In the 10th century AD, a remarkable cultural development took place in the harsh and forbidding San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico. From small-scale, simply organized, prehistoric Pueblo societies, a complex and socially differentiated political system emerged which has become known as the Chaco Phenomenon. The origins, evolution, and decline of this system have long been the subject of intense archaeological debate.

John Kantner traces the evolution of Pueblo society in the American Southwest from the emergence of the Chaco and Mimbres in the AD 1000s through the early decades of contact with the Spanish in the sixteenth century. Based on a diverse range of archaeological data, historical accounts, oral history and ethnographic records, this introduction for students of the Pueblo Southwest is vital reading for any archaeologist concerned with the origins of early civilizations.