The role of a Chaco-Era great house in the Southern Cibola Region of West-Central New Mexico: The Largo Gap great house community

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.

Keywords:

• Chaco Regional System
• great house
• American Southwest
• Pueblo II Period
• settlement pattern

Acknowledgments

Research at Largo Gap and in its associated community was supported by a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (BCS-1340542) and by grants from the National Geographic Society (#9323-13), the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society, and the New Mexico Bureau of Land Management, administered through the Socorro Field Office. We gratefully acknowledge this support and that of all individuals who assisted with fieldwork.

ORCID

Kristin N. Safi http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3587-5638

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kristin N. Safi

Kristin N. Safi (Ph.D. 2015, Washington State University) is Instructor at Washington State University. Research interests include migration, remote sensing, exchange, community formation, and multi-ethnic identities and communities.

Andrew I. Duff

Andrew I. Duff (Ph.D. 1999, Arizona State University) is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology, Washington State University. Research interests include the American Southwest, Ethnicity/Identity, and Ceramics.