How large an area fell within the sphere of Chaco influence?
One answer is that the region influenced by the Chaco Anasazi covered a large part of the Colorado Plateau. Another is that it included only the San Juan Basin. There is no definitive answer at the present. Archaeological study shows that many outlying communities in southeastern Utah, southwestern Colorado, eastern Arizona and west-central New Mexico share too many characteristics of Chacoan society to exclude them from the bigger picture. Before this question can be answered, questions about the permanence of the Chaco Canyon area population and their religious, social and economic relationships with outlying communities need to be addressed.
