Pueblo Alto, Archaeological great house in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico, US
Pueblo Alto is an Ancestral Puebloan great house begun between AD 1020 and 1050, standing on a mesa top near the middle of Chaco Canyon. It holds 89 rooms in a single-story layout, and its storerooms open to the outside rather than into the interior rooms. It shares its mesa with the great house Nuevo Alto.
Construction of Pueblo Alto began between AD 1020 and 1050, when Ancestral Puebloans raised a single-story great house of 89 rooms on a mesa top near the middle of Chaco Canyon. Its storerooms opened to the outside rather than into the interior rooms. The site shares its mesa with the great house Nuevo Alto; both now lie within Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
Pueblo Alto takes its Spanish name, "High Village," from its position atop a Chaco Canyon mesa. Its storerooms opened outward to the mesa rather than into interior rooms, and a large midden there held pottery and chert mostly carried from the Chuska area, 70 km (44 mi) west.
Pueblo Alto stands on a mesa top near the middle of Chaco Canyon, reached by trail from Pueblo Bonito, about 0.6 miles (0.97 km) away. The site lies within Chaco Culture National Historical Park, and the route climbs onto the mesa; Tsin Kletsin lies 2.3 miles (3.7 km) to the south across the canyon.
Pueblo Alto sits on a mesa top 0.6 miles (0.97 km) from Pueblo Bonito and 2.3 miles (3.7 km) north of Tsin Kletsin across the canyon. Its position made the settlement visible to most inhabitants of the San Juan Basin. A large midden at the site held pottery and chert, most of it brought from the Chuska area 70 km (44 mi) to the west.
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