Tsin Kletsin or ''Tsin Kletzin'' is an

Ancestral Puebloan The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, an ...

great house A great house is a large house or mansion with luxurious appointments and great retinues of indoor and outdoor staff. The term is used mainly historically, especially of properties at the turn of the 20th century, i.e., the late Victorian or ...

and archaeological site located on top of South Mesa in

Chaco Culture National Historical Park Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a United States National Historic Sites (United States), National Historical Park in the Southwestern United States, American Southwest hosting a concentration of pueblos. The park is located in northw ...

, northwestern

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

, United States. It is located 3.2 kilometers south of

Pueblo Bonito Pueblo Bonito (Spanish for ''beautiful town'') is the largest and best-known great house in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, northern New Mexico. It was built by the Ancestral Puebloans who occupied the structure between AD 828 and 1126 ...

. Tree-ring dating placed the construction around 1110-1115 A.D. Originally it contained 81 rooms, 3

kiva A kiva is a space used by Puebloans for rites and political meetings, many of them associated with the kachina belief system. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, "kiva" means a large room that is circular and underground ...

s and a

plaza A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...

constructed to create a 2-story structure. The plaza was enclosed by a wall, and a 1-meter-wide entry portal allowed access to the plaza from the south. The masonry style of this complex is called McElmo (Chaco-McElmo), characterized by large sandstone blocks and some tubular slabs. Some 800 meters north-east from Tsin Kletsin there is Weritos Dam. Its alleged role was to retain the storm water runoff in a reservoir that archaeologists Lagasse, Gillespie and Eggert suggest provided Tsin Kletsin with all of its domestic water. However, massive amounts of silt accumulated during flash floods would have forced the residents to regularly (10–15 years) rebuild the dam and dredge the drainage channel, and perhaps as early as every 2 years the water might have overflown the dam causing some flooding. Tsin Kletsin is accessible through the South Mesa Trail (2.6 miles round trip) starting at Casa Rinconada; however, tourists typically do not visit there.

Etymology

''Tsin Kletsin'' is a misspelled version of Navajo meaning "black wood place" or "charcoal place."

References

* William N. Morgan, "Ancient architecture of the Southwest," University of Texas Press, 1994, , p. 55-56

External links

* Colorado Plateau Chaco Canyon Former populated places in New Mexico Puebloan buildings and structures Chaco Culture National Historical Park Ancestral Puebloans {{NewMexico-geo-stub