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 hig v.4

The reading excerpt states that there are three competing theories about how the great house which is massive stone buildings in New Mexico were used, the author provides three reasons for support these uses. However, the lecture' s audio claims that there are a lot of problems with the author' s theories and he refutes each of them by stating the cause of these uses is not obvious. First, the article avers that the Chaco structures were purely residential because they were similar to the large, well-known apartment buildings at Taos. In contrast, the professor opposes this idea by saying that this is right only from the outside of the houses, but, from the inside, this leads to doubt because if hundreds of people lived there, so, there should be many fireplaces to be used for cooking. However, there were only a few of them for about only ten families but the rooms were for more than one hundreds persons. So, this idea of using these building for the living is not accurate and not credited to what the professor discussed. Second, the passage posits that Chaco structures used to store food such as maize and protected them from spoiling. In contrary, the lecturer argues this point by stating that this idea does not support by pieces of evidence because if these large rooms were used for storage, thus, there should be some traces of the remains of maizes or their containers. Thus, this point of view contradicts what the professor explained. Third, the excerpt mentions that these houses were used for special ceremonies because there are many pieces of evidence that there was large number of broken pots in which meals been prepared or served. On the other hand, the speaker counters this theory and explains that in addition to the pots remaining, there were other construction materials such as sands and stones, so, these houses might be a trash for construction materials, moreover, the remaining of the pots might be used by the construction workers. Thus, this outlook is definitely wrong.