The two construction periods at Aztec, New Mexico as indicated by the modern tree-ring dating are corroborated nicely by other evidence found by archaeologist Earl H. Morris in the 1920’s that Aztec actually was built by one group of people, abandoned, and then reoccupied at a later date by a slightly different group of people.Throughout all the rooms he dug during his early 20th century excavations, Morris found sterile layers of windblown sand and ruined debris from falling walls and ceilings.In this debris and under the sand, he found Chaco-like pottery and artifacts.In addition there were surprisingly few burial sites.Even today, archeologists have located few Chaco-type burials in Chaco Canyon itself.Whatever the burial customs of the Chaco people may have been, they have eluded archeologists for many decades.The absence of burials of this period at Aztec is a clue that probably a group of Chaco-like people, bearing the distinctive Chaco culture, may actually have moved into the Aztec area.

Granting that the local sandstone was not quite as easily worked as that at Chaco, the large-size rooms, the high ceilings, the banded-veneer masonry walls, the large doorways, and other techniques used were very similar to the architectural techniques of the Chaco area.Overlying the Chaco debris and sterile sand layers, Morris found pottery, household utensils, and burials characteristic of the classic Mesa Verde Period—a period which occurred later than the great Chaco Period.In addition, there were obvious architectural signs of rebuilding and remodeling within the pueblo.Large Chaco-type rooms had been made smaller by wattle-and-daub partition walls, while doorways had been shortened and narrowed more like the ones at Mesa Verde.Thus there were two definite periods of occupation at Aztec, one by a Chaco-like people and one by a Mesa Verde-type people.