Where can I get population estimates for different time periods at Chaco Canyon?
I’m afraid to say that you will have some difficulty finding population estimates for Chaco Canyon. There is substantial disagreement regarding how many people lived in Chaco Canyon architectural features. In general, estimating population has always been rife with controversy. In the case of Chaco, the dispute centers on whether the great houses were domestic structures or empty ritual architecture. The debate is further exacerbated by the strange lack of burials associated with great houses, as well as the lack of recent research in most of the canyon structures. And population levels during abandonment periods are even harder to reconstruct; what is there to use to measure numbers of people? During abandonments, structures do not reduce in size to reflect the reduction in population. And without burials or microstratigraphic midden analyses, there is little else to go by. Your best bet is to look at the Pueblo Alto publications, put out by the National Park Service, edited by Tom Wi
