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 Type I |
The Chaco people were skilled masons. Working with stone tools, they erected vast communal buildings that still compel admiration. Their masonry techniques evolved over centuries. Archeologists can date sections of structures by masonry style. The earliest dwellings were built with simple walls one stone thick, with generous courses of mud mortar. The oldest walls in Pueblo Bonito [AD 860- late 900s] were built using Type I masonry.
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 Type II |
When the Chacoans began to build higher and more extensively, they employed walls with thick inner cores of rubble and thin veneers of facing stone. These walls tapered as they rose to distribute the weight, reflecting the planning that went into the large-scale construction in Classic times [AD 1020-1120]. The early core-and-veneer style [Type II] is characterized by large blocks of tabular sandstone chinked with smaller stones set in mortar. |
 Type III |
About half the ground floor rooms of Pueblo Bonito were built using Type III and Type IV masonry styles [late 1000s]. |
 Type IV |
These styles were employed at roughly the same time. Though the patterns are attractive as they stand, there is evidence the Chacoans covered most of the stonework with plaster. |
 McElmo |
The last distinctive masonry style, called McElmo, was used at Kin Kletso, New Alto, Casa Chiquita, and other buildings dating to the early 1100s. These walls were built with a thin inner core of rubble and thick outer veneers of shaped sandstone resembling the masonry of the Mesa Verde region. |
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