Anasazi Indians

Anasazi Indians or Ancient Pueblo People or Ancestral Puebloans were a prehistoric Native American culture centered around the present-day Four Corners area of the Southwest United States, noted for their distinctive pottery and dwelling construction styles. Archaeologists still debate when a distinct culture emerged, but the current consensus, based on terminology defined by the Pecos Classification, suggests their emergence around 1200 B.C., during the Basketmaker II Era. Beginning with the earliest explorations and excavations, researchers have believed that the Ancient Puebloans are ancestors of the modern Pueblo peoples

The Ancient Pueblo were one of four major prehistoric archaeological traditions of the American Southwest. The others are the Mogollon, Hohokam and Patayan.

The period from 700-1130 AD saw a rapid increase in population due to consistent and regular rainfall patterns. From studies of skeletal remains, this growth was due to increased fertility rather than decreased mortality. However, 10-fold increase in density over the course of a few generations could not be achieved by increased birthrate alone; likely it also involved migrations of peoples from surrounding areas. Innovations such as pottery, food storage, and agriculture enabled this rapid growth. Over several decades, the Ancient Pueblo culture spread across the landscape. Anasazi culture has been divided into three main areas or branches, based on geographical location: Chaco Canyon (northwest New Mexico), Kayenta (northeast Arizona), and Northern San Juan (or Mesa Verde) (southwest Colorado).

Modern Pueblo oral traditions hold that they originated to the north of their current settlements, from Shibapu, where they emerged from the underworld through a lake. For unknown ages they were led by war chiefs guided by the Great Spirit across North America. They settled first in the Anasazi areas for a few hundred years, then migrated to their current location. The migrations were undertaken to preserve the people from total annihilation, and out of a desire to achieve perfection in their lives and harmony with the environment.

The ancient Pueblos attained a cultural "Golden Age" between about 900 and 1130 A.D. During this time, generally classed as Pueblo II, the climate was relatively warm and rainfall mostly adequate. Communities grew larger and were inhabited for longer periods of time. Highly specific local traditions in architecture and pottery emerged, and trade over long distances appears to have been common. Domesticated turkeys appear.

It is not entirely clear why the Ancestral Puebloans migrated from their established homes in the 12th and 13th centuries. Factors examined and discussed include prolonged periods of drought, cyclical periods of top soil erosion, environmental degradation, de-forestation, hostility from new arrivals, religious or cultural change, and even influence from Mesoamerican cultures. Many of these possibilities are supported by archaeological evidence.

After approximately 1150 A.D. North America experienced significant climatic change in the form of a 300 year drought, which also led to the collapse of the Tiwanaku civilization around Lake Titicaca [3]. Confirming evidence is found in excavations of western regions in the Mississippi Valley between A.D. 1150 and 1350, which show long lasting patterns of warmer, wetter winters and cooler, drier summers. In this later period, the Pueblo II became more self-contained, decreasing trade and interaction with more distant communities. Southwest farmers developed irrigation techniques appropriate to seasonal rainfall, including soil and water control features such as check dams and terraces. However, the population of the region continued to be mobile, abandoning settlements and fields under adverse conditions.

Along with this change in precipitation patterns was a drop in water table levels, due to a different cycle unrelated to rainfall. This forced the abandonment of settlements in the more arid or overfarmed locations.

Evidence also suggests a profound change in the religion in this period. Chacoan and other structures constructed originally along astronomical alignments, and thought to have served important ceremonial purposes to the culture, were systematically dismantled. Doorways were sealed with rock and mortar. Kiva walls show marks from great fires set within them, which probably required removal of the massive roof - a task which would require signficiant effort. Habitations were abandoned, tribes split and divided and resettled far elsewhere. This evidence suggests that the religious structures were deliberately abandoned slowly over time. Puebloan tradition holds that the ancestors had achieved great spiritual power and control over natural forces, and used their power in ways that caused nature to change, and caused changes that were never meant to occur. Possibly, the dismantling of their religious structures was an effort to symbolically undo the changes they felt they caused due to their abuse of their spiritual power, and thus make amends with nature.