Chaco canyon

Diego A. Nova
George R. Holley
ANT 317
1 February, 2012
The Old Ones
In the great American Southwest, a place of extremes, of ancient peoples and spirits that still seem to haunt the canyons and plains. Centuries ago an ancient people flourished here and left great footprints in the sub-continent, large cities, dwellings in the cliffs and ceremonial chambers called kivas. These people werecommunities that lived in the Chaco Canyon, and some people still believe that their spirits live on this land. The place where this ancient people lived was the Chaco Canyon a place where living is really hard these days. These people lived there for enough time that they left a remarkable legacy. Big structures that were not common at that time, roads, and big houses with really complex cities.The Chaco Canyon is located in the northwest of New Mexico. The Chaco system spans over 120,000 km2 from San Juan Basin to the surrounding uplands (Barbara J. Mills). It had a number of Pueblos, other major settlements that were outside its territory, raising the possibility that they were colonies. The cities were connected to each other by roads and trails of prehistoric stage. The mostimpressive cities had public buildings that were structured in the form of D. Stand out above the rest, Chetro Ketl and Pueblo Bonito. All the cities were really important in role in a system that for many was really impressive. Archeologists saw this canyon as a center for rituals, commerce of food and objects that were used in the rituals. The Chaco Canyon was home for a society called the Anasazi whichmeans “The Ancient Ones” was named by sheepherders 600 years after the Anasazi disappeared (Diamond). This society managed to live in this region that today seems really hard to believe. However, this these people vanished from Chaco Canyon leaving behind all their history and worked. But why did they leave? Archeologists suggest that it happened for many factors and Climate Changing had a bigimpact in why the Ancient Ones left.
The abandonment of land that has been studied in greater depth of pre-Columbian indigenous cultures of the southwestern United States was the most spectacular set of sites and larger: Anasazi settlements of Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. Chaco Anasazi society came about from the year 600 and remained flourishing for more than five centuries, until itdisappeared sometime between 1150 and 1200 (Diamond).
Thanks to an exceptionally detailed climate record reconstructed from tree rings, Native American society of the Anasazi in the southwestern United States (Diamond) clearly illustrates the intersection of environmental degradation and population growth climate change (in this case, drought). Neither the presence of friendly or hostile neighbors,nor (except towards the end) warfare appear to have been important factors in the disappearance of the Anasazi.
It was a society with a very complex structure, geographically widespread and regionally integrated buildings erected the largest pre-Columbian America (Diamond). Today the landscape barren and treeless Chaco Canyon amaze us even more than the barren landscape devoid of trees andEaster Island, the deep arroyos and sparse vegetation low salt tolerant shrubs are the only thing in a canyon that is now completely deserted except for a few guards homes in the National Park Service. Why some people were going to build an advanced city in the land barren and why, having taken all that trouble to build it, and then leave?

When Native American farmers moved to the area of ​​ChacoCanyon around AD 600, they lived initially in houses dug in the ground, as other Native Americans of the southwestern United States. Around 700 the Anasazi of Chaco, without having any contact with American Indian societies that 1600 miles south in Mexico, built large stone structures, independently invented techniques of construction in stone and masonry finally adopted coating of mud (Diamond)....