The role of a Chaco-Era great house in the Southern Cibola Region of West-Central New Mexico: The Largo Gap great house community. (2nd January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Safi, Kristin N.; Duff, Andrew I.
• Is Part Of: Journal of field archaeology. Volume 41:Number 1(2016)
• Page Start: 37
• Page End: 56
• Publication Date: 2016-01-02
• Subjects: Chaco Regional System -- great house -- American Southwest -- Pueblo II Period -- settlement pattern; Archaeology -- Periodicals; Archaeology -- Methodology -- Periodicals; 930.105
• DOI: 10.1080/00934690.2015.1125224
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0093-4690

Abstract

Abstract : Largo Gap is one of several late Pueblo II (a.d. 1050–1130) Chaco-style great houses located in the southern Cibola region of west-central New Mexico. This region is at the interface of two Southwestern cultural areas: Mogollon and Pueblo. We report results of survey and excavation research at the Largo Gap great house and associated community to explore the role great houses in this region served for local populations, as well as their articulation with other great houses across the "Chaco Sphere." The results identify Largo Gap as an architecturally "Chacoan" structure and that use of this structure incorporated both Mogollon and Puebloan material culture. The use of ceramics from both ancestral culture groups indicates that the local community was multi-ethnic, and suggests a socially-integrative role for the great house within this region.