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by Thalia Lightbringer
April 09,
2017
from
MessageToEagle Website
Spanish version
No one really knows for certain what happened to
the Anasazi.
They attained a high
level of culture for their time, then abandoned it all.
From Nomadic
Beginnings To Complex Culture
Example of Native American Rock Art from Utah
Photo
Credit: Cherei J. McCarter
The Anasazi began as nomadic hunter-gatherers, perhaps as early as
1500 BC.
They occupied the valleys
and plains in the "Four Corners" region of North America, where
Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet at the corners.
They eventually adapted
into a basket maker culture, clustering together in settlements with
pit houses around 300-700 AD. Then for some reason they felt the
need to change their ways drastically.
After this time, the Anasazi built great cities and ceremonial
centers with
kivas, special sacred buildings which were usually
built underground with a hatchway at the top, which were used for
religious rituals.
The kivas are also
associated with the Pueblo and
Hopi tribes, connected with their
belief in the
Kachina spirits. The hatchway was symbolic of the
gateway between our world and the "fourth world", realm of the
spirits.
The Anasazi may
have adopted some of the ritual beliefs from other people coming to
the area, since the Kachinas are thought to bring rain and
fertility.
These things became very important to them at the end of
their culture.
Anasazi pictograph possibly
depicting the
Crab Nebula supernova in AD 1054
Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
The Anasazi studied
the stars and developed complex calendars, using astronomical
observations to pinpoint the proper times for sowing and harvesting
their crops.
Chaco Canyon in New
Mexico seems to have been a center for astronomical studies and
sacred ceremonies.
They did not have a
written language, but left behind beautiful petroglyphs, symbolic
art carved into the rocks.
In their final
period of development, the Anasazi moved to barely accessible
canyons, building cliff houses surrounded by high walls in places
with natural springs, such as at
Mesa Verde, Colorado.
This period of cultural development lasted until around 1300 AD.
Then they seem to
have decided to suddenly abandon all their achievements, some even
leaving their possessions behind.
Need For Defense?
Cliff Dwellings at
Mesa Verde, Colorado
Photo Credit: Cherei
J. McCarter
The Anasazi are
often called the "Ancient Ones", but the term comes from a Navajo
word meaning "ancestors of our enemies". Archaeologists
refer to them as
the "Mogollon" culture.
We do not know what they
called themselves, but the Hopi claim that the Ancient Ones are
their ancestors.
This might give us
a clue as to why the Anasazi abruptly left their settlements less
than 50 years after accomplishing the amazingly difficult feat of
building dwellings sheltered high in canyon cliffs.
The Hopi are an
extremely peaceful people, rarely engaging in warfare.
They have been
known to leave a settlement rather than fight with another tribe
over it.
The Navajo are believed to have come to the area from
the north (based on similarities with the language of the
Athabascan tribe in Canada) at around 1400 AD.
Perhaps some of
them arrived earlier than this and the Anasazi decided to leave,
avoiding potential conflict.
The building of
cliff dwellings seems to point to a need for defense. Not only
are they difficult to reach, but also quite hard to see unless
you know what you are looking for.
Drought and Famine
Leading to Loss of Faith?
Settlement at
Gila, New Mexico
Photo Credit:
Cherei J. McCarter
Another idea is
that they had exhausted the resources of the area and after
years of drought were losing faith in their traditions.
There is
a tale of a Hopi leader who asked a neighboring tribe to
slaughter his people in the night, because they had strayed too
far from their values.
It seems the
Anasazi would also sacrifice themselves for their traditions.
There have been remains found which indicate such sacrifice in
the kivas of some Anasazi ruins, but seemed to be little or no
evidence of violent conflict.
However, more recent findings show
that this was not always true and it is possible that the
settlements fought amongst themselves, perhaps because of
dwindling resources.
Since they used
wooden beams in the construction of their dwellings, we know
when they lived and that there were many years of drought.
Accurate dates and information about the climate of the time has
been obtained from these wooden supports using
dendrochronology,
a method of dating using tree rings.
Tree rings show
that they had successfully survived periods of drought before,
but maybe the final drought was compounded by other factors.
Archaeologists have also found indications that hunger got so
bad at the end that they resorted to cannibalism in some
instances, though it is also possible that marauding enemies
were responsible for this. Native legends speak of such raiders
coming to the area.
It is now
believed the
Anasazi migrated to the Hopi mesas and Rio
Grande valley, and are now known as the Hopi, Zuni and Pueblo
tribes.
Traditional tales of these people support some
scientific findings that the exodus may have occurred gradually,
in small groups, over a hundred-year period.
Perhaps they
just decided to go back to a simpler life, remembering their
nomadic past when their traditions failed to save them from
drought and hunger.
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