| OCR Text |
Show Fred L. Nials has described the physical characteristics of Chacoan (or Anasazi) roads. The Chacoan road system has at least 400 miles of roads. The width of the roads is typically 8-10 m. (24-30 ft.) Roads wider than 11 meters were usually in association with sites and had walls or berms. Roads were commonly graded (cut or filled), but terrain-following roads were also common. Causeways and ramps were built. Border elements on roads were more common than not, and included low walls of rock or adobe, curbs of masonry or adobe, cairns, mounds or swales, or negative topographic expression.206 Most cairns are probably the result of historic, Navajo activity according to Nials. Anasazi cairns are usually larger, in excess of 1 meter in diameter. The roads are thought to be from the Bonito phase of Chacoan development, and though they look very straight, actually have frequent course adjustments. Nials cannot explain how the Indians made them as straight as they did without having the advantage of surveying equipment. A prehistoric road was compared to a historic road and the Chacoan road was found to be more efficient in most ways, even though it went in a straight line. Parallel roads alignments are a mystery, some having as many as four parallel causeways. 206. Seowtewa, 1986, op. cit., p. 7, notes that in the ancient past the Zunis traditionally went barefoot along the trail to Kolhu/wala:wa. It is interesting to note that the use of swales and water-control features, as well as removing rocks from the pathway would make ritual barefoot travel much easier. 207. Nials, Fred L."Physical Characteristics of Chacoan Roads" in Kincaid (op. cit.), pp. 6-1 to 6-50, who quotes: Beck, Colleen Marguerite "Ancient Roads on the North Coast of Peru," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, 1979, p.19. In a comparison of Chaco roads with ancient Peruvian roads, Colleen Marguerite Beck stated that "A road is planned and built, whereas a path is the result of wear." - 137 - |
