About the Lecture:
Dedicatory offerings of small colorful objects are often found in pre-Hispanic architectural contexts in the Ancestral Pueblo region of the American Southwest. These deposits are particularly numerous in kivas at the site of Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, which served as the ceremonial hub of the Chacoan regional system between the 10th and 12th centuries CE. Based on the importance of directionality and color in traditional Pueblo worldviews, archaeologists have long-speculated that the contents of these radial offerings may likewise reference significant Chacoan cosmographic elements. In this talk, I discuss the results of a recent study where I explored this idea by examining the distribution of colors and materials in kiva pilaster repositories in relation to directional quadrants, prominent landscape features, and raw material sources.
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