Proskouriakoff continued leading that aspect of Maya research until the Carnegie Institution withdrew from the field of Maya studies in the 1960s. By this time she was living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was affiliated with the peabody museum at Harvard University. Even in retirement, Proskouriakoff continued to make major contributions to the field: for instance, in 1974 she published a major study of the thousands of jade objects thrown into the sacred well at chichén itzá, Yucatán, once one of the principal centers of the Maya.

Peter Mathews

See also

Maya Epigraphy; Mesoamerica

References

Proskouriakoff, T. 1963. An Album of Mayan Architecture. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Pueblo Bonito

Pueblo Bonito is the largest Anasazi site of chaco canyon in northwestern New Mexico. It is located on the north side of Chaco Canyon, between Chaco Wash and the canyon wall. Built in the Pueblo III style during the early tenth century, Pueblo Bonito has 800 rooms in a D-shaped complex over three acres, with evidence of earlier settlements underneath the remaining structure. Approximately 1,000 residents were accommodated by this site. Pueblo Bonito is characteristic of the southwestern Anasazi sites of the Pueblo III period, with Black-on-red pottery; rectangular pit houses; multistory, multiroom pueblos; and well-developed kivas.

Among the many sites of Chaco Canyon, Pueblo Bonito is remarkable for offering scientists a chance to accurately date the structures. Besides being the largest and most outstanding site of the time, Pueblo Bonito contains many wooden support beams. The wood was well preserved in the southwestern climate of dry heat and affords a uniquely precise insight into the timeline of the building. Dendrochronology, a dating technique developed using tree rings to measure time, was used very successfully to pinpoint the age of the building. Pueblo Bonito has been accurately dated to between a.d. 919 and a.d. 1130 through tree-ring dating of the large number of wooden beams.

The structure itself is the most impressive site in the entire Southwest at this time for several reasons. It is the largest masonry structure; and judging by its sameness throughout was most likely planned as a unit. It contains many kivas (large meeting or ceremonial rooms), and is similar to pueblos nearby, but the scale of Pueblo Bonito is very large in many aspects. The walls are very thick and the rooms much larger than other pueblos. The walls are rubble-filled, with a shaped sandstone exterior that encloses an inner court. Pueblo Bonito is three to four stories high at the back, with one great kiva and several smaller kivas.

The site has advanced architecture and similarly complex cultural traits. This conclusion is reached, according to Lister and Lister, because of the social organization needed to create such a large and planned village. The site shows evidence of population increase, localization of the population, and craft specialization. All these factors represent a complex, stable social organization. Most likely the Pueblo Bonito site was influenced by the casas grande sites in Mexico.

In an 1877 visit to Chaco Canyon William H. Jackson drew a map of the Pueblo Bonito site and a reconstruction. Pueblo Bonito was first photographed by Victor Mindeleff in 1888. From 1897 to 1899, George H. Pepper and Richard Wetherill cleared 189 rooms and several kivas, published in their field notes. Neil M. Judd completed excavation of the rest of Pueblo Bonito between 1921 and 1927. The more significant reports were published by National Geographic Magazine. Gordon Vivian of the National Park Service worked on stabilizing and opening more rooms in the 1930s. Judd and andrew e. douglass collected tree-ring specimens for dating, as did Deric O’Bryan at Gila Pueblo. Tree-ring dates range from a.d. 828 to 1130. Construction and minor reconstruction continued between two main building periods, first in the early tenth century, after a.d. 919, and the second in the second half of the eleventh century.

Many of the Pueblo Bonito rooms contained burials and funerary items, but do not contain remains of the entire population. Many rooms excavated were previously undisturbed, and had intact floors and ceilings which preserved artifacts