Mystery of the Anasazi
Who were the Anasazi? Why did they live on the side of cliff faces? Where did they go? And what drove them to leave? These are the questions asked on “Mystery of the Anasazi” by the history channel. I will answer these questions as best as they can be answered with the information that is available to us today, as the Anasazi left absolutely no written documents other than some drawings on their cliff faces.

Discovered in the late 19th century, the Anasazi lived in what we now know as the “Four corners” of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and surrounding areas and believed to have been in this area from as early as 1 A.D. until around 1150 A.D... Approximately 40-50 thousand people lived in this area. They grew corn, squash, and beans. At the center of this large area lies the great city of Chaco. Over 1,000 people were believed to have lived inside the city walls in the greatest prehistoric apartment complex. Crops did not grow well in this area so to feed the people smaller villages would travel many miles to trade crops for Turquoise, or shell jewelry, pottery, and other small prizes. These items were believed to have Godly powers to help their crop grow or to make it rain. They were very highly regarded and desired throughout the Anasazi Territory. The Anasazi lived like this in peace for hundreds of years to just one day vanish from the cities and smaller surrounding Kivas.

The cities are carved from the rock of the canyons on the side of dangerous cliff faces. Why would they move from their great cities to these dangerous outcroppings of rock? There are a few theories. First is a great drought occurred in 1150 A.D. The Anasazi had survived many droughts before, but this one was the worst drought they had seen. The rock canyons had small runoff drains for rainwater and the caves held enough water for smaller tribes to survive. Another belief, and more likely, was that an enemy arrived from Mexico. Many tribes in Mexico have very violent and cannibalistic beliefs. In many sites around the four corners area have bones with pot polish on them have been found. Which means that these bones were cooked in pots and some of the polish transferred to the bone. Bones have been found with teeth marks or broken open to get to the marrow, much like we would find in a predators den. It is theorized that Chaco had been taken over or conquered by these tribes from Mexico and many fled to safer grounds. Retreating to the cliff faces offered water, and protection for the cliff faces were not easy to get to and very easily defended. Most of the cliff face dwellings had towers on the plateau above them and loopholes in their walls for watching entry points into their canyon. I think this is the greatest evidence of an enemy. This all started in 900 A.D. and the Anasazi were to leave no more trace after 1150 A.D.

However the Hopi Indians, whom claim ancestry to the Anasazi, tell a different story. According to the Hopi, the Anasazi had no enemies in the area until the 12th century when the Navajo tribe first came to the area. They simply disappeared because it was time to move on. They say the Anasazi was a very nomadic tribe, not staying in one place for more the just a few years. They showed the presence of one drawing that appeared in several sites. A spiral drawn near the entrances to several of these cliff face dwellings. The Hopi say that this spiral is to represent the migration starting in the center (Chaco) and moving outward in search of resources. The Anasazi were a very interesting group of people, but we may not ever really know for sure what happened to them. Did they just spread themselves so thin that they left no trail of clues for us to follow after a millennia? Or did an enemy pop up and remove them from the history books? Was it the drought that killed them all of hunger and dehydration? I believe all of these things most likely came into play with bad timing. Any one of those things alone could have been survived by these peaceful people but all at once it was devastating and left the results that we find today.