The scientific tourist #34 — Chaco doorway
This week’s image comes from Chaco Canyon in New Mexico — it’s a scan of an old slide (c. 1980) showing a very typical T-shaped doorway:
While some doorways at Chaco are rectangular, this T-shaped sort of opening is a hallmark of the place. For what it’s worth, the real color of the sandstone masonry is a slightly pinkish tan; most of the reddish tone in the image comes from color shifts in the slide as it ages.
As for the shape — maybe it was for practicality (easier to get through with an armload of stuff), or maybe it was an artistic decision. We’ll likely never know for sure.
Chaco was a major metropolitan area in the 10th , 11th, and early 12th centuries — then it was swiftly depopulated over just a few years around 1150. The expatriate Chacoans wound up resettling further downstream in the riverbank pueblos their descendants still call home today.
Sorting Out Science » Blog Archive » Scientific tourist #95 — Bandelier Longhouse wrote,
[...] the 1100s into the mid 1500s. This is later than the primary occupation periods for other sites like Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde, so Longhouse was likely built and occupied in a transitional period, [...]
Link | December 9th, 2009 at 13:19