As early as the twelfth century A.D., the settlements of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico in the American Southwest were notable for their "great houses," massive stone buildings that contain hundreds of rooms and often stand three or four stories high. Archaeologists have been trying to determine how the buildings were used. While there is still no universally agreed upon explanation, there are three competing theories.
One theory holds that the Chaco structures were purely residential, with each housing hundreds of people. Supporters of this theory have interpreted Chaco great houses as earlier versions of the architecture seen in more recent Southwest societies. In particular, the Chaco houses appear strikingly similar to the large, well-known "apartment buildings" at Taos, New Mexico,in which many people have been living for centuries.
A second theory contends that the Chaco structures were used to store food supplies. One of the main crops of the Chaco people was grain maize, which could be stored for long periods of time without spoiling and could serve as a long-lasting supply of food. The supplies of maize had to be stored somewhere, and the size of the great houses would make them very suitable for the purpose.
A third theory proposes that houses were used as ceremonial centers. Close to one house, called Pueblo Alto, archaeologists identified an enormous mound formed by a pile of old material. Excavations of the mound revealed deposits containing a surprisingly large number of broken pots. This finding has been interpreted as evidence that people gathered at Pueblo Alto for special ceremonies. At the ceremonies, they ate festive meals and then discarded the pots in which the meals had been prepared or served. Such ceremonies have been documented for other Native American cultures.
The reading and the lecture are both about how the Chaco Canyon ''great houses'' were used. The author feels that there are three theories to prove this and the lecturer had conflicting views about the same.
First, in the reading, it's clear that that the great houses were used for residential purposes. However, the professor refutes this by saying that, the outside of the great houses looked like residential complexes, but the interior proved that they are not. She points out that, there are a few fireplaces for the residents for cooking. In addition, these fireplaces showed that only 10 families can survive there.
Secondly, the writer posits that the specialized houses were storeroom for food supplies. The article mentions that for maize storage without spoiling, these buildings are suitable because of their large size. The professor opposes this theory by arguing that the excavations did not show any evidence of spilled maize or the large containers they had been stored. If this theory was correct, there may be remains of it.
Finally, the author suggests that they were used as ceremonial centers. Moreover, the article stated that a lot of broken pot fragments are seen nearby the great house which might be used to serve meals in gatherings. On the contrary, the lecturer's position is that along with these remains there are a lot of building materials had been found and this corroborates that the area might be a trash site used by the construction workers and the pots are used by them for cooking.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
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| 2023-11-16 | TiOluwani97 | 87 | view |
| 2023-02-12 | zaid | 80 | view |
| 2023-01-18 | theprasad | 81 | view |
| 2022-11-17 | rpinisetti8 | 80 | view |
| 2022-11-14 | Sakib | 73 | view |
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 34, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: that
...me. First, in the reading, its clear that that the great houses were used for resident...
^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, first, however, if, look, may, moreover, second, secondly, so, in addition, on the contrary
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 19.0 10.4613686534 182% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 5.04856512141 79% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 7.30242825607 82% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 12.0772626932 124% => OK
Pronoun: 30.0 22.412803532 134% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 23.0 30.3222958057 76% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 5.01324503311 80% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1274.0 1373.03311258 93% => OK
No of words: 256.0 270.72406181 95% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.9765625 5.08290768461 98% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.0 4.04702891845 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.4195931791 2.5805825403 94% => OK
Unique words: 147.0 145.348785872 101% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.57421875 0.540411800872 106% => OK
syllable_count: 386.1 419.366225166 92% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.23620309051 121% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 19.0 21.2450331126 89% => OK
Sentence length SD: 52.2496284067 49.2860985944 106% => OK
Chars per sentence: 98.0 110.228320801 89% => OK
Words per sentence: 19.6923076923 21.698381199 91% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.07692307692 7.06452816374 114% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 4.45695364238 45% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.27373068433 164% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.15127200569 0.272083759551 56% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0579803383278 0.0996497079465 58% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0478210663478 0.0662205650399 72% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0944077822695 0.162205337803 58% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0232366330495 0.0443174109184 52% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.9 13.3589403974 89% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 60.65 53.8541721854 113% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.5 11.0289183223 86% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.6 12.2367328918 95% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.46 8.42419426049 100% => OK
difficult_words: 63.0 63.6247240618 99% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.6 10.498013245 91% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.2008830022 107% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 Out of 30
---------------------
Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.