"Anybody who's interested in the emergence of social inequality and hierarchical societies, they look to Chaco Canyon as a place where they want to test those models, because it has a variety of really unique aspects for a society of this scale."
Carrie Heitman, assistant professor of anthropology, leads a project to digitize the Salmon Pueblo Archeological Research Collection. Salmon Pueblo, near modern-day Bloomfield, New Mexico, was home to one of the largest ancestral communities outside Chaco Canyon. It is known for its three-story, 300-room “great house.” This great house is an example of the type of architecture that was used to build these communities and the vast infrastructure that connected them.
In this short video, Heitman explains why she and her team are studying the Chaco Canyon area.
