan2750]

Because when God Changed language @ Babel THEY FLED BUT RETAINED THERE BUILDING KNOWLEDGE THOSE SQUARE PYRAMIDS ALL OVER SA & MEXICO. NO ALIENS YOU GUYS

[@veejayyazzie9572]

More than this narrative, Chaco is a Sacred Site to the modern Pueblo people.

[@uberkloden]

please document that Pueblos consider Chaco a sacred site.

[@JackHawkinswrites]

The Dine don’t

[@tapacitosmith9184]

He almost came out and said it.

[@chrisiv1000]

Almost said what?

[@tapacitosmith9184]

That Chaco Canyon was the site of slavery, torture, human sacrifice and cannibalism.

[@chrisiv1000]

Oh i see lol. Thank you for clarifying. I guess they're supposed to be objective and I think many assume this is common knowledge, but it's not. Any pointers on anyone's theories on whether the cannibalism, for example, was ritualistic murder of victims, part of a chaotic social collapse, or retaliation from rivals/victims?@@tapacitosmith9184

[@flipflopski2951]

Your inheritance theory doesn't make much sense. Are you saying status can't be passed from let's say Bigman to Bigman's son Littleman?.. or inheritance can't be easily be passed down from common folk without tangible goods?.. I think turquoise just got too abundant and the commoners were likely to get access to it sooner or later.

[@klc375]

I guess nobody want to hear the story that been told for generations..

[@uberkloden]

Archeologists won’t speak the truth. The local Indians know the truth. Navajo, and Pueblo. Archeologists do not want the truth. It confuses their narrative.

[@cadenst.claire6211]

I noted that when Adam Smith defined value, he completely ignored objects having a sentimental value. Must be a guy thing?

[@josem.deteresa2282]

In a market, which I guess is Smith's main subject, the recognition of value must be reciprocal among semi-anomymous parties. Sentimental value doesn't seem to flow like that

[@RubberTrampsReviews]

I wonder if the culture you are talking about would have to use she/ her or he /him pronouns to describe each other.

[@mikebradt8080]

Why troll here? Give it a rest

[@RubberTrampsReviews]

@@mikebradt8080 little late to the party over a year late. Hekas hekas este bebeloi!

[@pinchevulpes]

They weren’t insecure YT men.