Ancient Chaco Canyon population likely relied on imported food

There are reasons to believe estimates of the population of Chaco Canyon may be too high.

There are at least two kinds of communal structures in Chaco: the large elaborate structures; and lots of small pueblos scattered around the canyon. I understand the high population estimates are based on the numbers of small pueblos.

I was listening to a talk by a woman who lived in one of the modern pueblos in New Mexico, and she remarked, off hand, that the population of any given pueblo moved from one pueblo to an other as the small animals and plants they relied on became depleted. They successively re-inhabited a circuit of pueblos allowing each to recover before returning.

I don't doubt that the people of Chaco Canyon influenced a wide area, but I am skeptical of large population estimates.

Having been to Chaco several times and having read anything I can find on it and the Anasazi, I've always been curious why there don't seem to be middens of a size and quantity that might be expected if a large population lived there over several hundred years. Theories which suggest the many rooms in the Great Houses were mostly ceremonial, never meant to be occupied meaning a much smaller population would be more consistent. Why, then, would they have gone to the significant effort building them? One of the more fascinating questions which may never be answered.