Reevaluating the Organization of Lapidary Production at Chaco Canyon

Abstract

Several decades ago, the National Park Service's Chaco Project revealed evidence for widespread ornament manufacture at small sites (small houses) in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, as well as possible workshop-scale production at two of these locations. Given that consumption of finished jewelry items is clearly concentrated at large sites (great houses), it was suggested that lapidary production was part of a larger corporate political strategy, in which goods produced in surrounding small houses were used to sustain communal events related to construction activities and ritual performances at great houses. This article addresses a critical gap in this narrative—ornament production at great houses. Using Pueblo Bonito as a case study, I present the results of a systematic analysis of lapidary tools from the site and characterize the nature of on-site ornament manufacture. I find evidence that significant jewelry-making was occurring at Pueblo Bonito, at least on par with previously documented small-house jewelry workshops, and that a portion of this was embedded within elite households. These results require us to reconsider the role of ornament production in Chacoan political economy.