Lekson noticed that Chaco Canyon, Aztec Ruins, and Paquimé in Chihuahua sit within a few minutes of longitude of one another, hundreds of miles apart, over four centuries. His argument is that this was deliberate — that the political center of the Southwest was moved north and then far south along a surveyed line, taking its rulers and its ideas with it, and that these were hierarchical societies with elites rather than the egalitarian pueblos the field prefers. Plenty of archaeologists think he’s wrong. Nobody thinks he’s boring, and the second edition takes on the objections directly.
The Chaco Meridian