Occurrence of Attributes in Original Text
The text related to the cultural heritage 'Chaco Culture' has mentioned 'Canyon' in the following places:
| Occurrence Sentence | Text Source |
|---|---|
| The park is located in northwestern New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Farmington, in a remote canyon cut by the Chaco Wash. | WIKI |
| [6] Climate change is thought to have led to the emigration of Chacoans and the eventual abandonment of the canyon, beginning with a fifty-year drought commencing in 1130. | WIKI |
| Contents 1 Geography 2 Geology 3 Climate 4 Flora and fauna 5 History 5.1 Archaicxe2x80x93Early Basketmakers 5.2 Ancestral Puebloans 5.3 Athabaskan succession 5.4 Excavation and protection 6 Management 7 Sites 7.1 Central canyon 7.2 Outliers 8 Ruins 8.1 Great houses 8.2 Uses 9 Archaeoastronomy 9.1 Sun Dagger 9.2 Alignments 10 Gallery 11 See also 12 Notes 13 Citations 14 References 15 Sources 16 Further reading 17 External links | WIKI |
| The canyon itself, located within lowlands circumscribed by dune fields, ridges, and mountains, is aligned along a roughly northwest-to-southeast axis and is rimmed by flat massifs known as mesas. | WIKI |
| Large gaps between the southwestern cliff facesxe2x80x94side canyons known as rinconsxe2x80x94were critical in funneling rain-bearing storms into the canyon and boosting local precipitation levels. | WIKI |
| The alluvial canyon floor slopes downward to the northwest at a gentle grade of 30 feet per mile (6 meters per kilometer); it is bisected by the Chaco Wash, an arroyo that rarely bears water. | WIKI |
| The canyon's main aquifers were too deep to be of use to ancient Chacoans: only several smaller and shallower sources supported the small springs that sustained them. | WIKI |
| The Chaco Wash flowed across the upper strata of what is now the 400-foot (120-meter) Chacra Mesa, cutting into it and gouging out a broad canyon over the course of millions of years. | WIKI |
| [13] The canyon bottomlands were further eroded, exposing Menefee Shale bedrock; this was subsequently buried under roughly 125 feet (38xc2xa0m) of sediment. | WIKI |
| The canyon and mesa lie within the "Chaco Core"xe2x80x94which is distinct from the wider Chaco Plateau, a flat region of grassland with infrequent stands of timber. | WIKI |
| As the Continental Divide is only 15.5 miles (25xc2xa0km) east of the canyon, geological characteristics and different patterns of drainage differentiate these two regions both from each other and from the nearby Chaco Slope, the Gobernador Slope, and the Chuska Valley. | WIKI |
| An arid region of high xeric scrubland and desert steppe, the canyon and wider basin average 8 inches (200xc2xa0mm) of rainfall annually; the park averages 9.1 inches (230xc2xa0mm). | WIKI |
| [18] The heavy influence of the El Nixc3xb1o-Southern Oscillation contributes to the canyon's fickle climate. | WIKI |
| The canyon is far drier than other parts of New Mexico located at similar latitudes and elevations, and it lacks the temperate coniferous forests plentiful to the east. | WIKI |
| The prevailing sparseness of plants and wildlife was echoed in ancient times, when overpopulation, expanding cultivation, overhunting, habitat destruction, and drought may have led the Chacoans to strip the canyon of wild plants and game. | WIKI |
| [19] It has been suggested that even during wet periods the canyon was able to sustain only 2,000 people. | WIKI |
| Among Chacoan mammals are the plentiful coyote (Canis latrans); mule deer, elk, and pronghorn also live within the canyon, though they are rarely encountered by visitors. | WIKI |
| The local shortage of water means that relatively few bird species are present; these include roadrunners, large hawks (such as Cooper's hawks and American kestrels), owls, vultures, and ravens, though they are less abundant in the canyon than in the wetter mountain ranges to the east. | WIKI |
| [21] More than 70 campsites from this period, carbon-dated to the period 7000xe2x80x931500 BC and mostly consisting of stone chips and other leavings, were found in Atlatl Cave and elsewhere within Chaco Canyon, with at least one of the sites located on the canyon floor near an exposed arroyo. | WIKI |
| [32] Outlying communities began to depopulate and, by the end of the century, the buildings in the central canyon had been neatly sealed and abandoned. | WIKI |
| Hints of such include dismembered bodiesxe2x80x94dating from Chacoan timesxe2x80x94found at two sites within the central canyon. | WIKI |
| He noted several large ruins in the canyon. | WIKI |
| [40] The canyon was so remote, however, that it was scarcely visited over the next 50 years. | WIKI |
| [42][43] While investigating Wetherill's land claim, federal land agent Samuel J. Holsinger detailed the physical setting of the canyon and the sites, noted prehistoric road segments and stairways above Chetro Ketl, and documented prehistoric dams and irrigation systems. | WIKI |
| The Chaco Center extensively surveyed the Chacoan roads, well-constructed and strongly reinforced thoroughfares radiating from the central canyon. | WIKI |
| The Chacoans built their complexes along a 9-mile (14xc2xa0km) stretch of canyon floor, with the walls of some structures aligned cardinally and others aligned with the 18.6-year cycle of minimum and maximum moonrise and moonset. | WIKI |
| Central canyon[edit] | WIKI |
| The central portion of the canyon contains the largest Chacoan complexes. | WIKI |
| Pueblo Alto is a great house of 89 rooms located on a mesa top near the middle of Chaco Canyon, 0.6 miles (1xc2xa0km) from Pueblo Bonito; it was begun between AD 1020 and 1050 during a wider building boom throughout the canyon. | WIKI |
| Its location made the community visible to most of the inhabitants of the San Juan Basin; indeed, it was only 2.3 miles (3.7xc2xa0km) north of Tsin Kletzin, on the opposite side of the canyon. | WIKI |
| The community was the center of a bead- and turquoise-processing industry that influenced the development of all villages in the canyon; chert tool production was common. | WIKI |
| Two miles down the canyon is Pexc3xb1asco Blanco ("White Bluff"), an arc-shaped compound built atop the canyon's southern rim in five distinct stages between 900 and 1125. | WIKI |
| [60] Tsin Kletzin ("Charcoal Place"), a compound located on the Chacra Mesa and positioned above Casa Rinconada, is 2.3 miles (3.7xc2xa0km) due south of Pueblo Alto, on the opposite side of the canyon. | WIKI |
| Deeper in the canyon, Una Vida ("One Life") is one of the three oldest great houses; construction began around 900. | WIKI |
| It is located in one of the canyon's major side drainages, near Gallo Wash, and was massively expanded after 930. | WIKI |
| The canyon itself runs along one of the lunar alignment lines, suggesting the location was originally chosen for its astronomical significance. | WIKI |
| If nothing else, this allowed alignment with several other key structures in the canyon. | WIKI |
| Throughout the 10th century, Chacoan building techniques spread from the canyon to neighboring regions. | WIKI |
| Thirty such outliers spread across 65,000 square miles (170,000xc2xa0km2) are connected to the central canyon and to one another by an enigmatic web of six Chacoan road systems. | WIKI |
| Two shared-latitude but diametrically opposed complexes, Pueblo Pintado and Kin Bineola, are located some 15 miles (24xc2xa0km) from the core buildings of the central canyon. | WIKI |
| Each lies on a path from the central canyon that is collinear with the passage and setting of the full mid-winter "minimum moon", which recurs every 18.6 years. | WIKI |