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
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
L-shaped great house
great house80-room early Bonito house (800 CE)
36.0373° N · 107.9155° WPetroglyph panel
rock artSpiral petroglyphs below house
36.0370° N · 107.9150° W
Gallery