Ancestral Pueblo, once called the Anasazi << `ah` nuh SAH zee >>, were the ancestors of the modern-day Pueblo, a native people of the American Southwest. Modern Pueblo prefer the terms Ancestral Pueblo or Hisatsinom << hih SAHT sih nohm >> to describe their ancestors. The term Anasazi was once widely used for these people. But the modern Pueblo point out that Anasazi is a Navajo term meaning enemy of long ago. The Ancestral Pueblo culture centered in the southwestern United States, especially in what is now the Four Corners area, where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona meet. In that region, about A.D. 1100, the Ancestral Pueblo built homes called cliff dwellings in canyon walls or under rocky overhangs.
History.
The Ancestral Pueblo culture developed from Basketmaker ancestors in the Southwest about A.D. 1. They lived in villages of pit houses, underground pits with roofs formed by a wooden framework covered with earth. They farmed and gathered food in the wild. Around 750, they began building pueblos, aboveground structures resembling modern apartment buildings. By that time, the Ancestral Pueblo traded extensively with peoples in what are now Mexico and California.
The Ancestral Pueblo built their first large pueblos about 900, in the area known today as Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. This broad valley in northern New Mexico held many large pueblos made of shaped stone. The pueblos were two or three stories high with many rooms. The largest, Pueblo Bonito, had about 800 rooms and may have housed as many as 1,200 people. The Ancestral Pueblo in Chaco Canyon produced turquoise beads and figurines. They traded with peoples in what is now Mexico for such items as copper bells, shell trumpets, and macaws. The Chaco Canyon culture ended about 1150, perhaps due to drought, warfare, or disease.
Some of the Chaco Canyon peoples settled in the Four Corners area, the location of the famous cliff dwellings seen at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. These buildings consist of many levels of rooms built one above another. The largest cliff dwellings, constructed of sandstone, could house as many as 2,500 people.
The Ancestral Pueblo abandoned the area about 1300. Scientists have developed several theories to explain why the sites were abandoned, including drought, invasion, plague, and resource depletion, but no theory has completely answered the question. Some of the people moved to northern New Mexico, while others settled on mesas (flat-topped hills) in eastern Arizona. There they built large multistory surface pueblos and developed the traits of Puebloan culture seen today in the peoples known as Hopi and Zuni.
Way of life.
The Ancestral Pueblo built large permanent structures because their agricultural lifestyle allowed them to stay in one place for long periods. In valleys and on top of mesas, they grew corn, beans, squash, cotton, and tobacco. They raised turkeys, but they also hunted both deer and mountain sheep to add to their diet. Hunters and warriors launched stone-tipped spears using a device called an atlatl << AHT laht uhl >>, a stick with a spur at one end to hold the butt of the spear. Between 400 and 700, Ancestral Pueblo hunters had begun to use the bow and arrow. Ancestral Pueblo warfare may have included cannibalism.
In the winter, the Ancestral Pueblo wore robes and blankets made from rabbit fur and turkey feathers. In the summer, both men and women wore skirts made from cotton and other materials. The men held social and religious ceremonies in kivas, underground pits about 25 feet (7.6 meters) in diameter. Colorful symbolic paintings decorated the walls of the kivas.
The dry climate of the Southwest and the protection of the cliffs and canyons preserved many items made by the Ancestral Pueblo. Archaeologists have found many artifacts that the Indians used in everyday life, including clothing and stone tools. Ancestral Pueblo potters created fine ceramics, the earliest of which were in a black-on-white style. Later, pottery featured black-and-red patterns painted on bowls, jars, and pitchers. As pottery techniques improved, these designs became more complex. By studying the patterns on fragments of pottery, archaeologists can determine the age of Ancestral Pueblo ruins.
