Posted on 07/11/2007 2:11:08 PM PDT by blam
Ancient Culture Prompts Worry for Arid Southwest
by Richard Harris
Jane Greenhalgh An overview of what remains standing at Chaco Canyon. NPR
Eve Goldman A view into the ruins at Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon.
Peek into the Cole-Overpeck family camping trip under the towering Ponderosa pines in the highlands of eastern Arizona, where climate change is both a personal and professional concern.
All Things Considered, July 9, 2007 · Chaco Canyon is a stark and breathtaking ruin, nestled under soaring, red sandstone cliffs. It resembles the condition of the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu in Peru.
For climate scientists Jonathan Overpeck and Julie Cole, it was worth the journey — kids and all — to experience this remote corner of northwestern New Mexico.
GB Cornucopia, a park ranger, is taking the two professors from the University of Arizona on a tour of the site of a major climate catastrophe. Here in New Mexico, a civilization grew and thrived for centuries before disappearing in the face of a 50-year drought.
"Well, once a lot of people lived here, or at least came here to visit and then they went away, and they have a lot of ideas why, but no one knows for sure," Overpeck explains. "And one of the reasons we think they went away was, in part, because it got dryer. And it got so dry that it was difficult to live here."
An Ancient Culture — Vanished
Over the course of 300 years, people known as the Anasazi built more than 150 large buildings under these cliffs; but whether they were living quarters, temples, or something else entirely is a mystery.
Cornucopia leads the family toward the ruins of one of the most impressive of these structures, a house called "Bonita."
"Some have referred to this as the edge of downtown Chaco," Cornucopia says. "By [the year 1200 or 1300] everybody was gone. The original builders' last set of building phases was in the mid-1100s."
Bonita was once four or five stories tall. The walls look like intricate mosaics — a testament to the engineering and artistic talents of the Anasazi. Little is known about these people, but they were traders, astronomers and above all else, master builders.
It's easy to draw parallels from Chaco to life in the Southwest today. Once again, there's a thriving civilization. Once again, people are completely dependent on scarce water resources and there's the threat of a devastating drought.
Cornucopia continues the tour through a T-shaped doorway. It's sized just right for five-year-old Jackson.
Above is a ceiling, still intact, made of logs that had been carried by hand from 20 to 70 miles away.
"So why do you think they built their big structures here and not in the big house?" Julie asks.
Cornucopia says he's not sure. He suggests that, perhaps, it was for emotional or psychic reasons, or even because of a series of dreams. The reason remains unclear because the Anasazi left no written language.
Through the maze of rooms, there are some areas too small and airless to be used as sleeping quarters, but too big to be used for storing food for a settlement of this size.
Cornucopia points out that some of these rooms are dramatically over-engineered — using far more precious wood than necessary. A clue, perhaps, that the very act of building this structure was itself a ceremony.
One thing is for certain: The Anasazi abandoned these elaborate buildings in the midst of a 50-year-long drought, which must have made life — in a spot that was already parched — even harder.
A Striking Resemblance
Jackson asks why the Anasazi suddenly left.
Cornucopia explains that lack of water for drinking and for growing crops may have led them away. Not enough growth of trees failed to keep the Anasazi warm with firewood.
"The reason we're asking questions is because we're worried about global warming and what it might do to the Southwest," Overpeck says. "And it might be like when these guys left."
This is not as far-fetched as it might seem. The Southwest is in the midst of a drought that started in 1999. And if forecasts of global warming are correct, the region could end up in a drought that's even longer and more severe than the one that forced the Anasazi to abandon Chaco Canyon. Cole can't help but see that parallel.
"I have often imagined the streets of Tucson or Phoenix as abandoned, and it's a bit scary," she says. "You think that the place that's the center of your region, the biggest city around, could never crumble and fall, and here it has."
Of course, there is more advanced technology now, not only to predict droughts, but to adapt to a changing climate. A permanent drought in the Southwest would surely force some changes in the way people live. Cole and Overpeck say it's time to start thinking about that now.
"The reason we're asking questions is because we're worried about global warming and what it might do to the Southwest," Overpeck says. "And it might be like when these guys left."
Yes, let's evacuate Arizona and New Mexico before they run out of firewood.
And then, the Japanese came:
The Zuni Enigma
Nancy Yaw Davis
Did a group of thirteenth-century Japanese journey to the American Southwest, there to 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 the circumstances that may have led Japanese on a religious quest-searching for the legendary "middle world" of Buddhism-across the Pacific and to the American Southwest more than seven hundred years ago.
Nancy Yaw Davis holds an M.A. from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Washington. Author of numerous articles, she has long researched the history and cultures of the native peoples of North America. Her company, Cultural Dynamics, is located in Anchorage, Alaska, where she lives.
(BTW, this is a pretty good book)
Click on POGW graphic for full GW rundown
New!!: Dr. John Ray's
GREENIE WATCH
Ping me if you find one I've missed.
I just knew that was in there somewhere.........
There have been no advances in technology in 800 years. We’re as helpless today as the Anasazi were. /s
Yup, they got in their cars and left.
Interesting!
Of course they conveniently do not mention their were no cars and factories belching out toxic fumes.
"The epidemic of cocoliztli from 1545 to 1548 killed an estimated 5 million to 15 million people, or up to 80% of the native population of Mexico (Figure 1). In absolute and relative terms the 1545 epidemic was one of the worst demographic catastrophes in human history, approaching even the Black Death of bubonic plague, which killed approximately 25 million in western Europe from 1347 to 1351 or about 50% of the regional population.
"The cocoliztli epidemic from 1576 to 1578 cocoliztli epidemic killed an additional 2 to 2.5 million people, or about 50% of the remaining native population."
I think there was a lot more global intermingling than is generally accepted. After all, the polynesians made it all the way to Easter island and Hawaii without any help.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/mysteries/anasazi.htm
The Anasazi probably just moved on to better pastures and became some other tribe which we do know, like Navajo or Apaches..........
So the Anasazi had to move out because they didn’t sign Kyoto?
Guess those natives weren’t watching their “carbon footprint”. Wish Gore coulda been there.
Did the Anasazi have SUVs and fossil-fueled power plants?
Do Overpeck and Cole (and NPR) realize, I wonder, that they are making a marvelously effective argument that climate change -- when it happens -- is actually a function of natural cycles? That modern man has nothing more to do with it than the Anasazi?
Christy shut up the critics when he found a fossilized Corpolite (turd) that contained human protein.
Their Carbon Footprint was too large..........and they couldn't buy any Carbon Credits..........
There is another theory about Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon. It’s premis is Pueblo Bonito was purely cerimonial in nature, due to the fact that there are very few grave sites in the immediate vicinity. There are other ancient ruins in the canyon that are strung out for 50 miles, this is where the people lived.
I saw this a couple months ago on the history channel, and thought it was a pretty interesting theory. I grew up in New Mexico and spent alot of time with my dad going to many of these old ruins. Chaco is a fascinating place. I believe the Anasazi became the modern day Pueblo tribes that are now strung out along the Rio Grande from Taos to Isleta, along with Acoma, Laguna, and Zuni(maybe the Hopi also, but I’m not to sure)
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