The Kin Hochoi East Road

Abstract

Kin Hochoi is a Chacoan great house community located in the Puerco Gap, a canyon eroded through the southern Chuska Mountains by the Puerco River. Within the Kin Hochoi community the “East Road” is defined by a 10-meter-wide linear swale connecting the great house to the great kiva, suggesting it was an integral part of the community architecture. Like many other Chacoan roads the Kin Hochoi East Road is excavated over a short distance and has not been previously identified as a longer feature. However, recent ground surveys of associated archaeological sites in the surrounding area indicate that the road extends at least 20 kilometers further to the northeast following a straight line through the Puerco Gap and Defiance Draw Valley. Based on ceramics at the site, construction at Kin Hochoi occurred over many centuries with the great house and great kiva constructed during the Pueblo II period. Smaller architecture and sherd scatters along the extended road to the northeast indicate that this part of the road was constructed and/or in use during the Pueblo II and Pueblo III periods. This supports the model that the short road formalized by excavation within the Kin Hochoi community is part of a longer and possibly regional route.

Kin Hochoi es una gran comunidad de la comunidad de Chaco ubicada en Puerco Gap, un cañón erosionado a través de las montañas del sur de Chuska por el río Puerco. Dentro de la comunidad de Kin Hochoi, el “East Road” se define por un granizo lineal de diez metros que conecta la gran casa con la gran kiva, sugiriendo que era parte integral de la arquitectura de la comunidad. Al igual que muchos otros caminos Chacoan el Kin Hochoi East Road es excavado sobre una corta distancia y no ha sido previamente identificado como una característica más larga. Sin embargo, las recientes encuestas sobre el terreno de los sitios arqueológicos asociados en el área circundante indican que la carretera se extiende por lo menos 20 kilómetros más al noreste, siguiendo una línea recta a través de Puerco Gap y Defiance Draw Valley. Sobre la base de la cerámica en el sitio, la construcción en Kin Hochoi ocurrió durante muchos siglos con la gran casa y gran kiva construido durante el período Pueblo II. La arquitectura más pequeña y las dispersiones de sherd a lo largo de la carretera extendida hacia el noreste indican que esta parte de la carretera fue construida y /o en uso durante los periodos Pueblo II y Pueblo III. Esto apoya el modelo que el camino corto formalizado por la excavación dentro de la comunidad de Kin Hochoi es parte de una ruta más larga y posiblemente regional.

KEYWORDS:

• Kin Hochoi
• Chacoan
• Road

Acknowledgments

The ground survey teams included; Michael Cloud, Janet Cloud, Lucas Mooney and Robin Dearinger. John Stein has been a key advisory to me on this and other projects for many years. I am also grateful to Ron Maldonado of the Navajo Nation Historic Preservation Department for making map files available to me and for advice over several years. I am grateful to Jonathan Till whose review of an early draft helped to better define the hypothesis proposed in this paper.