Dr. Stephen Lekson, a curator and associate professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado, received his doctorate in anthropology from the University of New Mexico. He has more than 25 years of experience in Southwestern archaeology, with field research in Chaco Canyon, the Mesa Verde region, the Rio Grande, the Mimbres area, and the Hohokam region of southern Arizona. He has worked for the National Park Service, Arizona State Museum and the Museum of New Mexico.
From 1992-95, he was president of the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. Dr. Lekson's books include Intrigue of the Past: Discovering Archaeology in New Mexico; Chaco Canyon: A Center and Its World; and Great Pueblo Architecture of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. He has been an invited speaker at many conferences and public lectures, including the Smithosnian Institution, the Archaeological Institute of AMerica, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts. He has been a featured speaker on several radio and television specials, including National Public Radio, the Discovery Channel and the History Channel.
In his 1999 book, The Chaco Meridian: Centers of Power in the Ancient Southwest, Dr. Lekson argued that Anasazi prehistory begins at Chaco Canyon, where a small group of people resided beginning around 900 AD. By 1100 AD or so, Chaco had become a ceremonial center, the like of which had not so far been seen in the American southwest. But something happened, and in 1125, building stopped at Chaco. Construction at Aztec Ruin, located north of Chaco Canyon, began in the Chacoan style around 1110, and continued until around 1275. The earliest dates for Paquime, or Casas Grandes, a center larger than Chaco but far to the south in Mexico, are 1250 to 1300 and they extend to around 1500 AD. And all three are aligned on approximately the same longitude; 107 degrees, 57 minutes and 25 seconds. Lekson argues that this is no coincidence, that the elite families of all three sites were related, and that the alignment was an intentional and meaningful one.
But the argument isn't, of course, that simple, and in fact Lekson documents similarities--and differences--between ceramic styles and building styles and the presence of exotic materials such as macaws, gulf coast shells and copper bells. Interestingly, Lekson interweaves information from Native American origin myths, reminiscent of the work of anthropologist Robert Hall.
His findings reveal a “livelier” Southwest than that which we have become accustom to hearing. Dr. Lekson brings new insight to how “a pervasive Southwestern Mystique . . . has glossed over ancient (and modern) realities.” It is a new telling of an old story.
