The Mystery Of The Anasazi: Part Three

Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

In the last few posts I've been talking about the pueblo people in the American Southwest canyon lands who became cliff dwellers.

Canyon De Chelly in Arizona:

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They've been known as the Anasazi for over a hundred years but that name is offensive to their descendants so they call them “Ancestral Pueblo” or “Ancestral Puebloan.” So when I say one of those terms, I'm talking about the Anasazi.

If you haven't been following my posts, the thing about them is that no one(except tribal elders who aren't telling) knows why they left their homes in the late 1280's.

It's been a riddle since these ruins were discovered in the late 1800's.

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Most researchers thought it was either the severe drought which lasted for 23 years, or they were invaded and driven away.

The problem with the invader theory is that a force big enough to drive away 30,000 people would leave substantial archaeological evidence behind.

Instead there is no evidence besides that of the Ancestral Pueblo people.

So it must have been the drought...and that was the assumed cause of the exodus for over a century. But in the last 10 years several expert teams have turned up startling archaeological finds.

No one wanted to go there

The Zuni and Hopi are very peace-loving people so nobody thought they could have a violent past.

But the excavations which the teams have done recently prove that there was indeed very bloody warfare taking place in the last decades of the Ancestral Puebloans.

All late construction was defensive in design

The last generation built large villages with defensive features like big walls and the more sparsely populated communities built cliff dwellings high into the sides of the canyon walls.

Some of these hard to reach homes have stood untouched because they were so difficult to reach.

That's because most archaeologists aren't mountain climbers. lol. The next two photos show the extreme measures taken with security in mind.

Researchers(who are also mountain climbers) work their way up a 600 foot "path" which is, believe it or not, the only way to get to the structure. Look at all the loose rocks:
(hey, is that the great sir @nickyhavey? He's a world-class hiker but I don't know if he's a mountain climber!)

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Those boulders are the size of small cars that can easily be dislodged. Once they got to the level of the dwelling they had to crawl on their hands and knees along a ledge with a drop off of hundreds of feet to the canyon floor.

In this photo you can make out one of the researchers inching his way along the path on the right. Yikes, can you believe that? Can anyone say Paranoia?:

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You can see there is a security wall blocking that path before the house is reached. Actually there are two security walls!

Can you imagine hauling all those stones up there, or maybe they cut them up at the location but either way it looks dang near impossible!

And they had to go haul water and food up there. Any slip or misplaced footing and you're history.

When the researchers got to the dwelling they found it to be in remarkable condition with perfectly preserved, 700 year old ears of corn in the home's granary.

In the next post we'll talk about what drove them into the cliffs and fortified cities.

Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy
Texas
the gentleman redneck(totally fried red neck at the moment!)

PS- Everyday I've been posting a photo which supposedly represents each state, this is from a fun article I found on www.livingmgz.com.

Today's state is Delaware and the state motto is "Liberty and Independence." Hey this is the great sir @wwwiebe's state!(he's actually from Canada but I won't hold that against him)

Anyway here's the photo representing the great state of Delaware!

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Of all the beautiful sites in Delaware they could choose, the writers chose another sign. lol. It IS kind of interesting though because again...

of all the great things Delaware has to offer, the only thing they want to advertise is tax-free shopping?

Are people going to make Delaware a trip destination to go shopping? Maybe that's why they're a small wonder.

Have a great rest of your Sunday folks!