Una Vida (Chaco Canyon)
Una Vida · Una Vida, Las Angustias
Pueblo I-III; early Bonito·Chacoan pioneer (Pueblo I) → classic Bonito·🇺🇸 New Mexico, Chaco Canyon, south side eastern mouth, United States
National Park Service (United States) · Public domain
About
About Una Vida (Chaco Canyon)
Easternmost canyon great house (one of earliest, c.800–930 CE) at south cliffs opposite Fajada Butte — five-room ‘L-shaped’ early Bonito house evolving to 80-room great house with great kiva and great road petroglyphs. Informative for Chaco genesis: early type (dendro 800) linking Pueblo I pithouses to classic Bonito, with Red Mesa black-on-white. Petroglyph panel with spiral (?) solar marker below.
Why it mattersOldest dendro-dated great house anchors Chaco chronology start — bridge Pueblo I to Bonito urban boom.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Is early Una Vida truly ‘great house’ or aggregated pueblo?
- 02Petroglyph spiral solar vs later Navajo
Theories
- 01Lekson early Bonito as experiment vs Windes aggregated Pueblo I rise
- 02Gatehouse function guarding eastern entrance
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.800 CE early pit-house hamlet; great house c.860–930 CE; expanded 1000 CE
- Period
- Pueblo I-III; early Bonito
- Culture
- Chacoan pioneer (Pueblo I) → classic Bonito
- Builders
- Pueblo I hamlet founders to Bonito masons
- Purpose
- Gateway great house at canyon mouth before Bonito crescendo
- Abandoned
- c.1130 CE earlier eastern abandonment
- Rediscovered
- Noted 1849; excavated 1920s; 1950s NPS trail
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
800 CE
Earliest great house foundation (dendro 800) at canyon mouth
860 CE
Formal Bonito veneer house replaces L-shaped hamlet
On the ground
Structures & features
36.0370° N · 107.9150° W · 1875 m · 2 mapped features
Gallery