Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I read this book, along with a few others, in preparation for a trip to Chaco and was disappointed. Although summarizing the research on this huge and controversial subject was surely difficult, Dr. Fagan leaves out major aspects of Chacoan culture. The precise astronomical alignments of Chaco great houses and outlyers, Chacoan tracking of the solar and lunar cycles (the "sun dagger")and other astronomical phenomena (the supernova petroglyph)are conspicuously minimized or absent. This leaves a big hole in the book's story - why would people waste their resources and work so hard to build these structures? Why do resources go into the canyon but no trade goods come out? It's a mystery! Given that the book is directed to a general audience who would be especially interested the archaeo-astronomy of the canyon it is puzzling that it is hardly mentioned.
Other important facts are left out - I learned on the Pueblo Bonito tour that the Chacoans systematically burned the kivas and filled in the windows and doors of the great houses before they left. He repeats the statement I have heard and seen in other places that Pueblo Bonito was planned from its very beginning and he describes it as symmetrical, when one can easily see from maps of the construction phases that it was and is neither. Also, it seems important and interesting to me that the descendants of the inhabitants of Chaco speak languages from 5 different language families (not mentioned), and all have oral traditions linking them to Chaco - another line of evidence only minimally discussed at the end.
The book in general is not well edited. In particular, the maps and drawings have errors (for example, the San Juan river labeled as "San Jose") and don't correlate well to the text, making understanding of the spacial relationships between locations mentioned nearly impossible. In some places the writing was clumsy and after reading it several times I still didn't follow the reasoning (despite having studied anthropology and archaeology). There are good explanations of dendrochronology and other dating methods.
A note to those who have never been to Chaco - we were told that there are plans to pave the long, dirt road that leads to the park by 2007. When that happens many more people will visit and the park will be forced to restrict access to sites. You will only be able to see the structures from a distance or with a guide, as at Mesa Verde. So, visit now while you can still drive or hike to the sites and explore them on your own.
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