Archaeogenomic evidence reveals prehistoric matrilineal dynasty in Chaco Canyon

If you can make the trip to Chaco Canyon, I highly recommend it. During the day, you can spend time exploring (and I really felt like I was _exploring_) the canyon and spend the nights looking at the nicest views of the night sky you'll ever see.

PS Rental compact cars can get totally handle a 13 mile dirt road.

One fact I find notable with these "massive" societies in the American South West is how small they were. For example, the linked article describes a site with hundreds of rooms. That implies thousands of people.

And, Chaco was the kingpin. Many other fascinating sites, such as Walnut Canyon, had "tens of rooms."

One thing I have lately wondered about, is whether humans were mostly patrilocal before the dawn of recorded history, or mostly matrilocal, or sometimes one and sometimes the other.

There are some matrilocal societies now extent which seem to date from the dawn of recorded history, like the Muso.

Apparently, prehistoric means between 800 and 1130 CE.