Kin Kletso, Archaeological ruins in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, San Juan County, US.
Kin Kletso is a ruined Pueblo settlement built from sandstone blocks and adobe mortar set at the base of canyon cliffs. The structure contains roughly 55 rooms, four ceremonial chambers below ground level, and a two-story round tower.
Kin Kletso was built between 1125 and 1130, during the McElmo Phase, when Pueblo peoples from the northern San Juan Basin moved into Chaco Canyon. Its rectangular masonry design led archaeologists Stephen H. Lekson and Tom Windes to classify it as Pueblo III work, though the Italian source assigns it to Pueblo II. Excavations found evidence of obsidian production on the site.
The Navajo name Kin Kletso garbles Kin Łitsooí, "Yellow House," a label given long after the Ancestral Puebloans left. Excavation found evidence of an obsidian production industry at the site, so stone toolmaking took place here alongside household life.
The site sits roughly 40 kilometers southwest of Nageezi and is reached by a gravel road through open country. Plan for intense sun and heat, and bring plenty of water since shade is limited at the ruins.
The name is a garbled mispronunciation of the Navajo Kin Łitsooí, "Yellow House"; the sources give no link to the colour of the masonry. Archaeologists Stephen H. Lekson and Tom Windes, citing its rectangular masonry, assign the house to Pueblo III and argue that only one or two households lived there.
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