2. The Anasazi
The Anasazi or Ancestral Puebloans were a Native American culture that emerged in the Four Corners area of the United States around 1200 BC.
The early Puebloans were hunters and gatherers who lived in shallow pit houses. Later they developed horticulture and began farming maize, beans and squash.
Also found at Anasazi archeological sites are greyware pottery, elaborate baskets, reed sandals, rabbit fur robes, grinding stones and bows and arrows.
In the Pueblo II and Pueblo III eras the Anasazi carved whole towns out of nearby cliffs like those at Mesa Verde and Bandelier or they constructed them out of stone or adobe mud like Chaco Canyon.
Around 1300 AD the Ancestral Puebloans abandoned their cliff houses and scattered. Many scholars believe that, after a population explosion, poor farming methods and a regional drought made it difficult to produce enough food.
Due to this lack of food, the Anasazi moved either along the Rio Grande or on the Hopi mesas, and therefore many modern Pueblo Indians believe that they are the descendants of the Anasazi.
Recent studies prove that this climate change could not explain the decline of the Anasazi alone and suggest that social and political factors like a violent conflict led to their end, instead.
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