The deterioration of the Pueblo Bonito Great House in the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico, USA.

ABSTRACT: Pueblo Bonito is the iconic pre- Columbian structure in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a World Heritage Site in northwestern New Mexico, USA. The structure, dating to about 850-1150 Current Era, and built of quarried sandstones, wooden timbers and a mud mortar, has been the subject of archaeological investigations for over a century. The present study is based on the examination of historical photographs of Pueblo Bonito dating from 1887 to the 1920s. It is a retrospective assessment to determine if structural damages, depicted on the photographs, could be attributed to identifiable agents that might have been present at the time of Pueblo Bonito occupancy. A likely causal agent of deterioration at Pueblo Bonito was the inability of Ancestral Puebloan engineers to manage the impac

SUBMITTER: Short HL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8982885 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature