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, wellknown “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 author of the passage explains how ‘great houses’ in the 12th century of the Chaco Canyon were used. The passage also provides supporting theories and discoveries to support each postulated use. However, the professor in the lecture argues that the argument of the author are not convincing to support the proposed uses of the Chaco Structures; and provides counters to each theory.
The passage states that the great houses could have been used as residentials housing up to hundred people. This claim is supported by the discovery that Chaco houses are architecturally similar to houses in recent southwestern societies, such as apartment building in Taos, Mexico. The professor counters that though the exteriors are similar, the interior of these building are not sufficient to house hundred of people. For instance, less than fire paces were observed which could not have been sufficient for 100 people. As such, the building could not have been residential.
The second theory in the passage claims that Chaco structure may have been used to store food supplies. This is supported by discovery that size of the houses were suitable for long-term storage of maize which was at the time one of the main crops of Chaso people. The professor countered that excavations have not recovered reminants of maize of maize storage containers in these buildings. Therefore, this theory does not provide enough evidence to support the utility of these buildings as storage units.
Lastly, the final theory proposes that the houses were used as ceremonial centers similar to a Pueblo Alto; based on excavations of large quantities of broken pots. This siginifies that these buildings were used for ceremonial festival where meals were eaten. The professor explains that this theory is not well supported because other materials such contrucions remains were also recovered from the excavations.
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| 2023-11-16 | TiOluwani97 | 87 | view |
| 2023-02-12 | zaid | 80 | view |
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 296, Rule ID: ALLOW_TO[1]
Message: Did you mean 'supporting'? Or maybe you should add a pronoun? In active voice, 'convince' + 'to' takes an object, usually a pronoun.
Suggestion: supporting
...gument of the author are not convincing to support the proposed uses of the Chaco Structur...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 4, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...d provides counters to each theory. The passage states that the great houses co...
^^
Line 2, column 13, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...s counters to each theory. The passage states that the great houses could have ...
^^
Line 2, column 95, Rule ID: NODT_DOZEN[1]
Message: Use simply: 'a hundred'.
Suggestion: a hundred
...been used as residentials housing up to hundred people. This claim is supported by the ...
^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 406, Rule ID: NODT_DOZEN[1]
Message: Use simply: 'a hundred'.
Suggestion: a hundred
...se building are not sufficient to house hundred of people. For instance, less than fire...
^^^^^^^
Line 2, column 548, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...nt for 100 people. As such, the building could not have been residential. The ...
^^
Line 4, column 336, Rule ID: PHRASE_REPETITION[1]
Message: This phrase is duplicated. You should probably leave only 'of maize'.
Suggestion: of maize
...xcavations have not recovered reminants of maize of maize storage containers in these buildings. ...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, however, if, lastly, may, second, so, therefore, well, for instance, such as
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 : 2.0 7.30242825607 27% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 19.0 22.412803532 85% => OK
Preposition: 36.0 30.3222958057 119% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 5.01324503311 80% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1602.0 1373.03311258 117% => OK
No of words: 302.0 270.72406181 112% => OK
Chars per words: 5.30463576159 5.08290768461 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.1687104957 4.04702891845 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.65998552691 2.5805825403 103% => OK
Unique words: 148.0 145.348785872 102% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.490066225166 0.540411800872 91% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 497.7 419.366225166 119% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.23620309051 134% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 0.0 2.5761589404 0% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 13.0662251656 115% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 21.2450331126 94% => OK
Sentence length SD: 35.123907654 49.2860985944 71% => OK
Chars per sentence: 106.8 110.228320801 97% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.1333333333 21.698381199 93% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.46666666667 7.06452816374 77% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 7.0 4.19205298013 167% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 4.33554083885 138% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 4.45695364238 90% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.27373068433 117% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.163505812514 0.272083759551 60% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0656844773492 0.0996497079465 66% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0510406778977 0.0662205650399 77% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.103486017865 0.162205337803 64% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0347972272366 0.0443174109184 79% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.6 13.3589403974 102% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 53.8541721854 95% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 11.0289183223 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.46 12.2367328918 110% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.81 8.42419426049 105% => OK
difficult_words: 80.0 63.6247240618 126% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 10.7273730684 103% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 10.498013245 95% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 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.