[Gman]

They probably left because the National Park Fees just keep going up.

[rdl6989]

Very interesting. I really need to do more reading on this.

[blueunicorn6]

So these bricklayers decided to give up their homes to live out in the heat and cold and snow and rain?

Must have been union.

[Buckeye McFrog]

They probably elected a bunch of Liberals to their Tribal Council, and when their taxes got too high they moved someplace else and did it all over again.

[Hugh the Scot]

Perhaps it was only the turkeys that migrated.

[HLPhat]

>>after they vanished without a trace

Seems there’s a trace... of cannibalism.

https://www.google.com/search?site=&source=hp&q=Cannibalism+anasazi

Who Ate the Anasazi?

HINT: Not Christopher Columbus.

[pgkdan]

Probably global warming...err climate change.

[colorado tanker]

This confirms what most people already thought was the most reasonable explanation - that the modern puebloans are the descendants of the Anasazi. Basically, hiding in plain sight, living as they have for centuries.

[SubMareener]

Such is the state of American journalism that they no longer realize that the 1300s are the 14th Century.

[dirtymac]

BTW the CE referred in the article mean ‘Christ Era’. just thought I would clear that up. And BCE mean ‘Before Christ Era’.

[fruser1]

“an influx of fowl”

Bird flu.

[Vic S]

I expect them to find 700 year old pinatas any day now.

[Migraine]

...suggest contemporary Pueblo peoples of the Northern Rio Grande are biological and cultural descendants of Four Corners populations

Well, they wouldn't have had far to go. And, nice as the Chaco cultural hearth may have been, when a drought hits, such as the 25-year dry spell from around 1280-1320 AD, people cannot sustain in place. They have to go near a river that gets snow runoff.

At about the same time, there were invaders from what is now Mexico (hmmm) and, being of Aztec persuasion, they were much more able to make war and intimidate (it is thought they also brought cannibalism, ritual or otherwise, to the region -- as butchered human bones should suggest).

The little Mogollon people in Eastern AZ and Western NM also vanished about this same time.

[TruthWillWin]

What? Climate change before SUVs? How can that be?

[cherry]

such a stretch....ancient man and his turkeys...

however, isn't it interesting that they never mention WAR as a reason their civilization was destroyed or forced to move...

that would mean the evil Indians kicked them out...

[VanShuyten]

Just looking at that photo, it’s pretty obvious what happened. Those black marks on the ceiling of the cave are smoke smudges. Caused by burning wood. Which releases CO2. Which causes global warming. Which results in extended droughts and desertification.

No wonder they had to move

[blam]

An Interesting Read:

The Zuni Enigma

"Did a group of thirteenth-century Japanese merge with the people, language, and religion of the Zuni tribe? For many years, anthropologists have understood the Zuni in the American Southwest to occupy a special place in Native American culture and ethnography. Their language, religion, and blood type are startlingly different from all other tribes. Most puzzling, the Zuni appear to have much in common with the people of Japan. In a book with groundbreaking implications, Dr. Nancy Yaw Davis examines the evidence underscoring the Zuni enigma and suggests..."

[wildbill]

Drought is a killer in the U.S. Southwest. Someone just published a study on the disappearance of the Mayans as being consistent with a massive drought that last for centuries.

I wonder if the time line here would also be tht of the Central American drought. I don’t have time to research any correspondence but its a thought.

[Billthedrill]

Been to Mesa Verde a couple of times. Awesome place. What we actually know is that the Anasazi were there, and then they weren’t. The rest is speculation. But I highly recommend the park.

[bert]

The Hopi are the Anasazi. ditto the rio grande pueblos

They have aalways said so but the archaic academics will not believe them