Tsin Kletzin
Encyclopedia
Tsin Kletzin or Tsin Kletsin is a Chacoan Anasazi archaeological site located on top of South Mesa in Chaco Culture National Historical Park
, northwestern New Mexico
, United States
. It is located 3.2 kilometers south of Pueblo Bonito
. Tree-ring dating placed the construction around 1110-1115 A.D. Originally it contained 81 rooms, 3 kiva
s and a plaza
constructed to create a 2-story structure. plaza was enclosed by a wall and a 1 meter wide entry portal allowed entrance into the plaza from the south. The masonry style of this complex is called McElmo (Chaco-McElmo), characterized by the large sandstone blocks and some tubular slabs.
Some 800 meters north-east from Tsin Kletzin there is a Weritos Dam, its suspected role was to retain the storm water runoff in a reservoir that archaeologists Lagasse, Gillespie and Eggert suggest provided Tsin Kletzin 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 flood.
Presently Tsin Kletzin is accessible through the South Mesa Trail (2,6 miles round trip) starting at Casa Rinconada
, however, tourist typically do not visit there.
meaning "black wood place" or "charcoal place.
Chaco Culture National Historical Park
Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park hosting the densest and most exceptional concentration of pueblos in the American Southwest. The park is located in northwestern New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Farmington, in a remote canyon cut by the Chaco Wash...
, northwestern New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is located 3.2 kilometers south of Pueblo Bonito
Pueblo Bonito
Pueblo Bonito, the largest and best known Great House in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, northern New Mexico, was built by ancestral Pueblo people and occupied between AD 828 and 1126....
. Tree-ring dating placed the construction around 1110-1115 A.D. Originally it contained 81 rooms, 3 kiva
Kiva
A kiva is a room used by modern Puebloans for religious rituals, many of them associated with the kachina belief system. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, kivas are square-walled and underground, and are used for spiritual ceremonies....
s and a plaza
Plaza
Plaza is a Spanish word related to "field" which describes an open urban public space, such as a city square. All through Spanish America, the plaza mayor of each center of administration held three closely related institutions: the cathedral, the cabildo or administrative center, which might be...
constructed to create a 2-story structure. plaza was enclosed by a wall and a 1 meter wide entry portal allowed entrance into the plaza from the south. The masonry style of this complex is called McElmo (Chaco-McElmo), characterized by the large sandstone blocks and some tubular slabs.
Some 800 meters north-east from Tsin Kletzin there is a Weritos Dam, its suspected role was to retain the storm water runoff in a reservoir that archaeologists Lagasse, Gillespie and Eggert suggest provided Tsin Kletzin 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 flood.
Presently Tsin Kletzin is accessible through the South Mesa Trail (2,6 miles round trip) starting at Casa Rinconada
Casa Rinconada
Casa Rinconada is a Chacoan Anasazi archaeological site located atop a ridge adjacent to a small rincon across from Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, northwestern New Mexico, United States....
, however, tourist typically do not visit there.
Etymology
Tsin Kletzin is a misspelled version of NavajoNavajo language
Navajo or Navaho is an Athabaskan language spoken in the southwestern United States. It is geographically and linguistically one of the Southern Athabaskan languages .Navajo has more speakers than any other Native American language north of the...
meaning "black wood place" or "charcoal place.