Agriculture and community in Chaco Canyon: Revisiting Pueblo Alto

► Hydrological modeling in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, provides new methods for evaluating local agricultural productivity. ► The Pueblo Alto great house was probably the center of a community that controlled access to a major mesa-top production area. ► New estimates for agricultural potential challenge conventional views of great house community size and settlement stability. ► Many Chaco “roads” were probably part of water control systems rather than transportation routes.