UC professor emeritus Vernon Scarborough, one of the paper’s co-authors, spent his career studying ancient land-use strategies around the world. Chaco Canyon demonstrates how people were able to engineer their landscape in a resourceful and sustainable way, he said.



“Chaco Canyon captures the ingenuity and creativity of the human spirit like few other places,” Scarborough said.



“Our work and that of other colleagues is beginning to show the significance of low-tech adaptations in attempting to accommodate life on Earth,” Scarborough said. “A greater understanding of just how these ancient, ‘primitive’ systems adapted and function merits a thoughtful assessment given the social and environmental stress we face globally today.”



Scientists still aren’t sure why the population of Chaco Canyon declined over the centuries. Chaco Canyon continued to be occupied intermittently after 1300.



“Every civilization comes to an end. But they went through a lot,” McCool said. “What strategies allowed that civilization to continue? You’re dealing with people who lived in a place for hundreds of years. What adaptations did they make to deal with changing circumstances?”



Fladd said when she goes to Chaco Canyon, she likes to hike up the Pueblo Alto trail. From the top of the mesa, she can survey all of Pueblo Bonito below her.



“I don’t want to pretend I can understand their concerns 800 years ago,” Fladd said. “But I am in awe of what they were able to do. It’s a testament to how adaptable and creative they were.”



Chaco Canyon has a long history of generating academic debates, in part because it’s such a fascinating place. Chaco Canyon has been studied or referenced in thousands of research papers.



“Archaeology is a fun science because it requires a lot of imagination,” Dunning said. “You’re never dealing with complete data sets, so one has to fill in the holes. That’s where the controversy comes in.”



The study was funded by the University of Cincinnati Research Council, the Charles Phelps Taft Foundation and the Court Family Foundation. Co-authors included UC professors Lewis Owen, Brooke Crowley, Kenneth Tankersley, David Lentz, Warren Huff and Christopher Carr as well as UC graduates Elizabeth Haussner and Jessica Thress. Other contributors were Stephen Plog (University of Virginia), Adam Watson (American Museum of Natural History) and Katlyn Bishop (University of California).