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10/6 notes• Wolf essays due next time• Paul out of town

– Office hour tomorrow at 11:00

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Archaic and Anasazi• First: Folsom, Archaic, and corn• Anasazi: Chaco• Anasazi: Mesa Verde and Kayenta

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Archaic

– After Clovis, megafauna extinction– 5500 BC to 1500 BC

•Some have it ending at BC-AD– Nomadic hunter-gatherers

•Deer, rabbits, small game•Wild plants

– Seasonal camps

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Atlatl• Aztec word

– A-tul-A-tul– At-LAT-ul

• Spear thrower• You, too, can

excel– Atlatl clubs

– Bow, arrow by ~AD 500

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Corn

• Arrival of corn: 2000 BC• Full dependence on corn: 500 BC• Advantages:

– Makes an abundance of food– Store it (especially when pottery

evolved)– More kids

• Disadvantages– Not very nutritional– Limited hunting activities– Ground with stones – teeth problems.

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Teosinte

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Anasazi Caveat

• Yes, “Anasazi” is Navajo for “ancient ones”

• Yes, many Anasazi prehistoric sites lie within present Navajo Reservation

• Yes, Keet Seel and Betatakin House are in Navajo National Monument

• But no, Anasazi and Navajo not otherwise ancestrally related

• Anasazi Hisatsinom (Hopi)

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Anasazi Centers

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Climate• Mesa Verde

– Cool, wet• Kayenta

– Warm, wet• Chaco

– Cool, dry• SE Utah

– Warm, dry

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Pretty bleak at Chaco today

•6500 ft

•PJ, Great Basin scrub

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Pithouses• 500 BC – AD 800

• Mostly underground

• Entry through roof

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Great Houses

• Beginning by AD 800 to 900

• Huge relative to nearby buildings

• Symmetrical layouts

• Banded masonry

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Pueblo Bonito• 500 feet

across• 310 feet deep• 4 stories

• Could house 1000 people

• Passive solar effects

• Kivas

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Chetro Ketl• 4 stories in back• Large plaza• Kivas up front

• Completely enclosed

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Over 200,000 ponderosa pine

trees used • Packrats show no

late Holocene ponderosa

• Trees carried in? • From where? • How?

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Chuska Mts.• 60 miles away• Today:

– Rocky Mt. ponderosa pine

– Also spruce and fir

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• Long distance transport

• ~200,000 trees

• Perfect for tree-ring dating

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• Peñasco Blanco “garden”

• Diverted water from mesa top.

Chaco Irrigation

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Chaco Canyon Abandonment

• No major construction after AD 1150– No tree ring dates after 1132– Perhaps occupants, but stopped

thriving• Why?

– Drought– Resource depletion

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Chaco Precipitation

• Tree-ring based• Typical of today• High variability

• Long drought, 1130

• Lasted 50 years

1130

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Piñon-JuniperPersisted UntilAbandonment

• Overuse?• No piñon now• Juniper coming

back

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• Well preserved, little excavation needed– Perishables: food, clothing

Cliff Palace

(~200 rooms)

Cliff Dwellings

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Keet Seel• Largest AZ cliff dwelling (155 rooms)• Well preserved: “like they left yesterday”

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Keet Seel• Part of Navajo NM• Overnight hike

• Tours in summer

• Permit required:

• (928) 672-2700

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MV & Kayenta Chronology

• 500 BC – AD 800– Cultivation important– Pithouse dwellings– Ceramics (pottery) start

• AD 800 – AD 1150– Unit surface pueblos

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MV & Kayenta Chronology• 1150 – 1300

– MV at AD 1200: Cliff dwellings, total population: 30,000 people

– Kayenta at AD 1250: Cliff dwellings• 1300

– MV and Kayenta abandoned– Last tree-ring dates: mid 1280s.

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Kayenta vs. Mesa Verde Farming

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• MV farmed mesa tops– Valley bottoms too narrow– Reliance on summer rains for

irrigation– Vulnerable to extended drought

Kayenta vs. Mesa Verde Farming

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33• Mesa Verde today

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• MV farmed mesa tops– Valley bottoms too narrow– Reliance on summer rains for

irrigation– Vulnerable to extended drought

• Kayenta farmed valley bottoms– Upland soils too sparse– Reliance on groundwater for

irrigation– Vulnerable to sediment loss.

Kayenta vs. Mesa Verde Farming

35Tsegi Canyon (“among the rocks”)

36Canyon de Chelly

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100 ft.

20 ft.

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¼ - ½ mile

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Why did they leave?• Drought

•“Great Drought” of 1276 – 1299

•Mesa Verde affected

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•Sediment loss•Perhaps due to treecutting, over cultivation

•Kayenta affected.

Why did they leave?

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Where Did They Go?

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Post-1300• MV re-settlement:

– Northern Rio Grande• Kayenta re-settlement:

– Hopi Region• Considered ancestral

to modern Puebloans(not to Navajo).

Where Did They Go?

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Pueblos Today• Hopi in AZ• Other Pueblos in NM

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Anasazi and Environment Summary

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Anasazi and Environment Summary

• People affect resources, affected by them– Large communities of rock and

wood•May have used up wood

• Divert, trap, save water– Sediment loss, drought

• Grow food– Still needed other food

• Finally had to move to new resources• Could this apply to modern society?