The Anasazi as they are now known were an advanced Native American culture found in the Southwestern United States. The word Anasazi Is derived from a Navajo Indian term which roughly translates into two separate terms the first of which speaks to a very likely adversarial relationship with neighboring tribes “The ancient Enemy” the second of which is a great deal less ominous and is merely “The ancient Ones”. Both are fitting names as Anasazi culture is thought to date as far back as far as 1200 B.C (1), with groups of precedent day Native Americans claiming descendants from them. At the height of their civilization Anasazi Villages or Pueblos as they are now called from the Spanish word for village could be found all across the
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This allowed the Anasazi to begin growing staples such as Corn,
Squash and Beans to feed their growing populace. All the well storing as much dried corn as they were able to prevent a famine in the very likely case of drought. This ability to not only produce a consistent food supply, but also to store it allowed the Anasazi to settle and start the construction of permanent shelters near their now vital crops.
These shelters would become their cultures most celebrated creations, the now famed Cliff Dwellings. Made by Adobe, a blend of sand and straw, dried into hardened bricks, the Cliff Dwelling were Multi-room structures of widely varying size and grandeur, ranging from simple single rooms apartments to larger multiple story constructions, too truly massive hundred plus room complexes.(1) True to their name the Cliff-Dwelling were built on top of the cliffs. Constructed though pain-staking and very sophisticated architecture, especially for the time, Cliff dwellings were designed to both withstand the harshness of the elements and attack from hostile rival tribes with many sites have survived intact all the way to the present day The most famed of which the aptly named Cliff Palace consisting of over one hundred and fifty rooms …show more content…
This coupled with their then unpreceded agricultural accomplishments made the Anasazi the most Advanced civilizations of the time in North America. Unfortunately due to reason unknown the Anasazi was forced to abandon their magnificent homes. Due to their lack of a written language it’s not quite known just what (2), exactly caused the Anasazi to abandon their settlements. It was at one point speculated that they simply disappeared for want of a better explanation. Though today, many modern historians will disregard this as uninformed speculation and instead hypothesize that some unknown calamity befall the ancient people. Rampant wide-spread disease or more likely an unending period of drought, withered precious crops and caused a widespread famine
This allowed the Anasazi to begin growing staples such as Corn,
Squash and Beans to feed their growing populace. All the well storing as much dried corn as they were able to prevent a famine in the very likely case of drought. This ability to not only produce a consistent food supply, but also to store it allowed the Anasazi to settle and start the construction of permanent shelters near their now vital crops.
These shelters would become their cultures most celebrated creations, the now famed Cliff Dwellings. Made by Adobe, a blend of sand and straw, dried into hardened bricks, the Cliff Dwelling were Multi-room structures of widely varying size and grandeur, ranging from simple single rooms apartments to larger multiple story constructions, too truly massive hundred plus room complexes.(1) True to their name the Cliff-Dwelling were built on top of the cliffs. Constructed though pain-staking and very sophisticated architecture, especially for the time, Cliff dwellings were designed to both withstand the harshness of the elements and attack from hostile rival tribes with many sites have survived intact all the way to the present day The most famed of which the aptly named Cliff Palace consisting of over one hundred and fifty rooms …show more content…
This coupled with their then unpreceded agricultural accomplishments made the Anasazi the most Advanced civilizations of the time in North America. Unfortunately due to reason unknown the Anasazi was forced to abandon their magnificent homes. Due to their lack of a written language it’s not quite known just what (2), exactly caused the Anasazi to abandon their settlements. It was at one point speculated that they simply disappeared for want of a better explanation. Though today, many modern historians will disregard this as uninformed speculation and instead hypothesize that some unknown calamity befall the ancient people. Rampant wide-spread disease or more likely an unending period of drought, withered precious crops and caused a widespread famine