Chaco long distance corn transport

Ancient Tribes Carried Corn From Afar
By PAUL RECER, AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON -

Ancient Americans building elaborate structures in New Mexico's Chaco
Canyon depended on corn carried by hand from fields up to 50 miles away,
according to a study that analyzed the chemical content of ancient corn
cobs.
Researchers compared the chemical isotopic ratios of ancient corn cobs
recovered from Chaco Canyon with the soils in distant areas and found
the people living in the canyon between the 9th and 12th centuries had
to hand-carry their food from faraway fields.
Since this was before the voyages of Columbus and the return of the
horse to North America, the ancestral Pueblo people living in Chaco
Canyon had to carry the food on foot, said Larry Benson, a U.S.
Geological Survey researcher and first author of a study published this
week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"They had to haul it in on their backs," Benson said.
To bring the heavy loads of corn to the desolate Chaco Canyon in
northern New Mexico, Benson said the people followed a network of roads
and trails that have been detected by aerial surveys. Some of the paths
were lined with marker rocks, and some forced heavily laden travelers to
scale steep bluffs, he said.
Linda S. Cordell, director of the University of Colorado Museum in
Boulder and a study co-author, said the central buildings and villages
of Chaco Canyon housed 6,000 to 10,000 people during some periods during
the 9th through 12th centuries. During those times, there were bursts of
activity with the construction of buildings reaching four stories and
containing about 800 rooms. In addition to these so-called great houses,
villages were built nearby.
Some food was doubtless produced in the canyon, said Cordell, although
the sparse rainfall and short growing season would make agriculture
difficult.
"We suspect that during major construction food had to be imported in
order to support the laborers," said Cordell.
 Benson said his analysis of the corn cobs recovered at Chaco Canyon
confirmed that the food was imported.
He tested the ratios of the strontium isotopes in the corn cobs and
found they precisely matched the soils of fields at the foot of the
Chuska Mountains 50 miles to the west and the San Juan River flood plain
56 miles to the north.
Benson said that more than likely much of the food carried to Chaco
Canyon was ground as corn meal, which would be much lighter than
carrying the whole cob.
Corn grown by the ancestral Pueblo people was highly nutritious, but it
had ears much smaller than modern corn. The cobs, said Benson, were only
3 inches to 5 inches long and about three-quarters of an inch in
diameter.
It wasn't just food that the ancient people had to import to build their
complex in Chaco Canyon, Cordell said.
"We know they were importing many of the timbers used in the
construction of the great houses from high elevations outside of Chaco,"
she said. "Also, a great deal of the pottery was imported." Chaco had a
scarcity of wood needed to fire-harden pottery, she said.
To build the buildings in Chaco, the ancestral Pueblo people carried
timbers 10 to 20 feet long from the Chuska Mountains 50 miles to the
west, Benson said.
"They were carrying trees all that way," he said.
Cordell said it is not clear just why the early Americans chose Chaco as
a place for such elaborate construction. She said there is evidence that
people lived in the canyon as early as the fifth century and that, over
time, the site became important to the culture of the ancestral Pueblo
people. There are indications that buildings in Chaco were used for
rituals and ceremonies, but details have been lost to time, she said.
"It looks like that in whatever organization existed then, the place had
some kind of power," said Cordell. "It became an important place and
subsequently an important ritual area" to the diverse ancient people who
lived in what is now the San Juan River basin of New Mexico.

Copyright © 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.





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