Phenomenological archaeologists and GIS scholars have turned much attention
to visibility—who can see whom, and what can be seen—across ancient
landscapes. Visible connections can be relatively easy to identify, but they
present challenges to interpretation. Ancient peoples created intervisible
connections among sites for purposes that included surveillance, defense,
symbolism, shared identity, and communication. In the American Southwest,
many high places are intervisible by virtue of the elevated topography and
the open skies. The Chaco phenomenon, centered in northwestern New Mexico
between A.D. 850 and 1140, presents an ideal situation for visibility
research. In this study, we use GIS-generated viewsheds and viewnets to
investigate intervisible connections among great houses, shrines, and
related features across the Chacoan landscape. We demonstrate that a Chacoan
shrine network, likely established during the mid-eleventh century,
facilitated intervisibility between outlier communities and Chaco Canyon. It
is most likely that the Chacoans created this network to enable meaningful
connections for communication and identity. We conclude that the boundaries
of the Chaco phenomenon are defined in some sense by intervisibility.