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Chocolate and scarlet macaws were just the tip of the iceberg, as archaeologists have found items made of turquoise, copper and shells that would have been made of material imported some distance away. Even the timber used in the buildings was imported.

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A University of Arizona study found that before A.D. 1020, most of the wood used at Chaco Canyon came from the Zuni Mountains, which are located about 50 miles (80 km) to the south, while after A.D. 1060 much of the wood came from the Chuska Mountains about 50 miles to the west. The amount of wood imported to Chaco Canyon from these areas was immense. "The casual observer will see hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of beams sticking out of the walls. There's wood all over the place in these structures," said lead author Christopher Guiterman, a doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona, in a press release.

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Moms rule

A recent study indicates that power at Pueblo Bonito appears to have been passed through maternal lines. In other words belonging to the elite depended on who your mom was, not on who your dad was.

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The discovery was made by performing DNA analysis of nine individuals who were buried in a crypt at Pueblo Bonito. The crypt contains thousands of beads made of shell and turquoise, and many archaeologists think that the individuals buried in the crypt were part of an elite family that held some degree of power at Pueblo Bonito.

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The DNA analysis revealed that all nine individuals were related maternally and, collectively, the nine individuals appear to have lived between roughly 800 and 1130. They may have formed a dynasty of sorts at Pueblo Bonito.

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Mysterious collapse

Chaco Culture sites declined in the 13th and 14th centuries, gradually becoming abandoned. At Pueblo Bonito "complete abandonment in the 1300s was marked by a variety of termination and closure rituals including widespread burning," wrote Neitzel.

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Research indicates that the American Southwest was hit by a series of droughts around this time that may have brought about the end of the Chaco Culture, uprooting people and forcing them to move to locations that still had water. Mesa Verde, a region that straddles Colorado, Utah and New Mexico thrived during the 13th century and some people who lived at Chaco Culture sites may have relocated there.

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However, not all scientists agree that there was a drought sufficient enough to bring about the abandonment of Chaco Culture sites. A research team reported in a 2014 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences article that they reviewed the archaeological and environmental record and failed to find evidence of an event severe enough to bring about the abandonment of Chaco Canyon and nearby areas.

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There are "no obvious indications that the depopulation of the canyon in the 13th century was caused by any specific cultural practices or natural events," the researchers wrote in the journal article. "Clearly there was a reason why these farming people eventually moved elsewhere, but the archaeological record has not yet produced compelling empirical evidence for what that reason might have been."

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Modern-day Chaco Canyon

Today, Chaco Canyon is a national park and national monument, giving its ruins protection from development. In 2013, Chaco Canyon was declared a dark sky park, a designation intended to keep it free of light pollution, allowing visitors to see the stars.

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While the Trump administration is considering removing national monument status from sites that received the designation after 1996, Chaco Canyon should not be affected as it was given national monument designation in 1907 by President Theodore Roosevelt.

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However, Chaco's national monument status may not protect it from all forms of development pressures. Recently, permission was given for fracking, a drilling technique that extracts oil or gas from deep underground, to take place near Chaco Canyon. The Navajo are challenging this decision noting that the pollution that fracking causes threatens the ruins and the people who live in the broader area.

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